Final Showdown Read online

  Darcy scowled at the man’s outstretched hand. Then he put his hand on Shoney’s chest and pushed him back down in his chair.

  “Do not call my girlfriend that. And what are you doing with my sister?”

  23.

  “Girlfriend?” Georgia’s hand’s pressed against her cheeks as she jumped into the conversation. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say that word!”

  Darcy could feel the redness creeping up his neck. Why did he say the “g” word? In front of his kid sister? “I did not mean to say that. I meant ‘Liz.’” Darcy flicked his eyes Liz’s direction. She was staring at the floor.

  Georgia poked him in the ribs, landing a sharp stab in his side. “That’s an awful strange slip there, brother.”

  Darcy rubbed his ribs, the pain turning into a dull ache. “Ouch.”

  Liz was still looking down at the floor. Maybe she wasn’t thinking the same thing he was thinking. This was their time to be together. He wasn’t her boss anymore. Now she couldn’t even meet his eyes?

  “You know what I mean,” Darcy said.

  “Yeah,” Georgia said. “You mean that you want Liz to be your girlfriend.” She winked at him, and he flared his nostrils, trying to tell her to stop without having to say the words.

  “This is not about us, Georgia.” Darcy tried to change the subject. Liz still hadn’t looked up from the floor. Was she changing her mind? “This is about you. What are you doing here?” he gestured toward the transformed mansion.

  “Surprise!” Georgia raised her hands in the air. “I wanted to use my design degree, and I wanted a blank slate, so I came here. Shoney is my contractor. He’s been helping me make it a home, something Mom would have liked.”

  Georgia grabbed Darcy and Liz’s hands and dragged them into the living room. She pointed toward a new marble fireplace, where a simple picture frame sat. He walked closer to see his mom and dad, posed with a somber looking boy and a little girl with almost snow-white hair.

  Darcy could barely stand to look at the picture. It felt like he was staring at the sun. Georgia thrust the frame into his hand, and he traced his mother’s face with his thumb.

  Georgia leaned into her brother; he put his elbow in front of his ribs instinctively. “I just wanted to connect with them, I guess.” She stopped talking for a second before she continued. “Every year they slip away a little more. I feel Mom when I’m here.”

  He knew exactly what his little sister meant. At first, when his parents died, sometimes his mind forgot that they were really gone. Early in the morning, when the office door would open, and he would think his dad was about to walk inside. Now his mind never jumped to that conclusion; he knew it was the cleaning lady.

  Darcy put his arm around his little sister and gazed around the mansion. It was light, bright, and a little severe, exactly like his mother. All the memories of his childhood rushed over him, and his throat tightened.

  Somehow, Georgia had turned it into a house where his mom would have wanted to live. “I feel them, too. Mom would have loved this place.”

  Georgia smiled. “I think so too.”

  Darcy looked into his sister’s eyes; all his fear for her disappeared. He felt so grateful that she’d put so much time into a gift he’d given her. She broke his gaze after a few seconds. “I even got Mom’s tea set from Aunt Susan,” Georgia told her brother, gesturing to the coffee table. “Remember?”

  Darcy walked to the table and touched the silver tea pot; the silver felt as smooth under his fingers as it did when he was a boy. “I made a mud pie in this, then buried it in the yard so Mom wouldn’t find it. She was so mad. She dug it up herself and grounded me for a week.” He laughed. “Then the next month, she was out in the yard, helping me fill it with mud.”

  Darcy walked around the main floor, occasionally touching an object here or there. As he circled back to the main living room, he reached out and hugged Georgia.

  Darcy wrapped his arms around his little sister and lifted her off of her feet. “It’s perfect.”

  “Well, I didn’t do much; I just finished the decorating, built out the exterior, remodeled the upstairs . . . okay, I did a lot,” Georgia said.

  Darcy turned to see Liz laughing in the corner. “You didn’t do a lot; you performed a miracle,” she said. Darcy loved how Liz encouraged his sister, even when her plans were crazy.

