by Noelle Adams
“I will.”
“And... and thank him for the letter he sent me. I understand if he doesn’t want to talk to me now, but could you please tell him that I’m sorry I misunderstood.”
Mrs. Darcy’s face softened. “I’ll tell him.”
Her expression was too sympathetic. Like she knew Liz’s feelings for Vince and felt sorry for her.
Vince and his mother were good people, and so they were being generous in a difficult situation. But that didn’t mean Vince still loved her.
There was a moment when she might have had everything she’d ever wanted. When Vince might have been within reach. But she’d blown it.
She’d lost her chance with him.
VINCE WAS TRYING TO work while his mother went to talk to Liz, but he was too anxious and jittery to concentrate on anything. He paced around. Played on his phone. Visualized how the conversation might be going.
Hoped that Liz was all right.
It was harder than he’d expected not to talk to her himself, but the last thing he wanted to do was complicate matters with the messiness between him and Liz. And he definitely didn’t want her to think that their offer to her family was based on an expectation that she be in a relationship with him.
He just wanted to help her—whether he was ever allowed to be with her again or not.
When he heard the bell jangle on the front door of the store, he jumped out of his chair and left the office, relieved that the newcomer was indeed his mother.
She was carrying a garment bag, which was strange.
“What did she say?” Vince demanded.
“Let me at least get in and sit down before you interrogate me.” His mom was smiling. That had to be a good sign.
He bit back his questions and waited until his mother was settled in a chair in the office. Then he asked again, “What did she say?”
“She was very happy about the idea of Riot working off the debt. She was sure her parents would agree, so I think that’s settled. She wasn’t sure about the rest of the offer. She said she’d talk to her family about it and let us know. I don’t think she wants to, but she’ll do it if it’s the best choice for her family.”
“You told her they could keep the Berkley name?”
“Of course. But she loves the work.”
“Yeah, but she could still work for—”
“Vince, it’s not your decision. It’s theirs.”
“I know. Thanks for going along with it.”
His mother laughed. “You know I never handle the money stuff. As long as I keep my store, I couldn’t care less what you do with the business stuff.”
“So how did Liz look? Okay?”
She reached out and patted his arm. “She was upset, but she looked better. She was really relieved about not having to come up with the cash to pay us. She and her family are selling Riot’s car and a bunch of their antiques, and she said they might be able to come up with enough to cover the rest of Riot’s debt. So it sounds like they might not have to sell Pemberley House.”
“Oh shit, that would be great. Liz loves that place.”
“I know. And it would be terrible for her and Jane to have to lose what they love in order to protect their sister. Hopefully it will work out.”
Vince was feeling better but just as restless as before. Like it took effort to even sit still. “What’s in that bag?”
“This is a wedding dress that Liz sold to me.”
“What?” Vince lurched to his feet and unzipped the garment bag enough to see the dress. “Mom! You bought her dress? She loves this dress! She’s crazy about it! How could you let her sell—”
“Vince.” His mother’s voice was soft, but it stopped him nonetheless.
“What?”
“Give me a little credit.”
“For what?”
“For not being an idiot and for not snatching a dress out of from under a desperate young woman who loves it. If I didn’t buy the dress, she’d have sold it to someone else. And then we wouldn’t have it when we need it.”
Vince blinked. “When we...”
“Need it. To give back to her.”
Vince held on to the back of a chair so he wouldn’t sway on his feet. “Mom.”
“Don’t Mom me. I know what I’m doing. I told you all along that you need a wife. Now we have the dress ready for when the time comes.”
“But I don’t... But I’m not... She’s not... We’re not...”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong.” She spoke as if what he’d just babbled out had been a complete, coherent thought. “I don’t think things are as hopeless as you believe them to be. She was very disappointed that you didn’t want to talk to her yourself.”
“She was?” He could hear the raw note of desperation in his voice, but he couldn’t control it.
“Yes. She was. I think she was hoping to talk to you. And maybe talk about more than just Riot. So I’ve got the wedding dress for when you need it.”
“Mom, you didn’t hear what she said to me.”
“That was before. She thanked you for the letter. She said she’s sorry she misunderstood. Things are different now.”
His vision was blurring. His heart was racing. He wanted more than anything to believe what his mother was saying was the truth.
But he wasn’t sure he could believe it.
“Vince, listen to me. I’m your mom. I love you. I’m not going to convince you of something that’s not true. I know you were hurt. I know you tried for the first time to go deep, and you ended up with a broken heart. But that’s what happens when you feel things for real. Sometimes you get hurt. But the thing is, you don’t always get hurt. And you can never have everything unless you’re prepared to risk losing everything. So I’m telling you this now. Try one more time with Liz.”
Vince swallowed over an ache in his throat. His hand clenched around the top of the chair back. He couldn’t move.
“Vince, it’s worth it. I promise it is. Try one more time.”
He gave a jerky nod. Took a loud, hoarse breath.
Then he summoned what was left of his courage and returned to Pemberley House to find Liz.
