Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
“Anybody home?” Keeley called out from the front door.
Rafe sighed. He had hoped to make his escape before she arrived this evening.
He’d tried to be pissed about last night, about that kiss the two of them had shared, but he couldn’t work up a single speck of anger. Because it had become immediately, painfully clear that Gio and Keeley hadn’t truly accepted his decision to step away from the relationship.
Instead, they’d joined forces, trying to bring him back into the relation—
Shit.
He sighed heavily.
Affair. It was a fucking affair.
Or at least, he’d let himself pretend it was. For an entire week, things had continued the same as they’d been the previous weeks. Only without the sex.
And it had been just as amazing, just as terrific.
But they’d been tricking him, playing a game, making him believe they were a happy couple, fine with moving on without him because that had been the plan all along.
Then he’d fucked up. Kissed Keeley because he missed her so bad, it was a physical ache that never left him.
He’d reached for her before his brain could engage.
When it had, he’d looked over, expecting Gio to be pissed.
After all, Rafe had broken things off, had basically given Gio his blessing to make Keeley his girlfriend, assuring him he’d be fine, just like he always was.
Rafe had been lying.
But so had Gio.
Because instead of anger, Gio had been smiling, looking at Rafe with that same open expression that held back nothing, that proved Gio hadn’t accepted the so-called status quo. His best friend had no intention of moving on alone with Keeley.
Not this time.
So why wasn’t he furious at them for trying to trick him?
Because this is what you want, you fucking idiot.
Keeley loved him. That had been the catalyst, had been the trigger, his downfall.
She’d said those words and Rafe had shut down, panicked. No woman had ever said those three little words to him because he’d held every woman he’d ever dated at arm’s length, made sure to walk away before they could.
The worst part was that Rafe was so fucked up in the head, he hadn’t even believed her, certain that Keeley was mistaken.
Then he’d kissed her last night…
And he’d felt…
Fuck.
He’d felt all of it. Her love, his love…Gio’s.
The truth crashed in on him until he thought he’d suffocate beneath the fallout.
And he’d run again because at the back of it all, he’d just heard his mother’s voice when she told him her marriage was over…again.
Love. Leave. Love. Leave. It was one of the few absolutes in life. Right?
He started down the stairs, stopping halfway when Gio drifted in from the kitchen. He used the back door there to go to and from his workshop.
Keeley lifted a bag. “I brought over homemade Italian hoagies and chips for dinner.” She looked up and gave him a hesitant, hopeful smile.
It made what he was about to do feel a million times harder.
“I can’t stay for dinner,” he said.
“Going to your mom’s?” Keeley asked.
Rafe shook his head. “No, I stopped by her place this morning. She’s fine.”
“Fine?” Keeley asked in surprise. Not that he could blame her. Rafe had talked about his mom’s previous four divorces. About how she fell apart and it took a long time, and a lot of consoling, to pick her back up again.
“She kicked him out,” Rafe explained.
“No shit!” Gio exclaimed, as shocked as Rafe had been this morning when he’d walked into his mom’s house and found her humming as she cleaned the kitchen.
“She’d had enough of him grumbling about the inheritance and bad-mouthing me, accusing me of preying on Grandpa’s illness and tricking him into rewriting his will.”
“What a jerk,” Keeley said. “You would never do that.”
“I know. And so did Mom. I didn’t realize how bad he’d gotten since Grandpa’s death. I should have called her more, but first, I was afraid she wouldn’t want to talk to me. And then…”
“We distracted you,” Gio finished for him.
“She told me she understood why Grandpa left his business, his house, everything to me. I reassured her I’d take care of her, but…
” Rafe smiled, recalling their conversation.
“She said she didn’t want me taking care of her.
Said she didn’t want any man to do that anymore.
She’s made some new friends in a book club, who’ve apparently inspired her to find her own happiness rather than thinking she needs a man or material stuff to make her life good. ”
“Wow,” Keeley said, grinning widely. “That’s awesome.”
It was awesome. But Rafe was afraid to trust it. His mom had managed to break the pattern, and he was happy, albeit tentatively. For the first time in her life, it felt like she’d found the strength to do what made her happy rather than focusing on someone else’s happiness.
The smile on her face this morning had stuck with him all day because…he’d never seen it. Not like that. Not that bright, that absolute, that sure.
