Finally she looks at me. Her eyes are this smoky blue-violet shade, like a cloudy pale twilight.
They’re so bitter.
So hurt.
Whatever the fuck happened tonight, it tore the scar tissue off some old wounds.
Every spidey-sense I own for danger twitches. Something’s telling me this girl’s a walking heap of trouble.
So why do I want to fix whatever’s making her lashes bead with tears so bad?
“Why are you here, Alaska?” she asks softly.
Feels like she’s asking me more than a simple question, and I have no answers.
I just shrug. “I came by to bring you what I owe. Cash is in the Jeep, but if you don’t have anywhere safe to keep it...”
I’m looking past her, doing a double take at the completely wrecked safe lying in a twisted heap of metal on the floorboards.
Contractor dispute, my ass.
“I can take it home with me,” she murmurs. “They won’t follow me there. I think. Maybe. I don’t know.”
That gets my guard up in a heartbeat.
There’s something darker going on here, if these people know where she lives.
But she’s too wrapped up in herself, arms hugged close to her chest, tense and defensive. I’m not getting anything out of her by prying right now.
Push at her too hard, and she’ll just lock up more.
“Hey. Eli’s in the car. Let us work off a little more of our debt by helping you clean up. I need to wear that pile of preteen energy out so he’ll sleep tonight, anyway.”
“Oh, God,” Felicity moans. “He didn’t see...?”
“We didn’t see anything except an SUV ripping out of here over the speed limit.” I smile reassuringly. “He really wanted to take photos of this place, if you’re okay with it. So he’ll be happy to help get it back into picture-perfect condition.”
That gets a little snort of amusement out of her, her shoulders coming down a bit. “Sounds like an easy way to excuse child labor.”
“You’re helping me teach him responsibility. I’m paying for his mistake with cash, but he still needs to understand that if he’s careless, it has consequences. Helping sweep up some napkins is a pretty small punishment, and in the end, you’re the one doing me a favor.”
“I wish it was just napkins,” she says glumly, palming her face.
Looks like I was right about Miss Felicity.
She’s as proud as a prized filly, and the best way to get through to her when she’s upset is to get past that defensive pride that makes her lock up at the idea of accepting anyone’s help.
Can’t say I blame her, if people jump to rumors anytime someone’s so much as a little kind to her.
Everything has a price, I guess.
I don’t know how to make her believe that my concern right now comes with no strings attached.
“Well,” she says a bit more lightly, though a choked sob lingers in her voice. “If it’s really going to help you and Eli’s photo habit out...okay.”
I straighten, rising up from my kneel. It’s taking everything in me not to reach for her just to grip her chin, maybe guide her face toward me so I can get a closer look and make sure she’s really not hurt.
“Grab the broom,” I say. “I’ll grab the kid.”
I offer Felicity my hand.
For a second, I think she won’t take it.
Then she slides her slim fingers into my palm, and for a moment something electric shoots through me.
There’s a spark where she touches. I know damned well you hear all that stuff about a charge when two people touch and think it’s all wild exaggeration.
Hopeless romantics and dreamers making something out of nothing.
Still, I’m not sure what to make of this.
I just know when her soft skin touches mine, when her delicate fingertips curl against my palm, my heart jumps like it’s been hit with a defibrillator.
Fuck, I barely remember to lift her up to her feet before I forget how to move, how to breathe, how to be.
She’s just as petrified. Did she feel it too?
There’s a widening of her eyes, and her eyelashes fan out like delicate black wisps. She looks up at me quickly, questions swirling in that gaze, in the parting of her lips, as if she wants to ask me the same question.
Did you...?
Then she jerks back, curling her hand against her chest.
She turns and nearly races away, picking over the debris scattered around us before disappearing in the back.
I stand there for a few more seconds, surrounded by the ruins of everything she’s worked for, staring after her.
I’m only watching her for a limp, I tell myself, just in case she’s hurt and trying to hide it.
Right.
What the fresh hell is going on?
I never felt like this with Katelyn.
That was a whole different story, a tale of bad decisions, two young people going down the wrong path and convinced it was right because we were walking it together. Before we knew it, there was a kid in the mix and that expanded the list of crap I put up with tenfold for Eli’s sake.