Page 21 of It's You
He strolled back to their table, and Darcy, whose hand was still firmly clasped in his, had no choice but to follow. She noticed that the longer they held hands, the more she became accustomed to the white hotness of his skin on hers.
“Why does he hate you?”
“Phillip and I dated for a while, before we had a…a falling out.” She couldn’t keep the uneasiness from tracking across her face.
“What else?”
“He relocated to Canada somewhere. Never came home again.”
“Proctor blames you?”
Darcy nodded.
“I was the last one to see him,” she answered, sitting back down at their table.
Darcy had expected to see Willow here. She wished she and Willow could go home, change into sweats, make a fire, and curl up on their living room window seat with hot tea. Darcy needed to talk to someone, and as electric as she felt around Jack Beauloup, she was also feeling exhausted by the emotional roller coaster of their reunion.
“I get the feeling you don’t want to talk about him.”
“Not all of my memories of him are good,” she answered simply, looking away. She was relieved to see Amory approaching them.
“Mom’s been looking all over for you, Darce!” Amory pressed his lips to her cheek as Jack discreetly dropped her hand. “Honoria wants to do pictures before cake.”
Thank God for small favors.
“I’ll go find her. You seen Willow?”
“The elusive Doctor Broussard,” Amory said, his eyes clouding over. “She went home.”
“Already?”
“Yeah, already. Reception’s been going on for three hours, Darce. We had a pretty awkward lunch by ourselves, so thanks for that.”
“What are you talking about?” Darcy laughed. She thought he was kidding until she looked at her watch and felt her brows knit together as she realized it was ten to three. But the wedding had only ended about an hour ago! She dug her phone out of the purse she had left at the table. 2:51 p.m. Impossible. She hadn’t been in the woods for more than an hour. Tops.
Her stomach turned uneasily as she realized that the napkins and place settings that had been set on every table when she sat down for champagne after the ceremony were now gone. She looked down at the tablecloth and saw crumbs and a brown smudge. Evidence of lunch having been eaten.
“Time flies when you’re having fun, eh, sis?”
Darcy turned to look at her brother, and he winked at her. “Don’t forget about the pictures. Jack, I’ll be over tomorrow to work on the garage, if that’s okay. I’m outta here.”
“I don’t understand,” Darcy whispered, more to herself than Jack, who sat beside her in silence. “Itcan’tbe three o’clock. It’s only…”
Darcy’s heart was racing, pounding so loudly she heard the thumping in her ears. She swallowed, wishing she could calm down, turning her eyes to Jack, who looked at her, waiting, worried.
“Jack. What the hell is going on?”
Calm down. It’s going to be okay.
“Get out of my head,” she hissed, trying to take a deep breath but starting to feel dizzy.
Nothing was making sense. Jack’s sudden reappearance, hearing his thoughts, his glowing eyes, losing time. It was too much to try to understand. She felt like she was going crazy, and Jack was the common thread that ran through everything.
He reached out to take her hand again, and she flinched away from him, sitting ramrod straight in her chair, staring at him.
“Darcy,” he started, slowly, softly.
“No. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
