Chapter 2
The fluorescent lights hummed for a moment longer after Darcy Carver shut them off in the Pioneer Supply Company office, and then went out, plunging the small space into darkness.
She walked through the mom-and-pop hardware store, the scent of lumber heavy in the air as she made her way to the front door, where store manager Hal was waiting for her so he could lock up.
“Did you have a nice day, Darcy?” he asked, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled.
“I sure did,” she said. “You?”
“The missus said my delivery from the jerky-of-the-month club is at the house, so it’s clearly going to be an amazing end to the day.”
“Enjoy,” she said with a chuckle as she stepped out into the cool November evening. “See you Monday.”
“Be safe, hon.”
He pulled the door shut behind her and she heard the click of the lock. Hurrying to her car, she sat behind the wheel and turned the engine on, waiting for the heat to kick in before she headed home.
Her mind was on the weekend ahead and the baby shower she was hosting for her best friend Rhomi. Darcy and the other member of their bestie-trio, Reagan, were excited to throw the shower for the first one of them to get married and become pregnant.
She opened her phone to her to-do list. She was supposed to meet Reagan at the Amazing Adventures Safari Park, where Rhomi lived and worked with her husband, Mercer. Rhomi sold season tickets and Mercer was on the security team, and the two of them were far too adorable now that she was pregnant.
A jungle-themed baby shower had seemed fitting with the safari park’s famous tour, so Darcy and Reagan had set about finding all sorts of wild animal decorations for the event.
When the heat finally kicked in and took the chill out of the car, Darcy decided to stop by the grocery and get the last few items on her list. She’d already picked up the cupcakes from a bakery in town, and Reagan had gotten the paper products at a party store near the mall.
But Rhomi had mentioned wanting to have a candy buffet, and Darcy wasn’t sure she’d gotten enough pink and blue candy.
One more trip wouldn’t hurt.
Plus, she was starving and the grocery had amazing rotisserie chicken.
Dropping her phone into the cup holder, she put the car in drive and headed to the store.
She really couldn’t believe that her bestie was going to have a baby.
It seemed like just yesterday the three of them had gone to the safari park on a whim when Reagan had bought tickets for a bird show at the park’s aviary for her little cousins and they’d canceled.
Rhomi had met Mercer and the two had looked at each other like they couldn’t breathe right if they weren’t together.
Love at first sight, it seemed.
Darcy was well and truly happy for Rhomi.
But she sure did wish she’d found her Mr. Right at this point in her life. She hadn’t been looking for her forever guy, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t hoped he’d show up.
She had zero prospects when it came to finding the future love of her life, and she couldn’t remember the last time she went out on a date.
But this weekend wasn’t about her lack of a love life. It was about her bestie and the sweet little bundle of joy coming into their lives in a few months. She couldn’t wait to be an aunt—the favorite aunt—and share in the new chapter of Rhomi and Mercer’s life.
Then someday, Rhomi would be an aunt to Darcy’s child.
That was something she was really looking forward to.
But for now, she’d focus on finding more pink and blue candy. She could think about her love life on Monday.
* * *
The door to her second-floor apartment swung open just as she reached the top step, carrying three bags of candy and a rotisserie chicken in a plastic container.
“Hey, I was about to leave for work,” her older brother, Cruz, said as he took the bags from her. “I wanted to wait until you got home. You stopped at the store?”
“Yeah, I wanted more candy for the baby shower thing. Plus…chicken.”
“For the shower?” he asked, shutting the door once she was inside.
“No, for dinner. For me.”
“Oh.” He put the bags on the kitchen table and turned with a frown. “You shouldn’t go to the store by yourself at night. What if something happened?”
She put the chicken on the table and hung her coat on the back of the kitchen chair. “I’m home now. Nothing happened.”
He let out a grunt of brotherly disapproval. “You shouldn’t be out by yourself at night, it’s just not safe. I know you read the news online. You know there are creeps out there looking to snatch vulnerable women.”
She stared at him for a moment, seeing the concern on his face. He’d always been protective of her, but since their parents died five years ago, that protectiveness had amped up by a thousand. “I appreciate you looking out for me, but I’m fine, I promise. I was careful.”
As the tension left his face, it was replaced with weariness.
It was hard to believe that they’d been living together for a year.
He’d shown up at her door with his belongings in a few bags and boxes, after finding out his girlfriend had been cheating on him for most of their relationship.
He paid half the rent and utilities, and he was gone nights at his security job, but the apartment wasn’t really big enough for the two of them.
Unfortunately, rent in New Jersey was crazy expensive, and she wasn’t about to send him packing with no place to go.
So they made do, with her in the bedroom and him camping out on the pull-out couch in the family room.
He helped her unload the bags and asked, “They really don’t want to know what they’re having?” He laid the bags of candy on the table. She’d managed to find several bags of pink and blue candies—from pink gummy bears to blue raspberry suckers—to add to the items she’d ordered.
“Nope.”
“I’d want to know. So I could decorate the nursery.”
“I think I would too, but they went neutral—all the stuff on her registry is beige or pale green. Jungle prints, baby wild animals. It’s very cute.
” She’d seen the apartment nursery when they first started decorating it.
The apartment complex was for park employees, but there were only eight units available.
Mercer had an apartment there and she moved in pretty fast.
Love at first sight made people do that kind of thing.
Rush in where others might walk cautiously.
She moved the candy into the storage box to carry it to the park tomorrow, letting herself drift into a quiet daydream.
Someday, she’d have her own happily ever after, just like Rhomi.
With the kind of guy she could rely on, and who also wouldn’t mind that her brother tended to lurk like an overprotective shadow.
She wanted a future with a guy—love and laughter and family dinners.
But with Cruz camping on her couch, the idea of bringing a guy home—even for coffee—felt impossible.
“Darce?”
She dropped the bag of strawberry hard candies into the box and looked at Cruz. “Yeah?”
“I called your name like four times. You okay?”
“Yeah, just thinking. About Rhomi finding her forever guy.”
He grimaced a little. “I’m going to work. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Have a good night.”
“You too.”
He squeezed her arm as he walked by and she smiled. She followed and locked the door when he was gone.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and called Reagan.
“Did you get the baby bingo cards?” she asked when Reagan answered.
“Hello to you too.”
“Sorry. Hi, Reagan!” she said over-the-top cheerfully.
“Hi, Darcy. And yes, I did. And I got a travel mug and gift card for the winner.”
“Love it. We’ll have a ball tomorrow.”
“It’s going to be amazing,” Reagan said. “Rhomi is definitely going to cry when she sees it all.”
“Happy tears for our bestie. Tomorrow’s going to be so much fun.”
“I’ll see you at the park at one,” Reagan said. “Remember Rhomi said to meet Mercer at the employee parking lot and that the guard at the lot would know we were coming.”
“Gotcha. See ya then!”
She ended the call with a smile on her face. Then she debated on eating dinner or double-checking her list for tomorrow, and decided once her stomach grumbled, that dinner should be first.
Tomorrow was going to be amazing.
Her best friend was starting an incredible new chapter of her life, and Darcy was tickled to be part of the fun.
Darcy couldn’t shake the flutter in her chest, a sense that tomorrow held more than colorful balloons and sweet cupcakes.
What that something more was, Darcy didn’t know. But hope bloomed inside her all the same.