She’d glanced at him a few times when she was talking but hadn’t held his gaze for long at all. It was so unlike her. Felix could almost feel her unease. She was leaving something out, and she was nervous about it.

Felix held his hand out to her, and she took it. He pulled her to him, closing his eyes as she leaned against his chest, and he held her, squeezing her a bit tighter when he got his arms all the way around her. It was subtle, and if he weren’t so on edge and trying to decipher every one of her actions, he may not have noticed, but he did. She pushed him away ever so slightly, so he let go of her completely, and this time he pulled back to better look in her eyes.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked, trying not to glare, but he seriously felt on the verge of losing it now.

“Nothing,” she said, reacting more in her usual manner finally. “What’s wrong with you?”

“You’re acting strange, Ella,” he said, walking away from her, his hands on his hips. “This isn’t just my imagination.” He wasn’t even sure who he was trying to convince now: her or himself. He turned back to her, holding up a hand. “You . . . You take the day off without so much as mentioning it to me. You blow me off with a text. I show up, and that asshole’s here—”

“He’d just gotten here, Felix. I swear to you. All he did was drop off the book. He knew I needed it.”

“Is this what he’s been doing? Dropping off one thing at a time every day?”

“No, he hasn’t. I’m hardly ever home, remember?” Ella took a few steps toward him, reaching for his hand, and he let her. She brought it to her face and leaned against it. “Felix, I promise you that you have nothing to worry about. Please believe that. Today was just a weird day, but then the past few weeks have been weird.” She shook her head, looking around. “My life’s in a complete tailspin. It’s not like me to let things go like I had, and I just needed to catch up. I didn’t say anything to you about it because I kept saying I was going to do this and then wouldn’t. Today I just decided at the last minute that I couldn’t put it off anymore.” She kissed his hand. “I didn’t mean to blow you off. I was just tired. I haven’t had such an exhausting day in a while.”

Feeling an enormous relief but at the same time worried about the frustration that her life was so different now, Felix felt some of the tension drain from his body. He hugged her again only this time not as tightly as the first time. It could stand to reason that he might occasionally forget his own strength, and it made total sense that with what she made him feel he’d likely go overboard on how hard he squeezed her sometimes. That’s probably all it was earlier, but he’d been so strung out on the adrenaline pumping through him he’d snapped.

“How do you do that?” he asked, kissing the side of her head.

“Do what?” she asked with a soft laugh.

He pulled away and kissed her softly then a little more crazy like he really wanted to. When he was finally able to pull his lips off her, he stared into her eyes.

“I always think I couldn’t possibly love you anymore than I already do. Then with just a few words you prove me wrong again.”

It was true. That she’d been able to calm him from exploding right there in her front yard and doing something idiotic like put his fist through his own car window just to calm the hurricane he was feeling inside was a feat in itself. But that she could make him love her even more each time when she did something like this—put things so easily into perspective and remind him just how perfect she was—left him in awe every time.

“Good,” she said, looking up at him with a big smile. “No matter how much you love me, it’ll never be too much.”

“But I can be too much,” he said with a frown. “I’m sorry I snapped. It’s not fair for me to jump to conclusions like that. I’ll work on it. I promise.”

“I believe you.” She grinned then squeezed his hand. “Since you’re already here, you wanna come in and hang out? I can make popcorn, and we can watch TV for a while.”

He shook his head immediately. “No, babe, you said you’re tired.”

Secretly, he was really hoping she’d insist. He was so not ready to leave yet. He felt addicted to her now, and he needed his nightly fix. Watching TV with her dad in the other room or possibly in the same room wasn’t making love to her like they usually spend their evenings, but it beat spending the evening without her.

She pouted. “I’m not that tired. I was planning on talking to you all night on the phone anyway.”

That didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but he wouldn’t argue. This sounded as if she were insisting, so now he grinned. “You sure?”

She nodded, smiling even bigger, and pulled him with her toward the front door. She made him what tasted like the best sandwich he’d ever had in his life. The tension he’d started feeling from the moment Nellie informed him Ella had taken the day off had really worked up his appetite.

Spending several hours with her cuddled in his arms, watching television in her humble little front room on her small television set, felt like heaven. She’d gone back to acting normally, or at least he decided to stop reading so much into everything, and he’d been able to relax and just enjoy his time with her.

~*~

Ella

Right or wrong Ella had made the decision to place her phone on mute when she saw Felix drive up tonight. After the conversation she’d had with Grayson today, she had a feeling he’d be calling or at the very least texting her. As much as she tried to hide it today, Grayson had picked up on her unease and she’d confided in him.