Page 105 of Tempting as Sin
Bailey laughed. “You know what, though? Now you’ve been bitten by a shark,anda poison snake,anda grizzly bear. They might put you on the news.”
“They’ll call it ‘Unluckiest Fella,’” Rafe agreed. “Except that I’m actually theluckiestfella. We could look at it like that. I’ve survived a shark attack, two bites from an Eastern Brown, and a pretty bloody enormous grizzly. I call that lucky.”
He was getting fuzzy again. He needed to go to sleep.
“Do you want me to read to you?” Bailey asked. “I have the animal book.”
Oh. There was something else he needed to say. “Yeah. And by the way—it was a good thing you brought it with you. I was wearing your backpack. You gave me a shield.”
“The book has a scratch on the cover now,” she informed him. “From the bear. And my backpack’s ripped.”
“Yeah? A shield for sure, then. Maybe you’ll need a new book.”
“No,” she said. “I want this one. It’s, like, a souvenir. Maybe it’s lucky. Do you want me to read about elephants? They’re very interesting. Maybe you don’t want to hear about wolves or anything scary.”
“Elephants sound good,” he said. “Read that bit about the babies. I liked that.”
“OK,” she said, then, so quietly he almost didn’t hear it, “mate.”
Rafe didn’t end up leaving two days later. It was a week before he’d healed enough to head to New Mexico, and it would be two more before he’d be shooting any riding scenes. He’d flown back to LA for a couple days for a production meeting while he was still stitched up and hurting too much. Lily had missed him, and worried about him, too. Other than that, though, he’d stayed with her and Bailey.
She should have felt bad, maybe, about the production company having to shift their shooting schedule around that drastically. Nah. She couldn’t manage it.
Finally, though, it was another Monday morning, and Rafe reallywasleaving the next day. Today, they were in the garden. She, and Rafe, and Bailey, too.
Bailey’s grandmother wasn’t worse, but she wasn’t much better. Still in the nursing home. Another thing Lily should be sorry about and wasn’t. Or she was, of course, except that Ruby’s illness had been coming on too long and was too serious, and the nursing home was what she needed. Bailey had been able to visit her every day, and that was helping both of them. And, all right, Lily wanted Bailey to stay with her, and she was pretty sure Bailey wanted that, too.
The bear attack had brought the journalists back, and that had turned out to be another mixed blessing. Annoying, and not even a problem anymore, not in comparison to everything else. Maybe because Rafe was a hero again.
The three of them had gone to the Fourth of July parade last week, had been filmed, and hadn’t cared. Afterwards, when Rafe had had a rest, they’d done an interview. Sitting on the couch in the cottage, with Rafe in a black T-shirt that showed off his muscles and sporting four days’ worth of Lily’s favorite black scruff of beard. One hand and an arm had been bandaged to the shoulder, and he’d looked fine all the same, relaxed and casual and sexy as hell.
Lily had told the story, with Bailey between them on the couch and Chuck at their feet. The Chuck part had taken a while to get right. First, he’d gotten up and taken a galumphing, excited run at the camera. After they’d settled him down again, he’d decided that this was the perfect moment to do some long-overdue personal grooming. Of his personal area.
Eventually, though, they’d managed it, Lily giving the bare bones, and then Bailey being asked for her part.
“I was really scared,” the girl said. “But Rafe pushed me down and lay on top of me like he was an elephant, except that he’s a male. It’s all female elephants in herds protecting the babies. Rafe did anyway, though, and he got scratched really badly by the bear and could have gotten bitten. He’s been bitten by a shark before, though, and a snake. He’s really brave.”
So, yeah. That had helped. Rafe’s grin as he looked down at Bailey had helped, too, and so had being able to keep it classy when it came to Antonio. When the interviewer, an overly solicitous woman with a murmur in her voice that said, to Lily, “I want to sleep with your boyfriend,” had said, “It seems like being with Rafe Blackstone is an entirely different experience from being married to Antonio Carrera,” all Lily had said was, “Yes.” She hadn’t said that Antonio would have thrown her to the bear and made his getaway. She was kind of proud that she’d restrained herself.
People would believe what they wanted to believe, still and always, but she’d helped them believe in Rafe. The nextPeoplemagazine cover had been of his amazingly handsome face, his eyes shining bluer than ever, and the headline this time had read,Hero to Zero…to hero again. Rafe Blackstone’s incredible journey.That worked for her. And if she took some satisfaction in believing that Antonio would never again be named “Sexiest Man Alive,” because sexy men didn’t hit their wives? Well, she wasn’t a perfect person.
She thought it, accepted it, and kept picking tomatoes, and then she stopped doing either thing, because the goats started bleating, and Chuck had stood up from his spot in the shade and started barking, too. Which meant visitors, even though it was Monday.
She didn’t sigh, even though she’d already taken a trip to town today, and she needed time alone now with her not-quite-family. Shereallyneeded time alone with Rafe. She was happier than she’d ever been, and she was just that nervous, too. Both. She didnotneed company.
She was getting it anyway, so she stood up, brushed off her overalls, and took a look.
A pickup truck. No surprise there. Pulling a horse trailer into her driveway, with a big SUV following behind it. A working man’s vehicle, mud-stained and a little battered.
Turning around, probably. Wrong turn up the mountain? The SUV was Ezra’s, though. The vet knew what was up this road.
For some stupid reason, her heart had started to pound. Maybe because Rafe had stood up, too, and was heading to the driveway along with Chuck. But still. Why? She stuck the latest tomato into her overall pocket, because she was still holding it, and Bailey asked, “What’s going on? Who’s that? Oh. Martin. But who else?”
“I don’t know,” Lily said. But she did, because Jo was getting out of the cab of the truck that was pulling the horse trailer. She said something to Rafe, who nodded, clapped his hands for Chuck, and ran with him up to the house, where he shut him inside.
Lily went down there. It was only neighborly. Bailey was beside her, but she barely noticed.
“Hi,” she said to Jo. “What…uh…it’s nice to see you.” The look on Martin’s face was—well, she’d call it “brimming with excitement.” Why?
