“Did you love him?”
“I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“I’ve known that guy since high school. What an uptight asshole. I assume he wasn’t capable of feeling.”
You presume a great deal.
Sliding into her flip flops, she didn’t reply.
“Did you know I used to go out with his fiancée?” he called out to her.
“Carrie Bingley? No, I didn’t. It’s a small world. Then you saw her at the Pillson exhibit?”
“Nah. You had my undivided attention.”
Sure, I did.“Did you know William’s sister, Georgiana?”
Silence.
“George?”
“What?! I vaguely remember the brat,” he replied a little too defensively.
Exiting the bathroom, she said. “Hmm ... Look, I can’t sleep. I’m going for a walk on the beach.”
“Wearing that?”
He was right, but she didn’t care about much of anything at this point. “Why not? It’s almost three in the morning and everyone is likely asleep.”
“Fine, go clear your head. When you get back, we’ll fuck. I got a raging itch that won’t go away.”
“Then, I recommend making a doctor’s appointment when you get back to the city.” She shook her head. What had she been thinking in accepting his marriage proposal? Had she lost all self-respect? Apparently so.
SEVENTEEN
How does a person process every emotion imaginable at the same time? Gazing out the window of the Cessna on his way back to the city from the Hamptons, Darcy’s mind hadn’t rested following his second triple espresso. His hangover may have dissipated to tolerable levels, but his mind and heart worked double-time. He hated that he couldn’t discern if last night’s sexual encounter was real or imagined. If only his dick could tell the story. It felt real because Lizzy dwelled under his skin and in his blood, both of which felt alive again. He felt complete even in his inebriation last night and bereft when she hadn’t woken beside him in the morning. As sure as his constancy, he was convinced that Lizzy had been the siren who lured him from the sea, not Caroline.
Staring at how the wing sliced through the clouds, he smiled tightly, mind drifting to her words at the table: “Because I could have helped her ... because you needed me.”
At the time of their breakup, had he had absolute confirmation about her crazy sister’s interference, everything would have unfolded differently. He always surmised she had a hand in it, but eighteen months later, his mother shared some truth bombs about what had happened.
“I have to interfere,” she’d said.
“What, again?” he joked because she rarely did, and frankly, she was too near the end to do anything other than sleep.
Her white lips forced a smile. “Lizzy regretted what happened.”
“Stop. Don’t waste your breath on her, Mom.”
“Listen to me. She tried ... to call you.”
Shaking his head, he tried to dissuade her from going where he swore he never would. “Mom, please don’t. It’s still raw.”
“I know and that’s why ... I have to tell you everything I promised I wouldn’t. William, (pain grimace) she loves you, but I think ... she was young ... had dreams and was highly susceptible to her sister’s ... (she winced) unhealthy manipulations.”
Again, he shook his head, unwilling to discuss his ex in what could be his final moments with his mother. Her last words should not be about Lizzy.
“She told me some of the things her sister said,” she breathed.
