“So, what brings you kids out tonight?” Holt asked them.
Realizing Holt had steered the conversation back from himself, Rafe looked at his former friend.
Ivy answered for him. “Rafe was kind enough to show me around town. Not a bad venue for a first date, I must say.”
Not a date.
“I think the band’s settin’ up,” Bailey told Holt. “Maybe we could head that way?”
“What the lady wants, the lady gets.”
Bailey glanced Rafe’s way again. “It was good to see you. Have a good night.”
“You, too,” Ivy chimed, assuming Bailey was talking to her.
Holt put his arm around Bailey’s shoulders, and Rafe was tempted to punch him in the fucking face. In fact, it took every ounce of willpower he possessed to refrain.
“We’ll catch up later,” Holt said.
Not if Rafe could help it, they wouldn’t.
“Did you two have a thing?” Ivy asked when they were alone again.
Rafe’s head snapped around, his eyes slamming into her face. “What?”
“You and Bailey. Did you break her heart or something?”
His racing heart slowed when he realized what she meant. Or rather, that she hadn’t been referring to him and Holt. Because they didn’t. Have a thing. What they’d done that night … what Rafe had done … it wasn’t a thing. It was an experiment, that was all. Nothing more. And it would never, ever,everhappen again.
“We’re friends,” he said, hoping that would satisfy Ivy’s curiosity.
“I think she was hoping for more than that.”
“I don’t have more than that to give anyone.”
Ivy’s green eyes held a hint of skepticism as they moved over his face. A second later, a smile formed. “I’m making it my mission to change your mind.”
Oh, hell.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to look back and see a kid pointing toward the shaved ice truck. Evidently, it was their turn. And not a moment too soon.
Chapter Eight
Bailey lost her appetite the moment shesaw Rafe with Ivy. She’d spent the better part of the past ten minutes attempting to look like she wanted the shaved ice, but she didn’t. She now wished she hadn’t agreed to come to the park at all. If only she’d stayed at the B and B…
“Here,” Holt said, holding out his hand. “Why don’t I take that for you?”
Bailey glanced from him to the paper bowl of ice and back before passing it over with a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”
“No worries.” He tossed both hers and his into the nearest trash receptacle before returning to her side. “Was it something I said?”
“Of course not.”
“Then, by deduction, I’d say it had something to do with either Rafe or Ivy.”
Bailey chuckled. “You could say that.”
“Question is, which one?”
