by Vivian Arend
Her feet felt light, and she wanted to dance across the room.
She should have expected it. He would show up and it would be like they’ve never been apart, only now they were both old enough and smart enough to know what type of trouble they were getting into.
Oh, the trouble they could get into…
Heat rushed in as she moved toward the men. Her cheeks were blazing hot, and she deliberately looked Trevor in the eye before turning to face Rafe.
He winked.
She jerked her gaze away before he set her off giggling. “Would you guys take your conversation outside, please?” she asked primly.
Two could play the innocent game.
Trevor demanded her attention, cocky smile in place as he held forward the Winnie the Pooh books she’d found for him. “No problem. Can you help me check these out, first?”
It was as good an excuse as any. She snatched them from his hand along with his library card then all but ran to escape. Behind her, the guys spoke a little more, but quietly enough she didn’t need to kick into librarian-police mode, which was good because she probably would’ve burst out laughing.
Rafe walked out without saying goodbye, which was also a good thing. It let her keep her cool while explaining something inane about how to get a library card to Trevor.
By the time he left her cheeks were cramping from holding back her laughter.
Luckily, Wendy came back on shift right then. Laurel grabbed the shelving cart and fled to the back of the room, hiding in the farthest corner of the library where tall windows stretched from floor to ceiling. She pressed her face against the cool glass in the hopes it would lower her temperature.
It had been three years and she’d never forgotten what he’d said.
Never forgotten what they’d done.
Fortunately, some of the items on the cart actually belonged in that corner of the library, so she wasn’t completely wasting time as she forced herself to concentrate and accomplish some work. All afternoon she kept waiting for Rafe to return, and being thankful when he didn’t.
She left at five o’clock sharp, slipping into her little car and taking the first full breath she’d gotten since spotting him.
Tucked under her windshield wiper was a folded note.
So much for breathing. She jerked open the door and grabbed the note, ripping it open.
Do you want to build a racetrack?
She headed to the schoolyard, heart pounding.
Rafe sat at a picnic table on the edge of the playground. He’d rested his elbows on the tabletop as he stretched his long, jean-clad legs in front of him. She took her time walking across the field to appreciate the view, from the sturdy cowboy boots all the way up to his hair that stuck out slightly from underneath his cowboy hat.
He needed a haircut.
Or maybe not. The slightly ragged length looked good. It fit, and it fit the rest of him as well as she continued admiring him.
Since she’d left, the boy had become a man. The muscles pressing the sleeves of his T-shirt were far more solid. His face had matured to sharper angles, his high cheekbones and square jaw just that much more defined now that he’d moved into his twenties.
The expression in his eyes was the same as she remembered, though. Hell-bent on mischief, and one hundred percent on her side.
Laurel came to a stop a few feet from the table. She didn’t quite know where to put her hands. “I missed you.”
He rose instantly, not one bit hesitant about where to put his hands. He wrapped her in a big hug, lifting her off her feet as he swung in a wild circle. His hat tipped off backward as he buried his face in her neck and squeezed her close.
She clung to him tightly, wondering how this could feel so much like coming home and still like the beginning.
He lowered her to the ground, leading her to the picnic table to sit. “Couldn’t believe it when I heard you were back.”
“And I can’t believe that nobody stopped in to tell me everything about you,” she returned, crawling up on the tabletop. “I figured the minute I hit town, the entire Coleman clan would be in my back pocket, giving me the rundown on everything you’ve been up to for the last three years.”
Rafe shrugged. “I don’t think anybody except your family, my mom, and the people we went to school with really remember we were that close.”
“That makes no sense. The sheer amount of time we spent in the detention room together means somebody should’ve noticed.”
He laughed. “Yeah, but we’re younger. Nobody looks that direction. They were all focused on their own stuff and the people they’re chasing.” He ignored the rude noise she made. “You know I’m right. It’s like hiding shit in plain sight, or above people’s heads. Heck, by the time we hit junior high most of my extended family had graduated, and they didn’t give a damn about what was happening back in school. We were two years behind my nearest cousins, Lee and Lisa, and three years behind the Six Pack twins. And compared to them, we were saints.”
“Still think it’s weird.”
He smiled, stroking his thumb across the back of her hand, and a shiver rolled over her. “Being invisible isn’t a bad thing. It means we get to deal with us on our own timing.”
“Us?” The word came out a little squeaky.
“Us.” He slid his hand over hers, and heat sizzled up her arm. “You’re single?”
She nodded, heart in her throat.
“Me too.”
Somehow in the past ten seconds every nerve in her body had gone from tingling in anticipation to full-out electric storm. “Oh, boy.”
“Right?”
She wanted to move to the next thing very very much, whatever that next thing was, but there were enough other things going on, she was worried.
“Rafe… What if I need some time?” A burst of laughter escaped her. “That sounded stupid. It’s been three years, and I think I want to…whatever it is we’re going to do—”
“Date. We’re going to date.”
