“I get it,” he said.
His gaze met hers, his eyes steady, his expression kind. She didn’t know how he could do that, how he could pretend to care and still be planning to take everything from her. Technically, he hadn’t lied. Omission was different. She would guess that, in his world, winning was all about nuance. The wording of the contract, the strength of a clause. But this wasn’t a court of law, and what was on the line mattered to her more than anything in the world.
“One thing I learned from moving around as much as I did as a kid was that the rules were always different. They were rarely universal. What would be considered a lie in one place was an acceptable tweak of the truth in another.”
“Is this about townies again?”
She nodded. “I had a best friend growing up. Melinda. She was the pretty one and sometimes the smart one, but I was okay with that. We were the same age and we liked the same things. Except maybe for college. She was determined to go to a good one, and I was more than ready to be done with school when I got my GED.”
She drew in a breath. As fragile as she was feeling right now, she wasn’t sure she could get to the story. But it was too late to stop.
“You told me about her,” Rafe said. “Isn’t she the one who got into a good college?”
Heidi nodded. “She was studying to be a vet. And there was this guy.”
“There’s always a guy, Heidi. Or a girl. That’s not about being a townie.”
“It was this time. He was popular, and the girls at the college couldn’t believe he’d fallen for Melinda. He swore he loved her. He swore he wanted to marry her. She gave him her heart, and that’s when everything went wrong.”
She paused, not sure how to tell the rest. “She came home for the summer. She was different. Broken. I thought being in love would make her stronger and happier, but it didn’t. I found out that some of the girls at college were bullying her. They were leaving messages on her voice mail, and saying horrible things about her online. They pressured him to break up with her, and he did.”
“Then he wasn’t worth it.”
“Something easy for us to figure out, but not so easy for Melinda. Because the bullying didn’t stop there. Those girls wanted her punished. Even after she left college, they continued to harass her.”
Heidi raised her chin. “She killed herself. After two attempts, she finally succeeded. The police investigated, but the girls had done a good job of covering their tracks and were never charged.”
Rafe swore. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. Because I learned a lot of things from that time in my life. Mostly, I learned that there are consequences to making yourself vulnerable to others.”
“What are you saying, Heidi?”
She wanted to tell him she knew, that he wasn’t fooling her anymore. But telling him that would mean giving away the tiny amount of power that information gave her.
“Nothing,” she said instead. “I have to go call a friend. Excuse me.”
She hurried into the house and went upstairs. Once alone in her room, she called Charlie and Annabelle to tell them that she’d decided to follow their plan and accept their help. She could only pray it was going to be enough.
* * *
TWO DAYS LATER, RAFE WAS NO closer to figuring out the mystery that was Heidi. She was pleasant, but distant. He’d been unable to get her alone, and while he wanted to say she was avoiding him on purpose, he couldn’t be sure.
Not that he had anything specific he wanted to say. But he felt as if she’d dismissed him, and he had no idea why.
She’d gone out to meet friends after dinner, leaving him alone and restless. He’d tried watching TV with his mother and Glen, but couldn’t get interested in the show. He wandered outside, where he found Shane returning from a last trip to the barn.
“You check on your horses a lot,” he commented, slouching into a wicker chair, part of a set that had been delivered the day before.
“New place after a long trip,” Shane said, sitting on the love seat opposite. “They’re nearly every penny I have, on the hoof. I’d be damned stupid not to make sure my investment was doing well.”
“Point taken.” Rafe squinted up at the sky. The sun still hadn’t set and the air was warm. He could hear crickets and something rustling in the bushes. The night would be beautiful—just right for seducing a woman. Too bad the one he wanted had lost interest in him. He stared at his brother. Lost interest right after Shane showed up.
“Want to talk about it?” his brother asked. “Whatever it is that has your panties in a bunch?”
Rafe raised an eyebrow. “I can still take you, little brother.”
“I have my doubts, but I think we’re both too old to test the theory. We’d look foolish rolling around in the dirt.”
“Agreed.” He put his hands behind his head and leaned into them. “It’s Heidi.”
“I figured.”
“She’s���complicated.”
“So’s the situation. Neither of you knowing who’s going to end up with the ranch.”
“I know.”
“That it’s going to be you? Then what happens to her?”
A question he didn’t have an answer for. While he expected to win the case, he didn’t like the idea of her being tossed out. She belonged here, with her damned goats. Which, to him, meant what? That he should change his plans and make room for her? If he left her an acre or two and the caves, that would help. But it wouldn’t be enough. The goats needed more land. From what he understood, she kept them close in the winter. During the rest of the year, she let them wander around the ranch. Once he built his houses, that wouldn’t work.
A problem without a solution, he thought grimly. Not his favorite kind.
“Why are you here?” he asked, mostly to distract himself. “I thought you liked Tennessee.”
