Page 31 of All For You

Simon emerged from the huddle. “We have a winner,” he announced as the cameramen focused on him. “And it’s Jane and William!”

Jane and Wills hugged spontaneously and jumped up and down, still hugging.

The cameras panned around all of us. I clapped and nodded as though I were a gracious loser, because I was genuinely happy for them. Emma and Knightley were doing the same. I took a look at Darcy. He grunted bitterly and shoved his hands into his pockets. What a bad sport.

“Get changed for four hours of eating and drinking in the lap of luxury,” Simon said.

Wills and Jane hugged again, and Wills kissed Jane on the cheek.

I clapped, happy for them, and rubbed Jane on the back. “Tell me everything that happens when you get back.” At least my sister won, so I could use the secondhand details for book inspiration.

“I will, I promise.”

“Shit,” Darcy said, not hiding he was bitter about losing.

“How should we dress?” Jane asked.

“You are going to be wined and dined and entertained,” Simon said. “But take some walking shoes and a coat for outside. We have another camera assigned to you.”

Jane and Wills ran up the stairs.

Relieved to be done with that nonsense, I followed Jane upstairs, toed off my shoes, and flopped on my bed as she sorted through her clothes in our wardrobe.

She lifted out the two dresses she’d brought. “White floaty linen or short minxy denim?”

“Linen. Jane, this is going to be fun.”

“Good choice. I know, I’m excited. Doing all this together with Wills is amazing. We’re getting to know each other quickly, and I like everything about him.”

I kicked my feet gleefully. “I’m excited for you.”

She turned to me from the wardrobe where she was rehanging the denim dress. She wore an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry. I know you wanted to win.”

“No, it’s fine. You’ll tell me all about it anyway.” I was relieved not to be spending any more time with Darcy. I picked up my laptop. “This is a great opportunity for me to try to coax out some words.”

While Jane fussed with her clothing, I wrote a few sentences about Peony getting ready for an outing, perusing gloves and ribbons, but her best friends had tricked her, so she would be alone with Thomas. In a hot-air balloon.

I reread the lines.

Did they have hot-air balloons back then? But how did this activity morph them from friends to lovers? Did Peony realize Thomas was afraid of heights but he’d done this all for her, and she was forced to hold him close as he wept like a baby at two thousand feet? Or did the hot-air balloon go up in flames…like this paragraph should?Groan.

I slammed my laptop shut and focused on Jane. She tried on both outfits, and we decided the white linen dress, flat espadrilles, and cashmere cardigan were romantic and comfortable, and she packed her trainers in her straw bag for any walking they might do. We put a scarf in her low ponytail, pulled out some wisps, and added red lipstick.

Although I was sure I mostly looked like I’d been pulled through a bush backward—literally because I was always fetching Oodles’s ball from under a bush—Jane possessed that je ne sais quoi of a woman who’d dismounted her pink bike andwas sauntering through a flower market in Nice. I had more of aswerved a herd of sheep and landed arse over facevibe.

“Oh, Jane.” I touched my fingertips to my lips.

“Will I do?”

“You look lovely.”

I followed her back down to the first floor to wait for Wills. When he descended the stairs, he held out his hand to her. So romantic. She took it, and, bursting out the door, they were whisked away in an SUV.

“Have a wonderful time!” I called to them.

After a brief wave, Jane turned to Wills and laughed at something he said. My heart warmed. Cute. I felt like the proud mother.

I poked my head into the kitchen. Darcy was fiddling with his phone by the fire, and Trystan was preparing dinner, cutting up potatoes for the gratin.