First Impressions: A Contemporary Retelling of Pride and Prejudice

by Debra White Smith

  Three

  Two weeks later, Eddi gassed her Mustang along the country lane leading to Dave Davidson’s ranch. Her sister Jenny claimed the passenger seat. After a busy Saturday afternoon shopping with their talkative mother and sister, the two had settled into a pleasant silence. Within minutes, they would arrive for the first practice of Pride and Prejudice. Actually, the assembly was more in line with an organizational meeting. Mrs. DeBloom would be assigning roles, and they would be reading over some of the early scenes. The town’s cultural guardian was also providing finger foods, which seemed to be her forte.

  Eddi thought of having to be in the same room with the “great” Dave Davidson and dug her fingernails into the steering wheel. She’d been furious for a week after their last encounter and had dodged him at church several times. Last Saturday, she even scurried into the produce section at the local grocery store to avoid meeting him in the pet food aisle. For a few minutes after that tornado, Eddi had perceived that maybe Dave really was attracted to her—despite his protests to Calvin. But after his arrogantly telling her not to get her hopes up, Eddi decided the only person the man could ever really love was himself.

  The longer she pondered his prideful manner, the more her ire rose. The more her ire rose, the more exasperated she became with herself for ever being attracted to him in the first place. Eddi upped the air-conditioner blower one notch. She pointed a vent at her face and welcomed the cold air on her cheeks and nose.

  Being angry is no way to begin the first practice, she scolded herself.

  “Mind if I turn on some music, Jen?” she asked as she eyed the radio.

  “Not in the least,” Jenny responded through a yawn. “Are you hot?” she asked as Eddi turned on a classical music station.

  “A little,” Eddi answered. “You’re not?”

  “I’m freezing,” Jenny said and rubbed her freckled knees.

  “That’s what you get for wearing that shorts set,” Eddi teased.

  “You’re just jealous because it’s a Michael Kors, and I got it for thirty bucks.” Jenny offered a blue-eyed dare. “Admit it! You’ve been envious ever since we left the store.”

  “I’m not admitting a thing,” Eddi purred. She lowered the air-conditioner blower and chuckled.

  As the classical music wove its magic, Eddi enjoyed the solace. Not only did the tune soothe her dread of seeing Dave again, it also relaxed her a bit after the taxing day shopping with her mother and two sisters. Their mother had claimed exhaustion and pleaded to stay at Eddi’s townhouse with their twenty-year-old sister, Linda.

  Eddi hadn’t said anything yet to Jenny, but she’d smelled alcohol on Linda’s breath when they arrived midmorning. She decided now was a good time to question Jenny about their rebel sister. Jenny, a college coach, lived just north of Houston in The Woods, and saw their family more often than Eddi.

  “So . . .” Eddi began, “everything the same with Linda?”

  “Need you ask?” Jenny questioned. She fumbled through her leather purse until she produced a hair band. Jenny retrieved a brush from her purse and tackled her shoulder-length strawberry blond hair. Within thirty seconds, she pulled her hair into a ponytail that made her look closer to twenty than thirty. Her sporty shirt and shorts only increased her youthful appearance. When the two sisters were together, most people assumed Eddi was the eldest and would never guess that Jenny was actually two years her senior. Eddi looked down at her ankle-length maxi skirt, cotton shirt, and wide belt. This morning when she put on the ensemble, she felt stylish. Now, next to Jenny, Eddi felt almost matronly.

  Oh well, she thought, there’s nobody at this play practice I’m trying to impress, anyway. Eddi disciplined her thoughts to the subject at hand.

  “I don’t guess Dad has put his foot down and made Linda get a job yet?” Eddi lifted her hand off the steering wheel and placed it onto the floor gearshift. “Why am I even asking that?” she queried and glanced into the rearview mirror to note there were no vehicles behind her. The view ahead attested that the two-lane highway, surrounded by rolling east Texas hills, was likewise vacant.

  “I think Linda’s still as content to hang out at home as she was the day she dropped out of college,” Jenny said. She deposited her brush back into her purse and rummaged some more. Jenny pulled out a miniature bottle of body spray and spritzed some on her neck. A light citrus smell filled the car.

