by Lila Munro
“Holy shit, you already fucked him,” Meredith declared.
“Meredith, language,” Julia scolded almost simultaneously with Madi’s flustered, “I—you—Meredith!”
“Well, you work fast? When did this happen?”
“Shut up, Meredith,” Madi demanded.
“Was he any good?”
A deep voice came from behind them, causing Madi to jump, nearly knocking her glass over. “For your information, Meredith, we met at the club, dancing. We danced. Twice. Then she mysteriously disappeared.”
He’d thankfully left out the part about what happened in between the dancing and her departure. If there had been a hole the size of a pinhead she could have crawled into it. How long had Rafe been behind them, listening? And how long had Meredith known he was there?
“Hi.” Rafe came around to stand right in front of her. He now knew where he’d seen those eyes. CeCe and Meredith both had them. How could he not have realized Madi and Meredith were sisters? “Meredith, Julia…” He nodded his head at them both, then addressed Madi, “You didn’t tell me you were CeCe’s granddaughter.”
“The subject didn’t come up,” she replied slyly.
“Maybe we got off on the wrong foot earlier this week. I think we should try again. I’m Rafe McCarthy, your new neighbor. As part of the welcome wagon, I would like to extend an invitation to dine with me tonight.”
He’d been thinking about her all morning again, finally deciding the only way to get her out of his system was to keep pursuing her until she gave in and they’d done any, and all things necessary, to deplete the fire he felt burning every time he was in close proximity of her. Never had a woman perplexed him like this one did, and never had one so adamantly brushed him off. Much to his chagrin, the more she avoided him the more he wanted her.
“No.” She defiantly put her arms under her breasts and pouted her lips.
“Why not?”
“You know why.” Refusal would have been much easier if he hadn’t looked so good in his low-slung jeans and tight blue Aeropostale shirt.
“Because I have a bad reputation and I’m too forward. I’m sorry about my tendency toward pretension; I’ll mind my manners from now on. The reputation part will take some time to repair, but I’m sure with your help that situation could be easily rectified. So, again I ask, please have dinner with me.”
“No, I will not, not now, not ever, and don’t ask again.” The fact that she actually wanted to, was incentive enough to cling to her resolve to leave all men alone, especially this one.
“Fine, if not dinner, maybe we could at least have drinks on my porch or yours and get to know one another.”
As if they didn’t know enough about each other as it was. How could he act so nonchalant like his memory had suddenly faltered?
“No!”
During the whole exchange, she’d noticed Meredith and Julia exchanging looks. She was sure they knew something was amiss, but had yet to figure out exactly what.
Rafe sighed and hung his head. “Is there anything I can do to convince you I’m a good guy?”
“Yes, toss out your little black book, quit acting like you’re Adonis set foot on earth, and fix my damn roof before a storm blows it off, leaving me in a whirlwind of shit akin to that of Dorothy in Kansas.” And it would help tremendously if you weren’t in one of the most dangerous occupations on the planet. “Then, maybe we can talk. I have way bigger problems than that of my sex life, or lack thereof.” Why she added the last part she would never know.
Feeling assured he’d never do any of those things, she didn’t think there was any danger of him actually accepting her ultimatum, therefore she was certain she was safe from further advances.
Well hell’s bells, she wasn’t asking much, was she?
Chapter 4
Much to her dissatisfaction, Rafe hadn’t taken his leave after her insistence that they not have dinner or drinks. No, he decided to horn in on the girly lunch she had planned, having a grand old time chatting it up with her mother and sister. Finally she’d asked Meredith to take their mother home, abandoned her chicken salad sandwich with one bite missing, tossed forty bucks on the table to pay for everyone’s lunches, including his, and left.
“So, Raphael McCarthy, just what the hell is going on between you and my sister?” Meredith was known for her adept ability to cut to the chase.
“Absolutely nothing.” Rafe took another bite of his Reuben and chewed more heartily than was necessary.
