Page 16 of Love You
Inside, the eleven o’clock news played on the television. Nana liked to watch it before going to bed. There were hushed voices and Darcy could smell the remnants of dinner permeating the air.
“Is that you, dear?”
She seriously thought about turning tail, jumping in her Volkswagen, and getting the Fahrvergnügen out of there. But her grandmother’s voice came again.
“Darcy?”
She headed for the staircase, hoping to make it to her bedroom sight unseen. Then she could call down that she was bushed and turning in for the night.
Too late.
Except for the lift and tuck around the lids, a pair of blue eyes so much like her own stared back at her.
“Hello, Mother.”
Geneva gave her a swift examination and went in for a hug. Darcy stiffly returned the embrace.
“You’ve put on a few pounds,” her mother said, and backed up to give her a more thorough appraisal.
“You’re here to visit?” Darcy asked hesitantly. Geneva rarely came to Glory Junction, even if Nana was her mother-in-law and getting on in years. Darcy’s father was no better but at least he called Nana once a week.
“Just for a day. I needed fresh air.” Geneva tried for a smile but it never quite met her eyes. More than likely she and Dad were fighting again and Geneva thought she could manipulate Nana into teaming up with her against Max. It wouldn’t happen but Darcy’s mother had delusions of grandeur. Always had.
“Well then, I’ll see you in the morning.” She climbed the stairs, knowing that her mother was watching and banking flaws to criticize later.
Don’t wear capris, darling, they’re for tall women.Let me get you in to my stylist, Laurent; you could benefit from a good cut and some decent highlights.She’d heard the jibes so often they no longer hurt. Not much, anyway. Not like when Darcy was a kid and Geneva used to buy her clothes a size or two too small in the hopes it would compel her to lose her baby fat. Or when she forced a painfully shy Darcy to perform piano recitals in a crowded auditorium. Or insisted that As were for ordinary students. Extraordinary students got A-pluses. Geneva’s obsession with perfection rivaled that of the worst tiger mother. Darcy had the claw marks to prove it.
Before going to bed, she checked her phone for messages. Ridiculous because the only person who ever contacted her was Lewis. As she suspected there was nothing so she brushed her teeth and applied a night mask to her face so her mother couldn’t find anything wrong with her complexion.
The next morning, she went downstairs to find Nana making coffee.
“Mother’s not awake yet?” If Darcy skipped breakfast she could hopefully avoid her all together.
“Not yet, dear. I’m making French toast.”
“I’ve got to run, Nana. Big day at the office.”
Her grandmother sported a placid smile. But her words were anything but. “Chickenshit.”
Darcy couldn’t help but laugh, then whispered, “What is she doing here?”
“According to her, she’s angry that you didn’t tell her about your engagement.” Nana arched a snowy brow. “So you and Win Garner, huh?” Hilde’s eyes danced with merriment. “I couldn’t be more pleased, though I’ve always wanted the man for myself.” She opened the pantry door to show off her Glory Junction calendar, perpetually pinned to the month of December. Darcy had begged her to take it down so many times she’d lost track.
“It was a joke, Nana. We saw Lewis at the rodeo and Win blurted it out.”
Her parents owned a mortgage brokerage in Reno and did a lot of business with Snyder Real Estate. That’s how she’d met Lewis in the first place.
“And you didn’t try to correct him?” Nana laughed. There was no love lost between Hilde and Lewis. Nana thought he pushed Darcy too hard to do his work for him.
Darcy shrugged. “To be truthful I sort of liked seeing the shock on Lewis’s face.” Not to mention being engaged to someone as good-looking as Win. In real life, though, he’d be the last person suitable for her. Too pretty, too laid-back, too . . . Let’s face it, the Darcy Wallaces of the world didn’t wind up with the Win Garners.
Hilde exchanged a conspiratorial glance with Darcy before saying, “What do we tell your mother?”
Darcy sighed and decided to stay for French toast after all. “The truth, of course.” One look at Win and her mother would instantly know their engagement was a farce anyway.
As it turned out Darcy got a stay of execution. By the time she’d finished eating breakfast, Geneva still hadn’t risen from her crypt yet.
“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with her later,” Darcy told Nana on her way out.
