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Tonight he was cruising toward the setting sun with Jessica, Harry and Emily. His first meeting with Emily’s mom had been tense but ever since Emily had wrapped her arm around his waist and given her mom a stubborn look, Jessica had been sort of friendly toward him. Harry on the other hand looked as if he was going to need more than a stern look from Emily.
If he didn’t know that they were going night diving, he’d have been worried.
“Beer?” Harry asked, walking up to him where he sat on a padded bench at the stern of the boat.
“Nah, I’m good.”
Harry sat down next to him and took a sip of his Corona. Emily and her mom were at the helm of the boat talking and laughing as they got out of the no-wake zone. Suddenly Jessica hit the throttle and they were flying full speed across the ocean.
As the wind buffeted Rafe, Harry leaned forward, shouting a little to be heard over the noise. “What are your plans with our girl?”
“None of your business,” Rafe shouted back. “No disrespect but you and I both know she’ll skin us alive if we discuss it behind her back.”
Harry threw his head back and gave a great shout of laughter. The other man was big and solid, but no taller than Rafe. And he’d noticed over the past couple weeks how Harry watched out for Emily as no other adult in her life had.
Her mom, though sweet and loving toward Emily, spent most of her time thinking about her research and reapplying for grants. Her entire world was the ocean and the creatures in it.
It had been startling to realize that in essence Emily had raised herself. That was probably why she was so tough, so feisty and so damned independent. She had a lifetime of doing things on her own. How the hell was he going to convince her that she needed him by her side?
But he understood why the arguments he’d been making hadn’t worked. What was it that she needed? The one thing she couldn’t give herself, he suspected, was the key to bringing her around.
His phone buzzed. He’d hoped they’d be out of range but no such luck. He looked down and saw he had received a text from Geoff Standings once again asking again if he could run with their release announcing Rafe’s engagement to Emily.
He texted back no and then shut his phone off. His family didn’t get how delicate the situation was and thought that he could order her to marry him.
As if.
“Just know if you hurt her, bud, I’m coming after you,” Harry said with that slightly maniacal grin of his.
“That’s the last thing I want to do,” Rafe said loudly.
Jessica killed the engines and his words sort of echoed around the boat as everything went quiet.
“What’s the last thing you want to do?” Emily said, coming over and sitting on his lap. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and reached over to take Harry’s beer. “No drinking and diving, Harry. That’s dangerous.”
“It was one beer, kiddo. And barely that,” Harry said, getting up and going over to Jessica.
“What is the last thing you’d do?” she asked Rafe when they were alone. He heard the sounds of Jessica and Harry getting the scuba gear ready behind them.
“Hurt you,” he said, looking down into her pretty blue eyes.
“No promises, remember?” she said, standing up.
He grabbed her wrist, keeping her by his side as he had a sudden flash of insight into what it was she needed but was afraid to ask for. She needed promises and she needed them to be kept.
“I’m making this one, Red. And I’m keeping it,” he said.
“What about Alma and your family?” she asked.
“What about them? That has nothing to do with you and me.”
She snorted and shook her head. “It has everything to do with us. I’m complicating things. I think we both know that dinner with your family didn’t go very well because of it. They think...heck, I have no idea what they think. But they don’t like me much.”
He wondered if that were true. He believed his family didn’t feel one way or another about Emily. It was him they were frustrated with. They needed him to make her his fiancée or get her out of the picture. They needed him to clean up his act so they could continue with the coronation plans. But he wasn’t playing their game.
“It’s me they’re pissed at,” he said. “I’m sure they will like you once they get to know you.”
She gave him an incredulous look. “I thought you were going to be a king of Alma, not fairy-tale land.”
He laughed. “I am.”
“You two done flirting?” Harry called, interrupting their argument. “Ready to do some diving?”
“Yes, we are, Harry,” Emily said, walking over and getting her gear on.