  “Good thing the Boswick inheritance allows us all four grand a month for life,” Eddi said and rolled her eyes. “I guess that gives Linda some pocket change.” The same inheritance had ensured her father an income of a hundred thousand a year—mere pennies in comparison to the Boswick Oil millions Edward Boswick had rejected in favor of his freedom.

  “Oh, yes,” Jenny said, “Linda would have fun trying to survive on four thousand a month if Dad made her move out. With her lifestyle, she’d sink. She doesn’t seem to have one clue about a budget.” Jenny lifted the bottle of body mist. “Want me to give you a spray?” she offered.

  “Thought you’d never ask.” Eddi held out her arm and awaited the cool mist that settled upon her skin. “That stuff smells great!” she added.

  “Yeah, I love it.”

  “Well, I guess we can look at this Linda business from the bright side,” Eddi said and rested her hand back on the gearshift. “Maybe some rich man will fall madly in love with her and not mind keeping up the lifestyle she prefers.”

  “He better not mind having a booze bill,” Jenny grumbled.

  “Did I smell alcohol on her breath when you guys arrived this morning, or was I imagining things?” Eddi asked. The vehicle’s steady hum seemed to affirm her question.

  “I think the Coke she sipped all the way up here was laced with rum,” Jenny admitted.

  “And then she had three margaritas for lunch,” Eddi said and rubbed her thumb across the gearshift. Seeing her sister tipsy while they shopped at the mall had done little to enhance her afternoon. And that was after Linda had winked at three policemen who, in turn, decided to make a pass at her and her sisters at the restaurant. Eddi had resorted to her firm lawyer persona and convinced the men to get lost.

  “The thing that really irks me,” Eddi continued, “is Mom’s attitude toward the whole thing. She seems to be in complete denial that Linda has these problems or that she should have done anything but drop out of college.”

  “Maybe because she’s too much like Linda to see it all.”

  “Mom never touched a drink in her life,” Eddi claimed.

  “No, but she and Linda are still a whole lot alike. I mean, Mom dropped out of college, too.”

  Eddi sighed. “You’re right. She lasted one semester didn’t she?”

  “Yep.”

  “How’s Dad these days?” Eddi asked. “I talk to him all the time, but I mean how is he really?” She shifted in her seat. “I guess what I’m trying to say is—”

  “Why don’t you just get it out?” Jenny said with a laugh.

  “Okay, I will then!” Eddi smiled. “The last time I was home—two months ago—I tried to talk to Dad about Linda. I told him he needed to do something to make her take some responsibility.”

  “You did?” Jenny gasped.

  “Yes, I did,” Eddi affirmed and looked at her sister.

  Jenny’s carefree application of cosmetics enhanced her natural beauty far beyond any level Eddi could ever hope for herself. She looked back at the road and concentrated on driving. Nevertheless, a bundle of negative memories nagged at her. When she was seventeen, Eddi overheard their mother telling a friend that Jenny was by far her most beautiful daughter and that Linda got all the personality. She made a begrudging comment about Eddi getting nothing but brains, as if a sharp mind were the last thing a woman could possibly want or need. At the time, Eddi had been crushed. But as the years rocked on, she eventually stopped seeking her mother’s elusive approval. She possessed her father’s doting favor, and somehow that made up for her mother’s lack of preference. />
  “So are you going to tell me what Dad said or not?” Jenny prompted.

  “Oh, sure . . . sorry. I guess I drifted, didn’t I?” Eddi eased up on her accelerator as an eighteen-wheeler zoomed around her. “Okay,” she said when in the wake of the truck’s roar. “Dad told me that Linda was young and fickle like all girls her age—”

  “But she’s twenty. She’s a young woman. She’s not a little girl anymore.”

  “I know. It’s like he thinks she’s still twelve or something,” Eddi said. “Besides all that, by the time you were twenty, you were only a year away from graduating with your bachelor’s degree and were already looking to grad school.”

