Chapter 4 #2
He stopped as he saw Elizabeth walking toward them. Her hair was pulled up, and she was wearing a baker’s apron.
“Hello, Elizabeth.”
“Hello, Darcy.” She gave him a tight smile. “How have you been?”
“Fine, thank you. And yourself?”
“Fine. Working. Wrapping. Baking.”
Charles stared between the two of them, his eyebrows raised. “Oh, for goodness’ sake, Lizzy. Tell him your big news.”
Darcy suddenly noticed a figure lounging in the doorway, his eyes fixed on Elizabeth. He was smiling at her. Possessively. Great. Another boyfriend?
“Oh, um, I finished my master’s program,” Elizabeth said.
“Your MFA? Congratulations. That’s fantastic.” So who’s the guy? “Sorry, what was your field of study?”
“Creative writing.” She withstood his silent, impenetrable gaze, waiting for a follow-up question. None came.
Darcy stood transfixed by the dark sparkling dare in her green eyes, heedless of any ensuing conversation.
Bingley laughed. “Creative writing. Miss Modest here is writing a book, Darce.”
Lydia snorted. “Is it a bodice-ripping romance novel? Or a Shades of Grey rip-off? I hear people write those on the Internet all the time.”
“I’m not writing it on the Internet, Lydia,” Elizabeth said flatly.
“But it is a love story, isn’t it, Liz?” Charles asked.
“A love story? Something like that.” She smiled enigmatically. “I think my cookies are ready. Merry Christmas, Darcy.” She turned away and headed toward the kitchen. The hulk followed.
Darcy shook his head. Love story? What? He stared after them until he realized Jane was smiling at him. Does she ever not smile?
“Lizzy is making some of her amazing cherry-chip sugar cookies. Are you sure you can’t stay?”
He shook his head. “No, thank you, I should be going. I just stopped by to deliver these to Charles.” He raised the bag in his hand. “There was a shipping mix-up at the office.”
All eyes turned to the bulging bag, shiny foils and ribbon sticking out of the top.
“Sweet!” Suddenly Charles froze. “Dammit, I sent yours to Matlock. That was right, right? You’re heading there?”
“Every year. Though you never need to—”
“Nor you, buddy. You sure you can’t stay?” At Darcy’s demurral, Charles offered to walk him to his car, asserting he wanted to see his favorite dog. He threw on his coat and followed Darcy outside.
“Queens? Seriously?”
“Hey, it’s on your way, right?” Charles ignored Darcy’s glare.
“I didn’t realize Jane was from Queens.”
“Why? No accent? She and Elizabeth didn’t grow up here. Their father moved them from New Jersey when he remarried. They were teenagers.”
“But the younger ones?”
“Stepsisters. They are Kowalskis. Queens born and bred.”
“Hmm…divorce?”
“Yes. Sylvia—Jane and Elizabeth’s mom—is a singer.”
“Professionally?”
“In a theme park in Missouri,” Charles replied reluctantly. “Jane says she’s quite good.”
Indeed. How bloody mortifying. Darcy shuddered. “Oh. Sorry I asked.”
They reached the still-running Range Rover. “I’m glad to see you, Darcy. It’s been awhile.”
Darcy tilted his head and gave Charles a wry look. “You’ve been busy, my friend.”
The other man broke into a huge grin. “Yeah. Jane is amazing, just wonderful. You have to get to know her better. She’s the real thing.”
“I do, hmm? All right.” Darcy nodded, but he couldn’t erase the image of a garishly costumed amusement park performer from his head. The real thing? So many absolutely stomach-turning possibilities.
“Great. Maybe the four of us could get together after Christmas?”
Darcy scowled. “Please, I’ve told you to never again put me in that situation with Caroline.”
“Not my sister—Jane’s sister! Elizabeth is great too, isn’t she?”
Darcy stared past his friend and nodded. “Yes, great. But I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Oh, are you still holding that sock search against her? C’mon, Lizzy’s not looking for a date either.
And you two seemed to get along well at Netherfield.
Made quite a soccer team, I thought. And we left you two home alone that night when it stormed.
I never asked. What did you do? Oh, let me guess—Scrabble?
Or did you read Shakespeare aloud by candlelight?
” Charles chuckled. “Honestly, I should apologize to Lizzy, leaving her home alone with you and your books and your boring old Bach.”
