Finally, his mother cornered her and asked her how she was enjoying New York. Good ol’ Mrs.Collier, who never knew what a snotball Darby had been to her son. He’d never ratted her out, and Mrs.Collier had probably assumed they’d grown apart as they got older.
There was an understatement. They’d gone from best buddies in grade school to princess and commoner in middle school. After that, it was never the twain shall meet.
Except his mother, envisioning a happy reunion, had summoned him to her side. Now here he was, standing in front of Darby and looking down on her. Physically, that was. Probably in other ways as well.
“I hear you lost your job,” he said.
His mother looked at him in surprise, then at Darby, equally surprised. “Oh, I didn’t know. Your mother didn’t say.”
“It was pretty recent,” Darby said. Then, to Gregory, “How did you hear?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew the answer.
“Erika told me.”
Of course she did. Happy to announce her sister’s failure to the world. Who else had Rika told? All her friends, for sure.Darby finally got what she deserved.
“It didn’t work out,” Darby said.
“Sorry about that,” he said, and it sounded sincere. Hardly surprising. Gregory had always been sincere.
“If it didn’t work out, then it wasn’t meant to be,” Mrs.Collier said. She gave Darby a little pat on the arm. “Something better will come along. Who knows? Maybe you’ll move back here and find a job. Or write a book? A lot of people are doing that these days.”
“Maybe,” Darby said. Back in high school, she’d thought she might like to become a novelist. After getting fired she’d toyed with the idea of writing a book about her evil boss. Except Lauren Weisberger had beaten her to the punch withThe Devil Wears Prada.
“Oh, there’s Annalise,” Mrs.Collier said, excusing herself. She flitted away, leaving Darby to face Gregory all by herself.
If she didn’t have so much to feel guilty about, she’d have loved facing him. Why had she never noticed what a strong jawline he had? And that curly hair she used to make fun of—now it added an element of boyish charm. Though there was nothing boyish about those pecs.
“I hear you’re still here,” she said. Okay, that probably sounded snobby. “Teaching,” she added.
“I am. I like it.”
“And I bet the kids like you.”
He shrugged. “They seem to.”
They could stand there forever in Awkward Land or she could get them over the border fast. It was time to start repairing those burned bridges.
“Gregory,” she began.
It was as far as she got. One of their other neighbors, Arielle, who’d been a couple years behind them in school, interrupted the moment. Arielle was short and cute, with a round little face and a round little butt. Darby had ignored her once upon a time. It was hard to ignore her now as she stepped in between Darby and Gregory and flipped her long, fantasy-dyed hair.
“Hi, Gregory,” she said, her voice filled with warmth. The warmth died when she added, “Hi, Darby.” She might as well have added, “Don’t you have some appetizers to serve up somewhere?”
“Hi, Arielle.” It would have been polite to ask Arielle howshe was doing, but the girl wasn’t exactly putting Darby in the mood to be polite.
“I’m home for the holidays,” Arielle added, smiling up at Gregory.
Well, duh. And, obviously, she had hopes of spending a lot of that time with him. Darby couldn’t say she blamed her. Gregory had come into his own in the last few years. He’d always been quiet, never a star on the football field or the basketball court, which had disqualified him from breathing the same rarefied air as Darby’s crowd. But now that quietness came across as confidence, and he’d obviously been doing something to stay fit. With those new-and-improved pecs, probably working out at the gym. Snowboarding as well. Like her, he’d spent a lot of time on the slopes as a kid.
“We should do something,” Arielle said. As her back was half-turned on Darby and she looked straight at Gregory, it wasn’t hard to tell who she wanted to do something with.
“Sure,” he said. “We’ll have to see what we can work out.”
Arielle wasn’t going to let him get away with such a vague response. “How about hitting the slopes tomorrow? Fresh powder.”
He looked a little like a fish that had closed its mouth on something tempting, only to realize it was a hook. “Uh, sure.”
“How about Tuesday instead?” Darby suggested.
