“Marrying you.”
“Ha. Funny. On your current revised list, not on the guilt-ridden list the morning after you seduced me at eighteen.”
“I could argue who seduced whom, but I won’t.” He pointed his fork at her. “You have a raspberry hiding under your whipped cream.”
“I’m saving it for last.” She smiled at him. “See? I’ve learned to save.”
“I never doubted you.”
“There are actually two raspberries hiding under the cream. Do you want one? I’ll share.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Felicity saw he wasn’t oblivious to the undercurrents of their conversation. Not that either of them had taken any pains to be subtle. He insisted on paying for lunch. “Least I can do since you’re putting me up,” he said.
“For how long?”
“Let’s see what happens, shall we?” He smiled in that heart-stopping, sexy Gabe way. “One of the perks of having sold my business. I’m not on a tight schedule. I have time.”
Nineteen
Gabe sat in the shade on Felicity’s deck while she got ready for tonight’s party. He had misgivings about his abrupt return to Knights Bridge but, so far, no regrets. It might not be the easiest attitude to explain, but he was good with it.
He’d feel better if he had a true fix on what Nadia was up to. He considered checking with her ex-husband, but he doubted that would get him anywhere—and it would be inappropriate. David Ainsworth was brilliant and could be incredibly charming, but the guy was a soul-sucking narcissist who’d dropped Nadia when he no longer needed her. He’d made sure she believed it was her fault he was gone. He’d had her convinced she hadn’t been supportive enough. She’d been too preoccupied with her own career. She didn’t share his interests.
All nonsense.
Gabe had never gotten involved with their personal lives, but he’d worked with Nadia long enough and knew David well enough to have seen what was going on.
Felicity joined him on the deck. She’d put on a simple dress for the evening in the same shade of green as her eyes. “You look comfortable,” she said.
He smiled. “I’m getting lazy. I haven’t worked a full schedule in weeks.”
“It’s good to relax.”
“I thought I might stop by Mark and Jess’s before the party, but I’ll see them tomorrow.”
“It’s nice she and Olivia are having babies so close to each other,” Felicity said. “Marriage, babies, Knights Bridge. Does that thought give you hives?”
Gabe grinned at her. “Only a few. You? Not Knights Bridge, obviously.”
“Marriage, babies?” She sat across from him at the table. “Haven’t thought too much about them.”
He gave her a skeptical look.
She snorted. “It’s true!”
“Been too busy, huh?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. I have a lot going on with the house and work.”
Gabe stretched out his legs, enjoying the breeze and the sounds of the river. “You didn’t buy the house because you’ve given up on marriage?”
“I don’t see how there’s a cause and effect there. You’ve bought multiple properties. Have you given up on marriage?”
“They were investments.”
“But you lived in them,” she said. “That makes them homes, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know. Does it?”
“Now you’re getting serious,” she said lightly. “I suppose there’s a difference between a place to live and a true home. This place was special for you and your family when you were growing up. I always felt that when I was here as a kid. It’s different now.”
“It’s a wonder my happy-go-lucky parents didn’t accidentally set fire to the woods.”
“They were great together.”
“Yeah,” Gabe said. “We did all right as a family, all considered. It was tough losing my mother. I can see her out here yelling at Mark and me to leave a bees’ nest alone.”
Felicity laughed softly. “I bet it wasn’t you boys she was worried about.”
“Oh, definitely it was the bees. What about your family? You still all get along well?”
“We do. My parents are enjoying retirement and being grandparents. I thought they might move to a warm climate full-time, but they’d miss the kids.”
“Would they miss Knights Bridge?”
“They would, but it was never home the way it is for the Frosts and the Sloans.”
“And the way it was for my grandfather,” Gabe said. “Mark and I never hated it here. We just wanted out, a chance to do something with our lives that we felt we couldn’t do in Knights Bridge.”
“You didn’t see a life here for yourselves. Mark does now, obviously.” Felicity narrowed her eyes. “And you never will.”
He pointed at her. “We’re talking about you.”
“I like being back here. It’s not as expensive as Boston, for one thing. Anyway, I need to pack up for the party.” She started to her feet. “Take a nap if you’d like.”
“I can help.”
“Great. You can carry the badgers.”
“Well, why not?”
Gabe swung to his feet, reenergized as he followed Felicity inside. The badger box wasn’t heavy, but it was awkward to carry and fit into the back of Felicity’s Land Rover. She’d have managed on her own. He had no doubts about that, but it had to be easier with his help—not that she’d ever admit it. She told him as much when she handed him another box.
He made no comment. It wasn’t just that she was independent and self-reliant—traits he admired. She was also stubborn, defensive and determined not to show any weakness—at least to him. He noticed it more than he had last weekend, or she was more that way now after having had a few days to consider what had gone on between them. Gabe found himself wanting to break down her reserve—penetrate the protective shell she’d put up around her—and get her to be herself around him, without reservation, without fear that he might criticize or lecture her. He didn’t want her hiding behind her defenses. He wanted her to feel free to tell him anything, not just here and there but all the time.
