“Nope, I don’t know myself.” She sighed. “You’re good at not being nosy.”
“I’m curious. Really. I want to know everything you can tell me. But I get that there are some things you just can’t share, and that’s okay.”
It was a part of his job she’d always struggled with, that confidentiality. “So I guess I shouldn’t ask how work is going for you?”
“You can ask.” He gave her a look she couldn’t decipher in the half-light surrounding them. “I just can’t tell you much.”
“Crime still alive and well in Bruce County?”
“As ever.”
They continued talking, exchanging platitudes, but the flirting tone set with her call to Dani had slipped away while they talked about work. That was for the best, she told herself.
“I’m proud of you, Liv. Maybe this will turn into something you can do again.”
“Yeah, maybe. Let’s see if I still like it in the spring.”
He cleared his throat and looked at the ground. “You’re still thinking about leaving then?”
She nodded. “This doesn’t change anything. I want a fresh start.” Beside her, he was frozen, like a wall of granite, and she forged ahead.Rip off the bandage. “It gives us more time to settle everything with the house, but it doesn’t change—”
“Don’t sell the house.”
“I need my half of the equity in it when I move.”
“I’ll buy you out.” He stared straight ahead, his jaw set.
“Why would you want to do that?”
“I miss having a yard.” That was a total lie, and a trickle of fear rolled down her spine. No good could come of Rafe wanting to hang on to a part of her.
“It would be better for both of us if we had a clean break,” she whispered.
“Don’t tell me what’s better for me,” he muttered. “You lost that right with the divorce decree.”
“I never had that right when we were married.” God, she hated that whiny edge to her voice. “Now I can say whatever I want. Up to you if you hear it or not.”
Rafe obviously decided to be a diplomat and changed the subject. “There are a lot of good memories in that place.”
Sure, when he’d been there, they’d been happy. It had been when he was away—long shifts, weekend exercises with the Army, the constant tug from his family—that sadness had flowed through the rooms. Longing for her husband that was never fully satisfied when he was home.
“I’m not moving for a while yet. Let’s revisit this conversation in a few months.” She reached for the beer bottle and their fingers brushed. A shiver danced up her arm at the rough slide of skin on skin, igniting way too much desire. A simple, accidental touch and she was squirming in her seat. Right after talking about moving on.
“You cold?”
She gave him a pointed look through narrowed eyelids. “Don’t you dare offer me your shirt.”
He gave her an innocentwho melook and she laughed. “What? You look cold!”
“Here’s how that plays out,” she said, tipping the last of the bottle back. She licked her lips, enjoying the last drops of his beer, then pointed her finger firmly in his direction. “You wrap it around me, taking the opportunity to be all close and big and strong. Show off your muscles. Then I’m actuallysurroundedby your yummy smell, and now you’re cold, so you stay close. Put an arm around me. All in the name of warmth, of course. And then all of a sudden, your hand is on my ass, your tongue is down my throat, and everyone is talking about Rafe and Olivia making out in the back of a truck at a bonfire.”
He stared at her for a minute, then bit his lower lip and nodded. “Right. K. Well, I’m gonna grab another beer.”
He hopped off the tailgate and unbuttoned his shirt. She gasped as he tossed it into her lap before he ambled over to the cooler.
Between the moon overhead and the orange glow of the bonfire, it was almost like he had a spotlight on him. And from her perch on the back of his truck she felt like she could watch him safely from the darkness. Without anyone else noticing her hunger for his broad shoulders and long legs. His strong arms and tight butt. Even with the warm flannel that she greedily wrapped around her body—and it did in fact smell yummy—he still sent shivers down her spine. From thirty feet away. The man was dangerous.
He stopped to talk to a couple people on the way back, then handed her the beer before continuing to the cab of the truck. He returned wearing an OPP sweatshirt and she was absurdly disappointed that he’d gone and covered up most of the muscles she’d just complained he might show off to her.