by Jeannie Watt
Had Danny noticed?
Her foot slipped on one of the stair treads, and his hand landed on her lower back, steadying her.
“Two rescues in one day,” she murmured. “I owe you double.”
He didn’t respond, which she found troubling. Danny always responded.
Dear heavens, had he read her thoughts in the furnace room? Because she’d certainly been having them. Thoughts that is.
Felicity was already heading down the hallway to the office where she’d been working by the time Danny shut the basement door. Not that she was escaping. She needed to get the joint compound back in the bucket before it hardened and became unusable.
Too late.
She’d clean out the hardened gunk in the morning, but she could clean her tools.
He waited in the doorway while she wiped her tools and pounded the lid on the compound bucket. She wanted to tell him that she could find her own way out, but given the events of the day, she kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t until she’d put on her jacket and they were on their way to the door that he spoke.
“What did you want to say to me today? You know…before you chickened out?”
She gave him a sharp look. “I did not chicken out. I changed my mind.”
She had. And she didn’t regret it.
“Why?”
“It wasn’t that important, Danny.”
“Right.” He opened the front door and she turned off the lights. Bertha kicked in as she stepped outside as if to mock her.
“Are you heading straight home?” she asked Danny as the door shut behind them. There was a cold snap to the February air, and she breathed deeply. So much nicer than the stuffy atmosphere of the basement.
“Are there other options?” There was a curious note to his voice.
“Just wondering if you were going to disappear to wherever it is you go at night.”
They walked together down the frosty steps. Someone had spread sand on them during the day, so they weren’t slippery, but Felicity kept her bare hand on the railing until she reached the bottom. She didn’t particularly want to be rescued again.
“Want to come with me?”
“Are you serious?”
His mouth was curved in the classic Danny half-smile, but the expression in his gray eyes was unusually intent. “Looks like it.”
The sane thing would be to go home and catch the end of the basketball game with her dad. Felicity was too curious to do the sane thing—curious about what Danny did at night, and curious about why she’d come so close to sliding her arms around his neck and pulling his mouth down to hers.
Her best explanation was that she’d been rattled after being locked in a small place and grateful that he’d freed her.
That explanation wasn’t sitting right.
She needed more data.
Chapter Seven
Danny followed Felicity to her house, waiting in his car while she checked in with her dad and sister. She came out of the house less than a minute after going in, wrapping her scarf around her neck as she walked.
“The game is in overtime,” she said as she got into his car, bringing a swirl of cold air in with her.
“Guessing your dad won’t miss your company?”
“Not until the game is over,” she murmured as she fastened her seat belt.
“He likes having you close by,” Danny said as he put the car in gear. He understood where both Felix and Pete were coming from.
“He does. He wants me to move back to Holly.” She glanced over at him. “Or at the very least to Boise. I get it, but…”
“Too much going on in the city?”
“I’ve built a life there, Danny. A satisfying one.”
“That’s your only reason for not considering a change?”
“It’s reason enough,” she replied coolly.
Meaning there were other reasons she didn’t want to talk about.
He answered her with a shrug. “I enjoyed California, until I didn’t.”
“What changed?” she asked as he pulled to a stop at the end of the street, checked for traffic, then drove on.
“The dynamic with my partner. We did well until he and our third partner started dating.”
“Ouch. Two against one in the decision-making arena?”
“Exactly. I didn’t mind, except for—”
“When you did.”
He smiled. “We’re friends again, now that things have cooled off. I really pushed to sell when we got the offer, and it turned out to be our wisest move. New technology came along, and we would have been sidelined.”
“Tell me about your…” her words trailed momentarily when he turned right toward the river instead of left toward the residential area, “…business.” She craned her neck, then shot him a look. “There are residences down here?”
“Just hold tight.”
He drove past two smaller warehouses, then turned into the snowy lane leading to his building for the second time that night and slowed to a stop in front of it.
“This is your mystery house?” Felicity asked, her gaze fixed on the brick exterior of his future.
“Yep.”
“Big one.” She kept her profile to him as she continued to study the warehouse. “What’s the footage?”
“Twenty-five thousand. On the small side, but it’s over a hundred years old. They used it to store and ship wool among other things.”
“Interesting. You’re certainly going to rattle around in the place.” She finally looked at him. “Or is someone moving in with you?”
“Lots of someones, I hope. I’m dividing the place up and leasing it out.”
“A business venture, then, not a residence.”
“Yeah. I couldn’t see having the entire place to myself.”
“Can I see inside?”
“It’s not in great shape.”
“I’d still like to see.”
“Sure.”
He got out of the car and came around to Felicity’s side as she stepped out. The light over the entryway was dim and he made a note to replace it. The snow crunched beneath their feet as he followed the beaten path to the door. Once inside he turned to the metal box mounted on the wall just inside the door and used a forked key to turn on the lights.
