Summer Days (14 page)

The weekend celebration started on Friday evening with a chili cook-off. The winners (and losers) sold their entries all weekend long. Saturday morning, there was a parade featuring kids on bikes and pulled in wagons, all decorated with flowers and ribbons. Family dogs accompanied the children, the furry family members also festively dressed.

Rafe winced as a Great Dane in a dress strolled by.

“That’s just wrong,” he muttered. “What happened to dog dignity?”

Heidi laughed. “She looks adorable.”

“She’s humiliated.”

Heidi looked at the dog’s happy face and wagging tail. “I think she’s channeling her inner diva. Maybe next year I’ll dress up Athena and bring her to be in the parade.”

“She’ll eat the dress.”

“Maybe. But she’ll be pretty until then.”

The streets were crowded with locals and tourists. Even though it was still a couple of hours before noon, the smell of barbecue filled the air. Heidi sniffed the scent.

“You did say something about lunch, right?” she asked.

“Don’t worry. I’ll feed you.”

After she’d come in from milking, she’d found Rafe sitting at the kitchen table. Weekends had a different rhythm at the ranch. The hired construction guys had the two days off. While Rafe often went out and continued the construction projects on his own, the pace always seemed slower.

After she’d stored the fresh milk in the mudroom refrigerator, he’d surprised her by asking her if she wanted to go to the festival with him. She’d known that saying yes was risky, but she had been unable to resist. So here they were, blending in with the other people watching the parade.

When the last of the kids on bikes had gone by, Rafe suggested they tour the booths.

“You sure you feel all right?” Heidi asked.

“I can play tourist.”

“I’ll believe that when you buy a Fool’s Gold refrigerator magnet.”

“Mom would love that.”

“May enjoys most things.”

He chuckled. “I’m ignoring the implication that I don’t.”

“I didn’t say that. I’m sure you have your moments.”

They walked toward the booths. The crowd grew around them, with kids running between them. When they reached the corner, Rafe grabbed her hand and drew her close.

“I need to make sure you don’t get lost.”

He was being nice, she told herself. Friendly. Nothing more. But the feel of his hand linked with hers was more than friendly. It felt…right. The strength of his fingers, the calluses. His hand was bigger than hers, and if she allowed herself a moment of girly foolishness, she would admit that being with him made her want to flutter her lashes and sigh.

She reminded herself that he wasn’t for her. He would never be for her. He wanted someone sophisticated. A woman who fit in anywhere and looked good doing it. Someone who always knew what to say. Heidi’s
idea of high fashion was to wear her hair loose. While she technically knew how to wear makeup, she would rather just slap on some sunscreen and call it a day. Her clothing choices were driven by the fact that she started her day milking goats.

“Tell me where you met your wife,” she said, blurting out the instruction abruptly.

Rafe glanced at her. “At work. My first job after college. She was an intern with a guy my boss wanted to do business with.”

“Not exactly romantic.”

He grinned. “It wasn’t. The two principals couldn’t agree on contract terms. Ansley and I escaped to the coffee room. I’d just made my first deal. It was small—I didn’t have much extra money, but it had gone through, and I saw the potential.”

They were by the park. Heidi pulled them toward one of the benches and sat down. Rafe settled next to her.

“Let me guess. Ansley was a tall, cool blonde with family money and a pedigree.”

He angled toward Heidi on the bench. “You’re partly right. She did have a pedigree, but she was a brunette. Smart. Her family had started out rich, but the money had been lost a couple of generations ago. She was ambitious. We had that in common. I asked her out and she said yes.”

“Then you fell madly in love?”

“Then I got to know her. There wasn’t any ‘madly.’ More of a certainty. That we could make a life together. We shared the same values, we both wanted children and to make our mark on the world.” He stared past her. “We got married. Everything seemed fine until she told me she didn’t love me and that it was over.”

He shrugged. “I realized I didn’t mind losing her.”

The only romantic love Heidi had seen got bigger with time. Passion exploded and rational thought wasn’t possible. Love consumed, and she knew she didn’t want that. Didn’t want to be ruled by emotions people couldn’t control.