  “Well, I don’t think we should expect that out of Linda,” Jenny said. “Or that she’d even think about going from grad school to law school like you did!” she added. “I was gagging by the time I finished my Master’s degree, and you just shoved right through that and into law school.” Jenny punched her on the arm as if Eddi were a champion.

  “I just hate to see Linda wasting her life,” Eddi fretted.

  “Look, let’s just put it all out of our minds and enjoy the evening, shall we?” Jenny said. “Dad and Mom were talking about coming back up here to spend July Fourth with you. That’s under three weeks away now. Maybe it will give you another chance to talk with Dad.”

  Eddi scrutinized the nearing turnoff that led to Dave’s ranch. “I don’t know if he’ll listen,” Eddi mused. She shoved the disturbing subject from her mind and slowed the vehicle. “Let’s talk about something else.”

  “Well, tell me more about the play,” Jenny said with a bright smile.

  Eddi squeezed Jenny’s hand and said, “You have no idea how glad I am you’re coming to this practice with me. It’s such a relief to have someone there who’s on my side.”

  “Oh, so we’re back on the subject of Dave Davidson?” Jenny said with a wink. Her guileless smile enhanced her dimples. “Surely he can’t be as big a monster as you’ve made him out to be! It’s probably just one of those personality conflict things.”

  “Oh, Jenn,” Eddi sighed, “sometimes I think you’d find something good about the devil himself.”

  “And you’d find something negative about Michael the archangel,” Jenny teased.

  “Well, now that you mention it, his wings are a little big for his body, don’t you think?” She waved her hand.

  Sisterly laughter abounded as Eddi turned on the right blinker. She hung a sharp right and sped onto a narrow black-topped road. According to Mrs. DeBloom’s directions, this road was a private lane that cut across Dave’s property and led straight to his home.

  “Seriously, Dave Davidson has got to be the rudest, most arrogant, most prideful and critical person I have ever met,” Eddi asserted. “Trust me, when you meet him, you’ll see what I mean.”

  A sharp whistle erupted from Jenny as they rounded the road’s final turn. With but one glimpse of the estate in front of her, Eddi didn’t have to ask about the reason for her sister’s reaction. She slammed on the brakes. The car jolted, and her seat belt ate into her shoulder.

  Her eyes wide, she drank in the scene before her. A sprawling, southern farmhouse stood in front of a verdant hill covered in pines. The front porch wrapped around the front and sides of the two-story home and was covered in ferns and geraniums. The seven o’clock sun dipped toward the hill and cast a golden glow upon the home—an estate that looked to be five thousand square feet. The roof, a deep shade of reddish brown, enhanced the shutters, the color of ripe cranberries.

  A rose garden graced the right side of the massive yard dotted in lush oaks. Toward the east, a pasture filled with Texas longhorns stretched to the base of a pine-covered mountain. A pecan and pear orchard claimed the west. Several of the trees with the tops twisted out of them testified to the recent tornado that caused a million dollars in damage to downtown London but claimed no lives. A Border collie lying near the front door announced another newcomer with a round of barks.

  “Oh my word,” Jenny mumbled. “It’s your dream house, Eddi!”

  The mellifluous classical music lost its calming impact, and Eddi turned up the air-conditioner once more.

  Last year, the two sisters had acted upon a whim and taken a builder’s tour of homes south of Houston. At the end of the day, they each chose the house that was their dream home. Jenny decided upon a Greek revival mansion with pillars and a circular driveway. Eddi fell in love with a home nearly identical to this one—right down to the porch swing that swayed in the June breeze.

  “Maybe Dave Davidson won’t be quite as awful as you remembered. What do you think?” Jenny tapped her sister’s arm.

  Eddi tried to laugh but couldn’t. All she could think about was the warmth of Dave’s arms around her and the glimpse of attraction she’d seen in his eyes once the tornado was gone. Eddi would have wagered her life’s savings that he’d even been tempted to kiss her. His teasing about the tornado coming back had validated that he’d enjoyed their closeness.

  Her final encounter with Dave that day crashed through the warm memories. She had actually felt sorry for the guy when she saw the limb in his windshield. That, plus his being her human shield during the tornado, had dampened Eddi’s irritation over what Dave said to Calvin. But his conceited remarks had drowned both pity and gratitude and made her dread the very sight of him.

