Jane and Austen (29 page)

Dancey didn’t answer DeBurgy; he swung around and strode back to the party. I couldn’t believe that he was giving up so quickly. Our Darcy could still get the girl. It didn’t matter if she was nothing like Elizabeth from the books. I didn’t believe in fate like that anymore. Taylor and Dancey were meant for each other.

He was disappearing into the trees. I ran to catch up to him. “Dancey, Dancey.” When he kept walking, I stepped in front of him to stop him from getting away. “If she knew you loved her, she wouldn’t go through with this.”

“Jane.” His hands went to my shoulders and he set me to the side. “There’s a time to give up. So, give up. Now.” He walked past me.

“What about your song?” I called out in desperation.

“It made me a lot of money. Now stop trying to help me. I’m fine.”

Taylor caught up to Dancey. Her suspicious eyes ran between us. “Are you leaving, Dancey? You promised you’d sing. I
need
you to sing.”

Dancey stopped walking. “Why?”

“I need you.” Taylor sounded desperate.

Dancey looked miserable. He kept his gaze focused firmly on the lights coming from North Abbey in the distance. “No, Taylor, you either take all of me or none of me. There won’t be anything in between. Not anymore.”

Taylor went silent. Dancey met her eyes then. When Taylor didn’t move, he pursed his lips and pushed away from the both of us. She watched him leave the party until he was a speck on the beach. “He said he would sing.” She sounded heartbroken. “How did this happen? Who let Colin get a microphone anyway?”

I slowly raised my hand, though I did it behind my head—it seemed less incriminating.

Taylor’s eyes welled with tears. “You pushed Chuck into the pool. You sent me off to Longburn Lagoon. I don’t get it. You let Bertie’s dog run off. Bertie said that you were trying to sabotage my wedding. But you wouldn’t do that. I know you better than that, right? Jane?”

“She was probably trying to get some good photos for the paparazzi,” Redd said behind us. As usual, he had impeccable timing. “I saw her talking to that reporter tonight.”

A tear slid down Taylor’s cheek. “Jane? Is that true? Answer me.”

I felt awful. “Your fiancé is cheating on you,” I said.

Taylor gave me a look that froze me to the core and swung away, marching over the sand. “You’re fired,” she shouted over her shoulder.

Redd looked shocked. That same shock ran through me.

“Taylor.” Austen sounded breathless behind us. He had run over from the group that was still congratulating Bigley. “You need to listen to Jane. She—”

“Austen, you’re fired too.”

He looked taken aback. “You can’t.”

Austen had a point. Technically, Taylor worked for his parents, but she was too mad to care. She tripped over his shoes in the sand and picked them up. Glaring, Taylor threw his shoes back at him. “I just did it, Austen,” she shouted. “And you’re not invited to my wedding either. That goes for the both of you. I don’t want either of you in my life. You got it? Good. My life isn’t a game. It’s over!”

Chapter 25

“Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another.”

—Jane Austen,
Emma

Austen’s arms were perfect for hugs.
We sat on the beach soon after getting fired. I rested my head against the crook of his shoulder. His thumb brushed against the bare skin on my arm.

I slumped in defeat. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have made you go through with it. What am I, five?”

Squeezing me closer, Austen tried to comfort me. “Our brains don’t connect until we’re twenty-six, so if anyone asks, we can just blame it on that.”

I sighed. “I failed Taylor because I was short two years?”

“At least you cared enough to get fired. Not many people would do that.”

Austen wasn’t making me feel better. I laughed darkly at our predicament. He did too, then sobered when he looked down at me. “It’s not too late, Jane. If Dancey loves Taylor, he’ll own up to it. He won’t give up.”

I pressed closer to Austen, wondering if that was true for us. “You know, if you tried to make me feel better about tonight, I wouldn’t complain.”