He returned his attention to her. “What about you? Any townies steal your heart?”

“No. I avoid townies.”

“You’re with me and you claim I’m one of them.”

“You’re not interested in me.”

One eyebrow rose, but he didn’t respond to her statement. “So, who’s the guy who got away? He must be with the carnival. Unless it’s Lars. And if it is him, I think you have a shot.”

She swatted his arm. “Leave Lars alone. He’s very nice. And there wasn’t anyone. I’ve had boyfriends, but no one serious. A couple of times, I thought the relationship was going somewhere, but it didn’t.”

To be honest, she’d never felt that sick-to-her-stomach, intense longing Melinda had talked about. Or the desperate-to-be-with-him-even-though-he’s-bad-for-me feeling Nevada had admitted to last summer. Before Tucker had come to his senses and realized he was completely in love with her. The scary truth was the closest she’d felt to any sort of out-of-control emotion was when she thought about Rafe. And that was still an easily managed out-of-control.

“Maybe there’s something wrong with me,” she admitted.

“Maybe love is a myth,” Rafe told her.

“You don’t believe that. Look at your mom and how long she’s loved your dad. It’s been over twenty years, and she’s never loved anyone else.”

“Okay, I’ll accept her feelings were genuine. Name three other people who have that.”

“I can name a lot more than that. The Hendrix triplets all fell in love and got married last year. You mentioned you know their brother Ethan. He’s wild about his wife. Their mother was happily married for years. After being a widow for a long time, she’s back together with her first love, and they’d spent over thirty years apart. Love is real.”

Maybe it wasn’t just for suckers, she thought wistfully. Although she was still a little afraid of “falling” for anyone.

“Don’t be sad, goat girl,” he told her, then leaned in and kissed her.

She was aware of people walking just a few yards away. Of the sound of a band tuning up over by the main square, and happy squeals of children. The sun was warm on her arms, the scent of flowers and grass mingled with the smell of freshly brewed coffee and barbecue. But all that faded into the background as Rafe moved his mouth against hers.

Wanting to prolong the moment as much as possible, she put her fingers on his shoulder. He was all hard muscle under his cotton shirt. Masculine to her feminine. His palm cupped her arm, drawing her closer, then he stroked his tongue against her lower lip.

She parted her lips immediately. Even before he moved inside, her body began to melt. Liquid longing poured through her, causing her breasts to swell and her thighs to press tightly together.

She wanted to wrap both her arms around him and lose herself in the moment. She wanted more than his tongue brushing against hers. She wanted him naked, taking, pleasing, doing all the things a man like him would do to a woman. When it came to Rafe, she might not be willing to risk her heart, but apparently she was ready to put her body on the line.

But they were sitting in a park in Fool’s Gold, and a little French kissing was all that they could get away with. So she kissed him back, getting lost in the desire that filled her, telling herself it was enough and almost believing it.

He drew back, his dark eyes bright with something she really hoped was lust.

“Nice,” he murmured, then cleared his throat. He drew back. “We can sit here for a minute, right?”

The question confused her. “Why would we… Oh.” Right. Because walking around would make a few things obvious. She risked a quick glance and saw an impressive erection making its presence known. A shiver raced through her.

He took her hand in his and lightly kissed her palm. “If you want to leave this bench anytime soon, you need to stop looking at me like that.”

She wanted to ask, “Like what?” but had a feeling she knew what he was talking about. She was probably looking at him as if he were the one man on earth she had to have.

He shifted so that he was facing front, his ankle resting on his opposite knee. He draped an arm around her, drawing her close.

“Let’s pick a more neutral topic,” he suggested. “And if you could speak in a squeaky voice, that would help, too.”

She laughed. “What’s wrong with my regular voice?”

“It’s sexy.”

She cleared her throat, suddenly unable to think of anything to say. “You never did tell me about your date.”

“And I’m not going to.”

“Any dates planned in the future?”

He glanced at her, his dark eyes bright with amusement. “Could we not talk about me dating?”

“Sure. Um, the carnival is coming to town in a few weeks.”

“Your carnival? The people who taught you to hate townies?”

