Page 46 of V is for Valentine
“I owe you,” she said as she took the glass of wine Stevie poured and then passed her way.
“It isn’t like we all don’t have a stake in this,” Tess said.
“We do,” Felicity agreed. “But you guys aren’t on vacation, like me.”
“Heck of a vacay,” Tess said.
“I’ll still have two weeks to use later this year,” she said. “I consider this time well spent.”
“As do we.” Stevie met Tess’s gaze and raised an eyebrow. Tess nodded.
“What?” Felicity asked.
“What’s the deal with you and Danny?” Stevie asked.
Felicity was glad she wasn’t still eating because she might have choked. “There’s no deal.” She’d taken pains to make sure that everything appeared normal between herself and Danny.
Stevie and Tess exchanged a look.
“No deal,” Felicity repeated. “We were civil to one another all day.” She’d made certain that their paths hadn’t crossed too often—no small feat in the old high school—being uncertain of what he might do or say while her sisters were nearby. She needn’t have worried because he’d been as distant and professional as she was until Stevie and Tess left the building. Which made her wonder what her sisters were talking about.
“Yes,” Tess said. “You were civil like two people who’ve had a fight just before appearing at a big public event.”
Or two people who had kissed.
“I don’t know what to say,” she muttered, focusing on the last of the spaghetti.
As the big sister of the outfit, she made it a point to appear like she knew what she was doing, and after they’d lost their mom, she’d doubled her efforts in that regard. Yes, she’d felt like she’d fallen down a dark hole after their mother’s death. Yes, she’d cried herself to sleep more than once, but she’d wanted her sisters to know that it was possible to be strong in the face of immeasurable sorrow, so she’d tried hard to never show weakness.
“Tell us it’s none of our business,” Tess said.
“Would it do any good?” Felicity asked.
“No,” Stevie said in a mild voice.
They were all working together again tomorrow, and Felicity honestly didn’t know if it was better to come clean or hold her ground. The last thing she wanted was for her sisters to be watching them, but it appeared they were doing that anyway.
“We kissed.”
“Told you,” Stevie said, holding out a palm.
“You’ll have to wait,” Tess replied. “My purse is in the car.”
“Wait.” Felicity set her fork on her empty plate. “You made a bet?”
“Small one,” Stevie said with a sniff.
Felicity rolled her eyes and reached for her wine. She was suddenly very tired. She took a swallow, then set the glass down again. She was so exhausted that if she drank the way she felt like drinking, she’d probably be face down in the empty plate within fifteen minutes. And the crazy thing was that most of the exhaustion came from dodging Danny that day, so that her sisters wouldn’t suspect anything, rather than from physical labor.
That worked well.
“I played this wrong,” she admitted. “It’s just hard to wrap my head around kissing Danny, and I wanted to keep it to myself until I…”
What?
She hadn’t a clue.
“Come on, guys,” she said, once again lifting her glass. “You can see where this kind of hit me out of left field.”
