it was clear Jacqui wasn’t going to appear anytime soon, he drove off in a snit.
Eliza crept through the back entrance and found Jeremy planting hyacinths near the croquet hoops.
“Guess who?” she asked, covering his eyes with her hands.
“Sugar? Is that you? I’m awful tired out right now,” Jeremy joked. “Or is it Poppy, hoping for some action?”
“That’s so not funny,” she said, walking off, a little hurt. She didn’t think anything to do with the twins was in any way entertaining.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jeremy said, running to catch up with her. “I’m just goofing around.”
He nudged her in the midsection and Eliza smiled. She couldn’t really stay mad at him for long.
“C’mon,” she said, taking his hand and leading him to the au pairs’ cottage. They snuck inside the attic room, which was still mercifully empty. (Hell, wasn’t too often no one was there, after all.)
“Nice digs,” Jeremy said, checking out the small, eight-by-ten room.
“It’s not the Four Seasons, that’s for sure.” Eliza sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed. She looked at him expectantly. Now that she had ditched work to hang out with him, she wasn’t sure what they were going to do.
She tried her hardest to look endearingly innocent, sitting there in her pink sundress and canvas espadrilles, waiting for him to make the first move.
Jeremy took a seat next to her. “So.”
“So.”
They turned to each other, and the next thing Eliza knew, he was kissing her. Softly at first, on the lips, light little trembly things. She closed her eyes. He smelled like the dark, warm earth with a hint of sweat and the sun. One of his hands was tangled in her hair, the other caressed the small of her back.
She returned his kisses eagerly, exploring the taste of his mouth. He tasted like mint and Dr. Pepper. He thought she smelled like coconuts and vanilla.
He pulled her on his lap, and she buried her face in his chest.
“That’s nice,” she said.
“Mmm?”
“Last night, did I tell you I live in Buffalo now?” she asked.
“No, you just said you grew up on Park Avenue.”
“I did.” She sighed, resting her face in the crook of his neck and liking the way his stubble felt on her skin.
“My dad used to be a big deal on Wall Street. You might have heard of him. He was kind of famous. There was some scandal with the accounting stuff, and he lost his job and we had to leave our apartment. My parents had to sell everything—their art collection, the house here . . . and we moved to Buffalo.”
“Buffalo’s not so bad.”
“No, it’s worse.” Eliza moaned. “It’s awful. All the kids think I’m a total snob and no one talks to me. And the thing is, I don’t even do anything. I don’t have anything to be snobby about. My dad’s on unemployment, and my mom got a job at Kinko’s to make ends meet.”
Jeremy was silent and stroked her hair. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered, holding her close.
It felt good to talk about all this. Eliza had never really told anyone what happened to her—what her life was really like. She was so comfortable around him, knowing that he wouldn’t judge her, somehow knowing she could tell him anything, anything at all about herself, and he would still like her.
“I never realized I was so spoiled before. I used to charge my lunch at this fancy restaurant in the city every day—like, thirty-dollar hamburgers and stuff—and I never gave it a second thought. And I would go into Barneys and Bergdorfs and buy whatever I wanted. Sometimes I’d even harass the salespeople to find things at other stores if they didn’t have it in my size.”
She paused, remembering those heady, halcyon days, when she had her own Town Car at her beck and call and her AmEx didn’t have a preset limit.
“I know this sounds really shallow, but I really miss it. I miss it more than I ever thought I would. Before, I could walk into any room, and everyone thought I was so special just from looking at me. Sugar and Poppy used to be in my clique in high school. They were part of my group. My clothes were always the coolest, the newest, the most expensive. My hair was always the blondest. I had it highlighted every thirteen days. I was thinner than everybody. Even the building we lived in—it was the hardest one to get into in the