Summer Days

by Susan Mallery

  Rafe moved the tray to the top of the dresser. “I’ll bring some more in a couple of hours. You should try to rest.”

  “That’s all I have been doing,” she said, even as she felt her eyes closing. “Just give me a second and I’ll be perky again.”

  “Sure you will.”

  There was humor in his voice.

  She was nearly asleep when she felt the soft brush of his mouth against hers. Nice, she thought hazily, already drifting off to sleep.

  Rafe had taken care of her, had been there for her when she needed him. As she drifted off, she knew she couldn’t go behind his back and pretend the ranch was an important Máa-zib site without talking to him. They needed to find a way to compromise and find their own solution to the problem. Because…

  Because…

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  When there was no answer, she opened her eyes. Rafe had left and she was alone.

  * * *

  BY THE NEXT AFTERNOON, Heidi was going crazy. May and Rafe had both insisted she stay in bed, but she couldn’t stand it anymore. She’d showered that morning, watched hours of HGTV, had bought new sandals and a really cute shirt from QVC, and eaten enough soup to float an armada.

  By five o’clock, she’d gotten up and pulled on her jeans, only to find they were loose. The old stomach-flu diet, she thought, pulling on a clean T-shirt. Good for at least five pounds. If she had enough fashion sense to own a pair of skinny jeans, she could now fit into them. Unfortunately, she didn’t, she thought happily, so she’d have to eat her way back to her old weight. Oh, darn.

  She made her way downstairs and was pleased to find she wasn’t dizzy or exhausted. She heard May and Glen in the kitchen and followed the sound.

  “You’re up,” her grandfather announced when he saw her. He crossed to her and hugged her close, then led her to a chair. “I’m too old for you to scare me like that, Heidi.”

  “Sorry,” she said, smiling at him. “I’m better now.”

  He studied her for a second. “You look good. You up to joining us for dinner?”

  “As long as it’s real food.” She turned to May. “The soup was delicious.”

  The other woman laughed. “I understand. After a couple of days, it gets old. I was going to make pasta. You think you can eat that?”

  “It sounds delicious.”

  While May puttered around the stove, Glen brought Heidi up to date on what had been happening around the ranch. As he talked, he put another place setting on the table. Heidi realized there were only three.

  “What about Rafe?” she asked.

  “He’s not joining us,” May told her. “Nina called and said she’d found the perfect woman for him. Isn’t that exciting? He was very eager to go on his date. He left about a half hour ago.” She paused. “Didn’t he tell you?”

  Heidi shook her head because she couldn’t possibly speak. Rafe had gone on a date? After all that had happened between them? What about all they’d been through together? The sex, the conversation and laughter? She’d fallen in love with him, and he’d gone on a date?

  Fury blended with pain, the combination uncomfortably close to how she’d felt when she’d had the flu. Tears threatened, but she knew she couldn’t risk crying. Not in front of May and Glen. They would ask questions, and she didn’t have any answers she could share with them.

  “How long until dinner?” she asked, hoping her voice sounded normal.

  “About fifteen minutes.”

  “Great. I need to make a call. I want to let Annabelle know I’m all right.”

  “Of course, dear.”

  Heidi left the room and got her cell. She stepped outside, then pushed the button to phone her friend.

  “Hey, you,” Annabelle said when she answered. “I heard you were sick. Everything okay?”

  “I’m better now.” Better and worse, she thought. “It’s time. Can you contact the people you know?”

  There was a pause. Heidi had asked Annabelle to wait to announce the cave-painting find, and her friend had agreed. But that had been before. Everything was different now.

  “Of course,” Annabelle told her. “I’ll make the call right now.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  RAFE PACED THE LENGTH of the living room of his

  mother’s house, holding his cell phone to his ear. “No. I don’t know how to make myself more clear. I’m not going on any more dates, Nina.”

  “You’re not being reasonable,” his matchmaker told him. “Tell me what was wrong with the last woman. She was everything you said you wanted. Intelligent, reasonable, successful in her job, but interested in being a stay-at-home mom. Do you know how hard it is to find that combination? On top of that, she was pretty. You asked for the moon and I gave you the moon, and now you’re telling me you’re not interested?”

  “This isn’t a good time for me,” Rafe said.

  Lately everything in his life seemed complicated. Dante was bugging him about the business, he knew he couldn’t stay here indefinitely, and yet he didn’t want to leave. And then there was Heidi. On the surface, everything was fine between them, but sometimes when she looked at him, there was something in her eyes. If he had to put a name to it, he would say it was disappointment.

  None of which made sense, but he couldn’t escape the feeling that something was wrong. The last thing he needed right now was to be dating.

  “If it’s about the money, send me a bill,” he said firmly. “I know you’ve done a good job, Nina. I appreciate the effort. I’m happy to recommend you to anyone you want. But I’m not interested in seeing anyone right now.”

