Page 39 of V is for Valentine
Felicity turned another slow circle, an approving smile hovering on her lips. “Potential, Danny. This has potential.”
“The one rub is parking. There’s rumor that Grimley is selling his fields and that there might be a planned community being built there. A small one, but prices will rise. I want to nail down another lot or two before that happens.” He scuffed his shoe against the scarred concrete. “I used most of what I received from the buyout to purchase this place outright. It’ll be my collateral for purchasing the other lots.”
Felicity gave a thoughtful nod, then hugged her arms to her chest. “Do you have a heating system?”
“It was pulled out for scrap. I have just enough money left to do some renovations in that regard.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been working in these temperatures. You must have no feeling in your hands when you go home.”
“I do not, but my feet are fine.” She gave him a questioning look and he explained, “I found my dad’s electric hunting socks. I used to tease him, but they’re kind of nice.”
“I would have so told everyone if you’d done that back in the day.”
“I know,” he said, looking down at her. It appeared as if her breath had caught before she abruptly looked away.
“I feel like I should help you with this, since you’re helping us.”
“When’s the next time you’ll be able to come home?”
She looked back at him. “It’ll be a while, unless I fly down for a weekend.”
“Then spend what little evening time you have with your dad. Like you said, he misses you.”
She smiled a little. He smiled back. Neither of them moved.
It should have felt awkward, standing in the middle of the cold warehouse, their gazes locked, their smiles gone, but awkward wasn’t the label Danny would have slapped on the heady atmosphere growing between them. It was as if Felicity was seeing him, finally, as something other than the troublesome guy next door. And, indeed, she was the first to move, reaching up to touch his face, just as she’d done a few days ago, only this time she allowed her hand to linger.
“When did you get so caring and empathetic?”
A question meant to take the edge off the moment. It didn’t work.
“A better question,” he replied, “might be when did you notice?”
Her eyes grew darker and he thought she might have leaned toward him before she dropped her hand and took a half step back.
“What’s happening with us, Danny?”
He didn’t pretend to not know what she was talking about. “The dance as old as time?”
“We do not make good dance partners.”
“Why not?”
Her fascinating mouth, the mouth he’d thought about since his last year of high school, curved upward at the corners. Now he touched her face, tracing the back of his fingers lightly down the side of her cheek. Her chin lifted ever so slightly.
“Because we have very different lives, different goals, different zip codes.”
“Different ways of approaching a challenge. One of us is flexible and the other is—”
He broke off, laughing as she gave him a push. He crossed his arms over his chest and folded inward, hunching his shoulders like a boxer protecting himself.
Felicity let out a huff of breath, which crystalized in front of her. “I’m realistic, Danny. And my instincts are good.”
“Speaking of instincts, I think you’ve been instinctively drawn to me—and fighting it—since you were—”
“Four?” she interrupted in a dangerous voice.
“Not that I blame you. A handsome young man wearing aRugratsT-shirt and light-up sneakers ventures onto your property, and you sense that all may be lost if you don’t erect a boundary and scare the dickens out of him with a three-headed dog.”