“While you were off mooning to your easy-listening music, we made do. Talked about music, our families…that’s about it.” Darcy looked down at his feet and frowned.
“Really? That’s good. I was kidding about the Bach, you know. Lizzy is a great girl. Smart, pretty, and obviously a damn good soccer player. You should get to know her better.”
“Look, Jane is wonderful, all warmth and kindness.” And hopefully more faithful than her sister. “She’s perfect for you. But her sister is a different story. Elizabeth is, well, quite the opposite.”
Charles, his brow furrowed, slowly shook his head. “Jane and Elizabeth are nothing like their mother. So what’s the problem? She isn’t one of your society chicks? You can be such a jerk.”
“So I’ve been told,” he replied quietly. “You know none of them mean anything. I’m merely an escort.” Darcy keyed in the code and opened the car door. Charles reached in and patted the dog.
“She looks good. Healthy.”
“The surgery was a full success. She still sleeps quite a bit, but her appetite is back.”
“That’s great. I mean, she’s what, nearly fifteen years old?”
Darcy nodded. “I should go.”
Suddenly, Jane was beside them, holding out a paper bag. “Lizzy’s cookies, fresh from the oven. Plus, I put in some coconut snowballs and raspberry chocolate stars and a few other kinds.” She put the bag in Darcy’s hands and gave him a brief hug. “Drive safely. Merry Christmas.”
Lump firmly in throat, Darcy smiled and croaked out a thank you. He shook hands with his friend, wished him happy holidays, and drove away, Coco curled up on her blanket beside him.
Charles put his arm around Jane and steered them back to the house. “That was sweet of you. He doesn’t often get homemade cookies in a lunch bag.”
“Hey smarty pants, there was festive holiday Tupperware inside that bag!”
“Okay, okay. It was very thoughtful. And nice of Lizzy to send out a few cookies too.”
Jane shook her head. “Well, she wasn’t happy about it. One batch was a bit burnt, and I took some of the good ones. Just five or so, but she didn’t want to spare them.”
The couple stopped at the front door. “She doesn’t like him much, does she?”
“I don’t really know.” Jane wrapped her arms tightly around Charles’s waist. “She hasn’t said anything to me, and normally she has an opinion on everything.”
Christmas Eve festivities at an end, the sisters settled into the twin beds in the room they’d shared until a few years ago.
Jane burrowed down under the blue paisley bedspread and yawned. “Did Lydia tell you about the party?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth murmured. “Her Super Sweet Sixteen party? In Orlando.”
Jane rolled over and looked over at her sister. “You sound mad.”
“Well, why can’t I be? Neither of us had a Sweet Sixteen party, and Lydia is getting one in Florida?”
“Technically, the party is here with all of her friends. Then she gets to take a few girls down to Barbara’s condo.”
Elizabeth frowned. “Wait, she’s being chaperoned, right?”
“Barbara and Dad are going, and Mary is going, too, but only to hang out in Harry Potter World.” Jane sighed. “It’s not that I want to go, but they didn’t even ask us.”
“They never do,” Elizabeth replied fiercely. “Barbara is their mom, and moms throw Sweet Sixteens. Mary and Lydia were losing their front teeth and starting chapter books when you and I turned sixteen. Nobody even thought about it.”
“I know. Well, it’s nice Dad is so involved.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Like Barbara gives him any choice. I guess being told what to do and where to go and what to wear and what to order for an entrée is easier than having to make the effort to think for himself.”
“That’s not fair, Lizzy. He’s passive; she’s aggressive. It works for them.”
Elizabeth didn’t say anything.
“Lizzy?”
“Why can’t two people just be attuned to each other and love each other? Be a team?”
“Oh, you and your romantic sports metaphors.”
“Shut up, Janey,” Elizabeth said lightly.
“You have a man calling you his ‘angel.’” She squinted up at the ceiling; a few glow-in-the-dark stars remained from the kit she’d used the day they moved into their stepmother’s house.
Jane had wanted to stick them up there to spell out N’Sync.
Elizabeth, who preferred the Backstreet Boys, refused and arranged them into the correct constellations.
“I’m sorry I’ve been a bad sister lately. I know I’ve left you hanging a few times because of Charles, and I feel terrible about it.”
Elizabeth sighed. “I know. And you haven’t been a bad sister. You’re in love, and it’s the real thing, isn’t it?”
“It is. Finally. Just like in fairy tales.”
