Backstage Romance: An Austen-Inspired Romantic Comedy Box Set by Gigi Blume (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📕

wondering if you’d consider doing a screen test.” Jaxson reached in his inside breast pocket and handed me a business card. “It’s a small part, but she has a power ballad.”

“Think Another Suitcase in Another Hall,” said Emma. “A minor role with an iconic song.”

“This is a musical?”

“Isn’t this exciting?” Emma bounced on her toes, wildly clapping her hands. “The world would be a better place if only there were more movie musicals.”

“Just doing my civic duty,” said Jaxson with a wink.

“Okay,” I beamed. “Thank you.”

“All right, now that’s settled…” Stella poked at mine and Will’s shoulders and ushered us toward the door. “Beth and William have to go. We’ve taken up enough of their time.”

As she hastily pushed us out, I glanced over my shoulder at Emma, who had collapsed into Jaxson with more giggles giving me a slaphappy wave. Then Will and I were shoved out the door and the last thing I saw through the closing threshold was the wild, animated look in Stella’s eyes. The door closed with a thump, and we could hear the muffled sound of bubbling laughter seep through the wood.

“Can we go now?” pleaded Will.

“Yes!”

We’d dilly dallied long enough, and although I would have liked to catch a glimpse of Rita Moreno, I was so over the interruptions. Will skirted the lobby perimeter in an effort to avoid more people and we were able to tuck backstage without notice.

“That was a nice offer from Jaxson Knightly,” he said as we reached the stage door. “If you get the part, your life will change.”

“My life has already changed,” I whispered.

Will drank me in with his gaze with an expression filled with wonder, as though I was something entirely new.

“I have a confession to make,” he said tentatively. He seemed suddenly nervous, like, whatever it was he had to confess gave him more apprehension than everything leading up to it. After the whole business we put ourselves through over the course of the previous months, anything else he had to say would be like a walk in the park.

“Bring it on.”

“Elizabeth Bennet,” he said, “I… I…”

“Spit it out, Darcy.”

“I… hate Bud Lite.”

The contagious outburst of giggles finally made its way from the box office supply closet, where rum flowed like a river to my lips, and in a glow of admiration, I wrapped my arms around Will and hummed, “I know.”

He drew me in with a squeeze.

“But,” he posed, “I love you.”

“I know.”

He pulled away just enough to focus on my face with speculation.

“Did you seriously just quote Star Wars on me?”

“Not seriously,” I replied. “Very un-seriously.”

“Okay.” He nodded once and fished in his jeans pocket for his car keys. I could see, even in the dim light, his Adam's apple catch in his throat as he gave me a small disheartened smile. It wasn’t my intention in the least.

“Will?” I said, stopping him from turning to the door. “Three little words seem woefully insufficient to tell you how much I truly love you.”

His face brightened immediately.

“Especially,” I continued, “after all the wasted energy I spent trying to convince myself I felt the opposite. I said some dreadful things to you, and I don’t know how many thousands of I love yous it will take to make up for that.”

I wasn’t the type to get emotional, but I was at such a loss for the right words (which was also unusual) that I could feel the beginnings of tears form in my eyes. Will leaned in and kissed me softly, several reverent pecks on my lips, each one stronger in intensity, and he embraced me in a fervid hug.

“I deserved everything you said to me that night,” he whispered into my hair. “It makes me sick to think about how I treated you and your friends. What a jerk you must have thought I was.”

“I think we both needed a lot of improvement.”

“No, Elizabeth,” he replied. “I was rude and assuming. I had to do a lot of soul searching after you accused me of acting like a misanthrope. You have no idea how much I beat myself up over what you said. And still, it was a long time before I could come to terms with it.”

“I would have chosen my words more carefully had I known the impact they made.”

“You probably thought I wasn’t listening to anything at all. How did you put it? ‘Even if you were the last man on earth and the existence of the human race was hinged upon my liking you, our poor species would fade quite spectacularly into extinction.’”

“Can you please forget I said that?”

“Nope.” He broke away from the hug just enough to speak eye to eye. “I cherish every word because it humbled me. I was so full of myself. I thought you’d be into me just because I deigned to pay attention to you. But I was so clueless that it would take a lot more than money and fame to impress a woman worthy to be impressed.”

“Well, you succeeded. In the end.”

“Oh?” He arched his brows expectantly. “So, you’re impressed, Miss Bennet?”

“More like… in love, Mr. Darcy.”

“In love.” He repeated my words with reverence. “That is infinitely better.”

He tangled his fingers in my hair and claimed my lips with more affection than I had ever experienced in a kiss. This man, who I misjudged in my finite understanding of the human existence, was now an intricate part of me I could no longer deny. I fused into him with every pass of skin, every breath, and every sigh. It was a truth reluctantly acknowledged yet forever avowed—how love born from loathing could be the deepest of all.

Epilogue

Two Years Later

Will

“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Darcy.”

I waited until we were alone, and the carnage of our California snowball fight was under control before I joined Beth and Lady on the sofa with one last present. I made sure to hide it beneath the folds of the tree skirt where nobody would easily find it.

“Another