Pride and Papercuts (The Austens #5) - Staci Hart Page 0,11
and Lila. I kissed Mom’s cheek, and she cupped my jaw, inspecting me proudly when I backed up.
“Oh, Elaine. Sometimes I forget how beautiful you are. Memories pale next to the real thing.”
I smiled down at her. “Are you hinting that I should come home more often?”
She shrugged, but mischief was in her smiling eyes. “Well, it wouldn’t hurt. How’s work?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Jett cut me off.
“Laney met a guy.”
Our faces swiveled in his direction. I should have kicked him in the shin the second I saw his smug smile.
“Really?” Mom nearly gasped. “Come sit down, Julius, and tell me about him.”
“Well,” he started as he sat, “he’s got more money than the Rockefellers—”
“Jett met a girl too,” I interrupted, taking the seat on the other side of her.
She turned back to me with her face as bright as Christmas morning. “Both of you? I must be dreaming.”
“Luke didn’t tell you?” I asked, glancing at him. He shrugged. “Should have taken that bet with Jett after all. She’s so pretty, Mom,” I baited, all moony. “Your grandbabies are going to be straight out of a Gerber commercial.”
Jett scowled. “He’s an ad executive. Liam Darcy. Have you heard of him?”
Mom’s jaw unhinged, and she swiveled once again back to my stupid brother. “Liam Darcy? He’s worth eighteen million a year in interest alone.”
I steamed like a teakettle.
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that, Mother,” Jett said. “But yes, that Liam Darcy.”
“However in the world—”
I interrupted again. “Jett met his sister, Georgiana. They danced all night last night. Don’t let him fool you—Darcy wouldn’t even speak to me. But Georgie, on the other hand … well, when she came to Wasted Words for an ad meeting this morning, I could have sworn she swooned when she saw him.”
That was all it took. Mom officially forgot I existed as she took one deep breath and began machine-gunning questions at him.
If someone could blow someone else up with their minds, Jett would have done it right then. I gave him a mocking smile and turned to Dad.
He’d folded his paper and set it on the table, watching us spar with quiet amusement.
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Hello, daughter.” He flicked his chin at Mom with a smile on his face. “It’s cruel, the way you two tease her.”
“Well, she’s already settled three out of five of her children. I really did think she’d let up, not realizing she’d just have that much more energy to expend on us.”
He chuckled. “So Darcy, huh?”
“Intolerable ass. He’s very rude and very intense.”
“And very handsome, if your mother is to be believed. I think he’s in the top five on her list of potential husbands for you.”
“The worst ones are always the prettiest, aren’t they?”
Lila and Kash sat across from me, and Lila leaned in. “My event firm did a De Bourgh party last year—that’s the Darcys’ aunt, right?”
“That’s their firm,” I said. “De Bourgh and Associates. Or Douche Bags and Asses. Whatever’s your preference.”
Lila shook her head. “Those people are something else. Catherine is heading the firm now? Do I remember that right?”
“You do,” Jett answered. “I doubt we’ll meet her, though. We’re way below her pay grade.”
“Count yourself lucky,” Lila said. “I would not want to cross swords with her. Working for her was hard enough, and everything went so smoothly—partly because I was terrified into my best behavior. She still had plenty to say about it, and none of it was particularly kind.”
“So being an uppity jerk is genetic? Huh. Must have skipped Georgie.”
“I’ll have you know,” Mom said with her nose in the air, “that Liam Darcy is one of the most eligible bachelors in New York. Surely he’s just waiting on the right girl to settle down.” She bestowed me with a pointed look.
“And I’ll have you know that, bachelor or not, any man who called me ‘tolerable’ and suggested Jett and I were beneath them isn’t someone I’d ever refer to as eligible. Not for anything but a fist in his eye.”
Mom blinked. “He said … are you sure you heard him right?”
“Oh, I am most definitely sure. He doesn’t think much of us and definitely not of me. So please, do me a favor and cross Darcy off your list.”
To her credit, she tried not to pout. “I’ll asterisk him.”
I sighed.
The conversation picked up when, mercifully, Tess launched into her and Luke’s plans for the next shop window installment. Once she got Mom going, Tess and I shared