His arms tightened around me. He gave me a soft kiss. I closed my eyes, rendered completely powerless by his gentle touch. I had meant for him to say something comforting, but this was good, too. I smiled. “I know what will make you feel better,” he said. He untied the bracelet that I had given him from his wrist. “You’ve been missing this, I know.”

I tried to stop him from putting it on me, but the temptation to have him play with my wrist made me give in. Soon, I wore our bracelet tied with a neat little bow. “Jane,” he said, his eyes turning devilish. “Do you still think we’re cursed?”

“If we are, then we should do it more often.”

He kissed me again, this time more thoroughly. His fingers slid past my ears and trailed past my face as he pulled slowly away. “Which book are we in?” he asked.

“Jane Austen didn’t have kissing scenes.” I cracked a smile. “Maybe it had something to do with their breath back then?”

“Then I’m glad we’re not in one of her books.”

I pouted. “Don’t say that. She’d give us a happy ending. It’s hard to come by these days.”

“You’re trying to curse us again.” Austen gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “We can’t have that. If you talk that way, I’ll have no choice but to throw you in the water.”

“You’re not strong enough.”

“That’s it.” He picked me up and I gasped, feeling the air lift under my feet like I was flying. His arms made me feel as light as Bertie. “Oh, you’ll be sorry!” I laughed. “I’ll break your back. I was just told tonight that I’m too curvaceous.” I tried to wriggle away, but he had a firm grip on me. “Austen! I do not do night swimming.”

“What happened to your spirit, Jane?” He ran for the waves with me in his arms, and I screeched, holding him firmly around the shoulders. I wasn’t sure where he got the energy, but it was contagious. He set me down in the water and the waves lapped around my ankles. “Have you had enough yet?” he asked me.

Of course I hadn’t. This was too much fun. “No!”

He grasped me around the stomach from behind and dragged my ankles through the waves. It felt lovely. Austen lowered my feet back into the water and held me against his chest to give me a kiss near my ear that rocked me from head to toe. “You know what I love best about the waves?” he asked. “They just keep coming. That’s what I like about you—you don’t give up. Even if it gets us both fired, I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

“You weren’t really fired,” I pointed out.

“No. You want to live off me?”

“Who do you think I am? Bertie?” I splashed him and ran away from him through the waves. He chased after, and I turned and splashed more water at him. Before he could take me down, I tackled him first. The waves crashed over us, and we pulled out of the water, our hair glistening in the moonlight.

The lights from the tiki torches flickered on the deck of Churchell’s Shack. Its ghostly light beckoned from the distance. Junie would be inside cleaning up after the bachelor party. I shifted, trying to make out the details of Austen’s face—I didn’t get much. “Why did you decide to help me after you talked to Junie?” I asked him. “What does she have to do with this?”

Austen helped me stand up out of the sand. “She was upset. It had something to do with Chuck. She didn’t go into details.”

“You didn’t pry?”

“Why would I do that?”

We were so different.
I could pry. “Let’s go in, Austen. We’ll say we’re helping the cleanup crew because we feel so bad about what we did, and then we can get everything out of her before it’s too late.”

 “And then Taylor orders our execution.” His eyes rested on me. “At least I can’t complain that my stay in San Diego was dull.”

“If you keep talking about going away,” I muttered, “I’ll throw
you
in the water.” Austen just laughed. I took that as a challenge that I’d take him up on later. I trudged through the sand, my wet clothes dragging me down. Finally we reached steady ground through the means of the deck. We entered Junie’s brightly lit shack. It was empty, but littered with bottles, peanut shells, and dirty dishes. Junie would be back to clean it before morning.

“If you wait for her here, Austen, I’ll go to the main building. Whoever finds her first does the interrogation—we’ll do it right this time.”

Austen ran a hand through the back of his wet hair. “Can’t we just raid the fridge and eat all the leftovers?”

“Yeah, make sure you clean the fridge while you’re at it.”

