“How could you possibly—” Mercy slapped a hand over her mouth. Then her face crumpled.
So shocked was she at seeing her mother in tears, Sable moved in beside her, wrapped an arm about her mother’s bony shoulders.
Finally her mother said, “It’s his way of letting me know he’s still around. But he was worse at sticking than even me.”
Oh, Mercy. “But you loved him anyway.”
“A little.”
“Still?”
That earned her a smile. “Touché.”
When the air in the room settled, Sable drew back. “I’d better go out there, see to our guests.”
Her mother waved her away. “Go.”
At the door Sable turned. “There is one guest I know would be devastated to think he’d upset you.”
Mercy sniffed.
“Stan’s pretty hot, don’t you think? In a silver fox kind of way.”
Mercy shot her a look, and the vulnerability behind it gave Sable hope.
Sable left her mother with the postcard and went back out into the fray.
The McGlintys were gone. Bear too. As he’d been their designated driver.
Janie was saying goodbye to Stan who gripped his hat hard in his hand.
Sable gave him a wave. And a smile. Mouthed, Not your fault.
He nodded, then hobbled out of the front door and was gone.
“Rafe?” Sable asked.
Janie pointed towards the back door, then headed into the kitchen to wash up, singing under her breath. High drama her base normal.
Sable found Rafe in the yard, holding a rope swing that was now a frayed rope, squares of light from the sunroom windows making shapes on the patchy dirt. His fingers gripping tightly, his shoulders a hard line, his profile deadly serious.
Her scalp prickled. Her chest tightened. And everything that had felt so certain an hour before felt wobbly.
He was an intensely private man, who hated nothing more than people sticking their noses in his business.
They hadn’t discussed if or how they’d let anyone know, even their families, and in an effort at assuaging her discomfort, she’d just blurted their most private news to some of the biggest gossips in town. She, who knew how it felt to be on the receiving end of whispers and stares.
Badly done, Sable.
And while she’d told her mother Rafe would never back out on a promise, she felt a frisson of very real fear that she’d ruined everything. That it was a thing she did! Had her plan to try to bring everyone a little closer, to consolidate the relationships between those who would be a part of her baby’s life, instead blown it all apart?
Sable took a step his way and felt time shimmer.
In her mind’s eye the blackberries disappeared, the swing was fixed, and Rafe stood barefoot on the lush green grass, shoulders relaxed. She moved in and all but felt herself wrap her arms around his waist, lay a kiss on his shoulder, tuck her head into the warmth of his back. Then came the happy squeal of a child, and a head full of floppy blonde curls came bouncing their way...
Another step and the vision fractured, the grey autumnal evening gloom of this timeline slamming sharply into focus. And she ached, all over, from the loss.
“Rafe?”
He turned, his face unreadable. “Hey.”
“Before you say anything, please let me apologise.”
“For?” Rafe asked, his voice soft and rough in the semi-darkness. But closer. It definitely felt as if he’d moved closer.
“My unintended announcement! Stan feels so awful, I ruined Carleen’s dress, my mother is sitting in my bedroom being all sentimental—”
“Mercy,” he deadpanned. “Sentimental.”
She shook her head, her throat too full to speak. “Rafe, stop. Let me say this, please.” As if a veil had been lifted she finally let herself see just how much she’d imposed on this man. Not only in the last weeks, but her entire life. “I’m sorry...for everything. My intention was to quietly slip back into your life, and instead I landed like a bomb. Disrupting your business, your reputation in this town. I’ve forced you to relive a past you’ve taken great pains to put behind you. And I’ve asked something of you no sane person would ever ask another—”
“Sable.”
“No. It’s me. It’s my MO. Best of intentions, worst choices. My ex’s therapist claimed I deliberately put myself in situations that are doomed to fail. I thought he was a sham, but I’m starting to wonder if he was right.”
“Sable.”
“Yes?”
Sable looked up to find Rafe had indeed moved closer. Moonlight poured over his back, creating a halo of silvery light around his big shoulders. His strong arms. How her libido could still yearn for him, even as every other part of her ached for the loss she felt was surely coming, she had no clue.
“Don’t much want to talk about your mother right now. Or your fool of an ex. Or his therapist, for that matter. I do want to talk about us.”
Sable closed her eyes. To think they’d come so close... “I knew it. You’ve changed your mind.”
“What? No.”
“Oh.” Oh! Her eyes sprang open. “Really?”
“Sable. Once I’ve made a decision, I stick to it. Simple as that.”
“Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you! I love you so much! I mean, I don’t love you...” Oh, heck, how had that slipped out? “I’m just...” Mortified! “Grateful. So deeply grateful...”
Her voice trailed away pathetically at the end, while the tension between them only built as the word she’d dropped swirled around them.
His voice was deeper, lit with a thrum of tension that sang in her blood, when he said, “When I collared you in the hall, I asked if we could find a moment alone.”
“Mmm-hmm?”
“I wanted to talk to you about my visit to the doctors in Melbourne—”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. My swimmers are strong and plentiful.”
Of course, they were.
“But as I went from listening to the psychologist, to being poked by the fertility specialist, prodded by the ultrasound guy I wondered more and more what I was even doing there.”
Sable felt as if she were driving on a never-ending roundabout. Was he about to tell her something
