Page 60 of V is for Valentine
“Okay. If your schedule allows.” He pushed off the doorjamb with a half-smile. “I’ll start hauling equipment downstairs.”
Always leave them wanting more.
Danny disappeared into the hall and Felicity realized that she did want more. More conversation. More time.
More Danny.
It kind of made her feel like punching a wall.
*
Felicity was itchingto engage. All he had to do was to draw a few more lines in the sand and she’d revert to form. He hoped. She’d already abandoned the cool demeanor she’d displayed when they’d walked to their cars yesterday, which was a small win. He couldn’t handle coolly polite Felix.
Although, truthfully, he didn’t know how long she could hold onto cool politeness. He had the trigger advantage. He knew how to punch her buttons. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to make her see him as something other than a passing fancy.
Why was fearless Felix so massively self-protective now? How had she messed up her life? And why did she find the possibility of developing a relationship with him as a potential threat?
He didn’t have time to get the answers in the time they had left—a sad fact he was having difficulty accepting, but he would go down swinging.
Thursday turned out to be a busy day, and it wasn’t long before there was more than a floor keeping him and Felix apart. Deke the city maintenance man arrived just after lunch and after warning them that he needed to shut down the furnace for a while, disappeared into the basement to take care of Bertha and the faulty lock.
Shortly after that, Bud and Pete stopped for another inspection on the way to a follow-up visit. And then Tess, who had a few free hours from the shelter stopped by to grab a roller and start slinging paint with her sister upstairs.
It somehow seemed fitting that Sandra would also arrive unexpectedly, but the expression on her face sent up some serious red flags.
“What happened?” Danny said, lowering the spray gun.
“Someone found out about the warehouse and Fork Horn and, well, everything. When I got the counteroffer on the lot next door, it was sky high.” She paused, then straightened the front of her jacket and said, “I didn’t tell a soul, Daniel. Someone from Fork Horn may have let their intentions leak out, but they’re not exactly local and they didn’t want the prices of the surrounding properties to rise any more than we did.”
“We can still get the lot, right?”
“We can. But it ticks me off that the price nearly doubled.”
“How about the lot on the other side?”
She gave her head a shake, and he muttered a low curse. The money spent on parking could be better spent on a heating system. “Go for it,” he said. “Before the price goes up again.”
“Will do. But…what if Fork Horn doesn’t lease from you?”
“It’s a gamble I’ll have to take, and regardless, I’ll need parking no matter who leases the space.”
“Right.” She headed for the door. “I’ll make the call in the car.” She stopped in the hall and looked back. “Did you tell anyone?”
“One person,” he said. And although he couldn’t imagine Felicity purposely ratting him out, it appeared that she’d been less than careful with the information he’d trusted her with.
And that kind of ruined his day.
*
There was somethingup with Danny. When they’d worked together on the main floor during the last hour of the day, he’d been oddly silent, and the silence continued as they cleaned their tools and shut down operations. Felicity attempted a couple of remarks, but he didn’t bite, instead answering succinctly and then once again going quiet.
This is what you wanted.
No. It wasn’t.
“What’s going on?” she finally asked when they reached the cars.
He looked down at her, keeping his hands in his pockets. The teasing light that usually shone in his eyes was gone, replaced by something distant and dark.
