I'm Not Charlotte Lucas(52)

Lifting my eyebrows, I pointed my spoon at her. “I never said he changed. I said our circumstances changed, and I wanted to give him another shot. But I didn’t wait around for him to treat me horribly again and again. The second I realized he was no different, I dropped him.”

“Darcy didn’t treat me horribly either. He just made me think he was into me when he wasn’t.”

“What happened?”

“I saw him making out with stupid Hannah Stevens after practice tonight.” She drew in a ragged breath. “After I asked him to the fall formal and he said yes.”

“Oh, Mariah, I’m so sorry,” I said, reaching forward and squeezing her knee. “What are you going to do?”

“I already did it.” She straightened her shoulders, getting that warrior-princess gleam in her eye. “I walked right up to them while they were kissing and told him to find a new date. I might have mentioned that Hannah seemed really willing to take my place, but I won’t admit to that again after tonight. It wasn’t my best moment.”

“We all say things we don’t mean in the heat of anger.”

“Oh, I meant it,” she said. “I just wish I hadn’t made Hannah sound like a tramp. Even if she was one, it wasn’t about Hannah. It was about stupid Darcy.”

“Should we go toilet paper his house?”

Mariah choked on her ice cream. “What are you, twelve?”

I shrugged. “Toilet paper is harmless. We don’t want to actually damage anything.”

“I do,” Mariah said darkly.

I laughed, pulling my ankles up on the couch. “Okay, well, you’re a woman scorned. You probably just need to sleep it off, and you’ll be reasonable again in the morning.”

“Probably, but right now I want to throw eggs at his car.”

“But we won’t,” I admonished.

“Of course we won’t,” she muttered, digging her hand in the popcorn bowl, “but I still want to.”

My phone buzzed.

Liam: Am I allowed to say that I’m really bummed we couldn’t hang out tonight, or does that make me sound too eager?

Me: It makes you sound eager, but I’ll let it pass.

Liam: Phew. At least we aren’t dating, or I would be more concerned with scaring you off.

Me: Don’t worry. I don’t scare easily.

“Want to watch a movie?” Mariah asked, grabbing another handful of popcorn.

“Sure. Long or short?”

“Short,” she said. “I’m not sure I could handle bingeing a whole series right now.”

“Short it is.” I got up, finding the remote and turning on our movie app, then locating Pride and Prejudice. “Is it too soon for this movie?”

“No. It would be a good reminder of how Mr. Darcy is actually supposed to behave.” Mariah sighed. “Too bad Matthew Macfadyen’s already married.”

“Right,” I agreed. “The man is probably old enough to be your dad.”

Mariah gasped. “Don’t be absurd. And don’t ruin this movie for me. I need a little Darcy to ease my pain here.”

Didn’t we all?





Chapter Twenty-One


I woke up the next morning with one thing bouncing around in my head: Liam was disappointed to not see me last night. I’d been disappointed too, naturally. But he went out of his way to reach out and tell me he was bummed.

That had to mean something, didn’t it? Maybe I was guarding myself too much after breaking things off with idiot Andy. Maybe I should give Liam a chance.

I went downstairs for breakfast and poured myself a bowl of cornflakes before selecting a banana and taking a seat beside Dad at the kitchen table. He sat with his iPad propped up, reading the news, his thin, rectangular reading glasses perched low on his nose.

He flicked a glance my way. “Morning, pumpkin.”

I took a bite of the banana, leaning forward to rest my chin on my palm.

“Working today?” he asked.

“Yeah. I need to leave in a few minutes.”

He nodded, scrolling down the news article. “Tough news about Vera, isn’t it?”

My world slid to a screeching halt. One didn’t hear something like that and not immediately jump to the worst-case scenario. “Is she all right?”

“She will be, of course,” he said, clearly unable to see the distress he’d caused me while his gaze was fixed on the screen. “She took a spill down her stairs and broke her leg last night. She’s grateful it wasn’t her hip.”

My shoulders deflated with relief. “Of course she would find the silver lining. What can I do for her?”

“Mom’s arranged to take lunch over later today and find out what kind of help Vera needs right now. Her grandson was over last night, and he offered to move in with her for the time being, but you know Vera. She refused him.”

Liam? Move in next door? My heart raced just from the thought of him sleeping across the fence from me. I could conveniently hang out near the attic window that faced Vera’s house and wait for him to accidentally see me. Of course, the room that faced Vera’s house was all but boarded up right now, but that was a minor inconvenience.

And wait a second . . . had Dad said what I thought he’d said? “Last night? You guys weren’t even here last night.”