  “Is there someone else?”

  “No,” he said quickly, then wondered if he was lying.

  “Tell me what went wrong on your date. Because she said it was amazing.”

  He held in a groan. He didn’t want to tell her what was wrong. In truth, the woman had been fine. It was him. No, it wasn’t him, dammit. It was Heidi. He didn’t want to go out with someone else. He didn’t want to talk about music or politics or British castles. He wanted to talk about cheese and goats and the latest gossip from town. He wanted to look into Heidi’s green eyes, he wanted to see her smile and hear her laugh. He wanted her in his bed. That single night had done nothing to quench his thirst for her.

  “I’m hanging up now, Nina. We can have this conversation when I’m back in San Francisco.”

  “And when will that be?”

  “I have no idea.”

  With that, he pushed the end button and stuck his cell phone back in his shirt pocket.

  Ms. Jennings and Dante both wanted to hear from him, but they were going to have to wait. What he needed was a good, long ride on Mason. That would clear his head and then he could think.

  He crossed the living room and opened the front door. He was halfway down the porch stairs when a white van with a satellite dish on the roof pulled onto the property. He didn’t recognize the TV station listed, or the pictures of the local-news broadcasters. Seconds later, a second van drove in, this one with the call letters of a San Francisco TV station with a network affiliation.

  The doors of the vans opened and several people poured out. Guys went to work on equipment, while a well made-up woman and a guy also wearing makeup walked toward him.

  “We’re looking for the owner of the ranch,” the woman said. She glanced at her smartphone. “Heidi Simpson.”

  “Right here.”

  He glanced over his shoulder and saw Heidi had stepped outside. He stared at her, trying to figure out what was different. She still wore jeans and boots, but she wa
s somehow dressed better. She had on a blouse instead of a T-shirt and was wearing makeup—not as much as the TV people, but more than usual. Her hair was loose and wavy. He looked closer. She was wearing earrings. She never wore earrings.

  “What’s going on?” he demanded. “What are they doing here?”

  The female reporter stepped past him. “Is it true?” she asked. “You made another find?”

  “I did,” Heidi told her with a pleasant smile. “I was looking for more room for my cheese. I make goat cheese and age it in the caves. I thought I’d do a little exploring and I got lost. I ended up deeper in the caves than I’ve ever been, and that’s where I saw them.”

  Rafe felt as if he’d stepped into the middle of a movie with no idea of where the story was heading. “Saw what?”

  Heidi glanced at him. “Cave paintings. They’re amazing. I thought maybe they were from the Máa-zib tribe.” She turned back to the reporter, her eyes wide. “They’re Mayan women who migrated here and lived for hundreds of years. There was that gold discovery last year. I have a friend who has studied the Máa-zib women, and she thinks the cave might have been used in sacred rituals. That would make this an important find.”

  The reporter nodded. “I was on the story last year. The viewers loved it, especially the women. Can I see the cave paintings?” She glanced back at her truck. “I want to bring one of the guys with me. He’ll be able to tell what we need to set up for filming. Light’s the main thing. Can we do that? Set up our lights without hurting the paintings?”

  “I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Heidi told her.

  “Great.”

  The reporter hurried back to her van. The second reporter was on his phone, but Rafe was confident he, too, would want to hear the whole story. The amazing story. The unbelievable story.

  He looked at Heidi. “Cave paintings? You and I went to that cave together, and there were no paintings on the wall.”

  She kept her hands in her front pockets and shrugged. “I guess we didn’t go in deep enough. There are several wonderful paintings and some artifacts. This could be a very important find for the tribe. Annabelle thinks this is sacred ground.”

  “I heard that. Who the hell is Annabelle?”

  “A friend of mine. She’s a librarian.”

  He was quickly going from disbelieving to annoyed. “Well, if she’s a librarian, she must be an expert.”

  Heidi raised her chin. “As it happens, she has a minor in Máa-zib studies, so she is a kind of expert.”

  “And when did you make this miraculous find?” he asked.

  “Yesterday.”

  “While you were still recovering from the flu?”

  “I wanted to check on my cheese. I guess I got disoriented.”

  “I’ll bet. And you didn’t want to mention anything to me?”

  “You were gone. On a date.”

  Guilt muted his anger, but he refused to be distracted by facts. “I’m not sure when Annabelle had the chance to come look at the caves, let alone make an expert assessment of them.”

  “She’s very quick.”

  “Or the cave paintings are a recent addition to the ranch.”

  Heidi stared directly into his eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Right.” He drew in a breath. “So, what’s the plan?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean. I guess we’ll have to have some archaeologists come look over the site. They’ll need to find out if there are more cave paintings, and study the artifacts. If this really was sacred ground, then that kind of changes things.”

  “Sacred, my ass,” he muttered. This was nothing more than a trick. What he couldn’t understand was why Heidi was doing this. Why now? She shouldn’t feel any more threatened today than she had a month ago. Nothing was different.