“These lights were an innovation in the 60s, I think. One of the last improvements they made to the building before it was abandoned in the 90s.”
“You have to replace a few bulbs.”
Indeed, there was just enough light to see what a shamble the interior was.
“We used to come here as kids,” he said, moving farther into the cavernous space. “We had ramps over there.”
Felicity made a face. “No cracked skulls?”
“Not a one, but not for lack of trying. Thankfully, we wore helmets.”
Felicity moved forward, stopping in the center of the floor, and turning slowly, studying the interior from ceiling to floor. He pushed his hands deeper into his pockets, trying to see the place through her eyes.
“You’ve been tearing down those office spaces at night,” she guessed, pointing to the remaining framing and the piles of debris nearby.
“I put walls up during the day, take them out at night. That’s why I’m home late.”
“Are you under time constraints?”
“I’ve hired a crew to gut the place, check for hazards, and essentially give me a blank canvas to work with. They can’t come until the end of March, but I have a potential client I need to walk through before then, so I’m doing what I can to tidy up.”
“You should borrow my dad’s Bobcat loader.”
“Yes,” he said thoughtfully. “I should.”
“I take it you’ve been loading by hand?”
“I back my truck in next to where I’m working and load as I go.”
Felicity turned another slow circle, an approving smile hovering on her lips. “Potential, Danny. This has potential.”
“The one rub is parking. There�
�s rumor that Grimley is selling his fields and that there might be a planned community being built there. A small one, but prices will rise. I want to nail down another lot or two before that happens.” He scuffed his shoe against the scarred concrete. “I used most of what I received from the buyout to purchase this place outright. It’ll be my collateral for purchasing the other lots.”
Felicity gave a thoughtful nod, then hugged her arms to her chest. “Do you have a heating system?”
“It was pulled out for scrap. I have just enough money left to do some renovations in that regard.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been working in these temperatures. You must have no feeling in your hands when you go home.”
“I do not, but my feet are fine.” She gave him a questioning look and he explained, “I found my dad’s electric hunting socks. I used to tease him, but they’re kind of nice.”
“I would have so told everyone if you’d done that back in the day.”
“I know,” he said, looking down at her. It appeared as if her breath had caught before she abruptly looked away.
“I feel like I should help you with this, since you’re helping us.”
“When’s the next time you’ll be able to come home?”
She looked back at him. “It’ll be a while, unless I fly down for a weekend.”
“Then spend what little evening time you have with your dad. Like you said, he misses you.”
She smiled a little. He smiled back. Neither of them moved.
It should have felt awkward, standing in the middle of the cold warehouse, their gazes locked, their smiles gone, but awkward wasn’t the label Danny would have slapped on the heady atmosphere growing between them. It was as if Felicity was seeing him, finally, as something other than the troublesome guy next door. And, indeed, she was the first to move, reaching up to touch his face, just as she’d done a few days ago, only this time she allowed her hand to linger.
“When did you get so caring and empathetic?”
A question meant to take the edge off the moment. It didn’t work.
“A better question,” he replied, “might be when did you notice?”
Her eyes grew darker and he thought she might have leaned toward him before she dropped her hand and took a half step back.
“What’s happening with us, Danny?”
He didn’t pretend to not know what she was talking about. “The dance as old as time?”
“We do not make good dance partners.”
“Why not?”
Her fascinating mouth, the mouth he’d thought about since his last year of high school, curved upward at the corners. Now he touched her face, tracing the back of his fingers lightly down the side of her cheek. Her chin lifted ever so slightly.
“Because we have very different lives, different goals, different zip codes.”
“Different ways of approaching a challenge. One of us is flexible and the other is—”
He broke off, laughing as she gave him a push. He crossed his arms over his chest and folded inward, hunching his shoulders like a boxer protecting himself.
Felicity let out a huff of breath, which crystalized in front of her. “I’m realistic, Danny. And my instincts are good.”
“Speaking of instincts, I think you’ve been instinctively drawn to me—and fighting it—since you were—”
“Four?” she interrupted in a dangerous voice.
“Not that I blame you. A handsome young man wearing a Rugrats T-shirt and light-up sneakers ventures onto your property, and you sense that all may be lost if you don’t erect a boundary and scare the dickens out of him with a three-headed dog.”
“Yes. That’s exactly how I remember it.”
She pushed her hands into her pockets and gave a sigh. “I’m tired, Danny.”
“Yeah,” he said in a softer voice. “It’s been a night. I’ll take you home.”
“Thank you for the rescue. And thank you for showing me this. I am impressed.”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell your family just yet.”
“I can keep a secret. It was Trevor, not me, who blabbed about your liking an older woman.”
“She was thirteen.”
“You were eleven.”
“It’s rotten when someone knows your entire life history.”