“So where are you going?” Gio asked. “Got a hot date?” The last was a joke, which made Rafe’s response all the worse.
“Yeah. I do.” He started down the remaining stairs—and tripped when he reached the last one.
He grabbed the handrail to steady himself, pausing. It felt as if someone had…pushed him.
He considered all the times Keeley had almost fallen, he or Gio reaching out to catch her. Rafe took a deep breath, then mentally told his grandpa to cut it out.
“You do,” Gio muttered, clearly surprised by his response.
He tried to focus on Gio, unwilling to see Keeley’s reaction.
On the way to his mother’s this morning, he’d called Dana, a part-time employee from the flower shop he’d inherited, inviting her out for dinner and drinks tonight. It had been an impulsive, knee-jerk decision that he’d regretted five seconds after she’d accepted.
This was why he thought shit out. Because as soon as he didn’t, he was opening an inn and indulging in a menage with Keeley and Gio and…fucking up everything in his life.
“Oh,” Keeley said quietly. She managed to pack quite a punch with that single syllable.
Rafe glanced her direction, forcing himself to acknowledge the deeply hurt expression he’d put on her face. “Her name is Dana. She works at the flower shop. I met her last week when I was going around to check in on all the businesses. I thought…”
He’d thought moving on and dating someone else would show Keeley and Gio just how serious he was. Because there was still a small part of him that didn’t believe he belonged, that she really didn’t love him, that they would be better off without him.
He’d made that call to Dana, which had been a huge fucking mistake, and he’d hated himself for it ever since. He’d picked up the phone a dozen times since this morning to cancel, but…apparently, he was his own worst enemy.
“It’s just drinks and dinner. I’m taking her to that new Italian place, Roma’s, that Tony was telling us about a couple weeks ago.
Near Rittenhouse.” Rafe had no idea why he was still talking.
He needed to get out of here. “Anyway, I should probably get going or I’ll be late.
Enjoy your hoagies. I’ll see you both tomorrow. ”
A large part of him—the foolish part he’d only just discovered—wished they’d stop him, tell him they wanted him to stay.
Neither Keeley nor Gio said a word as he left.
Looked like he’d not only slammed the door closed this time. He’d locked it as well.
Rafe forced a smile as Dana shared a story about an encounter with a customer. The man, a husband, was looking for a way out of the doghouse. Dana had reassured him a dozen roses would probably work just as well as a hundred.
“A hundred,” she exclaimed. “Can you imagine? And it wasn’t even infidelity. The guy had just forgotten their anniversary. I had to wonder if he was married to Atilla the Hun.”
“So what I hear you saying is, you could have sold a hundred roses, but you talked the guy down to twelve,” Rafe joked, aware it was the first thing he’d said since they sat down that wasn’t a single-word response.
He felt guilty for being such a shitty date, especially considering he’d been the one to ask her out.
Dana was nice, an easy companion. At any other time in his life, he would have felt an attraction, would have asked for a second date in hopes that things would progress to the bedroom.
But every single part of this evening had been hard work so far…
and he hadn’t even been putting much effort into it.
“Guess I shouldn’t have confessed that to the boss.”
They fell silent again, Dana sneaking yet another peek at her phone, probably wondering how much longer she would have to endure his less-than-stimulating company.
If he’d been smart, he would have simply invited her out for drinks. What had he been thinking, tacking a whole meal onto the deal?
They’d finished their first round of drinks and an appetizer, and were just about to order, when two familiar faces caught his attention.
Rafe fought to restrain a relieved grin when Keeley and Gio approached their table, both of them feigning absolute amazement over running into him in the exact place he’d told them he would be.
“Rafe,” Gio said, stopping next to him. “What a nice surprise. How long has it been, buddy?”
It was on the tip of Rafe’s tongue to give him the honest answer of “less than an hour,” but instead, he ignored the question. “Dana, these are my friends, Keeley Gallo and Gio Moretti.”
Gio’s gaze narrowed briefly at the word friends, but he recovered quickly. Rafe keenly recalled how he’d felt when they’d crashed Keeley’s first date, and she’d introduced them that way. He’d hated it…though he had refused to admit it at the time, even just to himself.
“Nice to meet you,” Keeley said, shaking Dana’s hand.
Dana smiled and returned the greeting.