Darcy watched her for a moment, then said, more deliberately, “If you are free tomorrow after school, I thought we might go out. Just the two of us.”
Mia looked up at that. “Out where?”
“The museum. Or somewhere else, if you have a preference.”
She considered it, tilting her head slightly. “Tomorrow works.”
“Good.”
Elizabeth had come in more quietly behind her. She paused near the stairs, adjusting the strap of her bag, though it did not need adjusting.
“Mia,” she said, “take your bag upstairs and change out of those clothes before you get too comfortable.”
Mia glanced at her, then at the television, weighing her options.
“Now,” Elizabeth added.
Mia sighed, but pushed herself up, grabbing her bag from the hallway. “You always ruin the moment.”
Elizabeth didn’t reply. Instead, she grinned playfully at her, as if mocking her statement.
Mia picked her bag and shoe, then disappeared up the stairs.
When she was out of earshot, Darcy’s attention shifted back to Elizabeth.
“Elizabeth.”
She had already turned toward the stairs again. She stopped, one hand resting lightly on the banister, and looked back.
He crossed to the small wooden coffee table where he had moved all the letters, picked up the ivory envelope, and held it out to her. “You have a letter.”
She came back down the step and took it. Her eyes moved to the return address.
For a fraction of a second, she stilled.
Then she turned the envelope over, once, twice, as though confirming something already clear.
“Thank you,” she said.
She moved to put it into her bag.
“Ember?” Darcy said.
Her fingers froze against the zipper of her bag as he spoke.
“A dating website huh?” Darcy said, “I mean, the name is printed on the envelope. It is not particularly subtle.”
Elizabeth looked up at him then, too quickly. “You looked it up.”
“I had a moment and my curiosity got the best of me,” he said.
She held his gaze for a second longer than necessary, then looked away, her attention dropping back to the envelope. She smoothed the edge of it with her thumb, though it was already perfectly flat.
“It is nothing.”
“A service that sends letters in ivory envelopes does not usually deal in nothing.”
“It was Lydia,” Elizabeth said. The words came faster now. “She signed me up. I did not ask her to.”
