Page 44 of V is for Valentine
“I made it through today.”
With six walls between them.
“Maybe this is more than a one-day thing,” he said.
Her jaw muscles tightened as her gaze snapped up to his. “What exactly are you saying, Danny?”
“That if we came at this with open minds, I think we could…” His words trailed off as he waited for her to get his drift.
Felicity’s eyes grew wide as she pointed a finger first at herself, then at him. “You don’t mean…” Her eyes went wide and then she put a hand over her mouth to smother a laugh. “I walked right into that one.”
“I’m serious.”
The smile faded from her eyes, which narrowed as she studied him for a long moment. “You are,” she said slowly.
And now that he’d given her something to think about, he was leaving before she dug in her heels or fought back. He hoped to demolish the rest of the framing in his warehouse that evening. Some hardcore bashing would feel good after a day of thinking about Felix while carefully feathering a second coat of compound over the joint seams that Tess and Stevie had sanded.
“I’m not falling for you, Danny.” She called the words as he reached the door, a note of challenge in her voice. “It wouldn’t work,” she asserted.
He stopped and turned back, even though he’d promised himself he wouldn’t. “What if it does?”
“No offense, but it won’t.”
Danny nodded, knowing better than to voice the “We’ll see.”
They would see, but there was no sense in drawing battle lines now.
*
Let him go,let him go, let him go.
Felicity dropped the broom and headed to the door, stepping out into the frigid air. Danny was halfway down the stairs. In her post-Sean life, she refrained from mopping up unfinished business before she’d given the matter serious thought and decided on the most logical course of action. But this was Danny, and the normal rules did not apply.
He turned, making no pretense of not knowing why she was chasing him down, which gave her nothing to work with. She really needed him to make a quip.
No quip came forth.
She sucked in a breath of very cold air. “We’ll talk tomorrow,” she said, annoyed at the tactical error she’d just made by letting her emotions get the best of her.
“There’s more to say?”
“There’s always more to say, Danny.”
“Say it now.”
“I need to think.” She wasn’t about to make another tactical error.
He started back up the stairs toward her, and it was all she could do to stay rooted to the spot where she now stood, too stubborn not to continue the face-off. He stopped so close to her that the toes of their work boots almost touched. She tilted her head up to meet his gaze and instantly realized what a mistake that was, because there was no way she could look away from his intent gray gaze as he brought his hands up to frame her face.
He paused, clearly giving her time to step back, but Felicity held her ground, and when, an eternity later, his mouth found hers, she met the kiss full-on. Her fists clenched at her sides, because she was not going to cling to him, but she was going to kiss him.
Did that make her a winner or a loser, or simply a woman standing in the chilly February air, kissing the man who’d driven her crazy since she’d been a toddler?
“There’s something to think about,” he said after raising his head. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He started back down the stairs as Felicity fought to find her voice. By the time he reached the bottom step it was too late to save the situation, so she turned on her heel and marched back into the school, letting the door shut behind her.
Why did he have to be so good with his lips?