LIZ AND JANE CALLED their father to talk about the Darcys’ offer, and the three of them decided they’d accept it if they had no other choice, but first they wanted to see how much money they could raise in the next few weeks to cover the debt.
Her father wasn’t ready to give up Berkley’s, and Liz and Jane didn’t want to either.
If they could make things work otherwise, then they’d keep it.
Once that was concluded, Liz felt more settled. She was still exhausted and sad and drained and wistful, but she was no longer on the verge of falling apart. So she took a book to her favorite spot in the far corner of the estate, and she lay on one of the lounges and pretended to read.
Mostly she closed her eyes and thought about Vince.
“Liz.” The familiar voice seemed to come out of her imagination since she’d just been picturing his face.
She froze and listened. It had sounded so real.
“Liz? Are you asleep?”
She popped up into a sitting position, her eyes flying open. “Vince?”
He was standing a few feet away from her, dressed in khakis and a French-blue Oxford. His expression was very sober. “Yes. It’s me.”
“What— I didn’t expect you.” She tried to smooth down her hair, but it was hopeless. Frizzy waves were everywhere. She probably looked terrible.
“I know. I went to your place, and Jane said you were out here.”
“I am.”
“I know. I found you.”
They stared at each other.
It was a minute before Liz could pull herself together. “Thank you,” she managed to say. “For everything. For Riot and for—”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“Yes, I do. Your mom said it was all your idea.”
“She shouldn’t have said that.” He step
ped over, hesitated a few seconds, and then lowered himself to sit on the side of the lounge beside her. “It was my mom too. She’s amazing. We wanted to work things out in a way that was fair but that didn’t make you and the rest of your family suffer for something that wasn’t your fault.”
“You did work it out. And I can’t thank you enough.”
“I don’t want you to thank me.” His gray eyes were deeper than she remembered. Filled with something she could barely recognize.
“Well, I’m going to do it anyway. You have no idea what a difference it makes for us. How much it takes the burden off us.”
Vince inclined his head. Then darted a quick look up at her through his dark lashes. “I’m glad it helped you. I did it for you.”
She gasped, hardly daring to believe she’d heard him correctly. She shifted her position and grew tense.
Vince cleared his throat. “I wasn’t sure I should... I don’t know if you want to hear anything from me again. About my... my feelings. But I’m going to say this one more time. And if you say no again this time, then I’ll never bother you with this again. But I love you, Liz. I love you. I know I messed it up before. I know I kept things to myself and didn’t let you know my feelings were changing. And then I blurted them out to you out of nowhere when you had no reason to expect it. But I think I can do better. I want to do better.”
She hugged her arms to her belly, trying to hold back the swell of intense feeling. “You... you do?”
“Yes, I do. I don’t want to give up on you, just because I messed up before. I want everything. I want you—as much as I can get, as deep as I can get. And I’ll give you everything that’s in me too. If you... if you want it.”
She gave a little sob and had to cover her face with her hands. But when she lowered them, she was smiling through tears. “I do! Vince, I do.”
He gave a little jerk. “You do?”
“Yes!” She flung herself toward him so he had to wrap his arms around her. She clung to his shirt. “I love you too. I didn’t know it. I kept trying to be just as cool and casual as you were about our relationship so you wouldn’t win or something stupid like that. But it was all a futile effort. I fell in love with you too. I want everything with you. I know it now for sure.”
He made a choked sound in his throat. The most helpless sound she’d ever heard from him. His arms tightened almost brutally around her for a few seconds until he loosened his hug but didn’t pull away.
She buried her face in his shirt. “I’m so sorry I thought the worst of you. I should have known you’d never take that chest away from me on purpose.”
“I wouldn’t. I promise I wouldn’t. But I’m so sorry you lost it because of us.”
“That’s okay. You didn’t know. I loved that chest. And I loved that wedding dress. But I love you more than them.”
He lifted his head to peer down at her. “You do?”
She giggled and cupped his face with one hand. “Yes. I do.”
“So you’ll be my girlfriend now? For real? I can let everyone know?”
“Yes. For real. And you better believe everyone will know, because as soon as I tell Em, it’ll be all over. The whole town will know within an hour.”
He chuckled. “That’s okay with me.” He hugged her again, and this time they ended up reclining together on the lounge. Liz had no complaints about the position. “I am sorry about Jane and Charlie,” Vince added.
“I know. I told Jane she needed to talk to Charlie. I really think they can work things out since it was just a misunderstanding.”
“I talked to Charlie earlier. I told him it was my mistake and he shouldn’t give up on Jane. I think he was planning to call her today.”
“Oh good. I’m so happy to hear that. They’re really good together.”
“Yes. They are. Almost as good together as we are.”
“Oh no. I think they’re better than we are.”
“What?” Vince was stroking her back and hair with an almost sappy smile on his face. “How could they be better together than we are?”
“Well, for one, they don’t get into ridiculous fights about nothing. And two, they don’t spend all their time trying to one-up each other. And three...”
“I don’t need to hear a three. I think what you’re saying is that they win as a couple.” His voice was warm and amused. Teasing.
