She laughed, short and sharp and completely without humour. “Oh, we’re definitely done here.” She spun and jerked the door open, pausing in the doorway. “Your girlfriend takes her eggs scrambled, by the way.”
She’s not my anything, he wanted to yell, but that wasn’t completely true. Natalie had been his distraction of the month the night before. He’d bought her a few drinks and let her sit on his lap. Played with the bare skin at her waist and enjoyed the way she smelled. They’d kissed, and more than once. But he walked her to her car at the end of the night of pool and pints at The Green Hedgehog in Lion’s Head—Pine Harbour not being big enough for a pub of its own—only to discover that it wouldn’t start. And her friend, who’d left with Matt Foster, wasn’t answering the phone. Rafe knew he should call her a tow truck, but it was a long tow to Owen Sound, the small city the girls lived in, and that left the problem of how her girlfriend would get home the next day.
So he’d offered her his bed. Without him in it. Something Natalie had tried to persuade him to change his mind on, a totally fair move on her part. But he hadn’t slept with anyone since Liv. Wasn’t sure when and if he’d be able to. Unlike his wife, he’d meant his wedding vows when he’d sworn to love her forever. Liv leaving him didn’t change that.
But just because he couldn’t get over her didn’t mean he shouldn’t try. Heshouldtry, and once a month he let his buddies drag him to Lion’s Head or Sauble Beach to get back in the game. This was the first time one of those pitiful attempts at a social life had played out in front of Liv, though. And he couldn’t worry about that because Dean was blowing up his phone.
“What?”
“Good morning to you, too, sunshine. We got a problem.”
“It’s my day off, man.”
“Operation Paper Cut has been bumped up. Inspector Wagner wants all available officers called in.”
A major bust. There was only one answer. “Sleep first?”
“Yeah. Report at four this afternoon.”
He hung up without saying goodbye. He’d be there. But first he needed to eat, then he had two women to sort out.
When he stepped back into the main space of the diner, Liv was quietly buttering toast at the counter and resolutely not looking in his direction. Natalie stared out the window. It wasn’t her fault he was hung up on someone else, or that Pine Harbour was so small this was their only option for breakfast that didn’t involve his mother.
Anne Minelli was only Italian by marriage, but she’d adopted her husband’s culture completely, right down to happily becoming a caricature of an over-protective mother—and a nightmare of a mother-in-law to the only other woman who’d had the misfortune to marry into the Minelli clan.
Rafe wasn’t the oldest son. That privilege fell to his older brother Zander, who’d gotten the hell out of Dodge at eighteen. Where Rafe and his younger brother Tom had enlisted in the local army reserve unit after high school, Zander had gone reg force and was currently stationed in Wainwright, Alberta. The only member of their family not in the military was the baby, his sister Dani, and that wasn’t for lack of trying.
Speak of the devil. The door chimed and in she walked. Dressed in her navy paramedic uniform, she was so focused on Liv and the coffee pot that she didn’t see him. Trailing behind her was his friend Ryan Howard, another EMS worker, who gave him a distracted nod as he checked something on his phone.
“Hey, sister-of-mine, can we get two coffees to go?” They even looked like sisters, Dani taller and lankier, Liv shorter and curvy in all the right places. Her endearment for his ex-wife was a punch in the gut reminder that even after the divorce Dani and Liv had remained close. Familiar bitterness set his jaw on edge and he turned away from watching them.
But he couldn’t stop listening.
“Sure thing, baby girl. What’s up, Ryan?”
The other man grunted something about a weekend road trip for his brother Finn’s wedding. Rafe had heard a bit about it the week before at poker night. A four-hour drive south to a tiny town called Wardham.
Rafe hadn’t asked too much about the trip because after his divorce, poker, hockey and work were the only safe subjects between him and Ryan. The Howards had been the only real couple friends he and Liv had, and while he and Ryan were still friendly, Lynn had taken Liv’s side in the divorce in a big way. Which he didn’t care about—most of the time,hewas on Liv’s side in this whole mess. She’d deserved more than he’d given her. But she hadn’t given him a chance to make it right.
If you could have. Maybe not. But he’d deserved a fucking chance.
At the end of the day, that’s why he’d filed for divorce. If she didn’t want him, he wasn’t going to beg. He’d held on to the last scraps of his dignity and moved out. He hadn’t gone far—obviously—but he’d given her what she wanted.
Even though it killed him. Not for the first time, he wondered if he’d made a mistake asking her if she wanted a divorce—offering her that out he hadn’t wanted her to take. He never expected her to say yes. That had gutted him.
He slid into the booth with a sigh.
“I’m sorry about all of this,” Natalie said nervously. “Maybe you should have taken me to your friend’s place last night instead.”
And interrupt whatever fun Matt was having with her friend? Rafe wasn’t going to force his own celibacy on others. “It’s fine.”
“Clearly.” She toyed with her spoon, flipping it back and forth on the table. He wanted to take it away from her. Wanted her to drink her coffee and wait for her food and not stare at him like he’d hurt her feelings and she was hoping he’d suddenly see that and make it all better.
He had no clue how to do that. Not for his wife, not for this stranger wearing his shirt. Definitely not for his mother, who hadn’t really spoken to him in two years. “Listen, Natalie, if I lead you on…”
“You kissed me and invited me back to your place.”
“Because you were stranded. It’s not you, it’s me. You’re gorgeous. I’m just not available.”
