I'm Not Charlotte Lucas(39)

“Yes!” I whipped it a few times in the air, and it was blessedly clean—thank you, Ziploc—but had a strong, musty odor. Pulling it over my head, I slipped my cuffs past the edge of the sleeves and rolled them up together, then freed my collar from the neckline.

“Nice,” Liam said, grinning.

“This is what you get when your dad was an Eagle Scout,” I explained. “Emergency bags.”

“Old ones?”

I shot him a wry grin. “How could you tell?”

He was gentleman enough not to tell me it was from the smell.

“I didn’t know you banked with us,” I said, shoving everything back into the trunk just right so it would close.

“You really need to clean out your car.”

I glared at him.

He smiled. “And you work at one of the nation’s largest banks.”

I knew this. It wasn’t that weird, of course, that he banked with us. “I’ve just never seen you here before.”

“I’m new in town, remember?”

I gave him a smile. “Yes, I remember. So, how bad was the dinner with Beth?”

The air seemed to shift between us, and he moved aside as I rounded the car to go back toward work. This was not the best time to open that conversation up, but I seemed to have very little brain power when Liam stood that close to me.

“I promised her I would keep my ear out for an opportunity to introduce her to Rhett. You’ve got to realize, though, I’m not exactly friends with the guy.”

I shrugged. “There’s no reasoning with—”

“Obsession?”

“I was going to say true love. But yeah, obsession is probably more accurate.”

He cleared his throat, and something in the way he did it made me pause on the sidewalk. His gaze bore into me, forcing me to meet his eyes.

“I had fun bowling,” he said.

“Me too,” I lied. It had been inordinately stressful for me.

“You’re lying.”

I scoffed. “You should never call a lady out like that. It’s not very gentlemanly of you.”

Amusement washed over his face. “Gentlemanly? What are you, Jane Eyre?”

I was almost affronted by his mention of the wrong Jane, but I swallowed my irritation. Not that there was anything wrong with Jane Eyre. I liked that book, too, but it wasn’t my Jane. I didn’t have a connection with her, share the name—and potentially the fate—of a character in her story. “Jane Austen, if I had to choose.”

He seemed to sense that I was serious. I typically didn’t let my nerd flag fly so strong, but I had nothing to be ashamed of.

“I’m not super familiar with her work,” he admitted.

“Most men aren’t.” I shrugged. “But maybe if they were, they’d pick up a few pointers.”

“Is that you trying to tell me something?”

I paused. He let his anger about Beth go so quickly it was hard to tell if he’d been serious or not, but given the fact that he never texted me back after my admission the other night, it was safe to assume that my actions had hurt him. “I’m sorry about using you and trying to help Beth use your connections. I should have just been upfront.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, and that’s why I’m apologizing.”

He stared at me hard, his eyes boring into mine. What was moving through his mind right now that he wasn’t saying out loud?

“I was pretty annoyed, actually,” Liam said. “But I like Beth, and I wasn’t looking for a romantic connection, so I’m not heartbroken.”

My body tensed. I hated that I’d caused him to be annoyed, but it was justified.

A car door shut in the parking lot, and another woman made her way into the bank. “I really need to get in there.”

“I’ll see you around?” he asked.

“Sure,” I called, rushing up the sidewalk and hoping the cool air helped reduce my sweater stench just a bit. “See you later.”

I slipped inside, letting myself behind the teller counter and turning on the computer at the station beside Marissa’s.

“Where were you?” she hissed, before glancing up and saying, “I’ll be right with you, sir.”

“You didn’t see Fernando scare the soda out of my hand?” I indicated my sweater, and she cringed.

“Todd would have freaked if you left. You’re lucky you had a sweater on hand.”

“Lucky for me, maybe,” I said, grinning. “But once you get a whiff, you won’t think so anymore.”

Marissa laughed before calling over the next person in line. I grabbed my keys and went into the back room, unlocking the vault and pulling out my cash box before returning to the station. I went through the motions to set up and then requested the next person in line. When the line finally died down an hour later, I slumped forward against the desk, integrity pulsing a steady reminder deep in my soul. I had a real problem.

I could not keep dating one man when my heart utterly exploded at the sight of another.





Chapter Seventeen


Vera stood before the painting, squinting her eyes and dipping her head to the side. “I’m just not sure it’s quite what I’m looking for.”