  “No wonder he’s such a snob,” she mumbled. “He must have money running out his ears.” For the first time, she began to understand his reaction to her Jane Austen comments about a single man in possession of a good fortune. She also started doubting the rumor that Mrs. DeBloom was the source of his cash flow.

  “Money out his ears,” Jenny mused. “Hmmm . . . that would make him Mom’s dream son-in-law.”

  Eddi rolled her eyes. “Heaven help the woman who marries this guy!” she declared. “There’s not enough gold in Fort Knox to make me endure the misery he’d dish out.” She took her foot off the brake and encouraged the Mustang with a tap on the accelerator. Just as Eddi pulled into a parking place beside a row of vehicles, the front door opened and the dark-haired renegade himself stepped onto the porch. He bent, scratched the Border collie’s ears, straightened, and eyed Eddi’s vehicle.

  Turning off the ignition, Eddi dared to sneak another peek at him. Dave was dressed exactly as he’d been two weeks ago—the jeans, the boots, the over-washed denim shirt. His hair was a little longer, but for once he was clean shaven. He eyed her vehicle as if he were the marshal of a dusty town and she were a suspicious stranger.

  Eddi squirmed in her seat and refused to allow him to intimidate her. She’d faced meaner opponents in court and walked out the victor. She wouldn’t flinch from this challenge—not even a little.

  Jenny giggled.

  Eddi looked at her and frowned. “What’s so funny?”

  Her eyes dancing, Jenny observed Eddi as if she possessed some guarded secret from the ancients. “If you have to ask, there’s no need for me to tell you,” she answered with a mystical wink.

  “Whatever!” Eddi said. “Let’s just go in and get this over with. Don’t leave my side all night. Got it?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jenny said with an army salute.

  “If it weren’t for the fact that I’d promised Mrs. DeBloom I’d be in the play,” Eddi mumbled as she undid her seat belt, “I’d quit tonight!” Eddi got out and slammed her door a second before Jenny shut hers. The two sisters met in front of the car, and the hot evening air only served to up Eddi’s agitation.

  “Can you believe he actually said I was too short and too prissy?” she whispered. An unexpected chuckle escaped her as his comments took a ridiculous ring.

  “You always did have a wicked sense of humor,” Jenny claimed. “I wondered when it would kick in.”

  “I think it just did,” Eddi whispered back. Their sandals clicked along the massive driveway as they neared the winding walkway leading to the front porch. “I wonder what he’d do i
f I grabbed him by the front of the shirt as soon as I walked up on the porch and just kissed him smack on the mouth.” A chortle burst from her. “I could say something like, ‘How’s that for too short and prissy?’ and then I could just calmly walk into the house like nothing happened.”

  “You’d probably tilt his world for a week,” Jenny said.

  Eddi leaned close to her sister and looked her square in the eyes. “Dare me?” she asked. A whippoorwill’s whistle floated on the warm breeze as if to answer her question.

  Jenny’s expressive eyes danced. “You wouldn’t really, would you?”

  Eddi slowed her pace. The porch steps were only fifty feet away. She offered a discreet look at the renegade, who was playfully batting at the Border collie’s mouth. The animal snarled while sporting with his master.

  Dave straightened and peered straight at the sisters. Eddi hated that he’d caught her staring and resisted the urge to glance away. Instead, she held his gaze and didn’t blink.

  “He seems familiar,” Jenny hissed under her breath.

  Eddi looked at her but didn’t reply.

  Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “This is so odd,” she continued as they neared the steps. “I’ve seen him somewhere before. . . . Or maybe I’ve just seen his picture.”

  Four

  “Aunt Maddy is waiting on you,” Dave said the second Eddi stepped onto his porch.

  “Oh?” Eddi lifted her brows and silently challenged him. Her fresh citrus scent wafted on the breeze and urged Dave to move closer.

  “Yep,” Dave answered and put his hands on his hips.

  “I understood the practice started at seven,” Eddi offered. “Was I wrong?” She secured her purse strap upon her shoulder.