Page 22 of V is for Valentine
“I’m focused and…” she set a screw with a whir of the drill “…exacting.”
Which, coupled with an unyielding stance on certain issues, was a safety measure. The one time she’d been seduced into straying from her life plan, she’d run headlong into trouble. Trouble she was still recovering from.
“Hey. It doesn’t matter what I think.”
“You’re right.” She lowered her drill and looked over her shoulder at him.
“How late do you think we’ll be tonight?” he asked without looking at her.
Hot date?
The words wouldn’t come out and she wondered why. Was it because she didn’t want to know or because she didn’t want to get too personal? The latter was a stretch because they’d never had many boundaries. Secrets, yes. Boundaries…not a thing.
“The usual. Six or seven,” she said casually. He’d arrived an hour before her that morning, true to his word, and had been hard at work when she arrived, yawning, with her giant coffee mug and donuts. Velma had offered a heart cookie, gratis, in addition to the donuts, but Felicity had turned her down. She was not going to encourage Danny on the Valentine’s front. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d said she did not look favorably on the day and she didn’t want to explain why. It was too chagrining.
“Let’s do something afterward.”
Felicity almost dropped her drill. “You’re kidding.”
“No.”
She scowled at him, waiting for the “gotcha” that was sure to come if she agreed, and quite possibly if she didn’t. “I’m meeting up with my sisters at Dad’s place.”
“Another night.” He lowered his drill. “You name it.”
“No.” She managed to sound decisive, not defensive. Somehow. Why was the idea of going out with a lifelong rival, the man who was saving the day for her father, so threatening?
He gave a careless shrug and then maneuvered another wallboard into place. “Rigid.”
“I just don’t want to go out with you.”
“It’s not going out, going out.”
“It’s just going out.”
“It’s two associates enjoying a nonwork environment.” He shot her a look. “It’s not a trap, Felix.”
“Feels like one,” she said matter-of-factly, again addressing the wall so that he couldn’t see that she’d been knocked off her game for a second or two.
Before he could reply a rattle on the front door brought their heads around. “Expecting company?” he asked.
“This had better not be my father,” she muttered as she headed down the nearly finished hallway to the entry area. Just inside the front doors stood a man brushing snow off his expensive overcoat and a woman in an equally expensive coat and fur topped boots.
“Felicity!” the woman said, pressing her hand to the front of her coat.
“Hi, Mrs. Braddock. Mr. Klein.” She smiled at the two city council members. “What brings you by?” Her dad and Mr. Klein were not exactly best buddies and her spider senses were tingling.
“We were in the area—” Mr. Klein began before being cut off by Mrs. Braddock.
“And so excited to see what progress has been made.” She brought her gloved hands together and made a show of looking around the unfinished entryway.
“Exactly,” Mr. Klein said on a faintly sour note.
Despite Felicity helping his son, Cade, with his studies during high school, Kenneth Klein had never been particularly friendly with the Evans family. Mrs. Braddock, on the other hand, had warmed to the family after adopting animals from Tess’s shelter for her grandsons.
“Are you going to be done by the fifteenth?” she asked on a note of concern.
“We are,” Felicity said with casual confidence.
