That Hot Night

Reese sighed and crossed the room to put a hand on my shoulder. “We know about the fight with Rafe.”

I took a step back. “He told you?” Of course he told Reese, she was his best friend. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. I’m fine.” I flashed a bright smile that nearly cracked the corners of my mouth and held it until they looked like they believed it.

Which, of course, never happened.

“She’s fine girls,” Bo said sarcastically. “Guess we can all head home now.”

Perfect. My shoulders relaxed as Bo made a big show of heading towards the door but she did it so slowly I knew she was full of crap and turned to my computer screen. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Bo,” Reese groaned, her tone annoyed and worried. “We saw the photos on Facebook, about the fight. Rafe hasn’t said anything to me. Or anyone else probably.” I had to look away at the sympathy in her eyes because I knew how much she cared about Rafe and his happiness.

“Facebook.” It was the only detail my mind could focus on, that the fight was public knowledge. “It wasn’t a fight,” I insisted. “It was a discussion.”

Bo snorted and shook her head. “A discussion that ended with you looking heartbroken. And in tears,” she added with a quirk of her dark brows.

Tears? “Damn this town,” I mumbled and reached out for my phone, desperate to see with my own eyes, just how much of my personal life was now fodder for the whole town. And the answer was…all of it.

Someone had captured nearly the whole damn encounter behind Black Thumb. Rafe’s thunderous expression when I told him we could never be anything more than what we were. The tears glistening in my eyes. The sadness in our eyes as we said a silent goodbye.

Me watching him walk away with one tear shining on the apple of my cheek.

It was like watching my heart break all over again. “Well then I guess you know everything.”

“Not everything,” Reese said hesitantly. “What were you fighting about?”

I didn’t really want to get into it, not again and not after thinking about it nonstop for the past ten hours. Then again, who in the hell else could I talk to about this? “It was Doctor Barbie.”

Bo nearly choked on her next breath. “Who the hell is Dr. Barbie?”

“One of the women the matchmakers picked out for Rafe.” I went through everything, the bombshells who’d shown up just for a shot with the gorgeous firefighter. How my own jealousy and insecurities had gotten the better of me. How in the end, the truth was undeniable. “We weren’t serious anyway,” I said, trying for lighthearted even though my chest and my stomach rebelled at those words.

Reese glared at me and folded her arms over her chest, taking a step closer. “If you don’t want to talk, say that but don’t lie. You were serious or at least you were getting there. Rafe might not have known that on the surface, but I saw him. He would have figured it out.”

I didn’t want to hear that. Couldn’t process it. Not now. “Before or after he got bored and ran off with the supermodel pediatrician?”

“That’s not who Rafe is and you damn well know it,” Reese shot back, fire in her eyes as she defended her friend, which only served as a reminder that she was right.

Rafe was a good guy. He just wasn’t the guy for me and I knew that, and I went and fell for him anyway. “I know. You’re right.”

“You do? I am?” Reese stood a little taller. “I mean of course I’m right, but if you know then what’s damn problem, because I sent Jackson to check on him and he said Rafe isn’t eating. He isn’t eating Janey.”

“Uh, am I missing something?” Stevie raised her hand like we were in study hall, brows dipped in confusion.

“Rafe is always eating,” Reese and I said at the same time.

“The dude is a bottomless pit,” Bo added with a proud smile. “Fighting fires burns a lot of calories, or so I’m told. Constantly.”

Reese clapped her hands in Bo and Stevie’s direction. “Ladies, focus. We’re here for Rafe. And Janey,” she added with a playful smile for me.

“Look Reese, I appreciate what you’re trying to do but they were right. Rafe and I aren’t right for each other and we never were. The sex just blurred things for a while.”

“So you’re saying that isn’t the look of a woman who just let the man she loves walk away? Possibly for good?”

“I’m saying that it doesn’t matter what that photo says because we are not right for each other. If he decides to settle down it won’t be with someone like me.” And eventually I would be fine with that, maybe someday I’d even find a way to be happy for him. For them.