Summer Days (Fool's Gold #7)(90)

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Please stay for a few more minutes.”

She reluctantly sank back into the chair. He settled across from her.

“I’m sorry,” he began slowly. “I was wrong to walk away from you. I was wrong not to listen or try to understand. You were a kid, and I turned my back on you.”

“So did Mom.”

He nodded. “So did Mom.”

He’d always thought about his sister in terms of the trouble she caused, and how her dancing consumed her. He’d never considered what it must have been like from her point of view. Growing up an obvious afterthought, the result of a single night spent with a stranger. He and his brothers had been born to a couple very much in love. They’d been the family Evangeline had talked about. But she was a constant reminder of the pain they’d felt after their father had died. Odd man out.

May had been uncomfortable with Evangeline from the beginning. The woman who loved her children unrepentantly had kept her only daughter at a distance. Rafe had been too busy being the man of the house to worry about a little girl. It had fallen on Shane and Clay to parent her, and they’d only been kids themselves.

“It was your birthday a few weeks ago,” he said. “I thought of you then.”

“Did you? You thought of me?” Her eyes widened. “Oh, Rafe, that makes everything so much better. Knowing you took the trouble to think of me. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Dammit, Evie.”

She stood again. “Go to hell. I don’t want you around, and I sure don’t need you. Maybe I did once. But you weren’t there. Not you or Mom. I had to figure it out on my own.” She narrowed her gaze. “Whatever you want, you’re too late. I’m not interested.”

“I don’t want anything.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I was wrong before. Because I want us to be a family again.”

“We were never a family.”

“Then let’s be one now.”

She turned to leave.

He stood. “I need you.”

She stopped, but didn’t look at him.

He circled around the small table and stepped in front of her. “I need you,” he repeated. “I was such a jerk. I never asked why you left school. I never asked what went so wrong. I never bothered to find out where you went or what you did. Hell, I didn’t even teach you to ride a bike.”

“Shane did,” she whispered.

“I’m glad. Please. You’re right. I do want something. I want to get to know you. Just give me your phone number and take mine. We’ll talk every couple of weeks. I’ll come back, and we’ll go to dinner. We’ll start slow.”

“I don’t trust you,” she admitted.

“Fair enough. I wouldn’t trust me, either.”

She stared at him for a long time. Her gaze seemed to see inside of him, down to his soul. He hoped she would be generous in her assessment, because he doubted he would earn many points based on merit.

She turned back to the table and sat down. “I’ll take your number. You can’t have mine.”

He chuckled. “Okay.”

“You can’t date Opal.”

“Who’s Opal?”

“My roommate.”

He thought about the busty blonde and held up both hands as he sat across from his sister. “Not a problem. I have no interest in Opal.”

“Also, no questions. I’ll tell you what I want you to know. You don’t get to dig around in my life or pass judgments.”

“Forget it,” he told her, picking up his latte. “I’ll ask all the questions I want.”

One corner of her mouth turned up, even as she was careful to look bored. “I won’t answer them.”

“Fine. You always were stubborn.”

“You don’t know enough about me to say what I was.”

He ignored that. “So, Evangeline, what are you doing these days?”

“I’m a neurosurgeon. In my free time, I fly fighter jets and solve crimes.”

“Ambitious. I like that. Is there a guy in your life?”

She rolled her eyes. “No. What about you, Rafe? Still married? Any little mini-tycoons running around?”

“I’m not married.”

Her distancing facade fell as she leaned toward him. “What went wrong?”

He saw the moment she remembered she wasn’t supposed to care. The slightly bored mask slipped back in place.

He took advantage of her interest and told her the truth. “We got divorced years ago. But now there’s this woman. She’s making me crazy.”

“I like her already.”

“You would like her. She raises goats and makes cheese, and when she smiles, it’s like the sun has come out.”

His sister stared at him. “You’re in serious trouble.”

“I’m starting to figure that out.”

* * *

HEIDI RETURNED TO THE MUDROOM with the fresh milk to find May waiting for her. Heidi had done her best to avoid the other woman for days, slinking in and out of the ranch, dumping some of the milk so she didn’t have to face May. But orders were piling up and she had cheese to make, so she’d braved the house, only to come face-to-face with Rafe’s mother.