That Hot Night

“So you don’t want…that?” Because if he didn’t, then I was really confused.

“I do. Obviously. But that’s not why I’m here. Lunch,” he said again as if I were hard of hearing, or maybe English wasn’t my first language.

“No lunch,” I said again, my voice thick with sarcasm as I waved a hand around my clean, food-free kitchen.

Rafe smiled again and stretched his arms out until they landed on my shoulders. “I can’t tell if you’re screwing with me or not, so I’ll be clear.”

I snorted a laugh. “That would be helpful.”

He spun me around until I faced the back door, more specifically the windows that made up the top two-thirds of my back door. Out in the yard there was a blanket set up with plates and cups. And food. “Lunch,” he said, pride ringing in his voice.

“A picnic?” I closed my eyes and looked towards the ceiling, sending up a silent prayer to anyone who was listening. Please don’t let this be a picnic. A romantic picnic. For two. For me.

“A picnic,” he said, oblivious to my inner distress. “No cooking required.”

Yep, a picnic. Not necessarily a romantic picnic, but a picnic nonetheless and I was touch. Dammit I was really, truly touched. “Rafe,” I gasped quietly. “This is…nice.”

He snorted a laugh and put his hand to the small of my back, giving me a gentle push towards the door. “It’s more than nice and you know it, but I see that I’ve surprised you.”

“What gave it away?”

His brows rose at my sarcasm but instead of responding, his hand kept me moving towards the blanket. The picnic. “Smartass.”

“What is all this?” It didn’t make sense. Rafe didn’t do special things for his women, at least not that anyone in Tulip knew about. As far as we all knew, he was a dinner and back to her place kind of guy. So what the hell was all this?

“It’s called lunch, you know, the meal between breakfast and dinner? What is so hard to understand about this?” His smile was so engaging, so intoxicating that I didn’t realize we were already in the middle of the backyard. “I know what this is about. You’ve seen the photos on Facebook.” Rafe kicked off his sneakers and lowered himself to the blanket, extending a hand to me.

But I didn’t reach out to take his hand because his words echoed in my brain. “Photos? On Facebook?”

“Yep. You know how they are.” Rafe shook his head and unpacked the food from the adorable cherry cloth lined wicker basket as if he hadn’t just dropped a big ass bomb on me.

“I know how who are?” I shook my head, trying to catch up to this strange conversation.

“The matchmakers, Janey. Keep up.” He shook his head with a smile and tugged on my hand until I sat down across from him. “Have some of this, Reese is trying out a southern style sangria.” He handed me a plastic cup filled with a pink liquid and fruit. “Try it.”

“Rafe. What photos?” I started to stand, ready to head back inside to see exactly what he knew that I didn’t.

As if he knew I wouldn’t let it go, Rafe handed me his phone. “Have a look.”

I took the phone with shaky, slightly moist hands and found what I was looking for…with a gasp. “What…how?” There were no words, just questions.

“That was my response too. Fun fact, Reese and pretty much the whole town thought you were behind the sneak attack photos.” His smile said he wasn’t bothered by any of it, then again why would he be? This was all a boost for his ego, meanwhile the whole town would pity me when this ended.

“But…why? Why would anyone do this? The matchmakers have tons of women lined up for you.” I could hear the panic in my voice and tried to calm it before Rafe picked up on it. Another look at the photos revealed something more, a lot more if you zoomed in real close to see the intensity of Rafe’s gaze in the moonlight. I could practically feel his gentle touch on my jaw. “I don’t get it.”

“Well Janey,” he plucked the phone from my fingers and shoved it into his back pocket, where I definitely would not be reaching for it as long as there were stealth old ladies with cameras roaming freely around Tulip, “it looks like the old girls have found my match.”

My match. I shook my head because Rafe couldn’t mean me. I wasn’t his type and he wasn’t looking for anything more serious than just sleeping together. That’s what made this arrangement perfect.

Or perfectly stupid.

“That doesn’t make sense. Eddy said…no. They’re screwing with you. Making you think you’re safe from their meddling while we, you know.” I nodded, liking that idea more and more.