“Yes, and they didn’t teach me that. I learned on my own.”

“Will someone show me how to tame a lion?”

“That’s the circus. This is the rides and games.”

“I always did like a good Tilt-A-Whirl.”

“Then you’ll have to go on it.”

“You coming with me?”

She shook her head. “They make me throw up.”

“Lightweight.”

“Townie.”

He laughed. He might have a thing for her voice, but she liked the sound of his laughter. It made her feel safe and happy, as did pressing against him, with his arm around her.

All dangerous, she thought. Good thing she wasn’t the type to fall in love.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

H
EIDI
FINISHED
THE
LAST
of the milking, then poured the still warm, creamy liquid into pans for the waiting cats.

“I should put a camera on the three of you,” she said, as her feline guests lapped up the milk. “One of those pet cams, so I can find out where you live.”

Or she could simply ask around. Someone would know who owned the cats. But she liked the idea of a mystery, of being able to pretend the cats had exciting secret lives after they left here.

She put away her stool, checked to make sure the goats had plenty of water, then picked up the buckets and walked back to the house. She entered to the smell of coffee. As she poured the raw milk from the stainless-steel bucket to the glass containers she would put in the refrigerator, she told herself it was nice that May had gotten up early and made coffee. That Rafe wouldn’t be the one waiting for her when she walked into the kitchen. Because anticipating anything about him would be very, very bad. But anticipation nearly overwhelmed her now, as spending mornings with him was often the best part of her day.

She was finding it more and more difficult to remember that he was the enemy. Being around him was…nice. He made her laugh, and she looked forward to spending time with him. In other circumstances, she would have taken the chance and offered him her heart. But these weren’t other circumstances, and if she forgot what he wanted, she could lose everything.

Heidi put away the milk, closed the refrigerator door and walked into the kitchen. Rafe stood leaning against the counter, his dark eyes brightening when he saw her.

With all the hard work he put in on the ranch during the day, he usually showered before dinner rather than first thing in the morning. There was something to be said for a man who wasn’t so crisp around the edges. She liked the faint shadow of stubble on his jaw, the slight muss to his hair. He wore a plaid cotton shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and faded jeans with a tear by the front pocket.

Somewhere along the way, he’d ceased to be the guy in the suit. Now he was just Rafe. And just Rafe was turning out to be a lot more dangerous.

“Morning,” he said, handing her a mug of coffee.

“Hi.”

She saw that he’d already added cream and, she would guess, sugar, preparing it just the way she liked.

“How are the girls?” he asked, moving toward the table.

“Good. Happy to see me.”

They sat across from each other, as they did most mornings. This was their quiet time together, before May and Glen were up and the work crew arrived.

He had a few sheets of paper on the table and now nudged them toward her. “I was thinking about your cheese and soap, and made some calls.”

She glanced down and saw three names, along with phone numbers. Next to the names were countries. Two were China and one was Korea.

“These are sales reps who already have distributors for American products in select, upscale Asian markets. Right now, goat cheese is hot.”

She looked from the paper to him, trying to understand. “They’ll take my calls?”

“They’re interested in what you have to sell, and they know how to get started in those countries. There’s little risk to you, because you’re using infrastructure in place. Why reinvent the wheel?” He tapped the list, next to the second name for China. “She’ll want samples of your soap. If she likes it, she’ll take it on consignment, carrying the shipping costs herself. The only risk on your end is paying to have it returned if it doesn’t sell. However, she knows her customers and what they want to buy. From what I’ve heard, the biggest problem is how fast the orders tend to come in.”

A problem she could totally handle, she thought, considering the bars of soap curing and how many more she could make in the next few weeks.

Selling locally was one thing, but getting into the overseas market, especially in Asia, could mean real money. Possibly enough money to pay back May. Rafe had to know that.

“This kind of business takes time,” he said gently. “But it will pay off eventually.”

So he was good at business and a mind reader, she thought. “Thanks for the contacts,” she said. “I’ll call them all today.”

“They’re waiting to hear from you.”