“I’m not so sure I believe you.”
Rafe didn’t answer, he wasn’t sure how. He didn’t think admitting that he’d given Madi a proper shagging on the patio of the Staff NCO club was a good way to earn brownie points from Julia in case he ever could get her daughter to agree to further explore what was happening between them.
“Look, my sister is the most wonderful woman on the planet. She has a huge heart, it’s just a little damaged right now. Her attitude doesn’t come so much from Gage dying, as it does from the mess he left her to clean up afterward.” She twirled her straw in her glass. “You’re going to have to be patient with her. It’s hard to go back to the well when you’ve been poisoned once. I ought to know.”
“What mess?”
“Meredith,” Julia cut in, “that isn’t for you to be discussing. She’d die if she thought anyone knew.”
Meredith rolled her eyes at her mother, then looked back at Rafe. “She’s almost broke. Gage left a mountain of bills she didn’t even know existed, and several high-dollar items he had hidden here and there that weren’t paid for in full.” She dunked a limp fry in a pile of ketchup on the side of her plate. “And, in my opinion, he had more extracurricular activities going on besides material things. Now she doesn’t want any man doing anything for her. She’s erected a nearly impenetrable wall around herself.”
Nearly, but not fully. He’d thought maybe she was just simply not over Gage yet, and their thirty-minute affair was but a result of her body’s rebellious, uncontrollable needs. Obviously that wasn’t it. She was basing her opinion of men on what she knew of her father, her sister’s misfortune, and her dead, not so heroic in his mind now, husband. Of course, whatever she’d heard about him, and his constantly changing female interests, probably hadn’t helped matters either. How did he combat that? And why the hell did he want her all the more, knowing all the baggage she carried? He didn’t want to be her hero, after all.
* * * *
Meredith and her naughty toys, Mama and her purse full of condoms, and Rafe with his barbarian mating rituals. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone, to peacefully become an old spinster piano teacher? She didn’t need a man, she didn’t want a man. Well, she did sort of want what a man could give her. She just didn’t want Rafe doing the giving again. He was quite skilled at it, which meant he was trouble. With a little more gusto than necessary, she continued to sand away at a spot on the wall adjacent to the fireplace in the music room.
After her failed attempt at a female bonding lunch, she’d come home, changed into a pair of cut off shorts and an old t-shirt, and went to work on the walls in the front room. She’d been sanding for almost an hour when the dust began to hang in the air causing her to cough and she noticed, to her dismay, it was piling up on her beloved baby grand. Damn it! She should have thought of that. Why was it, that man made her think with much less intelligence than she knew she possessed? She swung open the French doors to air out the room and wondered how long it would take her to roll the piano into the other room by herself. On her hands and knees, she crawled under the instrument and began unlocking the wheels, spewing a barrage of colorful phrases the entire time, most of which were directed at her neighbor.
* * * *
More than glad that four o’clock had rolled around, Rafe was the first one out of the building. It had been a long week, the students were hell-bent on driving him crazy, and he was tired of the other staff NCOs harassing him about his recent tendency to daydream. Madi h
ad managed to interfere with his ability to concentrate for longer than a few minutes at a time and everyone was picking up on it. They’d even gone so far as to post an announcement on the bulletin board about his lack of a date for the weekend. It wasn’t that he couldn’t find one, after all, he’d opted not to.
Guiltily he remembered his failed attempt to persuade her to have dinner with him which resulted in her ruined lunch. Maybe if he cooked for her he could convince her to eat with him anyway and accept yet another apology. Stopping at the commissary, he picked up a couple of steaks. Then, after going to the seven-day store for a couple bottles of wine, he headed home to try to mend the ever-increasing rift between him and the woman who kept invading his thoughts.