He needed to tell her that, he decided. But not now, when she was on the job.
“I’m not having dinner,” she said as they went inside. “I’ll sneak a few hors d’oeuvres tonight. There’s stuff in the fridge if you’re hungry.”
“I’m still working off that chocolate cream pie. I can wait until the party.”
She glanced at her phone and then looked up. “We still have some time. Want to take a quick walk?”
It struck Gabe as an excellent idea. “Smarter than taking a nap,” he said.
“Napping isn’t the best way to burn off pie.”
He hadn’t necessarily been thinking about napping. Something in his expression must have given him away because Felicity turned red and bolted down the hall, muttering something about changing her shoes. Probably didn’t think he’d noticed her outsize reaction, but he had. And it was good. In fact, it was very good. He preferred to have her thinking about whiling away a few hours in bed with him instead of reading a book on the deck while he took a nap.
Maybe that explained her defenses. Maybe it wasn’t about stirring up their past. Maybe it was about stirring up their ideas about the future. There’d always been a certain amount of sexual tension between them, but, except for that one night as teenagers, it had never dominated their relationship. It’d never been the one thing they’d thought of. Their friendship had taken precedence. They’d accepted without question they weren’t right for each other as romantic partners and hadn’t wanted to impede each other in that department.
What if some guy picked her up tonight for the party? Met her at the library?
Gabe put the thought out of his mind. He wasn’t one for wasting time ruminat
ing about something he couldn’t control or influence, particularly when it was something that likely wouldn’t happen. Every vibe he got from Felicity told him she didn’t have a man in her life. He hadn’t gone so far as to ask his brother, but Mark would have said something by now, if only to keep his younger brother from messing up her romantic life with his presence.
Gabe went to his room and dug a pair of trail shoes out of his bag.
Five minutes later, he and Felicity were walking along the river in a comfortable but pointed silence. They paused on the covered bridge and leaned against the rail, looking down at the water. “I often come out here to think,” she said. “Something about the sounds of the water and the walking itself anchors my mind. I don’t necessarily stew on a problem, but when I get back home, I often have a breakthrough. Things sorted themselves out while I was looking at ferns or listening to chickadees. If I stayed at my desk and tried to force a solution, everything would just dam up and I wouldn’t get anything done.”
“Have to know when not to force something, I guess,” Gabe said.
“True. Sometimes I need to muscle through a problem, and coming out here would be a form of resistance.”
“Where does this walk fit?”
She squinted up at him. “It’s purely social.”
“Not chewing on a problem?”
“I’m relaxing and enjoying the company of an old friend. How’s that?”
“Did you think up that line just now, or was it simmering while we were walking?”
She smiled knowingly. “I had a feeling you’d ask. You’re in that mood.”
“What mood is that?”
“The ‘ask Felicity questions’ mood.” She turned around, leaning back against the rail. “I remember walking out here when I was a senior in high school, and you interrogated me about my plans for college.”
“Interrogate is a loaded word. I was interested.”
“Oh, was that it? You were dubious about what I had in mind. You already knew I wouldn’t last in finance, didn’t you?”
“I had no idea,” he said without hesitation. “I had a feeling you were doing what you thought you should do, not what you wanted to do.”
“That’s not unusual at eighteen, at least for a lot of people. Not for a Flanagan. You and Mark never did what you thought you should do. You did what you wanted to do.”
He grinned at her. “Calling us selfish bastards?”
“Driven.”
Gabe stared down at the water, aware of her eyes on him.
“That’s not a bad thing,” she added.
“I did have a sense of duty. Mark, too. We thought we should be here for our parents. Our mom especially, after she got sick. They never asked anything of us. Sometimes I wish they had.” He cleared his throat, surprised at the emotion he felt. “I know Mark and I didn’t abandon her, but sometimes it feels as if we did—at least that I did.”
“She was a good soul, Gabe.”
“A flake but a good soul.” He smiled, pulling his gaze from the water. “Do you want to go farther or turn around now?”
“Let’s go farther. Have you seen Kylie and Russ’s house since they bought it?”
He shook his head, and they continued up the road, more houses cropping up as they got closer to the intersection with the main highway.
“Kylie says she doesn’t see Russ’s brother, Marty, moving East,” Felicity said. “Knights Bridge is developing quite a Southern California contingency. Dylan and Noah are from San Diego, obviously. His personal attorney lives there. She’s not going anywhere, but she’s married now for the first time, thanks to Knights Bridge.”
Gabe nodded, familiar with the people Felicity referenced. “Loretta Wrentham and Julius Hartley, Russ’s former colleague with a Beverly Hills law firm.”
“You’ve met them?”
“When I was out in California,” he said, without elaborating.
“Did you meet Daphne Stewart, too?”
“Not yet, but Mark told me about her.”
