by Kelsie Fann
Liz and Darcy
Book 2: Startup Costs
Copyright 2019 by Kelsie Fann. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
1.
“You like Liz.” Darcy could feel his little sister looking at him as they left Dee’s reception, but he pretended not to hear Georgia’s comment. He put his arm around her shoulders as they crossed the green lawn of the southern mansion Darcy had just purchased.
Darcy looked over his shoulder at his new real estate purchase, the Pemberley House, and he traced the tall white columns with his eyes. He still couldn’t believe he owned a property in Sugar Hill, Georgia. Six months ago, he didn’t know the town existed.
Darcy felt a sharp pain in his side that only Georgia’s bony elbow could produce.
Darcy rubbed his ribs and looked down at the green grass. “What was that for?”
“You like her. You like Liz,” his little sister repeated her accusation.
He shook his head and pulled at the sleeve of black suit jacket. “Do not.”
Georgia laughed. “Do not?” she teased. “Reverting to your toddler communication skills?”
Darcy looked at his little sister; a big smile was plastered on her face. He liked seeing her like this. It had been a long time since her voice sounded so light, so effortless.
He put his arm around her slim shoulders. To him, she still looked like she was five, even though she was twenty-two. He opened the passenger door of his black Mercedes for her, and she slid into the seat. He bent down and asked, “Why do you think I like her?”
Georgia looked up at him from the seat. “You smiled at her.”
Darcy rolled his eyes. “I smile at people all the time.”
“Do not,” Georgia mocked him. Darcy shut her door, and he walked around the to the driver’s side.
He slid in the leather seat, put his hands on the steering wheel, and put the car in reverse. Georgia turned to look at him. “Thanks for the house,” she said. “Mom would have loved this place.”
Darcy nodded. “She would have.” He thought about his parents, who had celebrated their thirty-fourth anniversary just before they died in a car crash together, four years before. “She would have dragged Dad away for the weekend to look at it. He would have complained about what a piece of junk it was, but by Sunday, they would have owned it.”
Georgia looked at her brother. “It’s still too much for a twenty-second birthday present. Which makes me wonder . . . “ She looked at him in the eyes, peering like only a little sister on the hunt for information could do. “Did you buy it so you could see Liz again?”
Darcy pulled out of the long driveway, past the gates, and shook his head. “I did not.”
He had just offered Liz a job as director of the Savannah branch of his company, Pemberley Media, and he would be her direct supervisor, which meant he couldn’t like her. Ever.
He felt his hands tense around the steering wheel. “Business and romance don’t mix,” he could hear his father say. And Darcy wasn’t about to change a policy that had been working for almost forty years.
I do not have feelings for her.
It was time to go back to Chicago, where he wouldn’t have to defend himself to his sister. The sooner he was away from the reception, the Southern hospitality, the heat, the bugs, and Liz, the better.
2.
Liz’s first day as director of Pemberley Media, Savannah was uneventful—until she went to the bathroom after lunch.
Before work, she spent an hour thinking of the perfect outfit, wanting desperately to wear something that would say, “I’m ready to work” to her new Chicago boss, Darcy. She went back and forth from dress, to pants, to skirt, and she’d finally settled on a sleek, black suit, a more feminine version of Darcy’s work uniform.
When she walked up to the brick building, the one she’d worked in since she was twenty, she was nervous. She counted a row of bricks to steady herself, like she’d done on her first day as a receptionist. One, two, three bricks.
She took a deep breath, ready to face her tall, powerful boss. Four, five, six bricks. She pushed on the door to open it. It was stuck. She pushed again, and the metal lock rattled, but the door didn’t budge.
That’s strange. Did Darcy forget to unlock the door? She pulled out her key, hoping Darcy hadn’t changed the locks. Her metal key glided into the lock and opened the door with one click. She took another deep breath Seven, eight, nine bricks. Then she walked in, expecting to see a man in a black suit.
It was empty. The glass walls were there; the bathrooms were there, but other than that, it was a wasteland. Not a person, not a desk, not even a piece of crumpled paper.
Liz wanted to call Darcy and ask him what he wanted her to do in the empty space. Maybe his flight was delayed? She decided to wait a few minutes. She paced around the empty building and a few minutes became an hour. Then she sat on the floor, the space where her desk used to be when the building was owned by Mr. Chambers. Another hour ticked by. She went to lunch, thinking for sure Darcy would arrive after lunch.
Liz grabbed a sandwich from a restaurant down the street. When she got back, she picked up her phone to call her boss again, but as she tapped his contact info, she hesitated. What if he asked her what she’d been doing all day? It would sound pretty sad if she told him she’d spent hours sitting in an empty building.
Liz decided to go to the bathroom and go home. She would figure out what was going on tomorrow. As she washed her hands, she heard a voice outside. She recognized the speaker’s deep voice almost immediately. Darcy. She took a deep breath and straightened her jacket, getting ready to walk out of the bathroom and see Darcy for the first time since he hired her.
Before she could leave the bathroom, the door opened, and a tall, thin woman entered. Liz knew who the lady was immediately.