Pulling in the driveway, he noticed the doors were open to the porch at Madi’s house, then when he looked closer, he saw her perfectly round ass in the air poking out from beneath the piano. Now what was she trying to do? Torture him? She’d made it perfectly clear she didn’t want him, yet she found a way to provoke the horny little devil that sat on his shoulder constantly. The memory of how her ass felt in his hands was now causing him to do a happy little jig up there. He got out of his truck, grabbed his bags, and headed in, all the while watching to see if she was ever going to move, or if she was perhaps stuck that way. Then, just as he was about to open his door, she did move. She crawled out from under the piano, got behind it, and started heaving with all she had in her tiny body. After a few seconds, the beast moved all of a few inches. She stood back up, took a deep breath, and commenced pushing again.
Doesn’t want a man to do anything for her, she’ll get a hernia like that.
He set the bags down on the porch and wandered across the road. Before he got up the steps, she was under the piano again, messing with one of the legs, her ass again straight up in the air, taunting him.
“Well, I guess that would be a problem,” Madi mumbled to herself. She flipped the lock the other direction and began to back out from under the piano again.
“Hey, do you need some help?”
The sound of his voice startled her, causing her to come up far too quickly, sending her head into the bottom of the piano with a loud cracking.
“Shit, damn it.” She grabbed the top of her head and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. Slowly, she eased out from under the culprit and sat back on her heels seeing stars.
“Oh, Madi, I’m so sorry.” Rafe knelt beside her and tried to take her hand away to look at her injury. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted to help.”
She pulled away from his touch and flinched. “Well, you did scare me, and I don’t want your help.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, fell off her chin, and left tiny wet circles on the front of her pink shirt.
“Let me see.” He again tried to look and she again shied away. “Damn it, woman, let me at least make sure you’re not bleeding.”
At that, she moved her hand and he tenderly parted her hair to examine the area she’d been holding on to. The skin wasn’t broken but a knot was already forming.
“Do you feel dizzy? Sick? I’ll take you over to the emergency room and have it looked at.” He felt horrible for hurting her. Why was it that the harder he tried, the worse things got?
“No, no, and no thank you. I’ll be fine.” She started to move and sat back down immediately. “Oh, my, maybe the first answer should have been yes.”
“Sit still, I’ll get you an ice pack and then I’ll take you to the hospital.”
He found a zip-close plastic bag in one of the drawers in the kitchen, filled it full of ice, and wrapped it in a towel. When he got back to her, she was a lying on the floor with the back of her hand on her forehead, with her eyes closed. Passing out from a head injury was never a good sign. He got on his knees beside her, threw down the ice pack, and started to pick up her head.
“Madi? Wake up, there’s no sleeping with a bump on the head.” He began to shake her a little, trying to bring her out of it.
“Stop that, I’m awake, you Neanderthal.” She opened her eyes and puckered her lips, causing her eyebrows to come so close together they almost touched. “I just lay back because I felt less dizzy that way.”
“Thank God.” He helped her sit and put the ice pack on the knot. “Now, where’s your ID card?”
“In my purse, and that’s on the couch.”
She lay back down while he was gone. That seemed to slow the spinning down enough that she didn’t feel sick.
When he returned he started to pick her up. “Okay, put your arms around my neck, I’ll carry you.”
“No, I can walk,” she insisted, pushing at his arms. “You’ll go to any extreme to get back in my pants won’t you? Give it up; it was a one-time, nonrefundable offer.”
“What? You think I scared you on purpose to get a piece of ass? Madi, you’re a piece of work, now stop being ridiculous and let me help you.”
“Ridiculous? How do I know it wasn’t a cleverly devised plan you concocted to avoid whacking me with your club in order to drag me back to your cave?”
Rafe laughed out loud. “Now I know you have a concussion. You’re delusional.”
Reluctantly, she let him pick her up and carry her. He gingerly put her in the passenger’s seat and within minutes they were parked outside the emergency room. Once she was secured in a wheelchair and checked in, a nurse rolled her away and all Rafe could do was sit and wait. They were no relation and he wouldn’t be allowed to go back with her for the examination or be privy to anything unless she told him. This was one of the most frustrating things he’d ever experienced.
