Summer Days (18 page)

“You’re going to have a rough couple of days,” he told her. “I
talked to my mom. She’s going into town for supplies. Ginger ale and whatever
she needs to make her famous chicken soup.” He smiled at her. “She uses rice
instead of noodles, so it’s easier to keep down.”

“I’ll be fine,” Heidi insisted, her eyes drifting closed. “Once
I don’t feel like I’m dying.”

“You’re not going to die. Try to sleep.”

“I might need to throw up again.”

“I promise not to tie up the bathroom.”

Her lips curved into a slight smile. “Thank you.”

He pressed a kiss on her cheek. “That’s what friends do for
each other.”

“Are we friends?” Her voice was low, a little sleepy and barely
audible.

“I hope so, goat girl.”

* * *

H
EIDI
WAS
VAGUELY
AWARE
of the passage
of time, mostly because sometimes it was dark outside her window and sometimes
it was light. She spent the first twenty-four hours puking her guts out and
wishing she were dead, and the next twenty-four fighting a fever and wishing she
were dead. Sometime after that, she slept for what felt like three weeks.

She knew people were coming and going, that a person she didn’t
know examined her and proclaimed that, yes, she had the flu and to keep her
hydrated. Then she slept some more.

Through it all, she was aware of Rafe. May and Glen took turns
at her bedside, but mostly there was Rafe’s strong presence. She felt him wiping
her down with a cool cloth and sometimes holding her hand. He’d brought in a TV
and tuned it to the Home and Garden channel. One night she woke up to find him
next to her in her bed. He was fully dressed, on top of the covers, his arm
around her. She’d been surprised but comforted, and had snuggled close before
going back to sleep.

Now she opened her eyes and saw light spilling into the room.
The brightness suggested it was long past morning. She blinked, not sure what
day it was, but feeling more like herself than she had in a long time.

“You’re back.”

She turned and saw Rafe standing in the doorway of her room. He
looked good—tanned and strong, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows. She
frowned. Two bruises that looked suspiciously hoof-shaped marred both
forearms.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

He crossed toward her and moved the pillows against the
headboard so she could sit up. She sagged against them and touched his left arm.
The bruise was still swollen, almost a welt.

He sighed. “Athena didn’t want to move to another part of the
ranch. We had words. Or rather, I had words, and she kicked me.”

“Ouch.”

“Don’t worry. I kicked her back.”

Heidi grinned. “You didn’t.”

“No, but I wanted to.”

“Did you get her moved?”

“Do you have to ask?”

“Silly me.”

He leaned over and touched her forehead. “Good. The fever’s
gone. Are you hungry? Could you keep soup down?”

She touched her stomach. “I think so. How long have I been out
of it?”

“Nearly four days.”

“That’s not possible. I’ve never been sick like that
before.”

“You had us worried,” he admitted. “We called in a doctor. But
she said you’d be fine, and she was right.” He straightened. “Let me get you
some food. Mom will be thrilled to know you’re awake. She’ll insist on serving
about a quart of soup, but only eat as much as you think you can handle. Trust
me, there’s plenty more waiting.”

He left.

Heidi leaned back against the pillows. Four days? She didn’t
remember much about what had happened, but it couldn’t have been pretty.

She got out of bed and had to pause to steady herself. Her legs
felt wobbly, but she made her way to the bathroom. After nearly shrieking at her
reflection, she washed her face and brushed her teeth, then ran a comb through
her hair. She was desperate for a shower, but based on how weak she felt, that
would have to wait.

She managed to make it back to her bed without collapsing, and
lay there shaking for a couple of minutes. Less than a minute later, Rafe
returned with a tray.

She smelled the soup before she saw it, and her stomach
growled.

“It’s even better than it looks,” he told her. “Mom made this
every time one of us was sick. It was the best part of feeling like crap.”

Next to the soup was a plate with plain toast and a glass of
ice water. She took it all in and realized she was even more thirsty than she
was hungry.

The cool water went down easily. Then she started in on the
soup. But despite her best intentions, she only managed a half dozen spoonfuls
before exhaustion overtook her.

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.

* * *

B
Y
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

R
AFE
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 was 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.”

* * *

M
ORE
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.”

May wandered toward the man holding on to the elephant. Heidi glanced at him.

“You would have had to sign the closing papers on her condo, too.”

“Thanks for pointing that out.”

* * *

H
EIDI
LAY
CURLED
UP
on her bed, reading. It was late and she should probably be asleep, but she felt she’d slept enough while recovering from the flu. Besides, there were a lot of things on her mind, and reading helped distract her. Getting lost in a juicy romance always made her feel better.

A light knock on her door caused her to look up. The fluttering in her heart told her who she wanted her visitor to be, but a small, sensible part of her brain mentioned having it be May would be much safer.

“Come in.”

Rafe opened the door. “Got a minute?”

She nodded and put her book on the nightstand, then shifted so she was sitting cross-legged on her bed. He walked to the chair by the window and sat down.

He looked tired, she thought. As though he hadn’t been sleeping well. Maybe his couple of days in San Francisco had consisted of late nights with beautiful women. The thought made her want to work herself up into righteous indignation, but she had a feeling he’d spent his time working. At least, she hoped he had, because she found herself wanting to move close to him and hold him. To tell him that everything would be all right. Crazy, when she remembered he was the cause of her problems.