Taming Rafe (25 page)

“The seller is highly motivated. He’s moving east and is ready to negotiate. It’s got a mosaic fireplace, a garage, three bedrooms, and a rooftop Jacuzzi.” The real estate agent continued to list the amenities.

But the condo didn’t have Lolly.

He’d been planning this moment for years, decades even. Even though Lolly hadn’t decided to join him didn’t mean that he’d throw it all away.

Then again, John hadn’t asked her, had he? Not really. He’d been waiting until he knew she wouldn’t break his heart again.

But what was he always telling his characters? Big dreams were worth the risk. He’d been hiding for too long, not only his identity as a romance author—an award-winning, wealthy romance author, no less—but as the man who knew Lolly’s secrets and loved her in spite of them because she was worth it. Which is exactly what he told Jonas when he redeemed him from prison camp and sent him stateside. What he told Jonas after he’d done time for a barroom brawl fresh off the boat from Europe, delaying his return to Mary for two long years, just in time for her to walk down the aisle. What he’d told Jonas when he’d given him his song.

Just because Mary had made mistakes—mistakes that she said should condemn her for life—didn’t mean Jonas, or John, had to listen. And he didn’t have to listen to Cash’s words about Lolly.

It was time to write the ending to his own Western romance and fight for the woman he loved. A good romance didn’t let the wrong cowboy get the gal.

“John, what do you say? Do you want it?”

He smiled. “Yeah, I want it.” He brushed past the Realtor, went into the main room, turned, and took in the view. The pier stretching out into the ocean, kids playing in the sand. Maybe, someday, even kids of his own? Yeah, he wanted it all—the condo and the dream and the woman he loved. Enough to give it his last and best shot.

Just like Jonas.

CHAPTER 18

F
OR ONCE,
K
AT
knew exactly what footwear matched her outfit.

“Trust you to create an event where you can wear your red boots,” Cari said as she met Kat in the lobby of the still-being-reconstructed Breckenridge Hotel. “They go well with the black pants. And I love that vest.” She reached out to touch Kat’s fringed, red leather vest.

“Stiletto cowboy boots? Where’d you get them—Italy?” Kat said, taking in her friend’s leather skirt and silk shirt.

“These are 100 percent longhorn calfskin from Dallas.” Cari turned her leg, highlighting the cactus and sun emblem up the side. “I think I can see the fascination.”

“I told you they’re comfortable.” Kat gave her a sly smile as they maneuvered around the construction zone and up the stairs to the ballrooms.

Waiting to escort them, Bradley stood at the head of the stairs, dressed in a pair of boots, an orange shirt, and jeans. He’d even conceded to a black, flat-topped Stetson, although for some reason it didn’t have the charm of Rafe’s beat-up straw hat.

It would have done Kat well to stop comparing Bradley and Rafe. Bradley would never be a cowboy, but Kat didn’t expect to see Rafe showing up to support her Daredevils and Dreams event. For all she knew, he didn’t even know about it.

Thanks to GetRowdy’s enthusiastic cooperation and their need to create buzz for a Western event in a non-Western town, she and Cari and a small army of volunteers as well as the GetRowdy publicity department had pulled together the fund-raiser in little over a month. Cari had moved heaven and earth, and they’d both called in every favor they had outstanding to create the invitations, publicity, entertainment, food, and celebrity hot list.

Rafe had told her that she couldn’t bring New York to Montana, so she brought Montana to New York instead.

She hoped Lolly had gotten the invitation she’d sent. She missed her listening ear, the way she felt at ease with their friendship, even though she’d known her only a couple of weeks.

By the looks of the attendees and the music spilling out into the foyer, the party had already started. With the buzz they’d created about the GetRowdy riders coming to town, New York had rodeo fever, and Kat had sold tickets faster than she imagined. Apparently even a five-star dinner didn’t hold a candle to hobnobbing with men who wrestled animals that could turn them to dust. However, Kat still had to raise over five hundred thousand dollars in donations to pull herself out of the red.

Thanks to GetRowdy’s involvement, she’d also managed a lineup of country singers, anxious for their pictures and names to appear in the next GetRowdy ad campaign. Currently, a bluegrass band filled the hall with banjo and Dobro music, and Kat pushed away memories of the Fourth of July street dance in Phillips.

