He opened his eyes. The doctor was peering at him more closely, then laughing. Wonderful. “Hang on,” he said. “You’re The Beast. What’s his name. I heard you were living up here. My wife told me.”
Rafe closed his eyes again. He could feel it coming.
“I don’t have a problem,” the doctor said. “You have a problem.” Yeah, it had come. “And, hey,” the bloke added, sounding absolutely delighted, the bastard. “Right now? That’s pretty much true.”
Eventually, he was in a regular hospital bed, the IV still in his arm, dripping antibiotics into a vein. “Dirty things, bear claws,” the doctor had said cheerfully when the nurse had been giving Rafe a tetanus shot that hurt heaps less than anything else. “All sorts of germs in there.”
“How about Lily?” Rafe had asked. “Is she admitted as well?”
“Yeah, she’s here overnight, too. I put about thirty stitches into her hand, even though she didn’t get as much of it. We want to be careful with those pathogens all the same. Looks like you took the brunt, though. Was that intentional?”
“Yeah,” Rafe said.
“Huh. Well, good job. I guess quick reactions come with the territory, although you don’t usually do your own stunts, I imagine.”
“Not quite like today, no,” Rafe said. “How about Bailey? The little girl we were with?”
A nurse answered that one. “She’s out in the lobby. Your…wife?”
“Girlfriend,” Rafe said, and wished it sounded better. More permanent. Somewhat like “wife,” in fact.
“She called a friend,” the nurse said, “and the friend came to sit with the little girl. There was also a young man who said he was your assistant. Do you have an assistant?”
“Yeah,” Rafe said.
“Up here with you and everything,” the nurse said. “Wow. I wish I had an assistant. Sounds nice.”
“It is,” Rafe said, and wondered why everybody had to talk so much. He was going to have to pose for selfies, he could tell.
“Anyway,” the nurse said, “he took the dog. I guess there was a dog. That was lucky. Dogs tend to be helpful around bears. Unless, of course, they stir up the bear and leave you to deal with it. That can happen, too. Looks like you have the right kind of dog.”
“I do,” Rafe said, not bothering to correct her. Chuck was a shared dog, after all.
Now, he lay, alone at last, in a narrow bed that looked out on the mountains, and wished Lily were with him. In a few minutes, he’d get out of bed and go find her. They’d given him something for the pain, finally, and it was making him fuzzy. He’d just close his eyes for a minute until it passed, and then he’d go find her.
He woke with a jolt. Somebody was there. He turned his head, and it was Bailey, sitting in a too-large recliner beside his bed, her backpack in her lap.
“Hi,” he said. Still fuzzy. “How are you?”
“OK,” Bailey said. “I visited Lily, and she said I should visit you. She says she’s going to escape in a little while and come find you, except that she needs another hospital gown to do it, because the one she’s in shows her rear end. How come they don’t give you something that covers your rear end?”
“A question for the ages,” Rafe said.
“Oh.” Bailey considered that. “Hailey’s sitting with her now, anyway. She says she’ll find her another hospital gown. So she’s coming soon.”
“Good,” Rafe said. “But I’m happy to see you, too. You were very brave today. Good on ya, mate. That’s Aussie. It means ‘Good job.’”
“Not really,” Bailey said. “I didn’t even know it was a bear. I was just like the baby elephant. When elephants are in danger, they put the little ones in the middle, and the other elephants make a circle around them and defend them, so a lion or somebody can’t get them. Elephants don’t have sharp teeth like lions or grizzly bears, but they have tusks, and they have big, strong feet to stomp the lions. The lions usually go away, like the bear did.”
Rafe closed his eyes again and smiled. “Well, good. You made a very good baby elephant. You kept quiet, and when you had to run, you ran. And Chuck was a hero as well.”
“You said Chuck had protectiveness,” Bailey said. “Because he’s maybe part wolfhound, and he’s part German Shepherd. German Shepherds are very protective, and wolfhounds are very brave, because they hunt wolves. I didn’t think he did have wolfhound, but maybe he does.”
“Could be,” Rafe said. “Could be you’ll have to admit I’m right. That’ll be a blow.”
Bailey laughed. “You know what, though? Now you’ve been bitten by a shark, and a poison snake, and a grizzly bear. They might put you on the news.”
“They’ll call it ‘Unluckiest Fella,’” Rafe agreed. “Except that I’m actually the luckiest fella. 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 really was leaving 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 mana
ged 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 next People magazine 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. She really needed time alone with Rafe. She was happier than she’d ever been, and she was just that nervous, too. Both. She did not need 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?
Jo nodded, and when Rafe came out, told him, “Horses don’t like dogs around their feet. I know I told you that. And I know I said nine-thirty.”
Rafe’s expression was almost the same as Martin’s. “You did,” he said. “I heard.”
Jo nodded again “OK, then.” After that, she opened the back doors of the trailer and let down the ramp.
Lily had a hand on her chest. That was because she couldn’t breathe. Jo was leading a horse down, a horse that was picking up her hooves in the daintiest of fashions and not tossing her head, because she was too well-bred for that. Smallish, maybe fifteen hands, a pale brown shading into white, with a fawn-colored mane and tail.
Starlight.
“Are we going riding?” she asked Rafe before she went to Jo and took Starlight from her, giving her a rub on the cheek. “Yes, girl,” she told the mare. “I do have carrots. Not as tiny or as tender, but you don’t care about that, do you? You love me, and I love you. Yes, I do. What a pretty girl you are.”
