“If he’s interested.” Jeremy rubbed the line of his jaw. “I got this one off of eBay for about one thousand, used.”
I nearly choked. “One thousand dollars?”
“Yep. It was a pretty good deal, actually.”
“Sounds like the custom woodworking business is a pretty expensive hobby, Mr. Remington.”
“Yep.” He blew out a breath. “It’s a good thing it’s not a hobby for me. It’s my career.”
“Oh, yeah. Of course.” I nodded a bit too vigorously to cover my guilt. There, I’d gone and stuck my foot in my mouth again, insulting him once more. “I’m sorry,” I murmured.
I must have looked as guilty as I felt because Jeremy laughed. “No apology necessary, Doc.”
Doc? I hadn’t decided if I liked that particular nickname coming from someone as hot as Jeremy, but I’d always appreciated a good nickname in general. Harrison and I had never seemed to come up with nicknames for each other. He called me Meg and I called him Harrison. Not exactly creative. We certainly couldn’t call each other Doc. That would be weird. But coming from Jeremy, the nickname held a certain charm.
“Okay, so I guess we should get started,” I said lamely, wanting to change the subject and begin before I obsessed about my new nickname all night like a crazy person.
“We’re acting, right?” Jeremy asked.
I nodded. “Memorizing a scene. Were you ever in speech class?” I pulled the two copies of P&P out of my bag.
“I was in Drama Club.” Jeremy cracked a smile.
“You were?” I frowned. I’d been in that Drama Club too.
“Yeah, you don’t remember?” He narrowed his eyes on me.
I rubbed my forehead as if that would make me recall more details. “I remember being in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum my freshman year.”
“Yeah, I was in that too. I played Hero.”
“You did?” Why didn’t I remember that? My memory had always been spotty, which was why we needed to begin practicing right away. Memorizing the scene was my worst skill in the games. We’d need to practice as much as possible.
“Yeah, you were one of the courtesans, right?” Jeremy asked.
“Yes, believable, wasn’t it?” I snorted. “I think Mrs. Randall was just throwing me a bone.”
“Mrs. Randall was a great teacher. I’ll never forget how she made us all memorize the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.”
“I still remember it,” I said, sighing. For some reason it was burned into my memory.
“So do I.”
“You do?” I asked, surprise evident in my voice. I wished I could hit rewind and say it again with less disbelief.
Jeremy cleared his throat. “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon.”
I took a deep breath and shook my head. “Everyone remembers that part. You—”
“Who is already sick and pale with grief,” Jeremy continued. “That thou her maid art far more fair than she. Be not her maid, since she is envious. Her vestal livery is but sick and green. And none but fools do wear it.”
I whistled. “Okay, color me impressed.”
He took a bow. “Now you.”
“Seriously?” I eyed him, one eyebrow arched.
“Yep, you said you remembered it. Go ahead. Prove it.”
I expelled a deep breath. “Very well.” Prove it, I would. I clasped my hands together and stepped up on a nearby two-by-four. “Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love. And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”
Jeremy stepped closer to me. “Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?”
My pulse quickened at his nearness, but I pressed on. “’Tis but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot, nor arm nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. O, be some other name. What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet.” I hopped from the piece of wood and took a bow.
Jeremy clapped for me. I blushed and bowed again. I was slightly surprised that I remembered every word, but I was completely taken aback by Jeremy’s recitation. Every time I saw him, he managed to shatter my pre-conceived notions of him a little more. And usually made me feel like an ass in the process.
“What scene are we acting out in Pride and Prejudice?” he asked.
I bit my lip, trying to squelch my smile. “Well, Harrison and Lacey are doing the famous you-must-allow-me-to-tell-you-how-ardently-I-admire-you scene.”
“Predictable,” Jeremy said, shoving his hands in his front jean pockets. I’d never been jealous of pockets before, but those things were sidled right up next to his... No! Inappropriate and not helping. I needed to get a grip on myself.
“It is predictable, isn’t it?” I replied, shaking away my indecent thoughts about his jeans.
He rubbed a hand through his dark hair. “So you don’t want to do the same scene as them, I take it?”
“Well, I already have the lines memorized, but it’s sort of a moot point because...” I glanced up at him sheepishly.
“Because you have all the lines memorized, don’t you?”
“Sorta.” I scrunched up my nose.
“Okay, so which scene are you thinking of?”
I sighed deeply. “The one at the end where Darcy comes back and he and Lizzy are already together, and they talk about what they’ve mistaken in each other the whole time.” I clasped my hands together again. That scene never failed to get me. Just thinking about it made me happy.
“Sounds good,” he said with a nod.
“It’s a great scene,” I replied. “I tried to convince Harrison to do it to begin with, but he refused. He said that scene was the one that made the whole book the most like a romance novel, and he didn’t think it would be taken seriously in competition.”
“That’s dumb,” Jeremy replied. “Isn’t that scene sort of the whole point of the novel?”
“Oh, my God, yes! My exact argument.” Jeremy was really impressing me with not only his knowledge of the book, but also his lack of disrespect for my favorite scene ever written.
“It’s a lot of words,” I cautioned, studying his face as I handed him his copy of the book with a flag poking out of the correct page.
He grinned again. “Good thing I have an excellent memory.”
Three hours later, Huckleberry had fallen asleep in the dog bed and was snoring, and Jeremy and I had gone over the scene again and again. We mostly read from the book, but Jeremy had memorized the first few paragraphs by the end of it. He really did have a fantastic memory.
I glanced at my phone. “I’d better go. I have a lot to do tomorrow.”
“No dinner?” he asked, a frown on his face.
“Not tonight.”
“Rain check?” He stuck his hands in his pockets again. I tried not to notice.
“Sure.” I gathered my bag and opened the door. “I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon for the next lesson.”