“Oh, hey, bro. How’s it going?” I head over to him and give him a quick hug.
“Why are you dripping with water?” he says as he brushes some drops off of him.
“It’s my fault. I’m sorry.” Luke holds up his hand, and Rafe just laughs.
“I should have known. So, what were you talking about just now?”
“Oh, I was just talking about this hot guy who’s into Juniper, and I was telling her that perhaps he’ll be the love of her life.”
“Oh.” Rafe frowns. “And who is this exactly?”
“His name is Matt.”
“His name is Matthew,” Juniper says, clarifying like there’s some sort of big difference.
“Matt, Matthew—same difference. And he was totally trying to bang our girl. He was all over her, and she was like,I don’t know. Really?”
“Mia, I was not saying?—”
“I know you weren’t saying, but you did have a high-pitched voice. Anyway, I was trying to convince her that maybe she should invite him to game night this weekend.”
Rafe looks at Luke. “But don’t we have an even set of numbers right now? And if we’re going to play group games, we’d rather have an even set of numbers and not odds. So, I don’t think that’s a good idea. And plus, you don’t know this guy. He could turn out to be a serial killer or a psychopath.”
“And I’m not going to invite him anyway,” Juniper says quickly. “So, it’s okay.”
“Well, that’s good then. That’s settled.” Rafe folds his arms. “Anyway, I was just dropping by to see how everyone was doing.”
“Really? You never drop by to see how we’re doing.” I gaze at mybrother. “What’s up with the shirt that you’re wearing? It looks like it’s brand-new and formfitting, and my brother does not wear formfitting shirts.”
“Nothing. I’m just headed back to the vet clinic, and I decided to drop by to say hello.”
“Well, hello.”
Something about his story doesn’t make sense, but I’m not even going to question him. If he’s come to check up on me and find out if it’s going well with Luke, I’m not going to give him the answers that he seeks. He’s my brother, and I love him, and I love that he cares about me, but he does not need to be in my business.
“Luke and I are doing well, if that’s what you came to ask me.”
“Huh?” Rafe stares at me with confusion in his expression. “What are you talking about?”
“You came to see how Luke and I were doing, right? Because you think we got engaged too quickly and because you’re being the overprotective big brother.”
“No, I’m not concerned about you and Luke getting engaged after three months of dating.” He rolls his eyes. “Which, by the way, lying to your family and pretending you’d been dating for a year was kind of messed up, Mia.”
“You know why we did it.” I shrug. “Plus that’s old news.”
“I know why you did it, but you didn’t have to lie to me.”
“I’m sorry, but I knew you would’ve told the parents, who would’ve told all the busybodies, and everyone on the island would’ve known we were fake dating, and then it wouldn’t have fooled Rex, and that was the whole point.”
“Whatever. Anyway, I should get going, but?—”
“One second, Rafe.”
“Yes?”
“If you didn’t come to check up on me and Luke, then why did you drop by?”
“I wanted to see if you had any James Patterson books,” he says quickly. “But I’ll come back later.”