She could hear the tremor in Jane’s voice. “I’m glad. You deserve it. You deserve a man as good as Charles. In fact, I believe I even deem him worthy of you.”
“He has some cute friends. We could double date…”
Elizabeth turned over and looked at the clock. “I’ve met his best friend, and he’s not my type. And right now, I don’t have time, okay?”
“Actually, you sound like Darcy. All he does is work too.” Jane sighed. “Why were you so quiet about your book?”
“I don’t know. Superstitious? And it’s not my book. I’m doing it for the company.”
“Because they helped pay for your master’s?”
“Any marketing firm that pays a still-wet-behind-the-ears, social media-averse employee to go to grad school can put me to work on whatever they want. And since I’m a ‘creative writer,’ according to Mr. Philips, I’m handling most of the interviews, writing the copy, and editing the submissions.
Plus, I get credit in the acknowledgements. ”
“What, no byline?” Jane asked, incredulous.
“No, but that’s okay,” Elizabeth said quickly.
“It’s not a bad deal, other than the endless phone calls and schmoozing the famous and the infamous for their contributions.
Amazing how guys who can sink twenty-five foot putts or throw a baseball ninety-five miles an hour can’t spell or even write coherently. ”
Jane sat up on one elbow. “You mean Jared?” she asked, ruminating on the last-minute addition to their Christmas Eve dinner. “He seemed a little thick to me.”
Elizabeth giggled. “Yeah. Jared might be the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler in the history of the world, but they sure never made him attend English class.” She sighed ruefully.
“I was working with him this morning, and he didn’t have any place to go tonight.
I hope Dad and Barbara didn’t get the wrong idea. ”
“Oh, I think Dad was having fun trying to envision your wedding. He was mumbling about triple-X size tuxes.”
“Jane!”
“Don’t worry. We’re used to you bringing home strays. Besides, I think Dad’s decided no one is good enough for you. Promise me you haven’t decided that too.”
Elizabeth rolled away from her sister and stared up at the plastic stars. “You know, just because you’ve met your Prince Charming doesn’t mean there isn’t one out there for me, somewhere, someday. Maybe I’m picky. I bet there’s even one out there for Mary, for God’s sake.” She yawned.
“That girl needs to work on her social skills,” Jane replied with an answering yawn. “Did Lydia tell you what she said to Darcy? ‘You are not my Chinese.’”
Elizabeth laughed. “Bad enough the high and mighty had to drive to Queens, but that’s the greeting he gets?”
“Be nice,” Jane scolded. “He drove here to drop off gifts, not to get paid in Christmas cookies. Actually, he was embarrassed about the cookies. But he seemed pretty happy too.”
“Well, he should be happy; you gave him half of my best batch. I’m a mighty fine baker, and so are you.”
“He’s much nicer than you seem to think. Make an effort, will you? He’s Charles’s best friend.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Elizabeth teased. “After all, he buys expensive gifts for his friends. Even for Caroline? What’s the deal there?”
“She’s his best friend’s sister.” Jane shrugged. “That’s it. Anything else is all in her head. Trust me, the guy she thinks is her Prince Charming sees her as the poison apple, or a frog.”
“Jane!”
“Well, it’s true. I feel sorry for him when we’re all together. He gets stuck with her. They each need to pair off with someone else, pronto. Him first, though. She won’t settle for anyone until she sees he’s taken.”
Elizabeth didn’t respond. Darcy, the hunted and Caroline, the huntress.
He avoids eye contact but ends up with lipstick on his cheek anyway.
They both sneer at my sister, the evil Jersey gold digger.
And he won’t date Caroline, but he gives her Christmas presents?
Talk about sending mixed messages. At least I’m not the only one who can’t figure out how his mind works.
I just know he’s a jerk. A confused, arrogant man who walked away from the best thing he’ll never have.
“Lizzy?”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad you like your job. You seem to be having fun.”
“True. If I’m lucky, this book might be a stepping-stone. The guy I’m working with, the sports agent, has some contacts at the publishing house, so I think I’ll get a meeting about my book. I hope.”
“The one about the blacklist? That’s fantastic.” Jane yawned.
“Um-um.”
“Cool. I love Fifties fashion. So who is this agent? Is he cute?”
“He’s not bad.” Elizabeth burrowed her head into her pillow. “Ultra charming, but in a smarmy kind of way.”
“What’s his name?”
“George. George Wickham.”