“There you are!” a voice called out.
I jerked back, the spell shattered, reality slapping me in the face again. I’d almost kissed Devon Sinclair. The guy I had blamed for my mom’s murder for so many years. The guy who had turned my life upside-down by walking into the Razzle Dazzle. The guy who was the reason I’d almost been killed tonight.
But Devon had looked at me with those forest-green eyes, and I’d forgotten about everything except wrapping my arms around his neck, touching my lips to his, and pressing my body against his until we blazed, burned, and melted together into the heat, darkness, and dangerous swirl of emotions. Part of me still wanted that—part of me ached for it.
Footsteps slapped across the roof, and Felix appeared.
“You know that you’re in my chair, right, Lila?” he asked in a teasing voice.
“I wasn’t aware it had your name stitched on it,” I sniped back, trying to play it cool and pretend everything was fine and that my heart wasn’t alternately pounding and breaking for too many reasons to count.
“I’m sure I can ask one of the pixies to help me with that,” he said.
I got to my feet. “Well, I wouldn’t want to make any extra work for them. Seeing as how they’re probably busy with my breakfast bacon right now.”
Felix waved at me. “Sit back down. I was kidding. I can bring an extra chair up here some other time—”
“That’s okay. I was leaving.”
I didn’t look at Devon, although I could feel him staring at me, his gaze scorching across my face.
“Are you tired of Mr. Dark and Brooding already?” Felix teased again.
“Yeah.” I let out a weak laugh. “That’s it.”
Felix looked at me and Devon, then frowned. “If I’m interrupting something . . .”
“Nope,” I said, cutting him off. “I’m going. I need a snack, anyway. Fighting for my life against bad guys always makes me hungry. I’ll see you guys at breakfast.”
“Well, okay,” Felix said. “If you’re sure . . .”
I started backing across the roof. “I’m sure. Later.”
I turned away, hurried through the open door, and ran down the stairs into the mansion before Felix, or especially Devon, could call out and ask me to stay.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Felix and Devon didn’t follow me, and I made it back to my room without running into anyone else. Good thing, too, since I was about to drop from exhaustion. Seeing Mo, packing up my stuff, the attack, talking with Devon, almost doing . . . whatever we’d been about to do.
My emotions were the things I guarded most closely, covering them up with sticky fingers and smart-ass comments, but tonight, I felt like my feelings were out in the open for everyone to see, shining as big and bright as one of the pawned diamonds on display at the Razzle Dazzle.
Bracing myself, I opened the door to my bedroom. I expected to find a scowl-faced Oscar slouched on his porch, drinking his umpteenth honeybeer of the day and ready to tear into me again for daring to be nice to him and Tiny.
Oscar was actually outside his trailer, but he was pacing back and forth on the lawn, something that he had to be sober to do, given the straight line he was walking. And he was muttering to himself.
“Idiot,” he grumbled. “That’s what you are, Oscar. A complete and total idiot. She called you a redneck cowboy, as if there’s something wrong with that. I am a redneck cowboy and proud of it. And yet here I am, all worried about her like the soft, stupid, bleeding-heart fool that I am—”
The pixie stopped at the sounds of me opening, then closing the door. He twitched his wings, took flight, and zipped over to me. He hovered in the air in front of me, his violet eyes scanning me from head to toe.
“What?” I asked. “Do I still have blood all over my face or something?”
I’d meant it as a joke, but his eyes bulged at my words. He zoomed back over to his trailer, flew inside, and slammed the door shut behind him.
I stared at the trailer but the shades were drawn, and Oscar didn’t make so much as a peep inside. No music blared, either.
“What was that all about?” I asked Tiny.
The tortoise kept on chewing on a lettuce leaf. No answers there. Not that I had expected any.
“Well, good night to you, too, Oscar,” I muttered.
Still shaking my head at the pixie’s weirdness, I headed toward the bathroom.
By the time I finished in the shower and threw on some pajamas, I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep for a week. I’d stayed under the spray of warm water for close to half an hour, but I’d still be stiff and sore in the morning. Angelo and Felix had only used the stitch-sting to heal the gash in my leg. It wouldn’t take care of my more mundane bumps and bruises. But Devon, Felix, and I had all lived through the fight, and that was more than enough for me.
I staggered into the bedroom and was about to fall face-first onto the mattress, when a distinctive aroma tickled my nose. I stopped and sniffed. Was that . . . bacon?
My stomach rumbled. Definitely bacon.
I looked around and realized that a large tray of food was sitting on the coffee table in front of the TV, so I headed in that direction. Two large, scrumptious-looking BLTs were arranged on a platter, along with heaping scoops of pasta and potato salads. Another platter held fresh fruit, cheeses, breads, and cold cuts. And still a third platter boasted an assortment of cookies, brownies, and truffles, along with bite-size pieces of fudge. A glass filled with ice stood off to one side of the table, along with a stack of napkins, silverware, and several cold sodas.
“I thought you might want something to eat,” a low voice called out.
I turned to find Oscar sitting on his front porch, swilling down a root beer, for a change.
“Since you weren’t here for dinner,” he added.
My stomach rumbled again. I was never one to turn down food. “Yeah. Thanks.”