“Her real name is Debbie Sanderson. She’s the great-granddaughter of George Sanderson, founder of the Knights Bridge Free Public Library and investor in the hat factory Mark has now renovated. She secretly sewed copies of movie stars’ dresses in the library attic before she ran away to Hollywood forty years ago. Now she’s a respected Hollywood costume designer.”
“I understand she’s quite a character.”
“She’s a total diva,” Felicity said with obvious affection. “I only met her briefly when she came back here in the spring to do a master class. I heard she considered moving back part-time, but she decided against it. Hollywood is home for her now. She’s a regular at Marty Colton’s bar. Ruby O’Dunn is staying with her while she’s out there.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen Ruby since she was in braces.”
Felicity smiled. “Our hometown is small, but its reach is wide.”
“The Knights Bridge effect?”
“I hope so. I’d hate to think we spread misery—Christopher and Ruby aside. Who knows, maybe you’ll meet someone because of Knights Bridge. I imagine the entrepreneurial boot camp could attract your type.”
“What’s my type?”
“Not for me to say—”
“Sure it is. You obviously have ideas.”
“Okay.” She considered for a moment, a twinkle of amusement in her pretty eyes. “In the spirit of not minding my own business, I would say your type is smart and accomplished but not as driven as you are. Someone who doesn’t work nine-to-five and can drop everything to accompany you when you’re indulging your wanderlust. She’d have money but not too much money, not because of your ego but because it’d be too complicated. How’s that?”
Gabe leaned in close to her. “You didn’t mention if my ‘type’ would be good in bed.”
She didn’t skip a beat. “No need. You’d see to it, wouldn’t you?”
Felicity was quick. Gabe would give her that. “Hair color, eye color, West Coast, East coast?”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re mobile. You cut your roots to Knights Bridge a long time ago.”
If he’d ever truly had roots. They came to Russ and Kylie’s house, gray shingles with black shutters, old stone walls, lilacs and maple trees. It was tucked up on a hill across from the river and oozed New England charm. Gabe doubted anyone would have put Kylie and Russ together a year ago, but now they were married, moving into a house on the river—and plainly in love with each other.
“Gabe?”
He yanked himself out of his thoughts. “Any other qualities to my type?”
Felicity screwed up her face, exaggerating how much thought she was giving her answer. “Hmm. She’d have to get my approval, of course. As your friend, someone who looks out for you. I couldn’t have you marrying just anyone.” She grinned, tugging on his hand. “Kidding.”
He swooped his arm over her shoulders. “What if you’re my type?”
“I do sort of fit the profile. Scary, isn’t it?”
“You didn’t have yourself in mind?”
“Definitely not. I doubt I’d ever be as indulgent of you as the woman of your dreams would be.”
He laughed. “That’s for damn sure.” They turned back down the road. When they came to a path to their swimming hole, he couldn’t resist. “Jump in the river in our clothes?”
“That would be indulging you.”
“Yeah, it would be, but I bet the idea crossed your mind, too.”
“It always does on a warm summer day.”
“Do you have time for a dip?”
“No, but—” She smiled. “If we make it quick.”
He took her hand into his. “Then let’s go.”
* * *
Felicity made Gabe turn around and stand behind a tree while she slipped off her dre
ss and eased into the water in her bra and underpants. Gabe followed suit, diving into the river in just his underwear. She stayed underwater from the neck down, but it was patently obvious she was all but skinny-dipping.
“If anyone paddles by in a kayak or canoe, I’m done for,” she said.
“No one will.”
Probably true. The shallow, rocky river was popular with paddlers in spring with the winter runoff but less popular in the dead of summer. “Don’t touch me,” she warned him. “If you do...” She considered her next words. “Things are complicated enough between us.”
He smiled. “As you wish.”
What did he wish? Did she even want to ask?
No, she didn’t.
She swam toward the large boulder on the edge of the river and placed a hand on the rough granite. She didn’t climb onto it or rise up out of the water. She felt the cool river water coursing over her bare skin. “Just as well I have a lot to do the rest of the day,” she said half to herself.
“You go on,” Gabe said, closer to her than she realized. “You’ve got a job to do. I’ll turn my head while you get dressed.”
He materialized by the boulder. Felicity noticed river water creating rivulets on the well-developed muscles in his chest. She ignored the dryness in her throat, the awareness in every part of her body. “Then I’ll do the same for you.”
“No worries.”
All went according to plan. Felicity didn’t know if she was disappointed or pleased, but she did accept that she had a party to get to. She’d have died of embarrassment if she and Gabe got seriously physical and someone happened upon them.
“Best to check for ticks,” she said as they returned to the road.
“Will do.”
She heard a faint but unmistakable note of amusement in his voice. “I mean it, Gabe,” she said. “I don’t want you getting Lyme disease.”
“Me, either. Are ticks the reason you jumped into your clothes so fast?”
“They could be in our clothes.”
“How to take any romance out of the moment.” He slung an arm around her and kissed her on the top of her head. “You smell like a trout.”
The River House Page 23