After waiting for over an hour he approached the nurses’ station. “Excuse me, ma’am? I was just wondering if you could tell me anything about Madison Melbourne. She’s been back there for over an hour.”
“Are you her husband?” the stately woman inquired.
“No, I’m not. I’m just a friend, I brought her in.”
“Well, Gunny, you know the rules. When she is able to talk to you, then you’ll know what’s going on.”
He hated to have to tell Julia he’d given her daughter a concussion, but it was clear this could take a while, and he needed to know if she was okay. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed.
“Julia? It’s Rafe,” he began. “There’s been sort of a little accident.”
“What kind of accident? Is Madi okay?” Julia sounded like she was in a complete panic.
“I’m sorry, I’ve upset you too.” He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “I think she’ll be okay, but I brought her to the hospital to get checked out. I scared her and she hit her head under the piano. She’s back there now, but they won’t tell me anything.”
“I’ll be right there… Under the piano?”
Not even twenty minutes later, Julia Collier was standing at the nurses’ desk demanding to see her daughter. When they finally relented, she grabbed Rafe by the arm and dragged him along.
“Mrs. Collier, he isn’t allowed to go back.”
“He’s family, and he’s coming with me.”
Madi sat on a gurney with a blue ice pack on her head. A few stray paint chips hung in the wisps of hair hanging loose around her temples like snowflakes, and her face still had smudges of dust all over it. A tall doctor with graying hair and wire-rimmed glasses was shining a light in her eyes and making humming noises.
“Did you ever faint or did you remain conscious?” He stood back with his arms crossed looking at her seriously.
“I stayed conscious.”
“What’s your name?” He was making notes on her chart.
“I’ve told you three times. Madison Melbourne.”
Rafe winced at seeing that puckered up look on her face again. Obviously the doctor had no idea who he was dealing with.
“And what is today?”
“Friday, soon to be Saturday before you let me go, it would seem.”
The doctor chuckled and wrote some more.
�
��So, is she going to be alright?” Julia had made it to the side of the bed and was looking at the doctor with a glimmer in her eyes.
“I believe so,” he answered, walking around the end of the bed and extending a hand. “I’m Dr. Stevens, and you are?”
“I’m her mother, Julia; this is Rafe, her…friend.” She pointed at Rafe and then followed the doctor around the privacy curtain and disappeared with him.
“Ten bucks says she comes back with his number,” Madi spouted.
“And he probably won’t even need to use a club on her.” Rafe took a seat in the hard green plastic chair beside the bed and grinned at her.
“Very funny.”
They sat in silence for a while with Madi drumming her fingers on the silver metal railings they had put up on either side of her. What did they think, she would try to escape, or she was so far gone she might fall out of the bed on top of everything else?
“Madi, calm down.” Rafe reached out and took one of her hands.
“I am calm.” For some reason she didn’t pull away from him. “I’m just tired of being here and I have a killer headache and they won’t give me anything for it yet.”
Rafe left the chair and stood at the side of the bed. Leaning on the railing, he looked into her eyes. “I am really sorry.”
“As long as I don’t have to stay here, I forgive you. I don’t have time to be sick; I have too much to do.”
“What were you trying to do with the piano anyway?” He held her hand with one of his and stroked her arm with the other.
“I needed to move it. You and my mother and sister drove me to distraction this afternoon. I should have moved it before I started sanding, but for lack of sense, I didn’t.” She laid her head back and rubbed her forehead.
“Well, why didn’t you wait until I got home? I would have helped you.”
“Look, I have told you, I don’t need help.” Her voice raised to a pitch that could be heard beyond the thin veil separating her from the rest of the patients. She snatched her arm away from him. “And I don’t have time to wait, even if I did need help; I need to get my music room together, so I can start taking students.”
