Chapter 65
DARCY
I was mad.I was more than mad. I was furious. I didn’t think I had ever been so angry in my life, and even though I knew all that anger was to really hide the fact that my heart had been torn to pieces, I didn’t care. I was going to stew in this anger. I was going to let it boil and topple over. I was a volcano, and I was about to erupt molten lava all over Penn Murphy.
Penn had come to town and lied to everyone. He had lied to me, my family, Peter Penske and Mr. Fitzgerald. Penn had lied to Ruby and Rosie and Lettie and every single person here for God’s sake, and for that, I hated him.
I hated him so much for making me believe he loved this town, for making me think he was a decent guy, and for making me fall for him when I was perfectly happy having never met him.
I hated Penn Murphy more than I hated Katy Purry and her incessant need to bite me.
I was going to make him regret ever messing with Aveline. I would have him running out of town as fast as he could, and I had the perfect plan to make that happen.
Operation AA 2.0 would begin now.
Actually, I had to go back to work, so Operation AA 2.0 would begin... tonight.
DARCY: Want to come over for dinner?
PENN: Hmm . . . are you cooking? Because that might change my answer.
Ha. Ha.It might be funny if he weren’t the biggest jerk on this side of the planet. I feigned amusement. Thank God no one could read my true expressions over text messages.
DARCY: Haha! I can’t say I blame you! Take out?
PENN: Sounds perfect. For the record, my answer would have been the same.
I scowled and spit on the ground just for dramatic emphasis before I looked up and realized Rosie was standing outside the flower shop and saw me.
“A bug,” I said, pointing to my mouth. “I ate a bug.”
Penn was at the gazebo waiting for me when I got off work, and I greeted him as though I hadn’t met Mr. Prescott and figured out what was going on. I was becoming quite the actress. I might even want to give the reenactment another shot after this performance because pretending not to want to punch Penn in the face was harder than anything I had ever done in my life. Including the time I had to have all four of my wisdom teeth pulled without anesthesia.
Mr. Prescott had gone on to explain that Penn had worked for him for over ten years, securing hotels in large cities and small towns and that he was indeed in Aveline for the sole purpose of buying my dad’s hardware store. Mr. Prescott, however, was the owner of Prescott International, a huge chain of—what I might add are the ugliest and least charming—hotels and not at all in the business of restaurants. Mr. Prescott then divulged that Penn had mentioned the town of Aveline would not be enthusiastic about a new hotel or a tourist label and, therefore, must have fabricated his own story to make the deal.
AKA, the bastard lied.
As if that weren’t bad enough, that wasn’t even the worst part of the entire revelation. Mr. Prescott stuck the nail in the coffin when he admitted Penn had taken on a challenge to make the daughter of the store’s owner fall for him, just so he could get her blessing.
That’s when I lost both my vision and my hearing, and I was rendered completely and utterly incapacitated. Had my father not shaken me slightly upon the exit of Mr. Prescott, I would probably still be standing there, immobile.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Penn said, his stupid grin on his stupid face as though he were really happy to see me.
I pretended I didn’t despise him, another performance worthy of an Oscar, I might add.
“Hey!” I kissed him, feeling my stomach both flip and dance and flood with nausea at the mixed emotions I was having.
“How was your day?” he asked, taking my hand in his.
That was a loaded question. It shouldn’t have been. It should have been simple. It should have been a simple question with a simple answer, but because my feelings were all over the place, it was not. It was complicated and messy. I felt hurt, betrayed, and angry, and even though my body and brain had gotten this memo, my heart had somehow missed it. I was still thinking of his hands and his arms around me. The hugs and kisses I had gotten used to. The Penn I had thought I was getting to know. I shook my head, trying to clear it.
Operation AA 2.0 was about to commence.
I answered swiftly. “It was great. How about you?”
“Better now,” he said, sweetly.
Not for fucking long, Pinocchio.
Aveline was at full capacity, and Penn Murphy was about to find out that there was no vacancy for him anywhere near here.