She nodded firmly. “Right. But I’m just back from school and need to figure out some stuff. I’m worried about dealing with my parents, even though they’re mostly great, but it’s still—”
Rafe soothed her, placing her hand on his thigh before leaning in closer. “I’ve got bad news, too. I’m going to be gone most of the summer. Just before I heard you were back, Gabe asked me to do pickup and deliveries all over Western Canada, and I promised I would.”
Disappointment rushed in, along with relief. “All summer?”
Rafe nodded. “I’ll be home only a few days at a time, and none of them with much warning.”
It wasn’t exactly what she’d been hoping for, but the instant decrease in her stress level told her a lot. “I’ve been gone for three years, and this is the first time I’ve held a full-time job.” She made a face. “Maybe it’s good you won’t be around to distract me or get me in trouble.”
“Ha. Look who’s talking, kettle.” He brushed the hair off her face. “God, I missed you. I missed talking to you, getting lectured by you, and the way you blurt out ideas soon as you think of them.”
“Gee, thanks. You like all the awkward things about me.”
He leaned forward and looked up into her face with a brilliant smile. “Yup, I sure do.”
It didn’t seem right they were sitting there in the middle of the playground, with three years to catch up on, and she was obsessing over the feel of his thumb against her skin. “Speaking of awkward things, I don’t quite know how we’re planning to do this.”
Do this. It sounded far too sexual.
She glanced up to discover his eyes had gone dark with desire.
Oh boy.
As usual, Rafe had far more control than she did. “I don’t want you to have to put up with the Coleman Inquisition, so I suggest we wait.”
“Wait for sex?” Drat. She didn’t miss his sharp intake of breath. She couldn’t see his face, though, because she’d buried her face in her han
ds. “Go, Laurel. Silver-tongued as usual.”
His soft laughter slid over her. He put an arm around her shoulders, squeezing briefly before letting her go without offering anything more intimate. “September sixth.”
She checked his expression closer, pretty sure he wasn’t suggesting that as the date for sex. “Go on.”
A slow, heated look rolled over his face. “We met September sixth, so how about we wait until then to start over?”
“You’ll be done traveling?”
“And you’ll have time to settle in without anyone giving you grief about me popping in and out of your life like a broken jack-in-the-box.”
“I don’t care what people say,” she insisted. “It’s not that.”
“I do,” he snapped back. “About this? About you? I want it clear from the first minute we’re together that you’re mine. No one will take me seriously if I’m gone ninety percent of the time, not even you.”
Too many questions shoved forward. Did his resolve to be taken seriously have something to do with recent events? Three years was a long time. A lot could have happened…
A lot had happened.
Laurel gazed across at her best friend who had no idea what had shaken down in her recent life. The only way to know if they had a future, though, was to try.
She nodded firmly in acceptance. “September sixth? It’s a date.”
His smile widened. “Hell, yeah, it’s a date. I’ll pick you up.”
“Wait—” She hesitated to mention it, but… “What about Trevor? He saw you in the library. He knows something’s going on.”
Rafe’s grin morphed back to his aww-shucks one. “I told him I was lusting over you, but too chicken to ask you out.”
Her jaw fell open, and she hurried to snap it back into position. “You? Chicken? Does he even know you?”
“Not as well as he thinks.” Rafe’s smile faded.
Definitely things to relearn about each other.
She eyed him for a long moment, wondering what was the right move next. Did she shake his hand then head home? Hug him farewell?
Kiss him passionately the way she really wanted to?
“Not only have you failed to learn how to lie, you’ve got a terrible poker face.” Rafe cupped her chin. “I want to kiss you too, but we’re waiting, remember?”
She flushed. “Then why even mention it?”
“Because I want you to think about it all summer while we’re apart. Think about how the next time I see you, we won’t be waiting anymore.” The deep velvet of his voice stroked her as surely as the motion of his thumb over her lips. “When I see you in September, I’m going to take a hell of a long time relearning how you taste, and what makes you moan, and what makes you scream.”
The temperature seemed to have soared in the past few minutes.
Laurel made a show of fanning herself if only to distract him from how hard her pulse was beating—had to be nearly loud enough he could hear it. “Good job, DC.”
Rafe raised a brow. “Devil child? Wow, I haven’t heard that one for a long time.”
“If the shoe fits…” She rose to her feet, walking at his side back to the parking lot.
“It doesn’t fit,” he insisted as she crawled into her car. He lowered himself beside her, reaching across her lap to do up her seatbelt. The movement squeezed them together for a brief instant, and she sucked for air.
“I’m not a child anymore,” he informed her clearly. He pressed his lips to her cheek then murmured, “I’m all grown up, and I can’t wait to prove it to you.”
She had trouble swallowing as he stepped back, offering a cocky smile before sauntering away.
Chapter Three
September 5th
The sky overhead was robin-egg blue, with not a single wispy cloud anywhere to be seen—a typical Alberta fall day. It was warm enough Rafe had his window rolled down as he traveled the final miles along a familiar gravel road.
He pulled to a stop at the top of the hill to stare over the Angel Coleman land. From his vantage point, the new buildings he and his brother had raised the past couple years shone in the midday sun. Bright red barns with cheerful white trim turned the pastoral scene into something out of a magazine. There was no sign of Gabe’s house, though, except for a welcoming thread of smoke rising from the thick forest hiding it from the road.
