Smudge purred a little question, looking up at her and sniffing the air. Rolling her eyes, Darcy tore apart a single popcorn kernel and then fed a small bit of it to the big cat, who lapped it up greedily and meowed for more.
“That’s enough for you,” she scolded. “This isn’t cat food. It’s people food.”
“He’s just going to get into the leftovers anyway,” Jon said, aiming the remote at the television and starting the movie up. “He’s crafty that way.”
A strong purring rumbled through Smudge’s chest, like he understood the compliment that Jon had just given him. Those two had come to an uneasy understanding, a mutual respect and acknowledgment that both of them were going to be in Darcy’s life long term. It hadn’t happened overnight, but now the two of them were something close to friends. Darcy was glad to see it. There was no way that she could ever marry a man who didn’t accept Smudge as part of her family.
She was a few handfuls of popcorn into the movie when Jon set his bowl aside and came over to sit close to her, his arm around her shoulders, his body warm against hers. He put her popcorn aside, too, so that he could pull her into him, but not before she grabbed another handful to munch on. Laying her head down against his chest, she watched Anthony Hopkins talking to Brad Pitt about what love really is.
“Trust, responsibility, taking the weight for your choices and feelings…”
“…and spending the rest of your life living up to them,” Darcy finished for Hopkins’ character. “And never, ever hurting the one you love.”
“I swear you could recite this in your sleep,” Jon said in a whisper.
“There’s a lot of truth in this movie.”
“Says the girl with more knowledge of death and the afterlife than anyone else I know,” he teased.
“And don’t you forget it. Now, shush. I’m watching a movie.”
His fingertips stroked her cheek, and she felt her heart skip a beat. The movie might be talking about what love was, but she was living it.
The scene they were watching took place inside the entryway to a huge mansion, the home of the main character, Bill Parrish. Anthony Hopkins’ character. It was just Hopkins and Pitt and a whole lot of discussion, and it was amazing how much emotion those two actors could squeeze out of a few lines of dialogue when no one else was there…
Except that blonde haired woman standing over by the staircase in the back of the shot.
Darcy sat up straighter, gently extricating herself from Jon’s embrace. Smudge woke up with a mrowl of displeasure but managed to hold onto his spot on her lap. Darcy stared, the interaction between Hopkins and Pitt forgotten, trying to place the woman she was seeing.
“Darcy?” Jon was saying. “What is it?”
“This isn’t right,” was all she could say. “That’s… not right.”
“What?” He turned his attention to where she was looking, at the movie playing out on the television screen. The shot had panned away from the stairs for the moment, away from the woman Darcy had seen.
“There’s someone in there who shouldn’t be.” Darcy realized exactly how crazy that sounded, but that was the truth of it. She’d seen this movie too many times to have forgotten something like that. There was someone in this scene who shouldn’t be there…
