AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Elizabeth took a deep breath. “One day.”
* * *
Will’s phone rang,and after staring for a moment at his sister’s face on the screen, he answered. “Yes?”
“I'm on the deck. Can you let me in?”
“What do you want?”
“I want to talk to you.”
“I don't want to talk right now, okay? Can you just leave me alone? I'll talk to you tomorrow.”
The call dropped, and his eyebrows flickered up.She hung up on me. He was relieved; he was in no condition to talk to his sister.
But not three minutes later, he heard her voice calling up the stairs, and suddenly she was there, in the doorway of his bedroom. She came to join him where he sat on the small deck just beyond the French doors.
“I grabbed my keys and let myself in,” she said.
“I told you I'd talk to you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I know what you told me.”
He saw the way her gaze traveled over his face and knew she was assessing him. He eyed her warily, knowing she wouldn’t like what she saw.
“It's chilly out here. Why don't you come in?” she suggested.
“Nope. I'm warm.” He reached down and lifted an almost empty bottle of whiskey from the deck. He raised it to his lips and took a long sip before holding it out to her. “Want some?”
“No, I don'twant some. What's wrong with you?”
He laughed. “How–how much time do you have?Everythingis wrong with me, Georgie. I'm a rotten person. I'm impulsive and judgmental. And I suck at relationships, let's not forget that. That's a biggie.” He looked out at the ocean. “I mean, I finally found someone who–who just wants me forme, right? But I end up blowing it in a huge,hugeway. I end up treating her like shit. I couldn't just trust her…”
“Fitzwilliam.”
“Yes,Georgiana.” He smiled and took another long sip of whiskey. “Do you have any light to shed on the situation? I'm sure you do. See, I think I was really just waiting for a reason not to trust her. I think I was—you know what?”
She sighed. “What?”
“When all that shit happened with–with Caroline, Lizzy told me she felt like all the stuff she’d been worried about was coming true. That she–that she was just a little diversion, a summerfling, or something like that.” He laughed. “She thought I'd get bored with her. Can you fucking believe that? Bored? With her?” His smile faltered, and he shook his head before bringing the bottle to his lips again, and pushed the other chair toward her with his foot. “Hey, do you want to sit down? Take a load off.”
She sat but remained silent.
“What was I saying? Oh yeah, it was about–about me getting bored. Well, it never happened, it never would. I mean, how–how could I get bored with her? Right?”
“Right.”
“Right. The thing is, in the back of my fucked-up mind, in my head, I always–I always thought it would come down to what it always came down to. They all want something, Georgie. Something from me. They never–they never just want me.”
“Who isthey, Fitzwilliam?”
“Can you cut the Fitzwilliam shit?”
“Okay, Will, who is they?
“Just...anyone. Everyone.”
“But not Elizabeth.”