Conversation shifted to work on the barn, but Heidi kept thinking about what Rafe had given her. Assuming he was right, and she had no reason to doubt him, she wouldn’t see any profits before they were to meet with the judge again. But if she could show an aggressive payback plan, that would help her cause. So why was he taking the chance?

Did he have that much faith in his lawyer? Or was he starting to have feelings for her? She knew he liked her, that they had a good time together. Did he wonder what would have happened if they’d met under other circumstances? He’d turned out to be very different from what she’d expected. Maybe it was the same for him. Maybe they were both discovering an unexpected connection.

* * *

R
AFE
LIT
THE
COALS
in the barbecue and watched in satisfaction as the blue flames jumped toward the sky. Sure, a gas grill would be faster, but there was something gratifying about cooking meat the old-fashioned way.

Heidi walked out onto the back porch. “No explosion?”

He chuckled. “The grill will be ready in about thirty minutes.”

“Perfect. Your mom left us potato salad in the refrigerator. I finished a green salad. We’re good to go.”

“You forgot the wine.”

Her green eyes crinkled as she made a face. “We’re having hamburgers.”

“A good wine goes with everything.”

She followed him into the kitchen. He’d already picked out a bottle. Heidi stared at the label.

“Col Solare. Is it Italian?”

He reached for the bottle and removed the foil. “Washington State. It’s a blend made in partnership.” He smiled. “How many details do you want?”

“I think we’ve reached my limit. Is it expensive?”

“Define expensive.”

“More than twenty dollars a bottle?”

“Yes.”

“More than thirty?”

“Do you really want to know?”

She tilted her head. “It’s just wine.”

“You can’t use the words ‘just’ and ‘wine’ in the same sentence. You live five miles from a vineyard. You should support the local industry.”

“I’m more of a margarita kind of girl. What’s the difference between a ten-dollar bottle and a hundred-dollar bottle?”

“This wine is mostly aged in new French oak barrels. The best grapes are used, and the barrels are washed out during the aging processes. That’s a lot of expense and labor.”

“Why do they wash out the barrels? And how? There’s wine in them.”

“The wine is moved to stainless-steel containers, and then the barrels are cleaned out. It gets rid of sediment. The wine is then returned to the barrel to continue aging.”

He removed the cork and then got two wineglasses from the cupboard.

“Stainless steel because the wine won’t react with it?”

“Right.”

She took the glass he offered and sniffed. “It’s nice. You’re not going to talk about chocolate and black cherry are you? I’ve never understood that. It’s grapes, not chocolate. And if you say it’s pretentious, I’ll throw this at you.”

On his Nina-arranged date, he and the other woman had discussed wine because they’d had little else in common. That conversation had been slightly tedious and filled with “I know more than you” stories. He found he preferred Heidi’s honest assessment of wine.

“Tell me if you like it,” he said. “That’s what matters.”

“Do I swirl? Red wine drinkers like to swirl.”

“It aerates the wine.”

“I thought oxygen hurt wine.”

“In the bottle, yes. Once it’s opened and ready for drinking, oxygen opens up the flavors.”

She dutifully swirled her glass, then took a sip. She let it sit on her tongue for a second, then swallowed.

“Oh.” Her green eyes widened. “That’s nice. Smooth, but with a lot of flavor. I thought it might have that weird bite, but it doesn’t.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

They walked out onto the porch and sat on the steps.

They were a couple of hours from sunset. The days were getting longer and warmer as they inched toward summer. Buds had given way to leaves and flowers.

He and Heidi had brought the goats back for the evening. He could see the sheep and llamas grazing contentedly. He’d resisted coming to Fool’s Gold, but looking around now, he had a hard time remembering why.

“It’s Saturday night,” Heidi told him. “What would you be doing if you were back in San Francisco?”

“Working.”

“Not out on a date?”

“If I was dating, I wouldn’t need Nina.”

“There must be tons of women where you work or hang out.”

He shifted on the step, uncomfortable with the topic, but unclear on how to change it. “I’m not interested in going out with someone I do business with. I also won’t date an employee. There aren’t a lot of other women in my life.”

“You have a lot of rules.”

“I’m not looking to get sued for sexual harassment.”

