He grinned, then did a sweep of the space. There weren’t any, which meant this place was used more than he thought.
Bailey took a seat on one of the wooden benches facing the water. Rather than sit beside her—his damn dick wasn’t keen on being compressed in his jeans—Rafe leaned his hip against the railing as he stared at the glassy water. Bailey was right. It was quiet. The only sounds were the rustle of the leaves in the light breeze and the birds chirping.
His thoughts drifted back to another time when his view had been as serene as this one. Only that body of water had been the Gulf of Mexico, and the sounds had come from the waves crashing against the shore. Nearly three years had passed since the incident that triggered his fight or flight instinct. He’d opted for flight that time, refusing to look back, desperate to forget the incredible night that had changed what he knew about himself.
“You know, Seth’s not who I thought he was.”
Bailey’s soft apologetic tone pulled him out of his reverie, bringing him back to this moment and the other person who’d altered his life in ways he hadn’t anticipated.
“That’s why I’m breakin’ up with him,” she explained. “Not because I’ve got a place to go.”
Rafe didn’t want to talk about Seth, but he indulged her. “Who did you think he was?”
The silence lingered for so long he thought she was avoiding his question. He was about to comment when she finally spoke.
“When I met Seth, he was kind and attentive. He would take me on dates and plan special nights. Then I moved in with him, and that stopped. He rarely even buys me dinner these days. If I want groceries, I have to buy them. And if I want them cooked, that’s my job, too.”
“Maybe that’s part of settlin’ down with someone.”
“What? That they morph into a completely different person?Pffft.Definitely not.”
Rafe honestly had no idea what it meant to be in a relationship. He’d never been in one, and he’d never casually dated anyone, either. The most he’d done was screwed the same woman more than once, but only a couple of times, and only when he knew the woman wasn’t interested in anything more than that.
“I thought he was different.”
“Most people aren’t who you expect them to be,” he muttered.
“You are,” she said firmly.
Rafe shifted so he could look at her. “No, Bailey, I’m not.”
She smiled, but it was sad. “I knew you were gonna say that because I know you better than you think I do.”
He shook his head again, looking back at the water. If she really knew him, Bailey would’ve questioned what she was doing here with him. What he wanted and what she had to offer weren’t exactly aligned. There were certain desires, even if she tried, she could never fulfill.
“I know you’re smart and funny and kind.”
Rafe closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Bailey…”
“You care about your brother and your friends. You’d give the shirt off your back if one of them needed it.”
He ground his molars together, trying to hold back the biting retort that was desperate to escape. She gave him far too much credit. Rafe did what he needed to do to survive each day. The ghosts that haunted him came from a darkness he couldn’t forget, no matter how hard he tried.
“I know—”
“Stop,” he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. Rafe refused to look at her. “I know youthinkyou know me, but you don’t. Like everyone else, I let you see who I want you to see.”
He hadn’t meant for his tone to be so sharp, but this was why he avoided being alone with this woman. He knew that Bailey was looking for the white picket fence and all that shit. He’d heard her talk about it with her friends. Rafe couldn’t give her any of that. Hell, he was a bartender making barely above minimum wage with no prospects of a future. The only thing he had to his name was a ten-year-old truck. He lived paycheck to paycheck without a penny in savings. And that didn’t even begin to touch his emotional demons, which kept him up at night. She deserved a man who could give her a better life. That wasn’t him, which was why he’d kept her at a distance. Even when he’d hated the idea of her dating Seth, he’d managed to stay far enough away so she could find a real chance at happiness.
“I don’t believe you, Rafe.”
His tone cooled, but he didn’t look at her. “It’s true.”
“Then who are you, huh?”
Feeling the familiar rage running through his veins, he faced her. He fell back on the tried-and-true excuse that usually worked to push people away. “I’m the guy who murdered my father, Bailey.”
“You were a kid,” she countered. “That’s—”
