Page 73 of A Searing Acquaintance
Now she felt ridiculous. Clearly, she was the last person he wanted to see.
“Um, hello.” He shook his head slightly and cleared his throat. “Um, this is unexpected.” He smiled at her, and the color returned to his face. His eyes seemed to focus on her feet.
“Yes, it is.” She was mortified and elated, a swirl of emotions leaving her tongue-tied and wondering whether her feet looked odd. “How are you?”
He glanced up at her face, his own now blank, but his cheeks a bit red. And still unshaven.
“I’m fine,” he said. “And you?”
“Great.”Because of you.She couldn’t say the words.
Darcy let out a long breath when he heard her answer. “Which way are you headed?” he finally asked. When she told him Strawberry Fields, they began walking together slowly.
“So,” Elizabeth said a tad too brightly. “I saw you talking to that little boy. About trucks?”
He smiled at her. “Yes. He’s quite an expert on the big rigs and well-versed in everything Tonka.”
“So he’s an old friend?” She hoped she didn’t sound desperately nosy.
“We met about ten minutes ago when his cement mixer crashed into my foot.”
“Oh.” Greatly relieved, she pressed on. “You really like kids, don’t you?”
He looked at her, bemused. “Sure. They’re brilliantly fun and honest and quite smart. They’re not impressed by…”
“By big important people in tailored suits?” Elizabeth hoped that came out as nicely as she meant it.
He bit his lip and smiled. “Truck drivers and firefighters and ballerinas are much more impressive than I am. They have important jobs and wear uniforms, not suits.”
“Your suit isn’t a uniform?”God, I’m rambling now. Elizabeth felt dizzy with fearful expectation. She needed to know why he was looking so disheveled in the park. She needed to thank him.
Darcy shook his head. “I suppose wearing a suit defines me in some ways, but you can’t?—”
“—judge a book by its cover,” she finished for him. He looked at her, eyes wide, a small smile on his lips. Elizabeth swallowed and looked away. She had been awful to him for months, stupidly judging him and misjudging Wickham. And now he’d met her mother who,like Wickham, disproved the maxim.Theyboth were as awful as they appeared.
“Actually,” she managed to stutter, “I think there are at least a few people who can be judged so easily.” She looked over to ensure he didn’t assume she meant him. “On the other hand,” she quickly added, “‘perhaps the time to make your mind up about people is…never.’”
“Are you quotingThe Philadelphia Story,Miss Bennet?”
Elizabeth gazed at him, her eyes revealing her happy surprise at his knowing that line. “There was far more to C.K. Dexter Haven than Tracy Lord was willing to admit. Unsuspected depths and all that,” she added in a solemn voice.
“She broke one of his golf clubs!”
“He pushed her!” Elizabeth retorted. “Besides,” she said, her hand on her heart and her eyes bright and sparkling, “Cary Grant can do no wrong.”
Darcy grappled for a response.This. This is what I want. Her, teasing me.He’d yearned for it. Even if some of the teasing at Netherfield hadn’t been the flirting he’d mistaken it for, it had lightened him. Just thinking about it made him happy, as everything about her seemed to do.
He swallowed. His head was too full of thoughts he was too exhausted to know how to express. He wasn’t sure any of this was really happening. Not only had he run into Elizabeth in the middle of Central Park, they were joking about screwball comedies? Darcy glanced over at her; she looked a bit discomfited by his silence.
“Well,” he began slowly, “neither of them aced charm school, did they? We all forget those little lessons about judging people. But children, like Jeremy back there, they know what’s important.”
“You’ll be a good father someday.” Her words came softly as if she hadn’t meant to voice them aloud.
Darcy’s eyes widened. He looked down at the ground and then off in the distance. “I hope so.” He cleared his throat then shrugged his shoulders self-consciously and apologized for his appearance.
“Um, you recall my cousin Annabella De Bourgh, the artist? Her newest installation opened last night. And closed a few hours later.”
Elizabeth’s jaw dropped. “What? Was it supposed to be a one-night, um, event?” she asked, her face turning a bright shade of red.
