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She scowled at him. “You’re evil.”
His grin widened. “Your point?”
“I have work to do,” she said, patting his cheek and pulling out of his embrace. He missed her warmth immediately.
He didn’t let her go too far. “Hey,” he said, quietly. “I was going to make appointments for us with the doctor for those blood tests. I thought maybe we could go together, unless…. Do you still want to keep it a secret?” He couldn’t quite meet her gaze. “Do you still want to keepmea secret?”
Jane pressed the palm of her hand against his cheek and Rafe unashamedly leaned into it, absorbed her warmth and breathed in the clean scent of her skin.
She lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, smiled as she conceded. “No one can keep a secret in this town anyway.”
His answering smile was slow as relief washed over him, and his chest sagged as he let go of the breath he’d been holding. “Thank you, baby.”
Jane ducked her head at his use of the endearment but he didn’t miss the smile playing around the corners of her pretty mouth.
Rafe knew some guys got off on the whole secret lover gig, but he wasn’t one of them. Not that he wanted everybody to know his business either, but in a town as small as Melville’s Cross, gossip was inevitable, and as a Bennett—the most gossiped about family in town—he had more reason than most to hate it.
The fact Jane was willing to open herself up to that type of criticism for him spoke volumes.
“I’ll pick you up after work?” he said, unsure what her answer would be and hating himself for his uncertainty.
These were uncharted waters he was testing, and as much as he wanted everything to be smooth sailing, this was Jane Melville he was dealing with, and she never did the expected.
“Sure,” she said, a coy smile lifting her lips. “I finish at one o’clock. Come inside when you get here and I’ll make you something to eat, okay?”
Smiling, he buzzed a quick kiss over her forehead. “I’ll see you then, beautiful.” Then he got in his car and drove home.
Two hours later, he’d been for his daily run, showered, eaten breakfast, fought off an interrogation from his sister about the strange noises she’d heard coming from his bedroom the previous night—like she can talk—and was now unlocking the door to his new office.
His new, overcrowded, unorganised office.
When Mayor Rose had asked Rafe to consider moving home and taking over the job of town counsel, she’d warned him the previous bloke had been a bit of a pack rat, but this?
If there were a level of Hell dedicated to filing, Rafe was pretty sure he’d found it. He didn’t he even know where to begin to sort this shit out.
As he waded through the maze of paper, he kicked himself for not coming down sooner and taking a look, but he’d been putting it off, wanting to enjoy a few precious days relaxing and spending some quality time with his family. Reconnect with everyone on the rare occasion they were all in the one place.
He should have taken a look back in May when the mayor approached him in the first place. But the only thing on his mind that day had been a hot little redhead, her cupcake-licking skills and counting down the minutes until he could get her alone and naked.
And then they’d fought, and he’d gotten drunk and Charlie and Toby had dragged his sorry arse back to Brisbane to sleep off his hangover and regret.
It wasn’t until he discovered Jane planned to move to Melbourne that he’d accepted the mayor’s invitation, and then he’d done literally anything to avoid going back to Melville’s Cross until he absolutely had to.
Which just so happened to coincide with Jane’s wedding day.
Because he was a masochist.
He’d watched from afar as she’d arrived at the church in a cherry-red Mustang convertible, looking so happy his heart hurt. He’d wanted her to look that happy with him.
Tobethat happy with him.
Someone must have heard his prayers that day because the next thing he knew, his phone was vibrating a hole through his pocket, receiving a barrage of text messages from Oliver about Sam doing a runner and oh, by the way, Jane’s pregnant.
He still wasn’t sure which of his emotions had been the more overwhelming when he’d read those words: his anger at Sam Lyndon for proving him right, his elation at the thought he might be a father, or his frustration at not being able to go to Jane, to rescue her from her predicament. And then he’d broken into her house and made things worse.
But fate had handed him a second chance, and this time he wasn’t going to screw it up.
Yes, it was undoubtedly “too soon”, as Jane had said, for her to be with someone else. And yeah, when the gossips found out about the baby, there would be fallout to contend with, but they were stronger together than they were apart.
