Summer Days
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.”
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.”
* * *
HEIDI 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.
“Do you think there’s something wrong with my mother?” he asked. “Some kind of dementia?”
Heidi’s instinctive response was to laugh, but she could tell Rafe was serious.
“May is one of the most lucid people I know. There’s nothing wrong with her.”
“She bought an elephant.” He swore and ran his fingers through his hair. “Name one normal person who doesn’t work for the circus who does that.”
“She said she wanted the ranch to be a place for old animals to retire. We assumed she meant llamas and sheep. Obviously, she had more in mind.”
“What’s next?”
“I don’t think there’s anything else as surprising as an elephant. Seriously, would a zebra shock you now?”
“Not really.”
“So, she’s peaked. That’s good.” She tilted her head. “I swear, she’s fine. It’s not what you would have done with the money, but then, you would never have bought the ranch.”
She thought about what May had said that afternoon. “I’m sorry about the condo. Was it nice?”
“I thought so. Two bedrooms, two and a half baths, twenty-five hundred square feet, with a killer view.”
“You take good care of her. I’m sure she appreciates that.”
He shrugged. “I started early. That kind of thing never goes away.”
Meaning, he would be taking care of his mother the rest of her life. That was nice, Heidi thought. Comforting to know Rafe was consistent. In so many ways, he was a good man, so why was he planning to develop her land without even talking to her?
She wanted to ask, to explain that was why she’d done the cave paintings, but what had been done couldn’t be undone, and talking about it wouldn’t change that.
“I’m sorry,” she said instead.
“Me, too.”
She doubted they were apologizing for the same thing, but that was okay.
“My mother told me that elephants need companionship.”
Heidi winced. “So she’s buying another elephant?”
“No. She wants to try some of the animals already here, to see who the elephant bonds with. She wondered if you would mind if she introduced Athena to the elephant.”
“Does the elephant have a name?”
He drew in a slow breath, his expression changing to that of a man about to walk the plank. “Priscilla.”
Heidi pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh. “Seriously?”
“Do you think I could make that up?”
She felt the laughter building inside her and finally gave in. She laughed until she had to collapse back on the bed, where she struggled to catch her breath.
“Priscilla, the elephant? I love that. May might have bought her based on the name alone.”
“She said she bought her because she looked sad in her pictures.”
Heidi wiped away tears. “Sure. Priscilla can meet Athena. Or any of the goats.” She chuckled. “Your mom is the best. I really like her.”
Rafe moved without warning. One second he was sitting in the chair by the window, the next he was crossing the room and reaching for her.
She wasn’t sure who got there first, but then she was in his arms and it didn’t matter. His mouth settled on hers as he kissed her deeply.
His lips pressed against hers, claiming her with the hunger of a man who had been without too long. His need fueled hers, and she dove into the liquid desire washing through her. She parted her lips for him, then met his tongue with eager thrusts of her own.