Page 50 of The Scenic Route
The women looked at one another and shrugged.
“Fair enough,” Daisy said.
“Hey,” Chris protested, and Daisy gave his knee a reassuring squeeze, although Felicity noticed she didn’t retract her statement.
“Congratulations!” Ellie cheered, which set off a round of well-wishing from everyone, even a guy she was pretty sure she’d never met who was sitting by Rory.
“Ian?” she guessed. “I’m Felicity, and this is Bennett.”
The gorgeous man lifted his chin in greeting as Felicity wondered what was in the water around Simpson to produce so many attractive people.Maybe they’re all vampires, she thought, punchy with exhaustion, and barely held back her giggles.
“Were youplanningto get married?” Chris asked, leaning back and throwing an arm over the back of Daisy’s chair. “Last I saw you, you were leaving me in your dust on Moose Peak Road. Thought you were chasing a skip?”
Felicity held up her fork in a shrug. “We followed him to Vegas, he disappeared, and we figured we’d get married.” It wastechnicallytrue, although the timeline was a bit wonky in this condensed version.
“No ring?” Ellie asked, eyeing their bare left hands.
“Nope.” Felicity used the take-a-bite trick to give her a few seconds to think—plus she was actually hungry. “Too dangerous in our lines of work. We could lose that finger if we caught it on something.” She wiggled the digit in question.
“Ian got me a panic room instead of a ring,” Rory said, looking at her husband fondly. He grinned back at her, looking smug.
Behind her hand, Daisy mouthedMy ideato Felicity, who took another bite to hide her laugh.
“Did you follow your skip back from Vegas?” Callum asked, apparently not that interested in the current ring conversation.
“Nope,” Felicity said, feeling that pang of guilt again. Even though Bennett had made some good points about what might’ve happened if they’d stayed in the car rather than go inside the bar, it was still her fault they’d lost the skip’s trail. She lowered her voice, even though no one was sitting at any of the nearby tables. “Clint was with him, so we’re assuming they’ll both come back home to roost.”
“You know where he lives.” Callum dipped his chin in what Felicity took as a gesture of approval of their actions.
She grinned up at Bennett. “That’s what B said, but it sounded much more menacing.”
Callum looked slightly offended. “I can do menacing.”
Sharing an amused look with Felicity, Lou patted his forearm. “You’re very menacing when you want to be, sweetie.”
“What’s the new plan?” Daisy asked, and everyone looked toward Felicity again. She went to put more food in her mouth to give her time to think, but her plate was empty. Laying her fork down mournfully, she delayed by wiping her mouth with her napkin instead.
“Back to surveillance,” she said just a touch gloomily. They’d been so close to bringing Dino in, so it was hard to go back to square one. From the long faces of the murder ladies, they were hoping for more action as well.
“Wait.” Lou sat up straight. “Do you have a place to stay? You can come home with us.”
Felicity shook her head with a smile. “Thank you, but we’ve reserved at a place in Rosehill.”
“Are you sure?” Lou looked a little disappointed. “We have plenty of room, and Callum makes a mean chili.”
Chris coughed a laugh, and Lou looked at him, confused. “What?”
“They’re honeymooners,” he reminded her gently, although a smile still lurked in his eyes. “They probably want their privacy.”
“Oh!” Rory said, sounding startled, as if she’d just had a revelation. “Because they’ll want to—” She broke off and studied the checked tablecloth while Chris fought another laugh. Ian’s eyes were fond when he looked at his wife, and he gave her a gentle side hug.
By this time, Felicity’s face was flaming hot, so she knew it had to be bright red. She didn’t dare look at Bennett, since he had to be just as embarrassed.
“Okay!” Felicity said too loudly as she stood. Bennett followed her up, quickly dropping money on the table to pay for their meal and tip, as if he was as eager to leave as she was. “Good to see all of you. I’ll keep you updated. Chris, we still need to have that talk. Have a good night! Bye!” She spilled all the words out as quickly as possible, not giving them any time to respond as she grabbed Bennett’s hand and left the table, quickly skirting the large group and making her way through the restaurant.
Once she was outside, she took a couple deep breaths of the bracingly cold mountain air and turned to Bennett, surprised to find him smirking at her.
“Zip it,” she warned, and he laughed out loud.