  Unless she had found out about his plans.

  Not possible, he told himself. No one knew except Dante. He hadn’t even sent an email on the subject. So she couldn’t possibly know about the houses. Which left him with the questions, why this and why now?

  “We’re ready,” the female reporter called.

  The reporter on the phone looked up. “Hey, I’m coming with you.”

  The woman rolled her eyes. “Fine. Just stay out of my way. I got here first.”

  “By about one minute.”

  Heidi stepped around Rafe. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to see to the reporters.”

  He watched her walk away. When he was alone, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and scrolled until he found Dante’s number.

  “You won’t believe what’s happening,” he said, when his friend had answered. “We have cave paintings.”

  He explained about the reporters and the potential issue of “sacred” ground. When he was finished, Dante began to laugh.

  “You have to admire her originality,” Dante told him.

  “The hell I do. We have a problem and it has to be fixed.”

  * * *

  MORE MEDIA TRUCKS ARRIVED. Over the next couple of days, reporters swarmed, their cameras and lights littering the yard. Heidi set up a small stand to sell her cheese, while May charged two dollars for bottles of water and soda.

  Rafe avoided the women in his life. He decided this was a fine time to go back to San Francisco. He could deal with his pressing business problems, sign some paperwork and figure out his next move.

  Now, in his office, he waited for a sense of rightness to fill him. For the calm to take over—calm being a relative term. He was in a suit, behind a computer. All should have been right with the world.

  “What?” Dante asked, leaning back in his chair, looking almost hurt. “Those are the best terms ever. I worked my ass off for them.”

  “Sorry, what?” Rafe glanced at the file in front of him. “Oh, right. Great job.”

  His friend clutched his chest. “Hold on. That was so emotionally meaningful, I think I need a tissue.”

  Rafe got up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked out at the bay. It was one of those perfect days, with clear skies and the sun glinting off the water. The city at her best.

  “It’s not you,” he muttered.

  Dante chuckled. “We’re not dating, Rafe. It’s never gonna be me. You still have your head up your ass.”

  Rafe faced his partner. “I what?”

  “You heard me. If not your ass, then it’s back in Fool’s Gold. You’re no good to me like this.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re distracted. You’re pissed because she surprised you, and you don’t like that.”

  “She’s cheating.”

  “She’s working outside the box. You should admire that.”

  Rafe turned back to Dante. “I thought she trusted me. I thought we were…”

  Dante raised his eyebrows. “Involved?” He swore. “Do not tell me you’re sleeping with her.”

  “It’s not like that.”

  But it was exactly like that.

  Rafe still couldn’t pin down what was wrong. He was pissed—that was a given. What he couldn’t understand was why Heidi had done it. And why her actions bothered him so much.

  “I’m going back,” he said, grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair.

  “Color me surprised.”

  “I’ll call you.”

  “They all say that, and they never do.”

  Rafe didn’t bother changing. He just got in his car and headed east. When he finally drove onto the ranch, it was to find yet another truck by the barn. Only this one wasn’t from any media outlet, and what was slowly backing out of the trailer had him as openmouthed as any cartoon character.

  “What the—”

  “You see it, too, then,” Heidi said coming
up beside him. “I thought maybe I had brain damage from the flu.”

  He turned to stare at her, taking in the green eyes, the full mouth, the return of the goat girl braids. Pleasure welled up inside him. Pleasure and need. He wanted to grab her and kiss her, then maybe shake some sense into her.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s happening?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, either.”

  He returned his attention to the elephant backing out of the trailer.

  “Any chance that’s a rental?” he asked.

  His mother burst out of the house. “She’s here. Look at her. Isn’t she beautiful?” She came to a stop beside him.

  Rafe watched the incredibly huge creature come to rest beside the barn.

  “It’s an elephant, Mom.”

  “I know. I’ve always wanted one.”

  Heidi shook her head. “You’re impressive, May. You know how to do things in a big way. I’m thinking Dr. McKenzie is going to have to read up on elephants.”

  “Our vet is a smart man. He’ll figure it out.”

  Rafe wondered if the vet would want to have his mother checked out by local mental health professionals.

  “You know where you’re going to put her?” he asked.

  “Of course. While you were gone, I had a shelter built.”

  He nodded, feeling as if he was trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.

  “I’m going to guess elephants are expensive.”

  “Yes, they are. Even when they’re old.”

  “So there was paperwork and I probably signed it.”

  His mother leaned her head on his shoulder. “You did.”

  But he hadn’t read it, because, apparently, he was a slow learner.

  “Mom?”

  “Yes, dear?”

  “Where are you getting the money to do all this?”

  “I sold my condo.”

  “The one I bought you?” The one with the perfect view, in Pacific Heights. The one easily worth over a million. Dollars.

  “Uh-huh.”