Page 65 of V is for Valentine
He gave her a humorless smile. “Don’t worry about it, Felix. You finally hammered your message into my head.”
We can still be friends.
She successfully swallowed the words, only to blurt, “I don’t like things being like this—”
“But it’s the way they have to be,” he finished for her.
“Danny…” She pressed her lips together.
He considered her for a long, silent moment, then pushed off the doorframe and continued down the hall toward the front door, his boots echoing on the hardwood floors.
It’s the way they need to be.
For now. She’d fix them later, bring them back to friendship…if she could.
*
Stevie was trudgingup the snowy sidewalk to her car with Neville in her arms when Danny came down the school steps.
“I thought you guys already left,” he said as she opened the car door with one hand and popped Neville inside with the other.
“Neville saw a cat while I was loading him in the car.”
Danny laughed. He hadn’t known the terrier long, but he knew the little guy had a penchant for adventure.
“Thankfully,” Stevie continued after the door was closed and Neville was safely contained, “Jason has taught him to come to a whistle so I didn’t have to chase him across town like I would have a couple months ago.” She laughed. “Like Idida couple months ago.” She looked him up and down. “Are you leaving?”
“Just heading to the shop to help Clara with the books. It’s her first time handling the billing, and I have to show her a couple things. I’ll be back soon.”
“You and Feliss seem to be having a day. Did she soap up your car windows again?”
He smiled as he shook his head, making it clear he wasn’t going to talk about it.
Stevie smiled back, accepting defeat, and reached for the door handle.
“There’s nothing wrong between your sister and me,” he said before she opened the door. His issues with Felix, and hers with him, didn’t need to involve her sisters. “I’ve been preoccupied with other matters.”
He was lying through his teeth, of course, something he rarely did, but it wasn’t like he could say, “Your sister is shutting me down because some other guy burned her.”
For one thing, he didn’t know for certain if that was the reason she was shutting him down, but it was at the top of his list of possibilities. Given the way she kissed him, he assumed that she felt the same spark of attraction that he did, but despite the heat and chemistry, she didn’t want to take it further. He had to accept that.
But it wasn’t easy.
“Feliss must be dealing with issues, too,” Stevie said pointedly. “Guess you’re just having a mutually preoccupied day.”
He could tell that she didn’t believe that for one minute, but he was grateful that she played the game.
He patted the roof of her car. “Thanks.”
She started the engine as Danny got into his car. He stuck the keys in the ignition and turned the engine over, but he didn’t put the car in gear.
He and Felicity had been through a lot during their years of play and counterplay, but this was the first time he’d felt the chill of impending defeat.
He didn’t like it but there wasn’t a lot he could do that he hadn’t already done.
*
“She’s still beingfinicky,” Deke said to Felicity after tinkering with Bertha. He’d shown up minutes after Danny had returned and headed to the area where the painting supplies were laid out without a word to her. “If you didn’t need the heat to dry the paint, I’d pull the blower motor and take it to the shop to rebuild.”
