Working hard to pull his focus back to the house, Rafe said, "You’re right that the bones of the place are good, but whoever’s owned it for the past fifteen years obviously wasn’t too concerned about maintenance. I was thinking—"
Mia cut him off with the loud clap of her hands over her ears. "Please, stop. I’ve just had to spend the last two and a half hours in the car listening to Adam’s plans to renovate this house. Can we please talk about something other than support beams and load-bearing walls for a little while? Like, maybe, how totally freaking beautiful it is here?"
At his sister’s urging, they turned to look out the front picture window at the moon just rising over the lake. "Still one of the greatest places in the world," Adam agreed, but he was clearly chomping at the bit to take a look over the house. He grabbed the flashlight lying on the floor by the door and said, "I’ll be back in a couple of minutes."
As soon as he walked away, Mia turned her gaze from the lake and pinned Rafe with it. "Are you and Brooke sleeping together?"
No, damn it, but only because you showed up at exactly the wrong time.
"It’s none of your business what the two of us are or aren’t doing."
Her gaze didn’t waver. "You need this house, Rafe. The lake. Some time to get away from all the garbage you deal with at work." Mia’s expression was far more serious than usual. "I love Brooke, and I’m thrilled she’s back in our lives, but do you really think it’s a good idea to get involved with her when she lives next door?"
Damn it, he hated to hear his sister echo his own concerns...especially when he’d nearly rationalized them away in the heat of unquenchable desire. "Everything’s going to be fine, Mia."
A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes. "You’re not going to listen to reason, are you? Although," she added before he could respond, "if you don’t start dating her, given how big Adam’s eyes got when she opened the door, I’m sure he’d happily step up to the plate."
"She’s not going to date Adam," Rafe told her in a hard voice. "And we’re not dating, either."
Mia’s eyebrows went up. "Then what are the two of you doing? Because it sure didn’t look like you’d been playing a friendly game of canasta when she opened the door."
"I already told you, it’s none of your business."
"You’re my brother. She’s my friend, one I haven’t seen in far too long." Mia sighed dramatically. "When you’re done screwing around, I’m going to end up having to choose sides...and of course I’m going to have to choose you just because we’re related."
"There aren’t going to be sides."
"How can you know that for sure?"
"Brooke’s an adult. So am I. Even if we have some fun together this summer, no one’s going to get hurt."
"Oh crap," his sister said on a groan. "You haven’t made some kind of crazy agreement with each other to have a no-strings summer fling, have you?"
"Mia." He said her name as a warning to drop it, but of course his little sister just ignored him.
"Let me see if I can think of a time no-strings has ever worked out for anyone." Sarcasm dripped from every word as she made a show of mulling it over. "Nope, can’t come up with a single one."
"Brooke’s a heck of a lot tougher than you’re giving her credit for."
"I’m sure she is," she said. "But has it occurred to you that maybe it’s not her I’m worried about?"
Nothing his sister could have said would have surprised him more. He and his siblings might have spent most of their lives ribbing each other, but at the end of the day there was no one they cared about more than family. Clearly, Mia needed some reassurance that he wasn’t at the end of his rope.
"You were right that I needed a break from the job for a while, but now that I’m back here at the lake, you can stop worrying. I would never do anything to hurt Brooke. And you and I both know she’s too sweet to ever hurt me."
Mia threw her arms around him and hugged him tight, a feisty little cub who’d grown into a woman who loved with the ferocity of a lioness.
"I just keep thinking about that psycho who came after you in Seattle. You know how terrified Mom and Dad were about it, but you have to know they weren’t the only ones. We all were."
"I love you, too, sis." He hugged her back hard enough to lift her small frame off the floor before setting her back on her own two feet. "Come on, let’s go find Adam and get that bonfire and the s’mores started."
* * *
As Rafe and Mia got a bonfire going in the firepit on the beach, Adam finally emerged from beneath the house, brushing cobwebs from his shoulders and hair. When Brooke walked down to the beach to join them with four champagne glasses in her hands, Rafe noticed that she had changed into jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. Still, even with denim on instead of the sexy-as-hell white dress, she couldn’t mask her natural sensuality. Instead, the hints of bare skin and lush curves hiding behind the fabric almost made her allure more potent.
Here was yet another reason it was crazy to think about being with Brooke beyond a summer fling. How could he live his life wanting to kill any guy who looked at her—even his own brother? Especially when a guy couldn’t help but look, despite the fact that she wasn’t purposely flaunting anything.
With a flourish, Mia popped the cork on the Sullivan Winery bottle, fizzy liquid bubbling over the lip onto the sand. Each of them grabbed an empty glass, and after Mia filled them, they raised them in a toast.
"To Rafe’s new lake house."
"To Mia for finding the listing before anyone else could," Brooke added.
"And to Brooke’s amazing chocolate truffles," Rafe said, barely able to take his eyes off her incredible beauty in the firelight long enough to turn to his sister and touch glasses.
They all toasted and drank, then found spots in the sand to stretch out.
"I love that you make chocolate truffles for a living," Mia told her old friend. "Your grandmother and grandfather would be so proud."
Brooke’s eyes immediately dampened as she gave his sister a slightly wobbly smile. "Thank you for saying that."
"We’re all so sorry that they’re not here with us tonight."
Mia squeezed Brooke’s hand, and after a moment of silence in which they all remembered Mr. and Mrs. Jansen, Rafe badly wanted to pull Brooke onto his lap and hold her until her grief was completely gone.