He nodded. “It is.”
“I’ve been such an idiot. How close was I to getting arrested?”
“Not that close,” he said with a smile.
She grinned at Felicity. “You see? He’s not like the SOB I married. David would have had me arrested in a heartbeat.” Before Felicity could respond, Nadia sighed deeply, looking up at the clearing sky. “I need to stop thinking about him, talking about him—letting him control my life. Trust me, he’s not thinking about me. I know that. I know what I need to do. Thank you.”
Once Nadia was warmed up, she handed Gabe her key fob. “I parked down the road a bit and took a different trail to the swimming hole.”
“I know the spot,” he said.
He fetched her car and brought in her suitcase. She changed into her own clothes, thanking Felicity for letting her borrow her pajamas. “No problem,” Felicity said.
“I don’t think I own any flannel. I probably wouldn’t even if I lived out here.”
Felicity laughed. “Tell me that when it’s ten degrees out.”
“Ha.”
“Where are you off to now?”
“The airport. I’ll stay at a hotel there overnight and catch an early flight back to LA. I promise.”
“Are you sure you don’t want someone to drive you?” Gabe asked her.
She shook her head. “I’m okay, Gabe. Really. Nothing like a near-death experience to get one’s head screwed on straight—well, straighter than it was.” She kissed Gabe on the cheek. “Be well. Good luck with whatever’s next for you.”
“You, too, Nadia.”
He walked with her to her car. She turned to him before she climbed in. “I’ve never had any romantic interest in you. You know that, right? It’s been hard to let go of David. Harder than I ever would have imagined. Losing him left a big hole in my life, and it shattered my self-confidence. I’m sorry, Gabe. I’ve been so self-absorbed.” She tilted her head back and smiled. “You know you’re head over heels in love with Felicity, don’t you?”
He wasn’t going there. “Felicity and I have been friends for a long time.”
“Noah Kendrick and Dylan McCaffrey have been friends a long time. You and Felicity? There’s something else there. But that’s for you two to work out.” Nadia inhaled deeply. “It’s a great little town but I’ll be glad to be back in LA. I’ll take the best of my old life with me and leave the rest behind.” She bit her lip. “And therapy. I’ll be in therapy for a while, I think.”
“Good luck, Nadia.”
“Thank you,” she said, and she got in the car, blowing him a kiss before she started the engine.
* * *
The scare with Nadia had affected Felicity more than she wanted to admit—or even realized at first. She drove Gabe back to Red Clover Inn. Mark, Russ, Kylie, Justin and Samantha had all gathered on the front porch. Felicity watched Gabe as he explained what had happened, not that he had to. Felicity felt her throat tighten. She had an urge to pull him aside and tell him she didn’t need to stay in Knights Bridge. She could be an event manager in Boston or San Diego or just about anywhere else as easily as she could in Knights Bridge. Maybe more easily, or at least more successfully monetarily. But she resisted, instead choosing to enjoy the company of friends.
Gabe decided to drive to Boston. He had things he’d been putting off, he told everyone. Felicity walked with him to his car. “I’ll be back soon,” he said, pulling open the door.
“Sure thing.” She forced a smile and blew him a quick kiss.
He blew a kiss back, and as he drove off, she realized he’d been affected by the scare with Nadia, too.
When she went home, it was as if nothing had happened. She and Gabe had tidied up after Nadia’s fit.
Felicity poured herself a glass of wine and took it and a book out to the deck. Reading would help calm her after Nadia’s near-drowning.
This was home for her.
After a few pages of Hercule Poirot on a train, she couldn’t concentrate and gave up on her book. She stood at the deck rail and gazed down at the river. The water wasn’t as high as it’d been earlier. She heard birds, watched a squirrel race up a pine tree.
Would she really give up her life here for Gabe’s high-flying life?
Could he be happy here?
There were too many questions for tonight, all of them without answers.
Twenty-Three
Shannon proudly showed off the finished living room in Gabe’s condo. He was pleased with how it had turned out. With Nadia back home in Malibu, everyone was calmer.
“One more thing,” Shannon said. “Felicity is in town.”
“Boston?”
“Only town in my world. She’s stopping by in—” Shannon glanced at her phone “—twenty-two minutes if she’s on time.”
“And she called you instead of me?”
“So it appears.”
Felicity arrived on time. Apparently she’d meant to surprise Gabe, but Shannon had missed that cue. He gave her a tour of the condo.
“It’s quite a place, Gabe,” Felicity said when they returned to the living room. She stood at the windows overlooking Back Bay. “You’ve done well. You work hard. You take risks. You’re smart. You treat your freelancers and employees well. I’m not surprised, you know.”
“Figured I’d be a successful start-up entrepreneur when we were in second grade?”
She grinned at him. “Kindergarten.”
They both laughed, but he could sense something was on her mind. “What’s up, Felicity?”
She turned from the windows. “I was just thinking about how different my life is from yours. How different Knights Bridge is from Boston. I mean, here I am, thinking about making my annual ratatouille when I get home.”
Shannon
