Darcy didn’t know anyone who was in her position, because – obviously – that would mean they were closeted. And itdidmake her feel a little differently about Juliet.
The mind-blowing sex and the best night of sleep she’d had all year certainly worked in Juliet’s favor as well.
So, she stated with enough certainty, “I care.” She shrugged. “Even if we hadn’t had sex or collabed on ‘Porchlight’ together, I’d care enough about you to not want you seriously sick or something.”
“There’s that plucky naiveté I find so… charming,” Juliet drawled, dryly.
Darcy rolled her eyes, hard. “Now it’s naïve to not wish you were deathly ill?”
Juliet shrugged, noncommittally. Then she released a sigh. “I’m fine,” Juliet confirmed, pursing her lips. “It’s not… I’m not going for my health.”
Darcy narrowed her eyes. “Ooookay?”
She ran through what Juliet could mean by that.
“You’re being really nosy right now,” Juliet pointed out.
“Yeah, I’m a nosy person. There’s literally a song about it on my album, and I know you’ve listened to it.”
Darcy delighted in the way Juliet’s lips rolled into a tight line, like shewantedto deny it.
Eagerly, she leaned in. “You want to tell me that you’ve listened to enough interviews to know where my favorite food in Nashville is, but you expect me to believe you haven’t listened to my album?”
Juliethadto hear the foolishness in that.
“Ugh, fine. Yes, I know ‘Receipt Queens,’ are you happy?”
Darcy settled back in her seat, unable to wipe the smile from her face. “I’m ecstatic. Thank you.”
Despite her teasing tone, she very much meant it. Shedidlike that Juliet had listened to her music. That Juliet had probably kept her alerts on, watching for Darcy’s name in the same way she had. She, actually, loved that Juliet hadn’t been able to ignore We, The Romantics even though she’d obviously wanted to.
“So… the hospital?” She nearly forgot the purpose of this conversation and was thrilled that they passed the sign on the road letting them know how far they were from the hospital to remind her.
Juliet drew in a lengthy inhale through her nose. “I’m going to volunteer at the children’s hospital.”
Okay, not what she’d been expecting. “Oh.” She sat with that, running back through Laura’s comments. “You do that a lot?”
“Enough.”
“Enough to have a ‘usual entrance,’” she pointed out.
Juliet hummed in affirmation.
An exasperated laugh escaped her. “I feel like most people who are seemingly doing something objectivelyreally nicearen’t usually so tight-lipped.”
She’d definitely never seen anything like this about Juliet in the media. And Darcy was positive that she would have seen it, if this had ever been mentioned in a big article given how much she’d voraciously read about Juliet when preparing for their war.
“Well, I think most people who do things like this and then go running their mouths about it are doing it for the wrong reasons. The last thing sick kids need are cameras popping up trying to get a picture of them,” Juliet muttered.
“Ofyouwith them,” Darcy corrected.
“Same thing.”
It wasn’t, actually, and Darcy felt very strongly about that.
She turned to stare out the window, watching the buildings crawl by. She’d barely had time to think about anything outside of the whirlwind going on in her life. Actually, she’d hadnotime. So, she tried not to feel any sort of negative way at herself for not having thought about doing something like this, before.
Darcy had been on the other side of the spectrum from where she was right now for her whole life. Having no money, scraping to get by, unsure about the future, unsure about how to weather the storm. Knowing that even though you didn’t have a contingency plan, you just had to march forward into the unknown.
