Summer Days (Fool's Gold #7)

Not that he had anything specific he wanted to say. But he felt as if she’d dismissed him, and he had no idea why.

She’d gone out to meet friends after dinner, leaving him alone and restless. He’d tried watching TV with his mother and Glen, but couldn’t get interested in the show. He wandered outside, where he found Shane returning from a last trip to the barn.

“You check on your horses a lot,” he commented, slouching into a wicker chair, part of a set that had been delivered the day before.

“New place after a long trip,” Shane said, sitting on the love seat opposite. “They’re nearly every penny I have, on the hoof. I’d be damned stupid not to make sure my investment was doing well.”

“Point taken.” Rafe squinted up at the sky. The sun still hadn’t set and the air was warm. He could hear crickets and something rustling in the bushes. The night would be beautiful—just right for seducing a woman. Too bad the one he wanted had lost interest in him. He stared at his brother. Lost interest right after Shane showed up.

“Want to talk about it?” his brother asked. “Whatever it is that has your panties in a bunch?”

Rafe raised an eyebrow. “I can still take you, little brother.”

“I have my doubts, but I think we’re both too old to test the theory. We’d look foolish rolling around in the dirt.”

“Agreed.” He put his hands behind his head and leaned into them. “It’s Heidi.”

“I figured.”

“She’s���complicated.”

“So’s the situation. Neither of you knowing who’s going to end up with the ranch.”

“I know.”

“That it’s going to be you? Then what happens to her?”

A question he didn’t have an answer for. While he expected to win the case, he didn’t like the idea of her being tossed out. She belonged here, with her damned goats. Which, to him, meant what? That he should change his plans and make room for her? If he left her an acre or two and the caves, that would help. But it wouldn’t be enough. The goats needed more land. From what he understood, she kept them close in the winter. During the rest of the year, she let them wander around the ranch. Once he built his houses, that wouldn’t work.

A problem without a solution, he thought grimly. Not his favorite kind.

“Why are you here?” he asked, mostly to distract himself. “I thought you liked Tennessee.”

“I do, but it’s time for me to get out on my own. I’m looking at buying some land.”

“Here? What if we don’t win the case?”

Shane chuckled. “Then I guess the earth would fall off its axis and spin helplessly into space.” He shrugged. “I like Fool’s Gold. I’d like to settle here, regardless.”

“Have a family?”

“Eventually.”

Rafe looked at his brother. “Including a wife?”

“Sure. You?”

“Same.”

“Why the matchmaker?”

“Because I didn’t get it right on my own, and I don’t know how to keep from screwing up again.”

“Tell me about it.”

Rafe grimaced. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to put my foot in it.”

“Don’t sweat it. That was a long time ago.”

True enough, but Rafe had a feeling that Shane still regretted his first marriage. His brother had fallen hard and fast, giving his heart to a wild beauty who didn’t know the meaning of being faithful. Unable to deal with the other men in his wife’s bed, Shane had left her.

Rafe’s own marriage had ended a whole lot less spectacularly, but the breakup still bugged him. Not that he missed her—he didn’t—but the fact that he couldn’t figure out where things had gone wrong.

“I figure a professional will know what to do,” he said. “Nina swears she can help me find someone who’s exactly what I’m looking for.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I don’t trust myself to get it right.”

Shane nodded slowly. “I want to tell you you’re an idiot, but I can’t. I’m not about to trust love again, either. We both need a sensible woman. Someone who’s a friend. No highs, no lows.”

Which should have sounded perfect, but left Rafe with an empty feeling in his chest.

“Let me know how that works out for you,” he said.

His brother laughed. “I don’t have you convinced?”

“Sorry, no.”

* * *

SHANE LEANED AGAINST THE SIDE of the stall. “Seriously, he’s smart.”

Heidi had spent the past couple of hours confirming that she knew all she had to in order to take care of Shane’s expensive horses. She was willing to admit that they were beautiful animals, but were they as miraculous as their proud owner claimed?

“I don’t think so,” she murmured.

Shane pulled a small plastic bag of apple slices out of his shirt pocket. “Wesley, do you want some apple?”

The horse raised and lowered his head.

Heidi smiled. “Coincidence.”

“I knew you’d say that.” He turned his attention back to the horse. “How many slices?”

The horse hesitated for a second, as if considering the question, then hit the stall door twice.

“Two? Are you sure?”