“Well, you never can tell, can you?” Birdie replied, tapping a finger to her nose.
Lizzy forced a laugh, even as she gave a pointed look to Will.
He just stared back.
“Lizzy,” George said, breaking the sudden tension. “What are you up to tonight?”
Plotting murder, she wanted to say. But instead she turned to the man standing opposite her and smiled. “Nothing much.”
“Then you should come to dinner with us. The club is nearby, right, Will?”
A muscle in Will’s jaw ticked as he stared at his friend. It was like he had been asked to swallow glass.
“Yes, Hunsford Country Club. Have you been there before?” Birdie interjected, though she didn’t wait for Lizzy to answer before continuing. “They just redid the dining room last season. Of course, we have a reservation and I’m not sure they can accommodate a plus-one. Especially a nonmember.”
It was the same tone she had used at the top of the stairs. The one used countless times by cidiots who visited the bakery every summer. An admonition disguised as a pleasantry.
“I’m not a member, and neither is Will. I’m sure it’s fine,” George said, turning his warm smile to Lizzy. “What do you say?”
She ran through all the reasons why the answer was a big fat no.
She only had four more chapters left in her book.
She hated that exclusive club with a passion.
Dinner with Will Darcy would be a nightmare.
But then she caught the look on Will’s face. He was staring at her from under the hard line of his brow, a look that seemed to be trying to communicate exactly the same thoughts.
And suddenly, the idea that Will didn’t want her there was exactly the reason for her to go. If she got answers about what had happened with Charlie, even better.
“Sure,” she said with a shrug. “What time?”
Birdie’s smile deflated slightly, while George’s broadened. “The reservation was for eight o’clock. Right, Will?”
“Right,” he murmured.
“Great,” Lizzy replied. “I’ll see you there.”
Then she turned and headed straight out the front door.
CHAPTER 18
Tonight would be an exercise in self-restraint. Or masochism. Will hadn’t decided which.
The Hunsford Country Club was a hulking structure that echoed the formality of an English estate except for its shingled exterior. It sat within view of the ocean, flanked by a manicured golf course on one side and sand dunes on the other. Normally, when Will was wrangled into joining his aunt for dinner here, he took solace in the fact that the dining room faced the Atlantic. He could claim a seat that faced the large windows and stare out at the waves while Birdie dominated the conversation for the next two hours.
But that wouldn’t work tonight. Because the only person who could possibly distract him from that view had just pulled into the parking lot.
“Is that her?” his aunt asked, somehow infusing her voice with both disappointment and surprise from where she stood on the club’s threshold, glaring at Lizzy’s rusted Chevy pickup.
Will nodded.
“Let’s get seated,” George said, already guiding Birdie inside. “I’m sure Will can show Lizzy to the table. Right, Will?”
Will glared at him as George smiled and disappeared through the front doors.
Lizzy Bennet’s old truck rattled to a stop at the valet podium, its engine dying with a groan. The door creaked open and she stepped out, handing her keys to the valet with a smile. It dropped from her lips as soon as she saw Will waiting for her at the door.