“Hi, Caroline, right?” Liz smiled at the perfectly put together woman. Caroline was wearing gray skinny pants, a silk camisole, and a hunter green jacket. She looked cool, trendy, and classic—all at the same time.
Liz glanced at her own reflection, in her not-so-trendy black suit, and she noticed her round cheeks and short stature. Liz wasn’t fat anymore. People described her as curvy, which she didn’t mind. But people couldn’t call Caroline anything but rail thin.
“Yes,” Caroline said in return. No “hello.” No greeting at all.
Liz wasn’t ready to give up on making a good impression. “I’m Liz.” She smiled at Caroline, trying once again. It was her first day, and she didn’t want to write anyone off . . . yet.
Caroline didn’t respond. She didn’t even smile. Instead, she put her purse on the black granite countertop and pulled a tube of lipstick out of her large, expensive bag. Caroline touched up the corners of her mouth as Liz dried her hands and checked the woman off her “people to befriend” list.
Before Liz could reach the exit, Caroline spoke, “I don’t know how you live here. We’ve been off the plane for an hour, and I feel like I’m going to be eaten by bugs and beaten to death by ‘y’alls.’”
Liz nodded, but she wasn’t going to take Caroline’s bait. “Good seeing you again,” Liz said, pushing open the door.
“I like your suit,” Caroline said.
Liz tuned around. Did Caroline just give her a compliment? She didn’t think Caroline was the kind of woman to ever compliment someone else.
“Thanks,” Liz said, her hand resting on the bathroom doorknob.
&n
bsp; “You’re one of those girls who needs a lot of black in her wardrobe.”
Nope, not a compliment. Liz pushed the door open, but she wasn’t fast enough. Before the door shut behind her, Caroline dug her knife in further.
“You know, for the slimming effects,” Caroline said. Liz ignored her again. She wasn’t upset, but she was stunned. How dare this woman come to her city, her new office, and insult her? Liz took ten steps down the hall. She ran into Darcy’s tall body.
She couldn’t help stare at his chiseled face, complete with piercing chocolate eyes and perfect short beard. “Hi, Liz,” Darcy said.
Liz shook off her hit-and-run conversation with Caroline. She wasn’t going to let that woman get to her. She smiled at her new boss as he asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I thought I was supposed to start today,” she said.
His eyebrows snapped together in the usual serious shape. “Oh, Caroline was supposed to get with you about your start date. We moved it to tomorrow.”
“Well, she didn’t,” Liz said.
Darcy looked around the empty offices. “Sorry. I guess you’ve had a pretty slow day around here.”
“It’s fine,” Liz said. “Is there anything I can help with? Picking out furniture? Ordering computers?”
Darcy gave her a strange look. The lines on his forehead crumpled together even further. “I guess Caroline didn’t call you about that either. It’s all arriving tomorrow.”
Liz heard high heels click on the ground behind her. “I tried to call her, but it went straight to voicemail.” Liz turned to see Caroline exit the bathroom. “Did you have trouble paying your phone bill this month? I know you’ve been unemployed.” Caroline gave Liz a fake look of sympathy and placed her hand on Liz’s shoulder.
That was it. Liz wanted to rip off every creamy finger on Caroline’s hand. In less than five minutes, this woman had called her fat and poor.
“Actually, I’ve been employed at the Tire and Lube in Sugar Hill, Georgia.” Liz cringed. She couldn’t believe she’d just admitted that.
Caroline threaded her arm through Darcy’s and gave her another fake sad look. “Since you have experience with manual labor, we may need some help moving in some of the heavy items,” Caroline told her. “You look strong.”
“Ha!” Liz couldn’t contain the quick burst of laughter that escaped her mouth. Who was this woman, a villain from a superhero movie?
Darcy pretended not to hear Liz’s outburst, and Caroline gave Liz an insincere smirk.
Liz pasted an equally insincere smile on her lips. She was a secure thirty-two-year-old woman, and she wasn’t going to let another woman who looked like she hadn’t eaten in a month make her look like an angry fool in front of her new boss.
Darcy walked away from the women and toward the windows in the front of the office. Caroline pouted as Darcy’s arm slid away from hers, and his silence disappointed Liz. She didn’t expect him to defend her to Caroline, but she expected some kind of small reprimand.
“That won’t be necessary. We hired movers, Caroline. They will be here in the morning.” He leaned against the window. There was no emotion in his voice. It was cold. Icy Darcy was back.
“I think we’re late for dinner.” Caroline walked toward the door.
Darcy joined her and opened the door for Caroline to prance through. He looked at Liz. “I’ll see you in the morning. We can discuss your first projects while the movers bring in the furniture.”
Liz looked at the clock on her phone. She made herself wait for ten minutes before she dared to leave. She had only barely survived the first attack from Caroline, and she needed at least eight hours of sleep—preferably a lifetime break—before she had to encounter that woman again.
Liz walked back to her apartment, and she was no longer ecstatic about her new job or her new boss. She was stunned at Darcy’s lack of response. Where was the guy she danced with at Dee’s wedding, the guy who complimented her and hired her?