“Good point. No likely candidates at your monthly tycoon meetings?”

He grinned. “No. All the good ones are married.”

“What about your season tickets to the opera or ballet?”

“I’m more a baseball guy. But I do like theater.”

“Musicals, where people randomly break into song?”

“Sometimes.”

“You’re full of surprises.” She put down her wine and grabbed his free hand. With her fingertips, she traced the calluses on his palms. “What will your tycoon friends say about these?”

“To tell you the truth, they’ll be envious.”

Heidi released him, which made him want to put his arm around her and pull her close. He liked when they touched. Lately he wanted to do a lot more than just touch, which made for some timing issues. He did his best to be gone before she stepped into the shower in the morning. The last thing he wanted was to spend fifteen minutes listening to the water running and imagining her naked. Not that leaving the house erased the image, but it made dealing with it easier.

“You’re a better cowboy than I would have thought,”
she admitted.

“I like the work. I can look out and see what I’ve accomplished in a day. I don’t get a lot of that in my regular life.”

“Be careful. This kind of life can be seductive.”

He glanced at her and found her looking at him. She had beautiful eyes, he thought, staring into her green irises. A great smile. Her blond hair hung past her shoulders, all wavy from the braids.

He found himself wanting to touch the soft-looking strands, to pull her close and kiss her. But kissing would lead to other things, and that would be a mistake. Heidi might not be the enemy anymore, but she stood in the way of what he wanted. Sleeping with her would make an already complicated situation more difficult. But, damn, she was a temptation.

“Coals,” he murmured, not quite ready to turn away.

“What?”

“I should check the coals.”

“Oh, right. I’ll get the burgers.”

For a second, neither of them moved. Rafe knew he was seconds away from not caring about the consequences. But just as he was about to set down his glass and reach for her, she scrambled to her feet and walked into the kitchen.

Probably for the best, he told himself, ignoring the need building in his body, and the voice in his heart that whispered he was a fool to let Heidi be the one who got away.

* * *

H
EIDI
HAD
A
HARD
TIME
with dinner. The meal was great—there was no bad with hamburgers and potato salad—and she enjoyed the wine. Rafe was his usual, charming self. A funny, intelligent companion who could speak on any number of topics and still surprise her with his unexpected views on everything from the British royal family to his belief in renewable energy.

Her confusion came more from wondering why on earth any woman would have left Rafe. He was the kind of guy she would hold on to with both hands. Which led to the second problem… Unruly girl parts.

She’d moved past the tingling-in-anticipation stage and was firmly in “take me now.” Every time he smiled, she felt a tug in her belly. When his hand casually brushed hers, she wanted to whimper. If the man took her in his arms and kissed her for longer than thirty seconds, she would probably have an orgasm.

With dinner finished and the dishes washed, the rest of the evening stretched before them. May and Glen planned to go to a movie after their meal, which meant they wouldn’t be coming home for another three hours. Maybe more. The night was young, the sun just setting, and Heidi was terrified she was going to say or do something humiliating. Her only option seemed to be escape.

She swallowed the last of her wine, possibly a mistake considering she was already a little buzzed from her first glass, and stood.

“I, ah, should get some paperwork finished.”

Rafe rose. “You sure? I thought we could go for a walk.”

“In the dark?”

“I’ll protect you.”

She wanted to say yes. Wanted to spend time with him, talking to him and maybe more. But her fear was greater. With her blood pumping and her hormones doing their best to convince her to be wild, she was very likely to say or do something humiliating. Escape was the safest route.

“Maybe another time,” she murmured, moving back, anxious to get to the door. Once there, she could run for the stairs and make it to her room before disaster struck.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine. Great. Better than great.”

She gave him what she hoped was a brilliant smile and turned. Unfortunately she’d gone back farther than she’d realized and, in her haste, plowed directly into the cabinets. Her momentum was such that she staggered back and started to trip. Rafe caught her before she could tumble. He took hold of her arms and turned her so she was facing him.

His eyes were dark as night. His face all hard planes and sharp angles. Her gaze settled on his mouth as she remembered how good the kissing had been.