“I do, but it’s time for me to get out on my own. I’m looking at buying some land.”
“Here? What if we don’t win the case?”
Shane chuckled. “Then I guess the earth would fall off its axis and spin helplessly into space.” He shrugged. “I like Fool’s Gold. I’d like to settle here, regardless.”
“Have a family?”
“Eventually.”
Rafe looked at his brother. “Including a wife?”
“Sure. You?”
“Same.”
“Why the matchmaker?”
“Because I didn’t get it right on my own, and I don’t know how to keep from screwing up again.”
“Tell me about it.”
Rafe grimaced. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to put my foot in it.”
“Don’t sweat it. That was a long time ago.”
True enough, but Rafe had a feeling that Shane still regretted his first marriage. His brother had fallen hard and fast, giving his heart to a wild beauty who didn’t know the meaning of being faithful. Unable to deal with the other men in his wife’s bed, Shane had left her.
Rafe’s own marriage had ended a whole lot less spectacularly, but the breakup still bugged him. Not that he missed her—he didn’t—but the fact that he couldn’t figure out where things had gone wrong.
“I figure a professional will know what to do,” he said. “Nina swears she can help me find someone who’s exactly what I’m looking for.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I don’t trust myself to get it right.”
Shane nodded slowly. “I want to tell you you’re an idiot, but I can’t. I’m not about to trust love again, either. We both need a sensible woman. Someone who’s a friend. No highs, no lows.”
Which should have sounded perfect, but left Rafe with an empty feeling in his chest.
“Let me know how that works out for you,” he said.
His brother laughed. “I don’t have you convinced?”
“Sorry, no.”
* * *
SHANE LEANED AGAINST THE SIDE of the stall. “Seriously, he’s smart.”
Heidi had spent the past couple of hours confirming that she knew all she had to in order to take care of Shane’s expensive horses. She was willing to admit that they were beautiful animals, but were they as miraculous as their proud owner claimed?
“I don’t think so,” she murmured.
Shane pulled a small plastic bag of apple slices out of his shirt pocket. “Wesley, do you want some apple?”
The horse raised and lowered his head.
Heidi smiled. “Coincidence.”
“I knew you’d say that.” He turned his attention back to the horse. “How many slices?”
The horse hesitated for a second, as if considering the question, then hit the stall door twice.
“Two? Are you sure?”
The horse nodded.
Heidi laughed. “Okay, you win. I’m impressed. And you have too much time on your hands.”
“Sometimes the winters get long,” he admitted, feeding the horse the two slices.
Shane led the way outside.
“As long as Wesley doesn’t expect me to read to him or do math, we’ll get along fine.”
“I’m sure of it.”
“You do have insurance, right?”
Shane glanced at her. “Very funny.”
A delivery truck pulled up and honked.
“I got a package for you,” the woman behind the wheel yelled.
“Been shopping?” Shane asked.
“Sort of,” Heidi said, suspecting the box contained the special paint Annabelle had suggested she order online.
The delivery woman circled around to the back of the truck and pulled out a small box. “You’re going to need to sign,” she said.
Heidi hurried forward and scrawled her signature on the electronic clipboard. Before she could reach for the box, Shane had collected it.
“Where do you want it?” he asked.
Heidi waved as the delivery truck drove away, then pointed to the goat house. “In there, please.”
In a couple of days, Annabelle and Charlie would be by to help her with the cave paintings. Heidi knew she didn’t have a choice, but she still felt badly about her decision to fake an archaeological find. Apparently, she wasn’t suited for a life of crime or even deception.
Fortunately, Shane didn’t ask about the content of the box and put it where she pointed without saying a word. They walked back outside.
“I should probably feel guilty about financing your life of crime.”
She felt her eyes widen and instinctively took a step back. “Excuse me?” How had he figured out what she was up to?
He drew his eyebrows together. “I was kidding, Heidi. I know about the problem with who owns the ranch, and that you want to earn enough to buy out my mom. What I’m paying you will go toward the debt.”
She breathed an inward sigh of relief. “You’re okay with that?”
“Honestly? No. I’d rather she stayed here. She loves the ranch. Always did. So did I. I’d prefer the two of you worked out a solution.”
She thought about the plans Rafe had for the land. “I’m willing, but I don’t think ‘compromise’ is your brother’s favorite word.”
“You’ve met him, then?”
She smiled. “More than once.”
“Then you know Rafe is big on winning. It comes from when we were kids.”
“Because he had to take care of the family? As much as a kid can?”
“You’ve heard the story.”
“Not all of it, but bits and pieces. I know he’s not a bad person.”
“Just difficult?” Shane asked.
“That works.”
She felt his gaze on her, but wasn’t going to say any more. Her feelings for Rafe were complicated. If he wasn’t going behind everyone’s back with those houses, she could like him a lot more. If she hadn’t made love with him, disliking him would be a whole lot easier.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Shane told her.