Jo hadn’t answered her, she realized, and neither had Rafe. But Jo was leading Thunderbolt down the ramp now and handing him to Rafe, so she didn’t really need to answer.
“What a great idea for our last day,” Lily told Rafe. “But you should have told me, so I’d be ready. Also, is your hand in good enough shape?”
Rafe scratched his nose and looked…sheepish, maybe. Jo had gone up into the trailer again. Getting saddles, most likely. Martin and Ezra were still just watching.
“Oh!” Bailey said. “Oh, man. Oh, man.” Jo was leading another animal down the ramp, a gray pony with a black mane and a gentle eye, a perfect size for a girl who was almost nine, but tall for her age.
“No fun if you don’t do it together,” Rafe said. And then Jo stood back and he scratched his nose again and said, “Right. I wasn’t expecting an audience. Also, I was planning to improvise, so I didn’t learn my lines. It’s harder than I thought.”
He glanced at Ezra, who said, “Why am I here? Supervising the delivery, possibly. Or maybe I just wanted to watch.” He smiled, but it was kind. “You’re a special person,” he told Lily. “Maybe I needed to see you get the life you deserve. It’s healing, possibly, for the heart.”
Lily was still holding Starlight’s rein. Now, she looked at Rafe. “What?”
He said, “She’s yours, baby. Seems I’ve bought some horses.”
“You’ve…” She didn’t know what to say. “What?”
“They’re going back to Jo’s,” he said. “I wanted to make a statement, though.”
“Oh,” she said. “Wait. Did you buy them, or not?”
“I bought them,” Rafe said. “But you don’t buy a woman a horse without having a stable built, and some fencing around a paddock, of course, and that would have spoiled the surprise, because obviously, you need to plan that yourself. No worries. You get them back as soon as we’ve got a home built for them.”
“Rafe.” She was laughing, because how could you do anything else? “That is the sweetest… That is the most wonderful…” She gave it up. “I love you, OK? We’ll leave it at that. But why horses?”
Rafe inclined his head at Ezra, who came over and took hold of Thunderbolt and Starlight’s reins. Jo was still holding onto the pony, which Bailey was now patting like she couldn’t believe it could possibly be hers. Lily knew how she felt.
“Because,” Rafe finally answered, “a horse is a commitment, and I wanted to make a commitment, and to show you I’m doing it. I can tell you I’ll come back every other weekend, but will you believe I’ll keep doing it, those nights and those weeks when you’re home alone? How about after this film, when I’m in London, or Cairo, or on some publicity tour? It seemed to me that a horse would be hard to ignore, even on days when the doubts creep in. And three horses would be three times as hard.”
“OK,” she said. “OK.” She wished she could think of something else to say, but she appeared to have lost her words.
“Another thing,” he said. “A thought to leave you on, something you could be pondering during these next couple weeks. What would your perfect life look like? What would you do if you could do anything, if there were no limits?”
“Rafe.” She was laughing. “Wow. You don’t ask much.”
“No,” he said, and he wasn’t laughing. “I intend to ask everything. Fair warning.”
“Oh. OK.” She tried to get her breath, and pretty much failed. “So…do I answer now?”
“If you like,” he said, “you do. Or you start answering now. I know you love it here. I know this is home. Could be it’s not the only home. And you can say, ‘The shop,’ and ‘Bailey’s in school.’ I’m asking you not to say, ‘It wouldn’t work,’ and to think, ‘How would it work? How would it work for me to be happy, and for everybody els
e to stay happy, too? I’ll give you a hint. My part of being happy includes you.”
“Ah…” She tried to think, went to pull her hair back, and realized it was already in a ponytail. She was in her overalls, in her driveway, standing around with five other people and three horses, having a Life Talk. OK, then. “I guess it would be…my shop, but maybe different. Maybe…if I were going to Australia sometimes? If we were?”
“That’s the idea,” he said, starting to get that almost-smile.
“OK, then.” It was scary, but she went on anyway. Life was scary. That didn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. “Maybe Hailey would like to manage the store, at least sometimes. Maybe growing into it. I think she would. We could hire somebody else to help out. She doesn’t want to be the boss, she says, but I suspect she could see her way clear to doing that much.”
“She’s really bossy,” Bailey piped up. “She tells Martin what to do all the time, when he’s there.”
“True,” Martin said. “Also, honey, a teeny little bug in your ear, because it’s really all about me. You’re a fabulous buyer. Great selection. Nothing over-the-top pricey, nothing too trendy or sleazy. I’m very, very good at mail-order, as we know, and I’d love to run the admin side of a business. Not the creative side, alas. We all have our strengths. But we could do such a gorgeous catalog and website. Narrow focus, customer-centric. Oh, the research.”
“We, eh,” Rafe said, full-on amusement on his face now.
“You know I’m underemployed,” Martin said. “I can arrange your schedule and meet with your bookkeeper in my sleep. Also—delegation. I’d absolutely love to be a boss. Especially if it involved frequent trips to Sinful to check up on things.” A teasing glance at Ezra that wasn’t teasing at all.
Bailey was looking worried, Lily saw. That wouldn’t do. “And my perfect life has Bailey in it,” she said firmly. “Bailey and her pony. My perfect life has Bailey in it forever.”
Rafe sighed. “Now you’ve done it. You’ve said the f-word.”
“That’s not the f-word,” Bailey said, but she wasn’t looking worried anymore.
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