  “What’s the upstairs like?” Darcy asked, walking toward Liz and grabbing her hand.

  “Um . . . ” Georgia twisted her hands together. “You’ll definitely recognize it.” Her voice got more high-pitched at the end of the sentence. “Listen.” She looked at Darcy again. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I just got a little carried away.”

  He gestured around the house; there was no way it could be more elaborate than the space he was standing in. “More carried away than this?”

  “Possibly,” Georgia squeaked.

  Darcy narrowed his eyes at his sister, then pulled Liz up the stairs with him. He peeked through the first door, and he couldn’t believe what was in front of him. The walls were navy blue with bright white pinstripes.

  Darcy quickly shut the door before Liz could see his bedroom. How would she react to seeing his childhood obsession?

  “Georgia is officially insane.”

  “What?” Liz stood on her tiptoes to see through the crack in the door.

  Darcy realized he wasn’t going to be able to keep Liz out. He took a deep breath. “It looks like my childhood bedroom.” Darcy pushed the door open, and they walked into the baseball-themed room.

  Darcy’s eyes roamed the navy bedroom, landing on wooden bats hanging over a set of white bunkbeds and a white quilt with red stitching around the edges. He was transported back to his childhood.

  Darcy sat down and rubbed his hand against his comforter; the smooth, cotton fabric was even cool to the touch, just like he remembered. “I was kind of into baseball.”

  Liz smiled him. “You must have been really good.”

  He sat down on the lower bunk bed and patted the seat next to him. Liz sat down beside him; their thighs touched just slightly. She looked down at her hands, and he wondered again what she was thinking. “Actually,” he confessed, “never played a game.”

  “Oh,” she said, looking around.

  She must think I’m pathetic, he thought. The truth was he hadn’t even gotten to see live games very often because of his allergies.

  Darcy glanced at her. She stood up and walked toward his desk. Darcy crossed the room quickly and picked up a baseball sitting in a plastic case on the corner of his brown desk. “She even got it signed.”

  “By whom?” Liz asked.

  Darcy turned the baseball around in his hand, like he was trying to decide if it were real or a copy made by Georgia. “Tony Glenn.”

  “Never heard of him.”

  Darcy tossed the ball a few inches in the air. “No one has. He’s not famous. He was the pitcher for the high school team when I was in elementary school. My dad caught a fly ball and asked him to sign it. I carried it around in my bag for a whole year.” He set it back down on the desk and turned to face Liz.

  “Then, a year later, my dad told me Tony wasn’t going to be famous. He was just going to be a regular guy. Grow up to be a stock broker like his dad. And he said I was going to grow up to work at Pemberley Media.”

  Darcy walked back to Liz and bent down on one knee, gathering her hands in his. He was going to try again. His heart pounded. “This isn’t about James, Rose, or Pemberley,” he said. “This is about me. I don’t want to be answering to my dad’s friends anymore. I want to build something for myself. Something that helps people, that’s not just concerned about profits.” He stopped talking, wondering if he had the courage to say the sentence he didn’t want to say. He cleared his throat. “I want to date you.”

  Liz took her hands out of his and shook her head. His fingers tensed, missing hers. She shook her head. “Darcy, being in this house, su
rrounded by your family mementos, I can’t let you quit.”

  “I want to be with you.” He looked deeper into her eyes.

  “I wanted that too. Before I saw all this.” She waved her hand around the room. “I don’t want you giving up your family company for me. You’ll resent me eventually. You’ve been building Pemberley with James since your parents died. And Pemberley helps people. It helps its employees pay their mortgages and feed their families.”

  His muscles felt tense, so he stood up and walked toward the bedroom door. “I’m not building anything. I’m just maintaining it. I can’t take risks. I can’t do anything new for fear of ruining what my dad built.”

  Liz moved toward him until she stood inches away, she was so close it made his chest feel heavy. “But you expanded to Savannah and Denver. Those are huge risks,” Liz whispered.

