Page 20 of One Vow

Oh great. Now he was a travel agent. And a weatherman.

But I didn’t care so much about Dakota when I looked at Felicity, who’d pulled her lip between her teeth and cast her eyes down. “A storm, huh?”

She didn’t look at me, but the quiver in her chin said all the words.

Not that I knew what they meant or why the prospect of a storm keeping her from divorcing me when she hadn’t even known she was still married to me would be enough to make her cry, but a tear slipped down her cheek. “Hey. You okay, Lis?”

She sniffed, shook her head, wiped her eyes, and held up her hand. “I’m fine.”

Dakota moved in and he was the only one who didn’t seem to know he was a couple seconds from losing the arm he clearly planned to slip around Felicity’s waist. I watched, waiting while he decided what to do. He pulled the arm back to his side.

And it wasn’t fair. I knew it. She had every right to be with…him. Jealousy wasn’t a look I wanted her to see on me. And I wanted her to be happy.

Bullshit.

I wanted her to be with me. But since Beth was making sure me being with Felicity wasn’t an option, I couldn’t stand in the way of her finding someone else or being with someone else she’d already found. Dammit.

But like the man I should’ve been to keep her, I smiled and nodded to the door. “I’m going to wait outside. Give you guys a minute.”

“What?” Her mouth dropped open and her eyes narrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I didn’t answer because Dakota laughed. “I think he thinks we’re together.”

He shook his head and grinned, holding his left hand up so I could see the gold band on his third finger. “I’m married to Sofia.”

Sofia. I would’ve never guessed. “Oh, wow. Congratulations.”

He was definitely tougher than I thought then.

“Five years ago.” Felicity crossed her arms and stared at me, shaking her head.

Dakota laughed. “Wait until I tell Sofia you thought…”

He didn’t get to finish because Felicity stepped closer to me. “Were you jealous?”

“No.” Too fast. Too loud. Too much. And no one in that room believed me. I certainly didn’t. Dakota’s wide eyes and smirk and the slight tilt to Lis’s head and the way she chewed the corner of her lower lip said I might as well have saved my indignation.

She looked at him, and they both looked at me. I’d spent the last ten years on the straight and narrow. I hadn’t told so much as a teeny tiny fib because I took my second chance seriously. And maybe that was why I was a shitty liar.

“We should go.” I motioned to the door with my head.

Felicity smiled then glanced at Dakota who also smiled. I waited outside because I needed a minute. The relief at knowing she wasn’t with Dakota was as powerful as any other emotion I’d ever had.

After a few minutes, where I adjusted my scarf, pulled on a pair of gloves, yanked a stocking cap out of my pocket and put it on, and decided I would rather sweat to death than freeze, she finally made it out the door.

“I called Dan Schilling and made an appointment for tomorrow.” After that, she walked beside me silently for the first block. “You never did get to tell me about your fiancée. I mean, you said it was complicated and that she went to Glouster, but…” She shrugged. “I want to hear the great love story.”

Well, she wouldn’t hear that about me and Beth. No matter how I dressed it up.

“Not much else to tell, I guess.” The last thing I wanted to talk about was my impending wedding to Beth. “She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

Not if I wanted to shield Lis and somehow maintain my reputation.

“She asked you?” When I nodded, Felicity chuckled, but if sound had edges, this one would’ve been all points and sharp lines.

“Yeah.” Not asked as much as demanded. More information I would keep to myself because it wouldn’t do any good to say it out loud.

“And you said yes.” This wasn’t a question I needed to answer because it wasn’t a question. It was Felicity just saying the words and more to herself than to me. This time her laugh was softer, a sweeter sound than I remembered. Whether it was age or the fading of my memories, everything about Felicity was better now than before. “I guess I always just hoped that wherever you were or whatever you were doing, you’d still be thinking of me and…I don’t know.”