“You can get everything in New York,” Darby said.
“So, you like it.” His tone of voice said he couldn’t understand why.
“It’s an exciting city. Always something going on.”
“Hey, there’s always something going on here. High school basketball and football, bingo at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on Friday night, line dancing at the Eagle’s Club. Something for everyone.”
“I can see that,” she said.
“And don’t forget how close we are to Snoqualmie. Where can you go snowboarding in the city?”
“There are mountains back east, you know.”
“Yeah? How close?”
“A couple hours away.”
“Oh, sign me up.”
She pointed her fork at him. “No sneering allowed.”
He shook his head. “I guess I’m a provincial. I love it here.”
“Actually, I’m beginning to love it here myself,” Darby said.
Funny how you saw things in such a different light when your attitude changed. She’d looked down on her hometown, thinking she needed more out of life. More, of course, was somewhere else. Now she was coming to realize that she had gold in her own backyard.
Gregory Collier had a lot to do with that. In some ways, being with him felt so familiar. In others, it was like she was discovering a new man. She was also discovering new feelings for him, feelings that dug deeper into her heart than friendship.
They were halfway through their meal when she saw Laurel walk in with a date. She looked Darby’s direction, and her eyebrows shot up. Gregory was hardly ugly. But he was still too many rungs down the social ladder for Laurel’s approval.
Darby waved at her, determined to stay on the path of becoming a better person, but when the hostess led Laurel and her date to a table, Laurel didn’t stop to say hello. Instead, as she passed, she tossed out a “Really?”
Gregory frowned. “At this rate, you’re going to get kicked out of the club.”
“Too late for that. I already left it. Was I really that bad?”
She knew the answer before he said it. “Pretty much.”
“Thanks for giving me a second chance. I am forgiven, right?”
“You are. I knew the real you was trapped in there somewhere. I’m glad you finally decided to set her free.”
“Me too,” said Darby.
“It might be hard for you, becoming one of us little people,” he said.
“Hard because women like me make it hard.” She grimaced. “Why did I think I was so special?”
“Because you were. You are. You’re a living iridescent. You light up a room when you walk into it. You did that even when we were kids. Remember that show you and Erika put on when we were in fifth grade?”
“The Halloween one? Where I was Princess Pumpkin?”
She remembered that play. She’d helped Erika write the dialogue. Erika had draped her in orange fabric and stuck a cardboard toilet paper roll painted brown on top of her head to signify a stem. She’d wandered back and forth in the front yard in front of all their friends, crying, “Where are my pumpkins? How will we make jack-o’-lanterns and pumpkin pie without them?” Gregory had been drafted as Prince Pumpkin and had arrived just in time to save the day.
He smiled at the memory. “Yep. Even then you were a princess.”
“And you were a prince. I can’t believe I lost sight of that.”
