Page 14 of Holidate Fail
Health held the article to his face. “Huh. So there is.”
“I can’t make it out,” Dahlia said.
Lacole angled Heath’s hands to look at the paper a different way, then shook her head. “Same.”
That’s okay. There were ways to figure it out. Dahlia turned on her phone’s camera and zoomed in, then snapped a picture.
Kelly took the paper after that and did the same thing. Heath and Lacole opted to look at the clipping together.
“One three eight,” Heath said triumphantly.
“Or six,” Lacole added. “The house number is a little too blurred to tell.”
“Look down here.” Dahlia magnified an advertisement. “The Hall of Bootlegging. That can’t be a coincidence.”
Kelly was silent for a moment as he read the advertisement.
Dahlia was enjoying this new take charge attitude New Dahlia and Kelly helped bring about, and damn all who didn’t like it. “I think information about this crash will be in the Hall of Bootlegging.” And then, because Old Dahlia just wouldn’t go away, “Do you?”
Kelly shot her a look that she couldn’t interpret. “Dahlia, if you think it is, you think it is. It doesn’t matter what I think. Except that I think we should follow your instincts.”
They took their assumed positions in Kelly’s car. It was hard to concentrate on Heath with Kelly right there. And that wasn’t fair to Heath. But, geez, Kelly made her want to sidle next to him and share a discussion on falling and gravity.
“How did you manage to catch me when I fell?” she asked.
“With the pyramid?” Kelly’s eyes darted to the mirror. “I figured out where you’d land and got there first.”
Oh, God. Had she asked that out loud? She was used to talking to herself when working in the swamp and rivers, since she was usually the only one there other than turtles and otters. “Well, thank you. I hope I didn’t bruise you too badly.”
He tossed her a smile. “I’ll live.”
But Heath she was with, so with Heath she would stay. She turned to her date. Surely she could think of something to say that would be charming and engaging. “The weather has been so great today.”
Or not.
He smiled, extended his finger and brushed her bangs out of her eyes.
The short fringe of bangs that didn’t need brushing.
Startled, she glanced at Kelly’s reflection in the rear-view mirror to find that he was staring right back at her before shifting his gaze out the windshield.
What kind of reaction was she supposed to have to Heath’s touch? Say thanks? Smile? Unpin her braids and whip her hair around? Seriously, what was he doing? Was this…flirting? She hadn’t had much practice in that department, and her study of cinematic heroines didn’t cover this particular situation.
In the end, she also brushed back her fringe of bangs because his touch made her forehead itch. And then she reached over and booped his nose.
There were immediate regrets.
Her finger stayed in the air like a magnet pointing north. She tried to stop it, but it moved in slow motion toward his nose again. Who booped twice? It just wasn’t done, but her finger refused to listen.
Heath was paying attention, however. He grasped the renegade digit before it reached its final destination and placed a kiss on its tip.
Dahlia snatched it back.
And the regrets came again. Fingertip kissing was sexy. It was flirty. It didn’t involve the lips or the proper way to pucker. She was totally cool with it. And needed to show Heath how much. She reached over and squeezed his forearm.
And why did she glance at the rearview mirror again to see if Kelly was still watching?
Heath plopped his palm on the seat between them, face up. She pondered his curled fingers. Was she supposed to know what he wanted? She risked a glance at his face, and a slow smile curved his lips. A seductive smile. Aimed at her.