He’s gone. Long gone, she thought. She forced herself to replay his cold, flippant tone until she stopped thinking about him altogether.
Liz set her keys onto her new table in her new apartment. It was a new build, not her old historic townhouse. It didn’t have much character; everything was solid, sleek, and modern, from the chrome fixtures to the concrete countertops. But she was back in Savannah, and that was what mattered.
Liz unbuttoned her jacket and lay down on her couch, forcing herself to stay positive. Darcy and Caroline would go back to Chicago soon, and she would have her old team working for her again. Then, everything would be back to normal, a new normal.
Until then, she would self-medicate with an obscene amount of reality television. C’mon Housewives!
3.
Darcy walked out of the new Pemberley Media Building, and he took Caroline’s arm out from under his. He wanted to fire Caroline on the spot for talking to Liz like that. But he couldn’t show favoritism to Liz. Caroline was James’s sister, and she talked down to everyone.
Darcy held his tongue tightly on the roof of his mouth, and he walked down the sidewalk as quickly as possible. He might not be able to reprimand Caroline, but he could make sure she was occupied elsewhere during the rest of the trip.
Caroline’s stiletto shoes popped against the sidewalk as she walked next to him, her lips set in a smug smirk beneath her thousand-dollar sunglasses. “Slow down, Darcy,” she whined.
Darcy barely heard Caroline. He was frazzled. Frazzled? Wasn’t that an emotion for kindergarten teachers? He tugged on the end of his jacket sleeve. He hadn’t expected to see Liz today. He hadn’t braced himself to see her curls, to see the way her suit hugged her body, and to see . . . he stopped himself. He was Liz’s boss.
Darcy stopped outside the door of the hotel. “Can I get you anything, sir?” the attendant asked.
“No, thank you,” Darcy said.
“I’m going to slip into something a little sexier for dinner,” Caroline whispered into his ear.
Darcy didn’t want to spend one more minute with her. “I’m not hungry. I’m going back to my room.”
“I’ve already made dinner reservations.” She linked her arm through his for the third time. His skin burned underneath his jacket. If Caroline wasn’t his best friend’s sister, he would make sure he never had to see her again.
Darcy took a deep breath, and the sun beat down on his forehead. He wasn’t used to all this . . . sun. He missed the mild summers of Chicago. He turned to look at her. “I’m going to my room.”
She pulled her sunglasses off of her face and huffed. “What am I supposed to do all night alone?”
His fists balled up tight, and he turned to walk into the hotel. “I don’t care.” He didn’t know if he was walking the right direction to his room, but he knew he had to get away from Caroline.
Darcy wound through the old hotel and up a few back staircases until he made it to his room. He locked the door behind him and pulled out his laptop to start working on emails.
The first new email was from the board chairman, Phil Saunders. Darcy opened the email, even though he already knew what Phil wanted. Saunders was worried about Darcy expanding to Denver and Savannah at the same time and that they would spread the company too thin.
“Profits . . . growth . . . father’s legacy . . . ” Darcy scanned the email.
Darcy was nervous about expanding to two cities across the country from each other. But he feared Liz would get snapped up by another company soon, so he’d made her the offer at Dee’s wedding. Simultaneously, he had already bought a building for the Denver branch, so there was no going back on that either.
One expansion would have been hard, but two simultaneous expansions was crazy. Darcy just hoped he could keep the projects lean enough so his board members didn’t start to grumble.
Darcy put the pen to his paper and started estimating expenses for both locations. He needed to find out what Liz thought she would make as a profit, and th
en maybe he would be able to ease everyone’s minds.
4.
Liz didn’t want to see Caroline the next day. And, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to see Darcy either. Who would she get? Would he be cold previous-day Darcy or warm wedding-reception Darcy, the Darcy whose strong arms glided her across the dance floor?
She sat, waiting to find out, in a pair of red folding camping chairs she’d brought from her apartment. When Darcy opened the door, Liz crossed her fingers, praying his bony, strawberry-blonde companion wasn’t following him.
A few minutes later, Darcy cracked open the office door. Luckily, Caroline didn’t follow him into the office, but the movers did.
As the men moved in shiny metal desks, Darcy eyed Liz’s red folding chair skeptically. He looked around for other seating options and quickly realized he didn’t have any. His nostrils flared just a little as he dusted off the fabric arms of the chair.
Liz laughed, watching him sit down in the dusty chair while wearing a thousand-dollar suit.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
She stopped laughing, worried about what kind of mood he was in. “Nothing,” she said.
He looked at her so intensely, a shiver shot up her spine. “What is so funny?” he asked.
She looked down at her hands. “Just you sitting there. You seem more like a big leather chair kind of guy.”
Liz held her breath and looked up slowly, waiting for his reaction. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who liked being laughed at. But after a few seconds, a grin crossed his face. “I might surprise you,” he said.
Liz was thankful a sense of humor had replaced his stoic attitude from yesterday. “You like camping?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I might. Can I wear a suit camping?”
“Maybe a seersucker suit. Camping gets pretty hot.”
His dark eyes blazed at her. “Never.”
She looked down at the arm of her canvas chair as a shiver slid down her spine.