Page 55 of Rosie and the Beast Next Door

“Me and Dylan making out?”

“Of practice,” he said loudly, to talk over me saying, “Well, his lips were wetter than I expected, but he knows how to work his teeth, that’s for sure.” Two could play at this game.

“Stop. I give. I have regrets.” Bennett covered my mouth, but I kept pontificating on teeth and tongues and saliva to my brother’s laughing groans.

I turned back to look at my boat as we hopped in our cars, and I thought I saw Dad watching us from the deck. But it was only the back of his head before he turned around and went inside.

Chapter 21

Rosie

“Wickham is the villain.”Dylan popped some popcorn in his mouth and leveled me with a stare. It was just past midnight when Elizabeth and Darcy kissed in the 2005 version ofPride and Prejudice.I had decided not to subject him to the six-hour version. That was a torture (and privilege) reserved for my brothers.

Not men who I was trying tothinkof as a brother. It was different.

“As was Gaston,” he mused. “Should I be offended?”

“They were both so handsome,” I said. “You should be flattered.”

We were sprawled out on my new bed in the mural room, watching a movie on the TV Dylan had helped me set up on the floor. I’d worked tonight, so we hadn’t been able to start watching until after my shift.

“If I’m understanding this correctly,” he said, “I’m serving the role of being the handsome new man in town that turns your eye and makes Mr. Darcy take even more notice of you, but I’llultimately end up causing scandal. And maybe marrying your sister.”

“Good thing I don’t have a sister.”

“Yeah,that’sthe part I was worried about.”

I kept eating the salty popcorn and scrolling my phone so I could remember what other movies the actors had been in. I looked up and found Dylan watching me. “What?”

“I’d rather be Darcy.”

I snorted a laugh. “You, my friend, are no Mr. Darcy.”

“I disagree.” He ticked off his fingers. “First, I’m new in town.”

“No, you’re not. You’re literally a lifer.”

“Second,” he said, as though I hadn’t spoken, “I am wealthy.”

“Are you ten thousand pounds a year wealthy?”

A quick internet search on how much money that would equal today, and it turned out that he was indeed Mr. Darcy wealthy.

“Three,” he continued smugly, “I have a younger sister. Four, I’ve been misjudged by a lot of people. And five, I have a Mrs. Bennet in my life.”

I was laughing as he continued to tick these off. “Who’s the Mrs. Bennet?”

“You.”

I gasped. “No.”

“She was always scheming to get her daughters married off just like you with your brothers, andyou’refull of schemes.”

“I’m Elizabeth Bennet.”

He threw more popcorn into his mouth with a smug sparkle in his eye. “You, my dear, are no Lizzy Bennet.”

“Excuse me.” I held up a finger just like he did. “I have a spirited and intelligent personality. I like to go for long walks. I enjoy an intellectual conversation. I don’t mind a little mud on my skirt.”

---