The Way You Look Tonight (The Sullivans #9)(17)

"He had been cheating on her, hadn’t he?"

Rafe looked disgusted as he confirmed, "With any woman he could get his hands on."

"That’s great that you helped her get out of the bad relationship."

"All of her friends felt the same way. In the past seven years, I’ve caught nearly every wealthy man on the West Coast with his pants down in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Being a P.I. had sounded so exciting when he’d first told her about it, but now she could see just what a difficult job it would be, if only because you’d have to constantly make it a point to remind yourself that not everyone was bad.

"That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To get away from the dark side of human nature for a while." When he didn’t respond, she moved closer to him again and reached for his hand. Despite the fact that he stiffened at her touch, she told him, "I’m really glad Mia found you the house."

She thought about everything he’d said, everything he must have seen in the past seven years, and wanted nothing more than to erase it all for him.

"I know it’s going to need a lot of work, but I think it’s even more important that you have fun here." She smiled up at him, determined to see him smile back one day soon. "Who better to have fun with than an old friend?"

* * *

What the hell was Rafe supposed to say when Brooke looked up at him with those big, innocent eyes and such sweet determination to try to make him feel better about everything? It was his own twisted brain that kept spinning out into X-rated territory, not hers. By "fun" she meant swimming and hiking and roasting marshmallows over a bonfire...not licking each other all over and rolling around together on her bed until they’d both forgotten what a rotten world it could be.

Yesterday he’d been stunned by what a beauty she’d become. Today, he was surprised all over again by the way she’d grabbed the screwdriver out of his hand and demanded answers to her questions.

She was still the cute, sweet girl he’d known a decade and a half ago, but she was also a heck of a lot tougher than he’d given her credit for.

She was still holding his hand, and he wanted to tug her closer to find out if she tasted as sweet as she looked. Instead, he said, "Fun sounds good, Brooke. But I’ve got to know you’re safe." He looked pointedly at the screwdriver.

"Thank you for answering my question," she said as she handed the tool over without any reluctance, as good as her word despite the fact that he knew she didn’t like the look of the deadbolt. "How about I head over to your house and get started with cleaning while you finish up here so that we can get to the fun stuff quicker?"

Fun. He couldn’t think of the last time he’d focused on having fun. Hot sex with a stranger. The thrill of driving one of his cousin Zach’s race cars. The pleasure of tasting one of his other cousin Marcus’s new vintages from his Napa Valley vineyard.

But fun?

Rafe wasn’t even sure what that was anymore...

"Sure," he said as he knelt back down in front of the door lock, "that sounds good."

And the truth was, just knowing he’d get to spend the day with Brooke, even if they’d likely end up spending all of it cleaning and clearing out his house next door, sounded better than it should have.

Almost like fun.

Chapter Six

They were a good team, Brooke thought several hours later, as she looked around Rafe’s now spotless kitchen with satisfaction. He still needed to buy new appliances, fix the flooring, and put up new cabinets and countertops, but at least you didn’t need a face mask to enter the room now.

Immediately after he’d finished putting on her new lock, he’d joined her to dig into the mess the renters had made. She’d mopped and swept and scrubbed everything in her path, while Rafe cleared the way for her, taking out old chairs and broken tables and linens that had holes burned into them.

She’d left his house only long enough to make them a plate of sandwiches and had literally had to hold them beneath his nose to get him to stop working long enough to eat. Before she was even halfway through her own sandwich, he’d finished both of his and was digging into one of the dusty, beat-up cardboard boxes he’d brought down from the attic.

"I didn’t think my family had left anything behind when we moved out," he told her, "but look what I just found."

It was a frame with a faded picture in it. "Oh, Rafe, this is great!"

His whole family was in the picture, and all of them were smiling, clearly happy to be at the lake for another summer. Of course, she immediately zoomed in on Rafe. There was that easy smile she remembered, the carefree way he held his tall, lanky frame…compared to the way his big, strong muscles fairly vibrated with tension now.

"And there you are, just like you always were."

The warmth in his voice had Brooke turning her gaze to his face instead of back to the picture. "I’m in the picture, too?" She quickly looked down again and realized what she’d missed the first time. All the Sullivans were there, but so was she, tucked in between Rafe and Mia, smaller than everyone else, but beaming up at the camera because she’d been with her favorite people.

"I don’t remember sneaking into your family photo."

"You didn’t sneak into the photo, Brooke, you belonged there."