Rafe was quiet when he and Marcus returned, but it wasn’t his usual silence. That Jillian would have just ignored. Rafe wasn’t as big a talker as either of his brothers.

Now there was a pensive undertone in his action that concerned her. He said very little as the two of them painted the back room that was going to be a small dormitory for clients of W4HAV. She handled the bottom halves of the walls, leaving the tops for him.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes of total silence, she looked at him. “Well, I’m not used to a quiet Rafe Holden-Deane. Did you find Fin?”

“No. I got a message saying she’d be out for a few days.” He bent to adjust the paint can and the shirt shifted over his shoulders. “Sorry I’ve not been entertaining you.”

“Don’t be a doofus. You’re worried about something.” And like it or not, that concerned her. The man just seemed too alone sometimes. She twisted on her bottom as she approached the corner of the room. Jillian stared up at him. “What about?”

“Not worried. Just trying to figure some things out.”

“About?” She was prying and she knew it. But she persisted. “The hospital?”

He sighed, then dropped his roller back into the pan. He knelt down beside her, crowding her into that corner. “You. And them. And Albright. Marcus told me a few more things about him. He’s been digging through Albright’s files.”

“Oh.” Nothing like the mention of that man to make her day go dark. “I’m not certain that I want to know more.”

He rubbed a hand over her cheek before Jillian even realized he’d moved. When he pulled back, there was light gray paint on his fingers. “Tell me something, sweetheart. Is Ari...is she ok? What happened, what he did, is she ok?”

Jillian’s heart turned over right there at the concern in his eyes.

Ok; maybe he wasn’t quite the butt she’d first thought him.

She leaned a little closer almost unconsciously. “She’s got us. After it first happened, her dad went crazy. He hated the idea of her staying anywhere near my family. It has a lot to do with what happened to her at the same time Mel was shot. But that’s a totally different story. Ari has a backbone of steel when she needs it. She told him she was staying here. That this was where she was meant to be. After Albright shot her, Lacy stayed with her until she was back on her feet. I...after I got taken care of at the hospital...well, we all stuck together. We’re healing now, I think.”

“Good.”

His hand slipped around her back and wrapped in the strap of her overalls. He stood, taking her with him gently. Jillian had no choice but to comply.

He laughed. “These overalls are ridiculous.”

“Hey, they work.” She wiggled but that just brought him closer. “I’m not a puppet, though. Let go.”

“You remind me of Pippi Longstocking today. With the braids.” He tugged one. “Cute. Far cry from Nurse Jillian, the princess of FCGH.”

“Princess?” Jillian was a weak, weak woman, and she knew it. She could have gotten away from him; he wasn’t holding her that tightly. She just didn’t want to. What she wanted to do was touch that red cotton and the broad shoulders and chest beneath. Just to feel if he was real. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“No? No less than thirteen people asked me how you were doing in the half hour I was over there. They love you there. And they worry. I think half of them think I took you out of there and devoured you. Something about the ogre that is Dr. Rage Old-&-Mean. Seems you came up with that name?”

How had their serious conversation of just moments before turned to this? Jillian swallowed. His hand dropped from the strap of her overalls to cover her pink t-shirt. To spread wide over her back. He leaned closer, trapping her between him and the wall.

Thankfully it was the still unpainted wall. Because that would have just been messy. “I...may have. One day when you were particularly ogre-y.”

“I’m not that much older than you, baby. In fact, I think there is the same age difference between you and me as there is between Chance and your sister. And it seems to work for them.”

“Uh-huh.” She winced at the lame response. Damn it, this was not what she had expected to happen today. But her traitorous hands were slipping up over that red cotton without her telling them to. “What are we doing here? I thought we decided that this wasn’t too great of an idea? Thought we were smarter than this...”

“Maybe. But...it’s the overalls. First girl I ever kissed was wearing overalls just like these. What can I say? I’m weak…”

Rafe’s lips covered her own. Jillian closed her eyes and went with it.