The log building might be out of sight, but Rafe knew behind those trees sat a house full of warmth and laughter.
His gaze drifted farther to the west where the original Angel homestead lay on a small rise across from Crown land, the buildings worn by time. The ravages of neglect were clear even from this distance.
As he restarted the engine and headed toward Gabe’s, the contrast between what his brother had and what Rafe had to look forward to hit hard. Back at the homestead there would be no welcoming fire, no homey goodness to anticipate. At least not yet…
It had been good to be away for the summer. Hard, because he was itching to get together with Laurel, but after twenty-two years in the same place, two months on the road had given him a new appreciation for coming home.
Home meaning the people he loved, not the building he’d grown up in.
Time away from Ben had been good as well. Didn’t matter that he knew his father was a bitter old man, it still took a lot of energy to avoid falling into doom-and-gloom mode after working around him.
And considering that imitating the man was the last thing on earth Rafe wanted—he refused to give the bastard the satisfaction—joining him in asshole-hood was out of the question.
He pulled into the yard at Gabe and Allison’s, admiring the additional changes they’d made over the summer.
His sister-in-law hurried out of the house, waving at him before adjusting his nephew who was balanced on her hip.
“Glad I caught you at home,” he called out the window.
“Been waiting for you. Gabe had to go into town, and he figured you’d like to know where to drop those animals.” Allison marched up to the window and offered a warm smile. “Good to have you back. We missed you.”
He reached out the window and rubbed a hand over Micah’s soft brown hair. “Of course you did. I’m charming, a hard worker, and the best babysitter you’ve ever had.”
“Modest, as well.”
“That goes without saying.”
She chuckled as she passed on the instructions.
He pulled the trailer around to the new barn, transferring the stock into the pens his brother had prepared. Their organic farm status was growing more viable every year, and all the Angel ranch gains were because of Gabe and his brilliant wife.
Rafe took a moment to lean on the fence and watch the load of breeders explore their new home.
“Sturdy-looking animals,” Allison said, joining him at the side of the rail. She wore a kid carrier—the type that let her carry Micah on her back and keep her hands free. The little guy had a thumb in his mouth, but his eyes were wide as he leaned to one side and reached his free hand toward the sheep.
“They cost enough. Hopefully they turn out to be worth it.” Rafe gave the backpack a wiggle. “That’s a neat contraption.”
“Micah loves it, which has made getting chores done a whole lot easier. Ten-month-olds don’t understand the concept of ‘in a while’.” Allison twisted beside him, staring up at his face. “You look tired.”
Rafe shrugged. “I got up early. I was done with being on the road and wanted to get home.”
She hesitated before asking, “You sure you want to go back to living over the garage at Ben and Dana’s?”
The concern in her eyes was there for a good reason. Yeah, he didn’t want to admit it, but his impulsive move out of the place he’d been renting with his cousin might not have been a good decision. “I’m pretty sure my old place is gone—Jesse’s probably found a new place or roommates. I don’t plan to stay at the apartment long term, but it’s good enough for a while.”
“You know our
door is always open.”
Which would make things worse between him and his dad—bad enough he agreed with the changes Gabe and Allison had implemented. If he moved in with them, the gap between the generations would widen even further.
He offered Allison a quick hug, surprised again to discover he was now bigger than her. “You guys are awesome, but I need to figure out the next thing on my own.”
She nodded but offered a mild scolding. “You go ahead and figure it out, but you are never on your own. Not in this family.”
“Because Angel Boy Coleman always has something to say?” he teased. If he’d been called a devil by his friends, Gabe had always been the opposite.
“Because your brother has two ears and he likes to listen even more than he likes to talk,” Allison answered. She walked with him back to the truck. “Come for supper if you’d like.”
“Later this week? I’m pretty sure Mom will insist that I—”
“Oh, shoot.” Allison put a hand on his shoulder and twisted him back toward the barn. “Can you load up a half dozen of the goats and take them to your mom’s? She asked if I’d bring them over, and I nearly forgot.”
Rafe didn’t bother to hide his smile as he headed out willingly. “You’re getting forgetful in your old age. And what the heck does my mom need goats for?”
Allison pulled to a complete stop and looked utterly confused. “You know, she didn’t say. Or I can’t remember if she did.”
“Definitely going senile.”
She stuck out her tongue. “Sleep deprivation. Just wait. Someday you’ll get to experience the joy of parenthood as well.”
He loaded the goats into the massive trailer then pulled out from the yard and headed over to the homestead, his amusement fading as he prepared himself for whatever he found there.
A night-and-day difference hit as he drove the long approach to the house where he’d grown up. Faded paint had begun to peel off the shutters, and the barns were past that point where they looked weathered and well used. These looked weathered and edging toward falling apart.
Huge potholes greeted him on the drive, along with a nasty crop of wild thistles thriving on either side of the entrance. Another shit job on the to-do list already—he got to deal with noxious weeds as well as break out the tractor and level the road. Maybe call in for some extra road crush.
