His parents had just told them they were losing the lake house. Rafe had escaped to the mountains to try to run off the painful thought of losing the one place that truly felt like home to him. He’d found the local search and rescue crew trying to locate a missing boy whose family was on vacation at the lake. As far as they knew, the kid had been chasing after his dog when he left their rental house. The dog came back home, but the boy didn’t. The crew had been afraid that the skinny five-year-old wouldn’t make it through the night in his T-shirt and shorts. Young enough to run, and to keep running after as many dead ends as he needed to, Rafe had used his tracking skills to locate the little boy. Forty-five minutes later, he’d found the kid shivering with dried tear tracks on his cheeks.
"Being a P.I. in Seattle seems like the grown-up version of what you always used to do."
Rafe had spent his life watching people ignore every clue around them. But Brooke, it seemed, didn’t miss a single one. Which also meant it was unlikely that she’d missed his clear attraction to her.
"Although I do have one question for you." He braced himself for her to say all the usual things people did, such as asking him for exciting stories that he hadn’t felt like telling for a long time. "Can you teach me to pick a lock, too?"
Feeling like it would be corrupting her to teach her something like that, he said, "You don’t need to know how to do that, Brooke."
Strangely, she looked a little disappointed by his answer, but instead of pushing him on it, she asked, "How long do you think you’ll be able to be away from your office?"
"A few weeks. I’ve got a half-dozen great employees who will be running the place for me while I’m here."
She gave him an expectant look, as if she was waiting for him to tell her more about his P.I. career, but Rafe didn’t feel like talking about it. He hadn’t told anyone about his discontent with his career. Not his employees. Not his friends. Not even his family. He’d simply continued doing his job, even though he could no longer remember why he’d ever wanted to do it in the first place.
Fortunately, instead of asking him questions he didn’t want to answer about why he hadn’t gushed about his job, she said, "I was so surprised when your family sold the house. I missed you all so much."
It suddenly hit him that she must not know what had happened. "That winter after our final summer here, my father lost his job. He couldn’t find another job that paid anywhere close to what he’d been making."
He didn’t tell her the bank had actually taken the house...and that the stress of barely being able to keep them afloat on savings and then loans from friends had turned his father completely gray.
"I’m sorry to hear that. I hope it wasn’t too long until things turned around for your family."
"Eventually Dad got another job." At lower pay for a boss he didn’t see eye to eye with. "And Ian started working while he was in college, which helped." His oldest brother had walked away from the chance to play pro football to help out their family, but Ian had done it without a word of complaint.
Brooke didn’t seem surprised to hear it. "Ian was so much older, but he always made sure that the bigger kids on the beach weren’t messing with me and Mia."
That was his oldest brother to a T. He took care of the people he loved—no matter the cost to himself.
"What is he doing now?"
"Ian has pretty much singlehandedly taken over the business world with his venture capital fund. He’s brilliant at picking which businesses to get behind.”
“Is he in Seattle, too?”
“No, he’s living in London right now."
"I so wish I hadn’t fallen out of touch with all of you. What about everyone else?"
"Mom and Dad retired a ways back." Again, because Ian had pretty much forced them to. Not that they minded working in the garden and going out sailing with the club on one of Dylan’s boats.
"Are they still blissfully in love?"
From the way she asked the question, Rafe could guess that Brooke was a believer. Not only that love was possible...but that it could also last a lifetime. What would she think if he told her stories from his job about men and women who promised each other forever, and then split at the first sign of trouble?
Still, for all of his cynicism, Rafe had to admit, "They are."
She looked extremely pleased to hear it. "I can still remember the way they would walk down the beach holding hands and kiss when they thought no one was looking. And how they would sneak off to be alone while you guys were busy roasting marshmallows over the campfire. It was so romantic."
"What was romantic to you was gross to their own kids," he informed her, but he didn’t disguise the affection in his voice when he spoke about his parents.
She laughed at that, but said, "I never saw my parents kiss. The only time they ever seemed truly passionate around each other was when they were debating legal cases or supply-and-demand curves. I don’t think I would have minded seeing a little romance now and again. Speaking of romance," she said, before pausing for a moment in which her cheeks flushed slightly, "what about you and your siblings?" Her smile seemed a little too bright as she asked, "Are any of you married? Kids?"
"Well, Ian was married for a short while, but right now we’re all wild and free."
"Wild?" She almost seemed to choke on the word.
"Mia has half the men in Seattle wrapped around her little finger, and she doesn’t give a damn about any of them."
Brooke frowned. "But is she happy?"
"I think so." Although that flash of emotion in her eyes when she’d come to see him in his office the day before had made him wonder if that were true. "She’s the go-to person in Seattle for swanky estates."
"I’d love to see her again."
"As soon as I tell her you’re here, I’m sure she’ll drop everything to come visit."
Which, he figured, would be a really good thing. Because if his sister was here, then there was no way he could accidentally slip up with Brooke by stripping her clothes off and using them to tie her to her bedposts.
"What about Adam? No, wait," she said, "let me guess. Is he an architect?"
Rafe was amazed by how perceptive she was, especially considering she’d only been a child the last time she’d seen his family. "Close. He rehabs historic homes."