Liz frowned. “No. I didn’t say they win.”
“So we win?”
“Yes, we win. Because we told each other ‘I love you’ first.”
He burst into laughter and pressed a few light kisses against her lips. “All right. It’s settled. We win.”
A MONTH LATER, VINCE was in a warm state of physical and emotional pleasure as he kissed Liz in the back seat of his SUV at seven thirty on a Friday morning.
He was trying not to get too aroused, given their location and situation, so he made sure to keep his hands on her face and hair, restraining the urge to let them slide lower. Liz apparently hadn’t set any such boundaries on the roaming of her little hands. One of them was making a slow route down his back and lower to his butt, squeezing him there over his trousers.
“Liz,” he managed to say over her lips.
“What?” She sounded faintly annoyed as she claimed his mouth again.
He pulled farther back. “I’m getting turned on. Are you really sure you want to pursue that particular course of action right now?” He was pleased to hear a familiar dry irony in his tone.
She giggled and pulled away, dropping her hands as she leaned back against the seat. “Fine. Always so horny. Won’t let me have any fun.”
“Horny?” His arched his eyebrows.
“Eager,” she amended.
He lifted his eyebrows even higher.
“Okay. Passionate. Happy now?”
“Very.”
He was, despite the lingering pulsing of arousal in his blood, he was amused and content and affectionate. Four months ago, he’d never have believed he was capable of feeling this way—as if all the unfulfilled emotion he’d kept in a tight safe ball had finally found a reason for existing.
It was Liz. Much of it was Liz.
But not all of it. Everything in his life felt bigger and realer and happier now that he could let himself feel, invest, live.
Go deep.
His mother had been right all along.
He gave Liz a lopsided grin that made her laugh again. She reached over to take his hand.
“We’ve still got a half hour before the door opens. Now that you’ve ruined our fun, what are we supposed to do to amuse ourselves?” She pulled her phone out of her purse and glanced down at it idly.
Evidently she’d gotten a text because she tapped out a quick reply.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“Jane. She and Charlie had an argument this morning.”
“Oh yeah? I can just imagine what it looked like. He probably frowned at her, and then she burst into tears, and then he spent about an hour apologizing.”
Liz snickered. “Pretty much. They have no idea what arguing really looks like. We’re way better at it than them.”
“No doubt about that.” Vince had never seen his friend as happy as he was with Jane, and he didn’t want anything to get in the way of that, so he added, “Did Jane and Charlie work things out?”
“Yes. It sounds like it was just a little thing. They made up before Charlie left for school.”
“Good.” He rearranged so he could stretch out his legs, his eyes making a casual path around the cars parked along the driveway of the big house. “Did I tell you my mom said Riot didn’t leave work until after ten last night?”
“No! She stayed that late?”
“Yes. She was almost finished with her inventory of those old dishes. You know that mountain that kept collecting that we could never get organized? She wanted to finish it before she left.”
Liz chuckled, her face reflecting a fond amusement that did Vince’s heart good to
see. “She really has devoted herself to her duties. Em has decided that what Riot needs is a mentor, and ever since she’s taken on the job, Riot does seem to be better focused. As crazy as it sounds to have Em as a mentor, maybe what Riot needed was a good influence that wasn’t one of her sisters. Part of me still thinks her penitence is just another role she’s putting on, that she’s enjoying the drama of it. But who the hell cares as long as it lasts until she’s worked off her debt.”
“Exactly. She’s done a good job. Mom is thrilled since she sees it as a personal victory. And I’m just glad I’m not the one supervising her.”
“I’m glad about that too. If she was around you too much, I have these visions of her deciding she’s secretly in love with you and she’d start acting out a doomed, tragic passion.” Liz’s lip curled up in a snarl. “I wouldn’t like that at all.”
He laughed as he brought her hand up to his mouth to kiss her knuckles one by one. “That doesn’t seem likely to happen. I don’t think she likes me very much. And besides, it wouldn’t matter since I’m already taken.”
“Yes, you are. And everyone better realize it.”
“I think they do. Girls don’t come on to me nearly as much as they used to.”
Liz frowned. “They still come on to you?”
“Occasionally, but not as much as they used to. I must now project a taken vibe that scares them off.”
“Well, start working on ramping up your taken vibe. They shouldn’t be coming on to you at all.” Liz’s face was set in what Vince knew was her competitive expression. “Next time one does, you tell me about it. I’ll make sure she keeps her hands off.”
“No one’s hands are on me but yours.” The surge of pleased possessiveness was familiar to Vince now. He liked it. A lot. The certain knowledge that Liz was his and he was hers. He wasn’t sure how he’d lived so long without it. “No need to compete with all these random women who don’t happen to know that I’m not available.”
“All these women? You said it only happened occasionally! Exactly how often are you getting hit on?”
He burst into laughter and pulled her into a hug. In just a few seconds, her body relaxed. They sat together in perfect satisfaction for a few minutes until Liz straightened up and pulled out her phone.