He smirked. “I think I’ll just set up the single light bulb over a rickety chair. I’ve got an interrogation to do.” He dragged a chair from the bar and fell into it, clearly having no intention of following through with anything that he said.

A laugh tickled through my throat as I set off down the beach to Maple Grove. I felt all tingly from Austen’s touch. Maybe it was our adventure in the waves, but I couldn’t stop smiling. I had just gotten fired and I still felt great. Austen really knew how to cheer a girl up.

Picking through the roots growing through Maple Grove, I reached the courtyard in good time. The overhead lights lit the cobblestone pathway. I didn’t want to run into anyone after what had happened, but I was desperate to find Junie. I hadn’t the faintest idea of where she could be.

By the time I smelled the cigarette smoke, I knew it was too late to retreat. A sleek silhouette blocked the door to the main building where DeBurgy had set up watch. No one could get past the publicity manager without being seen, but I still had a right to be here. Straightening my shoulders, I brushed past him.

DeBurgy reached out and caught a string of my wet hair. My T-shirt and shorts were still dripping. “Were you shipwrecked?” he asked.

 I pulled away, but the moment my hands rested against the door, I had a sudden thought. I glanced over at DeBurgy. “I thought you were staying at the Kellynch next door?”

He nodded once. In the shadows, his heavyset eyes made dark sockets in his face, giving him a skeletal look. “Let’s take a walk,” he said. My breath caught at the strange request. The lit ash of his cigarette made an orange target in the darkness. He pointed with it to one of the side courtyards. “There’s a pretty garden over there. You can take me on a personal tour.”

I refused to see the similarities to his request and the one the actual lady from
Pride and Prejudice
had given to Elizabeth. In that one, Lady de Bourgh had tried to lay claim on Darcy for her daughter. I was done with feeling superstitious about my life. Besides, going off with DeBurgy into the dark seemed like a very bad idea.

DeBurgy must’ve sensed my hesitation because he smirked. “You’re looking for Junie, aren’t you? You don’t have to tell me; it’s written all over your face.”

“What makes you think—?”

He cut me off, “I sit in the corners at every party, at the bars, the cafés, and I soak everything in. People talk when they drink too much or when they’re miserable; when they think no one else will listen. I’ve got eyes and ears, Jane. These eyes know who you’re looking for. And my ears hold the information you’re dying to get your hands on.”

The guy had enough flair to do shows in Vegas. I stared at him, still not sure what to do.

He snorted. “I’m far too busy to seduce inexperienced girls in a courtyard after dark. Are you coming or not?” DeBurgy headed languidly for the courtyard, and though I was tempted to leave him hanging so I could ruffle his confidence, he had the information that I wanted. Taking a deep breath, I pulled from the door and followed him.

“Dancey has a habit of making my job difficult,” DeBurgy said once we reached the garden. The palm trees hung over us in silent shadows. “He always had such poor taste in girlfriends.” This was said in a sneer. “He’s young and reckless; makes poor choices in friends.” He took a long pull of his cigarette, his gaze leveled on me while I gagged on his smoke. “His best mate can’t keep his hands off the women—especially under his mother’s watchful eye. The fact is, I don’t care if the groom wants to hijack a plane of monkeys. I don’t care if you or Chuck’s mother or his fiancé is upset about it—I don’t want Dancey mixed up in this nonsense. You see?”

“He already is,” I said.

DeBurgy made a sound of impatience. “What would you say if I could get your job back; find you a better job even?”

I was surprised at the offer—it wouldn’t come free. “For what?”

“Forget about ruining your friend’s wedding. That’s not very nice for a girl like you to do anyway; not very professional either. Taylor doesn’t want your help. We all know that.”

My heart raced. DeBurgy must think I had a chance at stopping this thing or he wouldn’t have bothered to intervene. He flicked the ash from his cigarette, staring down at me.

“I don’t get it,” I said. “You said that this is the same information I’d get if I talked to Junie?”

