Will laughed. Maybe Jane Bennet wasn’t just a pretty face. He hoped she’d take it well when Charlie up and left one day. Charlie didn’t mean to be a heartbreaker, but unfortunately, his enthusiasm for life and tendency to live in the moment meant he could be just as happy somewhere else, with someone else.
Will was much more careful about relationships. Which was why he rarely dated.
***
Elsie shuddered at the sticky mess clinging to her gloves and hefted another garbage bag into the dumpster. It didn’t quite make it over the side and fell back to the ground, spilling open. She let a few choice words slip and bent down to clean it up. Charlotte owed her big time.
“Let me help you with that.”
Elsie whirled around and skidded on a food wrapper, losing her balance and falling on her bum. She looked up at the one person she wished would drop dead. “You.”
“That’s quite the potty mouth you have there.”
“I was talking to the garbage, so it felt appropriate.”
Will Darcy reached down and lifted her back to her feet. One gross gloved hand gripping another. What was he doing here? He obviously hated the party. Why stick around afterward to help clean up?
She went back to picking up garbage and flinched when they reached for the same soda can. “It’s fine. I got this.”
He shook his head. “I don’t mind.”
“No really. You should go … somewhere else.”
He laughed. And then he ignored her advice and went back to picking up garbage.
“Isn’t this kind of thing beneath you?” She should shut up now, but her mouth wasn’t listening. “I mean, I take out the trash all the time at The Pizza Palace. But you … I’m sure you have a janitorial staff to do that kind of thing for you.”
“Where do you think I work?” he asked.
“Somewhere where you don’t have to deal with a lot of people, but you still make a lot of money.” She almost slapped a hand over her mouth at that one, but she remembered the gloves just in time.
“Intelligent observation.”
“I’m right?”
He shrugged. “I’m an investor. Mostly in real estate. But I do have to talk to people from time to time.”
She put a hand on her hip and instantly regretted it. These clothes were going straight into the washing machine. “Then what are you doing here? Interested in Meryton real estate?”
He scoffed, clearly finding the idea laughable. “No. I won’t be buying anything here. But Charlie is like family to me. And he often has to go live in new places for months at a time. I tag along for the fun of it.”
“I didn’t think you knew what fun was.” Dang it. Could she ever shut up?
He shook his head at her. “I’m thinking customer service is a bad choice for you. Isn’t there something else you can do?”
“As a matter of fact, Jane and I own a business. But it’s new. And I still have to pay my bills.”And bail my baby sister out of trouble from time to time.
“What kind of business?”
She held out her shirt, showing him the cottonwood tree on the front. Each leaf was a different color. Like a tree made of Skittles.
He stared back, puzzled. “What am I looking at?”
She jabbed at the front of her shirt. “We design T-shirts.”
“Oh.”
His silence was speaking volumes. He thought her business was dumb. Little did he know she’d sold two hundred of this design in the past two months. And every month they were selling more and more. But she didn’t have to justify her life’s work to him. She tossed the last soda can in the dumpster and walked off.
