Written in the Stars(25)

“Do you mind putting that on a coaster?” Darcy gestured to the stack of white Carrara marble coasters.

Elle snagged a coaster, then reached for a pen. “Fact number one—compulsive about coaster usage.”

Darcy huffed softly and took a sip of wine, ignoring the notebook on the couch cushion beside her. “I’m not compulsive.”

Elle clicked the end of her pen. “What are you then? I mean, tell me something about you. Where are you from, where’d you go to school, any pets? Greatest wish, biggest dream? How about any super sordid secrets I should know?”

Darcy swirled the wine in her glass out of habit, obviously, because even Elle knew swirling Franzia was pretty pointless even if it did look posh. “I don’t think you need to know all that if we’ve only known each other a week.”

Elle doodled a smiling flower in the margin of the paper. “What do you talk about on first dates? Successful ones.”

“I was born in San Francisco,” Darcy offered up, not quite answering her question. “But I grew up across the Bay in Marin County.”

Elle reached for the green gel pen and wrote that down. “California, huh? That must’ve been nice.”

The left corner of Darcy’s mouth quirked upward. “It was.”

Elle waited for Darcy to say something else, keep going, add an anecdote, anything. When she simply stared into her glass of pink wine, Elle bit back a sigh. “All right. So you were born in San Francisco and obviously you’ve got a younger brother. Any other siblings?” When Darcy simply shook her head, Elle grabbed her glass and took another swig. Coaxing details out of her was like pulling teeth. “How about the rest of your family?”

Darcy’s teeth sunk into her lower lip for a brief moment before she tipped her glass up, polishing it off in one swallow. Impressive. “We had—have a small family. It’s just Brendon, my mother, father, and me. My grandmother—my mother’s mom—passed away five years ago.”

Elle dropped her pen midsentence and stared at Darcy. “I’m sorry. Were you close?”

“My grandmother?” Darcy’s brows rose.

Elle nodded.

“We were.” The platinum band on Darcy’s middle finger tapped against the stem of her empty wineglass. “My, uh, my father traveled a lot, for work. My mother hated how often Dad was away, so Brendon and I spent the summers at my grandmother’s house so my mom could go with him on his business trips.” Darcy pressed her lips together. “The summer before my junior year of high school, my parents divorced. We—my mother, Brendon, and I—moved in with my grandma. I loved living there.” Darcy tucked her hair behind her ears. “And that’s probably way more than you need to know after a week of dating—fake dating—me.”

She could take a hint. “All right. Hometown, family, when’d you move here? Why’d you move here?”

“Six months ago.” Darcy spun the stem of her glass between her fingers. An elegant move that Elle wouldn’t have been able to pull off without dropping or spilling. “I moved from Philadelphia where I majored in actuarial science at Fox Business School at Temple University before working at a midsize life insurance company. As for why I moved . . .” Darcy pursed her lips and shrugged. “It was time for a change.”

“Time for a change,” Elle repeated. “That’s not, like, code for I committed a crime and now I’m on the lam, is it?”

Darcy cocked one brow, lips curling. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

A shiver raced up Elle’s spine at the look in Darcy’s low-lidded eyes and the way her voice had gone teasing, mischievous. Evasive. Elle sat up straighter and smiled. “Seriously. What brought you to Seattle?”

Darcy’s lips flattened, eyes darting off toward the wall of windows on the far side of the room. “There wasn’t much opportunity for growth at the company I was with and . . . and I went through a breakup and unfortunately, other than my best friend, Annie, most of our friends were mutual, our friend groups intermingled, so my social life stagnated.” Her throat jerked as she swallowed. “It really was time for a change.” She turned, eyes narrowed slightly and chin lifted. “And that’s definitely more than you need to know after a week of fake dating me.”

A breakup. Interesting, but Elle wouldn’t pry. It was none of her business. “So you packed up and moved across the country for a fresh start. That’s cool. Like spring cleaning for the soul.”

Darcy cracked a smile. “I moved in the spring, so that’s a surprisingly accurate metaphor.”

“What can I say, I’m full of surprises.”

Darcy chuckled. “I’m getting that.”

Elle bit down on the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning.

“How about you?” Darcy gestured to Elle with her empty wineglass.

“What about me?”

“You know. Your story. Where you’re from, your family, that sort of thing?”

“Oh.” Right, she’d gotten so wrapped up in learning about Darcy, who until now had been a closed book, that she’d forgotten they were both supposed to be sharing. “Um, born in Seattle on February twenty-second but I grew up in Bellevue. I’ve got two older siblings, Jane and Daniel. They’re both married. And I’ve got a younger sister, too, Lydia. Jane has a three-year-old, Ryland, and she’s expecting twins.”