“She’s not going to talk to you, Jane. We came to an agreement earlier tonight—the terms of her conditions are between her and me. I offered her a position elsewhere, and she jumped at the chance.”

My mind went to the abandoned shack where I’d parted ways with Austen, the food and dirty dishes everywhere. It had been Junie’s pride and joy only yesterday. I felt oddly sad that she wasn’t returning, then frustrated. DeBurgy’s meddling was proof that she had real information that could help us.

DeBurgy touched my arm, then drew back at my wetness with a scowl. “You care for Dancey, don’t you? Jennings wants to uncover a story on his relationship with a practically married woman. Taylor doesn’t need that. Think of the shame she’d feel reading those headlines during her honeymoon? It would be all your fault, but we can fix the trouble you’ve started. We’ll work together.”

I felt like I was talking to a boa constrictor who was trying to convince me to strangle myself—he made it sound really good. “We can get the paparazzi off Dancey’s back,” he said. “I can pull out the big guns, hold a press conference, make some charity contributions. All you have to do is play the role of Dancey’s girlfriend—strangely enough, you are the lesser of two evils. We can’t have him stealing his best friend’s fiancé on the eve of his wedding, now can we?”

“I can’t pretend to be Dancey’s girlfriend,” I said. “That would break Taylor’s heart.”

“Are you kidding me? She’s looking for any excuse not to feel guilty for leading on my client.”

“Why don’t you just ask Dancey to back off?” I asked.

“He refused.”

I almost gasped in my relief, but kept it down under DeBurgy’s close scrutiny. Dancey’s refusal meant that he still liked Taylor. He was going to fix this. I shook my head, not able to keep back my smile. “Sorry, DeBurgy, we don’t have a deal.”

I tried to walk off, and he followed me like an offended shadow. “You would pass up such an opportunity?”

“Hey, it’s not going to work anyway. You said so yourself, Dancey has it bad for Taylor.”

“He’s protective of you.” DeBurgy threw his cigarette on the grass and stomped on it in his agitation. “He’d go through with it if he thought it might save your reputation as a professional. Dancey asked me to destroy the photos Jennings took of the two of you together.”

That stopped me in my tracks.

DeBurgy stepped in front of me. “Just think of poor Taylor if she saw them. So sad, so betrayed. And Austen? He’s a man—we all feel jealousy and do stupid things we regret later on. Lucky for you, I hid the photos with the bellhop for safekeeping.”

“Freddy?” I asked. DeBurgy put the KGB to shame. How did DeBurgy know that the guy hated me?

“You fix my little PR problem,” DeBurgy said, “And I make
your
problem go away for good.”

I stepped back and decided to buy myself more time. “What are you waiting for? Set up the press conferences.” I raced away to find Freddy. I wasn’t sure if he’d be home yet or still packed away in the lobby. I tried the latter first, and found Redd sitting stiffly on the couch. The military set of his shoulders gave him away. He stared at the blank TV. I didn’t want to talk to him, but I was desperate. “Have you seen Freddy?” I asked.

Redd’s sleepy eyes widened as soon as he took me in. “Jane!” He stood up, and the napkins that he held slipped to the ground. I noticed that there was writing on them. Before I could get too close, he took a firm grip on my shoulders and looked steadily into my eyes. “I got you fired. I am so sorry.”

“That’s fine. Have you seen Freddy?”

“No, it’s not fine. I’ve been doing some thinking. I don’t like myself this way. I feel like I’m being forced to act a role that I despise. I can usually let go of a failed relationship.”

“No one is acting themselves right now.” I took a moment to free him from his guilt. “You’re forgiven, but you could really make it up to me if you could help me find Freddy.”

He frowned. “He left with Bella somewhere.”

I almost choked on a gasp. “She’s in trouble. We have to save her.” Redd straightened at my words like any officer in the navy would at such a call to action. I ran for the Fullerton Bungalow where she was staying. We careened through the courtyard just in time to hear Bella’s scream.