And yet, now that he knew she was coming he was filling with an excitement he knew he’d have to tamp down in front of Caroline. There was no earthly reason why he should be excited about a corn maze.
“What do you hate about her?” Caroline asked, sitting next to Will and staring him down.
He took a moment to think. “She’s judgmental, and rude, and she works at a disgusting pizza place in town.” All true, and yet he was starting to not care about any of those things. After all, he was judgmental and rude, too.
“What does she look like?” Caroline’s eyes narrowed. She could sniff out a lie from a mile away. And Will rarely lied. He usually had no problem telling anyone what he thought about them.
“Oh, plain brown hair. Blue eyes. Fairly ordinary.” He shouldn’t have mentioned her eye color.
Charlie gave Caroline’s chair a soft kick. “Give it a rest. What are you, the dating police?”
Caroline had the sense to look embarrassed and got up, heading over to the sink. “Who didn’t rinse out their bowl?”
Charlie admitted to the crime and went to rectify the situation.
***
“I am not going anywhere tonight, and I’m not very happy with you right now.” Elsie threw her romance book across the room for good measure, though it landed safely against the couch and slid to the floor.
“I’m not speaking to you, or Mom, or Dad, and if Collin so much as breathes in my direction, he’ll get a stiff kick in the you-know-where.”
Jane folded her arms and calmly waited. “Are you finished?”
“Are you kidding me? I told Collin in no uncertain terms to GO HOME, and his response was that he wasn’t leaving Meryton without me. I truly think he saw it as the most romantic response possible. And then he leaned in to try to kiss me. Again. But we were parked in Mom and Dad’s driveway this time so I gave him a firm push back, and he whacked his head on the driver side window. I thought that was the moment he’d get it, but Mom texted as I was hightailing it back here and said he wants to have a meeting with them and me, and I told her she was dreaming. He can go ahead and sue me for assault and I’ll see him in court. And then when I come in and tell you I’ve had an epically bad day you respond with, ‘wanna go to a haunted corn maze?’”
Jane took a cautious step toward her and put her arms around Elsie for a hug. “So, this is you not speaking to me?”
“You told him I was free for lunch!”
Jane patted Elsie’s back. “I didn’t know lunch would come with a marriage proposal.”
“It wasn’t a proposal,” Elsie murmured into Jane’s shoulder. “More like a business meets pleasure kind of arrangement.”
“Oh, gross. Stop, I can’t…” Jane covered her mouth, but her laughter escaped anyway and Elsie finally gave in and laughed with her.
“So, you guys need me as Will’s date again?”
Jane tilted her head. “This was Charlie’s idea. He thinks Will might have a thing for you and I happen to agree. After you left the other night, Will was never quite the same.”
“He knew I was with Jeff. That’s all.”
“You haven’t talked about Jeff in a while. Is everything okay with that?”
Elsie sighed. “I get the feeling he’s avoiding me. I don’t know why, though.”
“Well, he’s only here for a short while, right? Just like Charlie.” Jane’s smile dropped and she walked down the hall towards her bedroom. Elsie followed.
Jane went to the closet and started flipping through possible outfits. “Charlie won’t give me a firm date of when he’s leaving. He doesn’t want to talk about it. I think he just doesn’t like to talk about unpleasant things, period. Elsie, I’m starting to fall in love with him and we have no future.”
“You don’t know that for sure.” Elsie put back the flowered shirt Jane was holding and pulled out a red-checkered one. She fingered it, coming up with a stupid idea. Something she’d likely regret, but would hopefully irritate the heck out of Will Darcy. And squelch any romantic ideas he might have, however misguided.
“Jane, let’s go have fun tonight. No worrying about guys, or possible legal action, or meddling parents. Do you still have those jean overalls?”
Jane looked back, puzzled. “Yes, but, why would I wear those?”
Chapter 12♥At the Dentist
“Your dates are here,” Caroline practically sang. She seemed awfully chipper to be sending them off.