She’d decorated the outside of the ballroom with life-size photos of GetRowdy’s championship riders in all their bull-riding glory. She knew exactly where Rafe’s picture hung, could see the grit of his teeth, the look of determination on his face, the muscles bunching in his arm. She’d stared at it a good long time as she directed the caterers to set up for their barbecue ribs and sweet corn.

Next to those photos were her own blown-up shots of the children suffering in the Guadalajara clinic—the same children who would benefit by Mercy Doctors’ help.

“Why are all the GetRowdy riders lined up against the wall looking as if they’re in a war zone?” Cari asked quietly as she waved to a congressman trying to clog with one of their hired dancers.

“They’re probably shy.” Kat kept her hand on Bradley’s arm but scanned the crowd for a glimpse of Rafe. She didn’t know why she was hoping he would attend. She hadn’t heard from him, and she refused to ask GetRowdy. The last thing she needed was to stir up speculation and rip the scabs off her wounds.

“Shy cowboys? I can fix that,” Cari said, heading for her prey before Kat could warn her to stay far, far away.

Bradley’s hand encased hers as he led her to the dance floor. “Good job, Katherine. I’ll bet this event brings in everything you need to put the foundation back in the black.”

She glanced at him. Even in his hat, he looked like an attorney from the East Coast. What had Rafe called him? Slick? Kat quirked a smile. “Thanks. But I’m going to need a lot more than that to keep Mercy Doctors in business.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? You’ve been so tired lately. Maybe you should—”

“Give up and let my mother’s hard work go down the tubes?”
They’d reached the floor, but Kat backed away, refusing to dance with him. “This meant the world to her.”

“No, it didn’t. Don’t lie to yourself. The foundation is in trouble, and you’ve been pouring everything you have—your time, your money—into this charity only to see it crumble. And now you want to indebt yourself on a gamble that you can get it back up and running. Please wake up, Katherine. Your mother wouldn’t want this for you. The only reason she ran Mercy Doctors is so that she didn’t have to come home.”

Kat stared at him, a horrible ball of anger igniting inside her. Without thinking, she slapped him—hard enough to attract the attention of everyone around her. A few couples stopped dancing.

Horrified, Kat stared at the red mark on his cheek, the look of fury on his face. The Katherine Breckenridge she knew would never have hit anyone, but she’d struck a man twice in the past two months.

She looked at her trembling hand, then back at Bradley. “I’m sorry.”

He tightened his lips and forced a smile that looked anything but friendly. “No problem.”

By the way he took her hand and walked her toward the door though, she knew it
was
a problem. “You’re hurting me.”

“Kitty, are you okay?”

Bradley stopped.

Kat stood there as Rafe simply materialized before her eyes. He cleaned up well. From head to toe, he looked exactly like the man she remembered in his shiny black boots, jeans, and a patterned black silk shirt that matched his equally dark eyes. Instead of his straw hat, he wore a black Stetson, and when he bent his head and
tugged on the brim in greeting, she saw a tiny arrowhead tucked into the band.

And that, more than anything, left her without words.
This isn’t the real Rafe,
Kat thought, scrambling to gather her defenses.
This is the arrogant bull rider with a chip on his shoulder.

“Hello, Kitty,” Rafe said softly.

She nodded and met his eyes, and for a second, she saw something . . . different. A fresh spark of life. A little bit of tease.

“What are you doing here?” Bradley growled.

Rafe glanced at him. “I was talking to the lady.”

“I was talking to you.”

“Listen, Slick, I’m not here for a fight. I’m here for the cause.” Rafe pointed to his picture on the wall. “See, there I am.”

Bradley didn’t look. “Well, Katherine is fine, and we’re having a chat.”

“Seems to me that you’re taking her away from all the fun.” He turned that thousand-watt gaze on her again, and it was all she could do not to melt into a puddle. But she was here with Bradley. Her future husband. Who still had a tight grip on her arm. “You been okay, Kitty?”

“I’m . . . okay.”

“Let’s go, Katherine.” Bradley yanked her through the double doors of the ballroom and down the hall.

“What?” Kat said.

“You slapped me in front of all our guests.”

“I’m sorry, Bradley. But what you said . . . it wasn’t true.”

Bradley blew out a breath. “All right, I’ve been willing to put up with this phase for the past two months, but apparently I’m the only one with all my brain cells working here.” He bent close, his voice
tight. “Your mother started the Breckenridge Foundation out of spite. She didn’t want your grandfather getting his hands on the money she owed him, so she plugged it all into a charitable organization. She could never admit that she wasted her life on a no-good cowboy.”