“Can I get that in writing.”
He touched her arm. “Smell that?”
She took a breath. The blending of meat and barbecue sauce drifted to her. “What is it?”
“Dinner. Mom’s making her famous ribs. Once you get a taste of them, everything will seem a whole lot better.”
“You’re a simple guy.”
“I know what I like.”
“An excellent quality,” she agreed, thinking it was a shame she couldn’t feel that sexual hum when she was around this Stryker brother. Falling for Shane would have made life so much easier.
* * *
HEIDI HAD A BATCH OF FETA to prep before dinner. She’d just collected all the equipment she would need when Rafe appeared at the door.
“Need some help?” he asked.
She wanted to tell him no, that she could handle this herself, but she made the mistake of looking at him before she spoke, and found she couldn’t look away.
There was something about the man’s eyes, she thought. Or maybe just the man himself. Something that made her want to get lost in him, to be held by him, even loved by him. And to think her grandfather had raised her to be smarter than that….
“I’m making feta,” she said.
Rafe groaned. “Why do there have to be so many kinds of cheese? Can’t you specialize in one kind? I could learn how to do one.”
Despite her confusion, the ache in her chest and the way being around him made her breathing uneven, she laughed. “Learning about cheese isn’t part of your job description.”
“Can I help, anyway?”
“Sure.”
He’d assisted her before, so he walked over to the sink to scrub his hands without being asked. When he’d dried them carefully, he pulled on plastic gloves and joined her at the table. Several molds lay on the table.
“Here’s the plan,” she began.
“There’s a plan? This isn’t just random?”
She removed the weights on the molds and then uncovered them. Rafe peered into the first mold.
“Not impressive.”
“It’s cheese. Did you expect it to break into song?”
“If it did, you’d make a lot more money. I’m just saying. So, what’s the next step?”
“It needs salting before we age it.”
He sighed. “Why do I know I’m not going to shake salt on the top and call it a day?”
“Because you’re more than a pretty face.” She pointed to the pans she’d already laid out and the large glass containers of water. “We need a twenty-three percent salt brine solution. They’ll soak in that for twenty-four hours.”
“Twenty-three percent? You’re that precise?”
“If I want the flavor right. After that, the cheese will age in a fourteen percent salt brine solution for about sixty days. We do that at sixty degrees, which is why I use the front part of the cave, where it’s warmer.”
He shook his head. “How do you remember this?”
She pointed to the shelf above their heads. Several notebooks were lined up. “I’ve done a lot of research, I’ve taken classes and I’ve screwed up a lot. I find that’s the best way to learn. I was smart enough to start with small batches, so I didn’t lose too much in the process.”
They carefully transferred the cheese from the molds to the trays, then Heidi and Rafe slowly added the twenty-three percent salt brine. She covered the trays with cloth and stripped off her gloves.
“That’s it?” he asked.
“Until tomorrow. Then I’ll put them into individual, airt
ight containers with the fourteen percent solution. From there, they go to the caves and do their thing.”
“And it’s cheese in sixty days?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Put me down for five containers,” he told her. “I’ll pay retail. I’m that kind of guy.”
She thought about teasing him, saying that each container would cost him twenty thousand dollars, but found herself unable to speak. Probably because she’d just figured out that either she or Rafe wouldn’t be here in sixty days. No doubt, by then the judge would have ruled and, regardless of the outcome, one of them would be gone.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“SO, RAFE HAD THIS NEW BIKE that Mayor Marsha had given him,” Shane was saying. “He rode it everywhere.”
The five of them sat at an old wooden table Rafe and Shane had brought out from the barn. The trees around the house provided shade, and a light breeze cooled the air. On the table were the remnants of their meal. The ribs May had spent all afternoon slow cooking, homemade mac-and-cheese, salad and ice-cold beer.
Worried about the paint and her plan to deceive the world, Heidi would have sworn she couldn’t eat anything. But a single bite of May’s dinner had been enough to make her ravenous, and she’d eaten her share of everything. Now full and more relaxed than she’d been in days, she leaned back and listened to the brothers trade stories about their past.
“I loved that bike,” Rafe said, narrowing his gaze. “You stole it.”
“I traded it for horseback-riding lessons.”
“It wasn’t yours to trade.”
“I wanted to learn to ride a horse.”
“Things went downhill from there,” May admitted. “I found them fighting in the barn. Rafe had a black eye and Shane’s nose was bloody.” She glanced at her middle son. “You shouldn’t have taken his bike.”
“So you said at the time.”
“Did you get it back?” Heidi asked.
Rafe nodded.
“Obviously, you learned to ride a horse,” she said to Shane.
“Yup. Never did do that well on a bike, but that’s okay.”
Summer Days Page 19