“The buckets aren’t cheap,” Ahri said. “You should be grateful that he’s doing this for you.”
“But he haslotsof money.”
Ahri faced her, mimicking Lessa’s posture. “And it’shismoney. He doesn’thaveto spend a penny of it on spoiled little girls who don’t appreciate his gift. You better be careful, or he may stop giving you nice things.”
Rafe wanted to grin at Ahri’s defense of him. Lessa looked about to argue but, as he’d seen happen numerous times, her defiance seemed to crumble and her bottom lip began to tremble.
“I’m sorry,” she said with glistening eyes.
He was about to tell her it wasn’t a problem, but Ahri held up a hand to stop him.
“What else?” she asked.
Lessa’s lip turned pouty.
“This is the same thing we talked about when Mrs. Fortune changed the time of your piano lesson.” Ahri watched his sister expectantly.
“Thank you?” His sister looked so pathetic that Rafe picked her up and hugged her.
Ahri leaned in to kiss Lessa’s cheek, and her hair tickled Rafe’s neck and the smell of her perfume filled his senses.Get a grip, man.
“It’s all right, Lessy-wessy,” Rafe said. “You know how long it takes to sift through the stones. I think this bucket will be fine for us.”
He put her down, took her hand, and picked up the bucket with his other one. They found a place in front of the water trough that had room for the four of them to work together. He set it up so the bucket sat between Ahri and him, with the children on each of their sides.
Rafe started by putting two scoops of ore into Ahri’s strainer box.
“Once you rinse these”—he demonstrated by setting the box into the water and sliding it back and forth—“you’ll be looking for anything clear, colored, or black. When you can’t find anymore, you dump these in the bucket on the ground.”
“I know.” Lessa pulled the box closer to her and started picking through it.
“But Ahri doesn’t,” he said.
“Some of these are quite pretty.” Ahri picked up a colorful rock. “It’s not a gem, but I like it.”
Rafe helped Nik with their batch, pulling out the gems Lessa would want to look at.
“What’s something you’ve always wanted to do?” He had to lean in close so he could be heard over the sound of the equipment.
“What do you mean?”
“If you could do anything you wanted, go anywhere, where would it be?”
Ahri’s expression turned contemplative. “I’ve always been pretty practical. Except for a single trip to Korea before my father left, we didn’t do a lot of traveling. We took one vacation to California when Kayn graduated from high school. I always knew I couldn’t afford to go anywhere, so I didn’t waste time dreaming about things that could never happen.”
“I understand that since I was too poor to pay attention.”
“What?” she asked, laughing.
“It’s just an expression. Even now, the only traveling I’ve done outside of the US has been for the company.”
“Really? Even though you can afford to travel, you don’t?” She shot him a sidelong glance.
“Not yet, though I’ve been thinking a lot about what Ma said. I do need to have more fun. Lately, I’ve been thinking aboutmaking a Bucket List of places I’d like to visit. I’ve asked the guys for suggestions, and they’re even more boring than I am.”
“Kayn, especially.” Ahri shook her head. “Give him a dark room and a computer with good Internet, and he’s in heaven. Zed’s death has brought home how much I’ve missed. He wasn’t even thirty.”
She looked so sad that her body language cried out with a need to be held. Rafe tightened his grip on the box to keep from pulling her into his arms. He needed to distract her.