Kat stared at him, unable to keep up.

“Your mother didn’t even have custody of you; did you know that?”

The breath sucked out of Kat’s body. She couldn’t understand it, but she felt the truth in his words. No wonder her mother had looked at her with such sadness.

“I can’t believe I’m the one telling you this.” Bradley shook his head. “After your dad was killed—by a
bull
—your mother lost it. She was hospitalized for a while, and during that time your grandfather got custody of you. He’d already disowned Felicia for marrying the scum she did, yet he was willing to take care of you. When your father died, he left Felicia his prize money and his life insurance, which amounted to nearly a million dollars.”

“Grandfather wanted it.”

“Of course he did—he was taking care of you. But Felicia gave it all away to the foundation. She didn’t have a cent of her own; everything belonged to the foundation. Your grandfather gave you the penthouse and let her stay there, but it belonged to you, even from the beginning.”

Kat sagged against the wall. “Why did he do that?”

Bradley glanced back into the ballroom. “Because Bobby Russell was as much trouble as Rafe Noble, and your grandfather didn’t want her to destroy her life by marrying him.”

“Bobby Russell didn’t destroy her life.”

Bradley stared at her, an incredulous expression on his face.
“She was a supermodel, someone who traveled to Paris and Milan on a regular basis. She knew every designer in the industry and could have started her own fashion company. Instead she supported Bobby, and they lived off her salary while traveling the world to go bull riding. During those years with him, she lost her contacts, her momentum. She gave everything up for a man who risked his neck every time he went into the arena. And for what? So she could watch him die?”

Kat flattened herself against the wall, a heaviness in her chest so thick she thought it might crush her. “How do you know all this?”

“Your grandfather. Did you know that Bobby punched him? When he went to your grandfather’s office to ask for Felicia’s hand in marriage, Walter gave him the only answer that made sense—
no
—and Bobby broke his nose. Security hauled him out of the office, and your grandfather sued him.”

“Which is why he needed my mother’s support.”

“She was foolish and bought into the dream that she and Bobby could live on love alone.” Bradley’s last words held a mocking tone.

Kat closed her eyes, trying to hear the truth behind his words. Loving Rafe Noble could have been the biggest mistake of her life.

“Thankfully, Katherine, you’re not your mother. You don’t have to work; you don’t have to throw away your life spinning your wheels.”

“The Breckenridge Foundation helps people!”

“Mercy Doctors will find another bleeding heart to fund them. Don’t think for a minute that their work really makes a dent in the suffering in this world.”

Kat put a hand to her head, feeling her headache knocking against the back of her skull. Sometimes she felt so very, very tired.

Bradley put his finger under her chin, lifted her head. “I know
you’re trying, honey. And I know it’s a good cause. But it’s wearing you out—even you can see, can’t you? It might be time to acknowledge that you need to let go.”

She sighed. “Maybe.”

“Yes,” he said, pressing his lips to her forehead. “Listen, sweetheart, I have people I need to meet in there. But afterward, let’s leave. Get away, just like we talked about. Get married in Bermuda, maybe? You tell me when and where. I don’t care. I just love you and want you to be happy.”

Kat forced a smile. It wasn’t too late. She didn’t have to love Rafe Noble. She
could
find happiness, find a man who wanted to be with her. “Okay, Bradley. Tomorrow. We’ll leave tomorrow.”

“That’s my Katherine, the one I know and love.”

“I thought her name was Kat.”

Kat turned, and a rush of joy went through her as Lolly Stuart, flanked by Piper and Stefanie Noble, strode down the hall.

A dark expression crossed Bradley’s face. “What are you doing here?”

Lolly looked as if she’d done some shopping, wearing a pair of designer jeans and a patterned silk shirt over her black tank top. Kat smiled when she saw her red cowboy boots.

“We were invited,” Lolly said.

“Of course you were.” Bradley glanced at Kat. “Who didn’t you invite?”

She made a face. “Quint and Andy?”

Bradley shook his head and strode back inside the ballroom.

Kat watched him go, hating how hurt he looked. But she needed to talk to her friends, because after tonight she’d never see anyone from Phillips again.

Lolly wrapped her arms around Kat. “How are you?” She pulled back, holding her at arm’s length.

“Good. Tired. I’m so glad you came.”

“Of course I did. In fact, I have to talk to you about something—”

Screams from inside the ballroom cut her off.

Kat stared past her. “Oh no, not again.”