“Except for the lost years, birth to four.” She stepped through the door into the crisp night, but instead of heading to the car while he locked up, she walked toward the river.
He came to stand beside her on the edge of the concrete slab, the remnants of an old loading dock, where he felt her pull in a breath.
“Do you know what I would do if I’d just met you?” she asked without looking at him. She leaned closer, so that their arms touched.
“The same thing I would do?”
“It can’t happen, Danny.” There wasn’t much conviction in her voice.
“Because it would mess with your perfect life?”
“Yes. That.” She gave a rueful laugh and turned toward him, studying his face in the dim light as if seeking the answer to a question that had been eating at her. “My life isn’t perfect, but it’s good, and I don’t want to change.”
“Are you going to kiss me anyway?” He slid his hands along her waist, felt her taut muscles give beneath her winter jacket.
“Thinking about it.” She tilted her chin upward.
“Despite the fact that it can’t happen?”
She made a little shoulder movement as an indecisive sound escaped her lips.
“What if it changes things?” He wanted it to change things.
“I won’t let it.” Her breath was warm on his lips and his hold tightened.
“You think you have that power?”
“I do. I is for Iron Will.”
“You skipped letters again.” He touched his mouth to hers, felt her lips part.
Felicity slid her hands around his neck, under his coat, her fingers soft against the skin on the back of his neck as he deepened the kiss. And while she might have an iron will, it didn’t stop her from melting into him.
When he finally lifted his head, she dropped her chin and leaned back, as if needing to collect her thoughts before meeting his gaze. He loosened his hold, and her arms slid from around his neck.
“That was good,” she said.
“I agree.”
She raised her chin and for the first time since the furnace room, he read a hint of indecision in her eyes. “This may have an effect on our rivalry.”
“I don’t see that happening,” he said, sensing that she needed to hear the words.
“Good. I’d miss the thrill of battle.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” He stepped back, giving her space, pretending that the blood wasn’t pounding in his veins. He’d expected kissing Felix to be a heady experience, but this kiss had surpassed expectations. Which was why he kept things casual.
“Take you home?”
“Yes,” she agreed, digging her hands into her pockets. “It’s time.”
*
Of course Danny was a world-class kisser.
Their gazes met as they approached their respective front doors, separated by parallel driveways, a fence, and wide strips of snowy lawn. The distance did not keep Felicity from feeling another kick of attraction as she fiddled with her keys. Fifteen minutes had passed since they’d kissed, and she was still dealing with the aftermath.
Danny no longer seemed like Danny. He seemed like a guy with great bone structure and wide shoulders and a wicked sense of humor. The kind of guy she’d date in a heartbeat had they been in Seattle and hadn’t had a lifetime of history behind them. If his parents weren’t neighbors and it wouldn’t be awkward.
When have you ever let awkwardness slow you down?
Touché. But at the moment, she’d take any excuse she could get to slow down.
Danny waited until she unlocked the door and quietly stepped inside the house before opening his own door. The living room w
as dark except for the nightlight in the hall which was supposed to keep her from killing herself on the journey from the front door to her bedroom, but she could tell that her dad was sound asleep. He shifted in his chair as she turned off the porch light, and Felicity waited until he stilled before moving across the room with light steps.
Although her father was more comfortable sleeping in his chair than in his bed, there were disadvantages to the living room becoming a bedroom. There were also disadvantages to having to go to work the next morning with Danny and pretend that it simply didn’t matter that they’d kissed.
Because it did.
After literally decades of nurturing a comfortable adversarial relationship, they’d introduced a new facet. While standing on the loading dock overlooking the river, it had seemed inevitable that they would kiss and break the tension that had been growing between them. Giving into the temptation would solve everything by proving that there was no chemistry between them.
Unfortunately, there had been chemistry, along with a smoldering promise of something heady and challenging. That kiss…
Words failed her.
Felicity went into her bedroom and shrugged out of her coat and shoes, then crossed the hall to the bathroom, snapping on the light and taking a moment to study her reflection in the mirror above the sink.
You made a judgment error tonight, didn’t you?
She hadn’t even been the one to end the kiss. Maybe because she knew it was the only time their lips would meet, and she wanted to get all her questions about Danny answered, once and for all.
Except that now she had new questions.
Questions that would remain unanswered because she’d learned a lesson tonight—don’t kiss Danny.
She already had a plan of action, formulated on the silent drive home. She’d spend the next eight days re-establishing their former relationship, and she could do it, because she hadn’t been kidding when she’d said, “I is for Iron Will.” She’d used her willpower to get herself exactly where she wanted to be—after the Sean hiccup, that is. Lesson learned there, and perhaps she needed to focus on said lesson. Do not let a man come between you and your retirement fund.
She snorted at her reflection as she approached the sink and started the water.
