She made a noise of surprise and pleasure as she sat up.
“Hey!” she interrupted Teagan and Sloane. “Teagan, it worked! Look, it didn’t just go into the void.”
She shoved the phone into his hand.
“What worked?” Sloane asked.
“Teagan filled out all the application forms for me,” Darcy said. “At Yellowstone. And it worked.” Nobody ever came through for her but Teagan. She should have known he would.
She beamed at Teagan, whose face was curiously blank. “What did they give me?”
He scrolled through the email without responding, then began to read it out loud.
“Snowcat tour operator,” he said. He cleared his throat and began to read. “Seasonal. Full time, starting December 1. Ensures guests are provided with safe and enjoyable tour experience. Maintains and cleans vehicle for secure operation. Provides knowledgeable commentary about Yellowstone Park. Engages with guests and park personnel.”
“Fucking fantastic,” Darcy said, relief beginning to tingle through her body. The runway on her life was extended through March. “That’s so much better than working in the rental shop. Is there housing?”
Teagan scrolled again. “In the dorms.”
Darcy briefly closed her eyes. That would take her almost all the way through the next semester. The hours would be regular. She could take more classes. Maybe Teagan was right, and someday she’d graduate.
She turned to Teagan, ready to thank him profusely, but found that both Teagan and Sloane were both looking at her as though she’d just dropkicked a juvenile harp seal. Actually, Teagan looked like the kicked seal, eyes soft and betrayed.
Darcy quietly took the phone back from him.
“It’s, um,” she said. “You know, that’s almost two months from now.”
“I know,” he said.
Darcy squirmed, feeling absurdly as though this was yet another fuckup on her part. “Do you have any better ideas? This is the only offer I have so far.”
“No, I get it,” he agreed, voice toneless.
He looked at her with patient expectation, but Darcy didn’t know what he expected her to say. He was the one who’d put in the applications in the first place! He knew she didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“This is the best job I’ve ever been offered,” she said, feeling that she had to explain herself, even though it should have been obvious why she was pleased. “Well, working for the Goederts was supposed to be the best one, but that went pear-shaped. This’ll give me direct education experience, and I’ll get more familiar with the park, and—”
“No, I know,” Teagan said. “I’m happy for you. I know this is what you wanted.”
Both statements sounded like total lies coming out of his mouth. Darcy tensed in inchoate frustration, because what had he expected her to do? What had he thought she was going to do once she was no longer employed to keep him from drinking? Heknewshe didn’t even have a car!
“I’m going to check with the waiter on what’s taking so long with our food,” Teagan said, pushing his chair back with a squeal of metal on brick.
He stalked away into the restaurant interior, not really looking as though he was in search of the waiter.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Sloane crossed her arms in an exaggerated flounce, glaring at Darcy with all the icy dignity she could muster for being clad in watermelon-print fleece pajama pants and one of Teagan’s college sweatshirts.
“What’s wrong with my brother?” she demanded.
Darcy tugged on the end of her braid, not sure whether Sloane meant generally or specifically.
“He hasn’t been sleeping very well,” Darcy began.
“Well duh,” Sloane said. “He’s basically three pots of coffee in a Burberry trench coat. He never sleeps. Imeantwhat is wrong with him that you want to book it back to the stupid woods to wash snow cars when Teagan’s already named your first three kids in his head.”
Darcy snorted in shocked amusement. “Um, believe me. Active efforts are being taken to prevent kids. Don’t worry that I’ll make you an aunt.”
“Not the point! The point is, women throw themselves at my brother. My friends in high school used to doodle his name in their notebooks and lie around my house in their swimsuits in case he dropped by.”
