Chapter Ten #3
Her obvious pleasure eased some of Darcy’s hollowness. She nodded. “Once the main structure is together, it’s not that difficult to do. Just lots of candy, icing and patience.”
Josh reached for a gumdrop. Darcy pushed his arm away. “Don’t make me hurt you. If you want something to eat, try a cookie.”
“What’s in them?” he asked suspiciously.
“Plenty of butter and sugar. It’s the holidays and I try not to think about calories in December.”
Still looking doubtful, Josh opened the second box and pulled out an iced cookie. He took a bite, then nodded. “This works,” he mumbled.
Melissa reached for one, as well. After she tasted the cookie, she sighed.
“It’s delicious enough to cause me to make noises that shouldn’t be heard outside of the bedroom.
Janie was right. Your baked goods are terrific.
Let’s talk tomorrow after your shift. If you’re still interested, we can work out a deal to have you supply the café. ”
“I’d like that,” Darcy said, hoping she sounded excited.
She should be happy. She was happy. She’d worked hard for this opportunity.
If she got a baking contract with the Hip Hop Café, she wouldn’t have to sweat her monthly bills—especially for Dirk’s school—so much.
And if he received some financial aid, she might be able to draw a breath and actually slow down.
“Then I’ll see you here tomorrow,” Melissa said, pulling a datebook out of her oversize purse. “I’d like you to bring me a list of what baked goods you’ll provide, and a schedule. We’ll have to play with quantities for a while until we figure out how much we can sell.”
“Not a problem.”
Darcy already had all that information in a notebook at home. She would make a copy during her break tomorrow and have it ready for Melissa by the time of their meeting.
She excused herself so Josh and Melissa could finish their conversation on remodeling, and made her way to her car.
She was excited, she told herself. Darned excited.
This was a great opportunity. Yes, there would be extra work, but she’d held as many as three jobs at a time before, so she was used to long hours and little sleep.
If nothing else, keeping busy would help her get over Mark quicker.
She wasn’t going to have much time to think about him.
She started her car, then waited for the engine to warm up.
The thing was, she thought, resting her forehead on the steering wheel, she couldn’t start getting over him until the horrible empty feeling inside of her went away.
She couldn’t remember ever being so sad about the loss of a relationship.
Which didn’t make sense. After her parents died and all her friends had faded away, she’d felt completely abandoned. But somehow this was different. Worse.
Something about knowing Mark was forever out of her life made it very difficult to even breathe.
* * *
Mark sat alone in his living room and watched the light fade as afternoon turned to evening.
He told himself he should get some ice for his ankle and maybe take another pain pill.
He should do a lot of things. But instead of getting up, he simply closed his eyes and wished he could turn back the clock.
Why had he thought Darcy was the one involved with the money laundering?
Now, with hindsight, he could see that he’d been completely wrong about her.
There was nothing in her background or her life that even hinted at anything illegal.
Yet he’d thought of her first. Finding the money had only confirmed his suspicions.
Because he’d wanted it to be her.
The thought struck him like a sucker punch.
He lightly touched the throbbing bump on his face, then shook his head.
Damn. Why hadn’t he seen it before? He’d wanted Darcy to be the bad guy because then he could dismiss her from his life.
He wouldn’t have to worry about liking her or not liking her.
He wouldn’t have to reconcile what he’d been through with Sylvia with his present situation.
He could stay comfortably angry with the world for being such a rotten place and with himself for being so stupid and blind.
The memory of the hurt and shock in her eyes made him squirm. He’d done her wrong in the most fundamental way possible. He’d damaged her character.
She was a woman who had given up everything she’d ever known to take care of her brother.
With no experience, she’d survived in a hostile world.
Then he’d come along and had accused her of being a criminal because that was a whole lot easier than thinking she might be a pretty terrific person that he was in danger of falling for.
He wanted to take his accusations back. He wanted a second chance. Not because he had any expectations, but because someone like Darcy didn’t show up in a guy’s life very often. She’d wanted to be his friend. He’d never considered that much of an honor, but he’d been wrong.
He swore under his breath. He couldn’t make it right, but he could explain. He owed her that. He knew she would still walk away—she might be soft-hearted, but she wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t trust him with a second chance.
* * *
After dropping off the rest of her baked goods, Darcy pulled in front of her apartment. Something large and dark sat on her front steps. As her headlights swept across the duplex, she saw the large, dark something move. Mark?
She set the parking brake, then turned off the engine. No. He couldn’t be here. It was cold and the snow was due to start up any second.
“Are you crazy?” she asked as she climbed out of her car. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be keeping your leg elevated.”
“Would you believe I ran out of ice? I thought maybe if I stuck my foot in snow it would do the same thing.”
She pulled her coat closer around her body.
The cold burned her skin and her eyes. As she approached the porch, she saw Mark was huddled on the top step.
He had his bad foot buried in snow. She didn’t want to think about how much it would have hurt him to pull on a boot, even though he hadn’t fastened it. She refused to feel sorry for him.
“Why are you here?” she asked, stopping in front of him.
Instead of answering, he held out several thin boxes. “A peace offering,” he said. “Christmas lights. I can’t put them up right now, but maybe by midweek.” He hesitated. “I know you’re a sucker for Christmas.”
“Apparently I’m a sucker for a lot of things.”
He nodded. “At the risk of you leaving me out here in the snow to freeze to death, I’m going to ask you to invite me in.”
His boldness stunned her. “Why would I do that? So you can say more terrible things about me? What do you want to accuse me of now? Has there been a murder in town? Am I the prime suspect?”
He gazed at her. “I want to apologize and explain.”
“No explanation is necessary. Besides, you couldn’t possibly come up with a story good enough.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Something dark and painful. Something that made her heartache ease slightly and her resolve waver.
“Actually, I could,” he told her. “Let me try, Darcy. I know what I did was awful. I’m really sorry. You didn’t deserve my accusations, but they’re made and now I would like to explain them.”
She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to deny him.
“Once a sucker, always a sucker,” she muttered as she bent low to help him to his feet. “This had better be good.”