  Darcy looked around the room. It didn’t feel nostalgic anymore. Instead, it felt like it had a stronghold around his throat. Like he was being smothered by his parents’ dreams.

  “We did it because the board members wanted us to. Now they want us to pull out of Denver. Who knows what they will want next?”

  He glanced toward the staircase. He needed to get out, but before he could leave, he spotted a double door. He knew that it was the master bedroom, and he also knew he couldn’t leave without peeking inside. He looked at Liz once more. “It’s time for me to let Pemberley go. It was my parents’ dream, not mine.”

  Darcy walked out of his room toward his parents’ bedroom. One quick look, he told himself, then he was getting out of this house.

  24.

  Liz wasn’t sure what Darcy saw when he walked through the master bedroom, but there definitely had to be something behind the doors because the man she walked upstairs with, the one almost who held her hand, disappeared as he walked out of the master bedroom. His mouth was tight, and he moved stiffly, like everything around him was frozen.

  He didn’t take Liz’s hand again. He didn’t even look at Liz as he passed her in the hallway, where she was leaning against the doorframe of his bedroom. His extreme silence made each step he took down the stairs loudly echo.

  Liz stood with Darcy for a few seconds at the bottom of the stairs, hoping he would grab her hand again. “You okay?” she asked.

  When he didn’t answer, she felt like they were a million miles apart.

  Darcy walked back into the kitchen and hugged his sister, who was standing where they found her at the table with Shoney. “I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll call you soon. Love you, Georgia.”

  Without looking at Liz or motioning for her to follow him, Darcy walked out of the front door. At that moment, Liz felt paralyzed. She didn’t know whether he wanted her to follow, but she knew she didn’t want to be stuck in Sugar Hill without a ride back to Savannah.

  “Bye, Georgia,” Liz told Darcy’s sister.

  “Bye, Liz.” Georgia gave her a quick hug and questioning glance. “Something happen?”

  “I don’t know.” Liz took a deep breath before she walked out of the house, and the blinding sunshine hit her face.

  Liz stood on the massive front porch, her eyes struggling with the bright light and columns blocking her sightline. She bit her lip. If Darcy left her in Sugar Hill, she was going to kill him.

  A few yards down the brick driveway, after her eyes adjusted to the sunshine, she spotted Darcy’s black car, waiting for her. She exhaled. She was glad she wasn’t going to have to go back into the house and beg Shoney to drive her home while reminiscing about his childhood taunts.

  “What is going on with you?” Liz slid into the backseat beside Darcy. “Why won’t you look at me?”

  Darcy didn’t answer her for a few seconds; he just stared out the window. So much time passed without an answer, Liz turned and looked out of her window, assuming Darcy was going to completely ignore her again.

  Liz turned when she heard Darcy take a deep breath. “I need to ask you something,” he said.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “When I was in the master bedroom, there was a picture frame sitting on the dresser. Inside it, there was a picture of my parents working together.”

  He grabbed her hands. “My dad always said to look for a partner, not a passenger.” He stopped talking and looked expectantly at her.

  What was he talking about? Liz rubbed her thumbs against the back of his hands. It felt so good to touch him, but she was so confused. “What do you mean, Darcy?”

  He shook his head. “I know I shouldn’t ask you to do this.”

  “You can ask me anything. I care for you, Darcy.”

  He pulled her so close, she pressed her nose into his chest, soaking up the heat of his body.

  “I’ve always followed in my father’s footsteps, and now, for the first time, I’m about to start something new. I want you to start it with me. Will you come work with me? Let’s leave Pemberley together.”

  Except that. Don’t ask that.

  She looked into his eyes, and her heart broke seeing the hopeful look on his face. But she already knew her answer. She’d worked too hard to drop everything to work for a startup. She’d killed herself to bring profits to Pemberley Media, Savannah in the first year, and she was excited for her expansion project to Nashville. She couldn’t leave it all just because Darcy wanted to start something for himself.

