You want to clean up a mess, Will? Clean up your own.
He stared at the wall, letting the words rush through his bloodstream again. Maybe it could be that simple. Maybe, for the first time, he should try.
“She wants new information?” He turned to the phone again. “Then tell her I’m not selling the Montauk house.”
“But—”
“If she has a problem with that, she can call me tonight to discuss further.”
“Yes, Mr. Darcy,” Jenna said, her voice quiet.
He hung up, a new lightness on his shoulders. He hadn’t realized how much the guilt and remorse had weighed on him, the dread of having to say goodbye to that house. But Lizzy was right; he didn’t have to. He just had to say so.
The corner of his mouth ticked up in a grin. Here he was contemplating how he had saved her from her problems, and somehow, even in her absence, she had saved him from his own.
CHAPTER 34
“It’s supposed to be a spider,” Kitty said. She was standing beside Jane at the bakery counter, placing black-and-white candy circles on the cupcake’s black frosting.
Lydia was draped over a nearby table, glaring at them. “It looks like a mold spore.”
Jane sighed. “It’s not a mold spore.”
“Itshouldbe a mold spore,” Mary murmured from the floor where she sat with paper towels and a squeegee, cleaning the glass display. It was one of the janitorial duties she had taken on as penance for her arrest. “Fungi are the backbone of the natural world.”
Lizzy peered over the final pages ofThe Oracle of the Damnedas Jane considered the cupcake again, her bottom lip now between her teeth.
“Maybe we should make a sign,” Jane finally said.
Lizzy smiled. The conversation continued, sure to escalate to an argument that would inevitably fizzle out when something else grabbed their attention. It was a Bennet sister trait. But despite the bickering and laughing and rolling of eyes, Lizzy had to admit that it was nice not working a shift alone. In fact, as she watchedher sisters navigate around one another, she realized it was the first time in ages that all five of them were there together. A small bit of life falling back into place.
A sense of normalcy had returned to the village, too. In one of her first journalism courses in undergrad, Lizzy had learned that news stories take about seven days to cycle in and out of people’s minds until the next salacious story redirects everyone’s attention. Thanks to a local teenager stealing a lobster ship and crashing it into the marina, HamptonFestgate—as it had started to become known—was forgotten after five. Now, a week later, East Hampton’s news cycle had died down to a low rumble, and, like clockwork, Hank was back to discussing next year’s plans for HamptonFest like nothing had happened at all.
“Are you okay?” Jane appeared beside Lizzy.
“I’m fine.” Lizzy forced a smile. She wasn’t, but she couldn’t admit that. She had spent the past week working so hard to appear okay that she hadn’t bothered to make it true. So instead, she kept pretending. Pretending not to be disappointed about how she hadn’t heard from Columbia yet, or how embarrassed she was about the way she’d left Montauk and Will behind. So embarrassed, in fact, she hadn’t even tried to find a way to contact him, to reach out and apologize. This is what happened when she didn’t think things through and just reacted in the moment. Maybe shewasa mess.
“How about some coffee,” Jane said, already reaching for the sleeve of cups. “You look tired.”
Kitty had a pile of candy googly eyes in her hand as she leaned across the counter to assess Lizzy. “Really tired.”
Lizzy glared at both of them. “You two can go home now, you know. The morning rush is over.”
“Why don’t you go home?” Jane suggested.
“Because I never go home.”
Jane shrugged. “Well, it’s about time things started changing around here, then, don’t you think?”
Lizzy could read the meaning behind Jane’s words, mostly because Jane was also giving her a less-than-subtle look that drove it home. This was a family bakery; it was time they all started acting like it.
“Does that mean someone else is going to clean the bathroom?” Mary asked, standing up with a wad of paper towel in her hand.
Lizzy laughed. “No.”
Mary frowned. “Fascists.”
“Here,” Kitty said, reaching over to hand her a black cupcake. “Have a mold spore.”
