“Will saw the shirt.”
“No.” Jeff slapped his knee. “I can’t believe you showed it to him. That’s awesome.”
“I wish I’d never worn the thing at all. He must have gotten a peek at it when I turned to the side or something. I refused to show him at first, which was super humiliating, but then he started offering me money.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred dollars.”
Jeff’s jaw dropped. “No way.”
She pulled the bills out of her purse, and he doubled over laughing. “That’s my girl. Taking his money and insulting him at the same time. You’re my new best friend.”
She laughed too, but a twinge of remorse nagged at her. She didn’t regret anything she’d said to Will’s face. But talking about him behind his back, laughing at him? That wasn’t usually her style.
Jeff must have seen her hesitation. He reached out and touched her arm. “Will uses money to get what he wants. You shouldn’t feel bad.”
“Tell me about Will. How do you know him?”
Jeff hesitated. “You’ll sell me one of those shirts?”
“I can’t. I promised him it was the only one.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “Let me tell you my sad story first, and then you can decide if you want to keep that promise to him.”
She doubted she’d change her mind, but her curiosity was enough to hear him out. “All right.”
“Will and I were actually good friends as kids. We grew up on a nice street in Brentwood. He lived in a million dollar house with a pool in back and a tennis court, and I lived down the street in an apartment we could only afford because it was rent controlled, and my grandparents started living there in the fifties.
“Anyway, at some point he realized I was super poor. He accused me of only coming over so I could use his stuff. I was ten. I didn’t know how to respond to that.”
“Of course not,” Elsie murmured.
“He went to a private school, and I went to public school so it wasn’t hard for him to avoid me. But, he has a younger sister, Gianna, and we stayed friends. Will didn’t like that.”
Elsie folded her arms. “But there’s gotta be more to it than that. The look of pure…”
“Hatred? Yeah, Will hates me. I think it’s easier for him to blame me for what happened than to look at his own role in it. One night, a few years ago, I’m out with Gianna and she gets a call from Will. He realizes I’m with her and starts yelling, telling her to come home. She’s flustered and hands me the phone. Like I want to talk to him. I try handing it back and don’t see the car turn in front of us. I remember braking hard, then nothing. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in the hospital. And while I was unconscious, Will was busy throwing his opinions and his influence around. I got charged with reckless driving and reckless endangerment and spent thirty days in jail.”
Elsie covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s horrible.”
Jeff nodded. “You know what hurts the most? Gianna went along with it. That was the end of our friendship. She finally chose him over me. Blood’s thicker than water, I guess.”
Neither of them said anything after that, both lost in thought. Lydia, Kat, and Denny came and squeezed in next to them, ready to start a movie, and Mrs. Bennet came out to lecture them about all the noise. It was hard to take her seriously with the gigantic hair rollers mounted on her head, but they promised to quiet down.
Elsie fell asleep halfway through the movie and woke up with her head against Jeff’s shoulder. She looked up and gave him an apologetic smile, but he only grinned back, his eyes shining into hers. She’d only known him for a few hours, but their connection had been instantaneous. Jeff was the kind of person who made you feel like you’d known him all your life. Will was missing out.
***
“You’re leaving?”
Charlie walked in and sat on the bed, messing up Will’s carefully folded stacks of clothes.
Will pulled a shirt out from under him and gave him a dirty look. “Work calls. My flight is at ten.”
It wasn’t just about work, but Charlie didn’t need to know that. Yes, Will needed to check on renovations at one of the apartment buildings he’d purchased last month, but more importantly, he needed to get out of Meryton. He couldn’t be somewhere Jeff Wickham was currently squatting, and he needed space from Elsie. With Charlie and Jane together, Will was bound to run into her again and do something stupid, like demanding to see what she was wearing. A small smile escaped. Man, he was dumb. Like every other red-blooded man, he’d turned into a blithering idiot over a woman, and he wouldn’t let that happen again.
“How are you getting to the airport? I’d drive you, but I have to be on the jobsite in twenty minutes. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