  “Before you answer,” Darcy said. “I want to be with you, all the time. Outside of work. During work. I want to build a life together.”

  It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. And she was so attracted to this kind, strong man sitting beside her. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t leave her company; it was like leaving her baby.

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t. You know how much I’ve put into Pemberley. I can’t leave now.”

  She paused for a second. He dropped her hands, and he turned away from her. “Then we can’t be partners.”

  Liz hated staring at the back of his head. If he weren’t going to look at her, she wasn’t going to look at him.

  She stared out the window until the Savannah skyline came into view. As they drove into the moss-covered city, Liz refused to let herself cry. She was strong; she was competent. She was a great person. She told herself she was making the right choice.

  The car stopped outside her apartment. Darcy faced her as she opened the door. “Please,” he said. “I can’t be with you if you just want to date. I don’t want a girlfriend. I want a partner.”

  Liz wanted nothing more than to be with Darcy, but not at the cost of her work—her life. “I can’t. And it’s not fair for you to ask me to.”

  “I know.” Darcy pulled her arm toward his body. Then he scooted her into his lap, and with one arm around her waist and one at her neck, he pulled her mouth toward his. He kissed her deeply, and she kissed him back until she felt like her heart was going to explode.

  Darcy pulled back an inch and he whispered, “Please, let’s build something together.”

  She felt her heart rip into pieces. She had sunk everything into Pemberley Media. Liz closed her eyes, and she could still feel how it felt to be jobless and living at home with her mother. She couldn’t go back to that ever.

  Liz eyes were still shut as she laid her head on Darcy’s warm chest. She let herself soak in his warmth for five more seconds, then she pulled away.

  “I can’t,” she said as she slid out of the car and put her feet on the sidewalk. She didn’t look at Darcy because she knew she wouldn’t be able to walk away. Liz shut the car door behind her and walked into her apartment.

  25.

  “Sam,” Liz said his name quietly, then a little louder. “Sam.” She shook his shoulder to wake him up.

  “What?” He rubbed his eyes. “Did I fall asleep again?” They were getting out of an Uber, heading into a Nashville coffee shop Sam recommended called “Buns and Beans.” The tagline was: “The only thing bigger than our coffee beans is our man buns.”

 
; Liz got out of the car, and Sam groggily followed. “I wish my broker would let me grow a man bun.” Sam turned to Liz. She noticed his eyes were dark like Darcy’s, but without all the cynicism. “I’m a hipster at heart.” He grinned. “Don’t tell anyone.”

  The only person she wanted to tell was Darcy, and she wasn’t speaking to him. She still couldn’t believe he asked her to quit her job, and part of her, a big part of her, wished she had.

  Liz thought about Darcy’s sister, the other person she knew who liked hipster restaurants. Sam, her little brother real estate agent, needed to meet Georgia. They could go to farmers markets and locally-owned restaurants.

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” Liz asked as she ordered coffee from a bald man and wondered what if the shop name was purely ironic.

  Sam shook his head. “Nope. Do you want to be mine?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

  Liz took a sip of her coffee. “No, but I think I know someone you should meet.”

  “Sweet! Set it up, mama.”

  She hit his arm. “Sam . . . don’t call me that.”

  “Okay, ma’am.” He led her though the crowded restaurant toward a table, and they sat down. He pulled out a stack of papers. “Sign these please, ma’am.”

  Liz rolled her eyes, and she signed the paperwork for their new office in Nashville. “I need to call my broker,” Sam said after she finished the lease paperwork. He got up and walked outside, giving Liz a chance to take a deep breath.

  Liz’s mind immediately wandered to Darcy. He would have hated this place. It had been three months since she’d walked away from him, and as hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Every time she talked to James, he gave her an update. Last month, James told her how Darcy started an international charity focused on clean water, and he hadn’t been back to Chicago in a month. Her heart broke for the thousandth time, realizing he was farther away than ever.