Before Nick could reply, his wife returned, her eyes red, her face blotchy. “I’m sorry,” Angel said again.
“It’s fine. You had no way of knowing I wanted to lie low,” Sara reassured her again.
“Look,” said Rafe, “we’re all upset after the fire, but all that matters right now is that nobody was hurt. From this point on, we have to be more careful. Because the fact is, we have no way of knowing who the intended target actually was.”
He met Sara’s gaze, and she nodded in agreement.
It was possible Morley had sent people after Sara, and the accelerant had lit either too soon or too late, and thank God she hadn’t been in the booth. But there was the equal possibility that someone had a grudge against Angel or her family and the booth fire had been a warning.
Until they knew who the target was and why, Rafe wanted everyone in his family on alert and being extra careful.
AS NICK WALKED Angel to her car, he thought back to the events of the night. One minute they’d been dancing, getting closer, and she’d obviously panicked. She said she’d needed air, and he’d let her go, giving her space. The next thing he knew, he heard people yelling. He’d nearly had a heart attack when he’d seen the smoke and fire in her booth, not knowing if she’d gone there to be alone.
If he hadn’t already been shaken up by Biff’s and Todd’s interest in his wife, the fire had been an additional wake-up call. He had to fix things before it was too late.
“I’m sorry about the blog. I never intended to hurt Sara,” Angel said.
Nick nodded. “I know.”
“It’s been an awful night and I can’t wait to just crawl into bed. Good night,” she said softly.
“I’m staying over, remember?”
“I thought you just told my father and Vi you’d stay over so they wouldn’t worry. I can’t imagine you really want to sleep there,” she said of the bed-and-breakfast, the major point of contention in their marriage.
He stepped closer. “Is that what you think?” His heart slammed inside his chest.
She nodded.
“Well, you’re wrong. If the fire had happened earlier in the day, you could have been killed.” And he’d have lost any chance he had of making things right.
She leaned against the door and met his gaze. “You panicked. I understand. But that doesn’t change the truth about us.”
“Which is?”
“It’s one thing to dance together and to get along for twenty minutes without arguing. It’s another to agree on what fundamentally divides us,” Angel said softly.
He grabbed her forearms and pulled her close, kissing her hard on the lips. She stiffened in shock, then slowly but surely relaxed against him, kissing him back. Opening for him. Accepting him and everything he wanted to give but didn’t know how to express in words.
He broke the kiss first, leaning his forehead against hers. “Let me come home with you tonight. Let me make sure you’re safe.” He barely recognized his gruff voice.
She licked her lips, then slowly nodded. “Okay. You can come home with me.”
His heart began a race inside his chest once more.
“But nothing can happen between us,” she said, putting the breaks on.
He silently counted to five, unwilling to argue and lose ground. And that was a first for him. “I understand.”
But him staying over wasn’t enough. He needed to be back in her life for good. She still focused on his resentment of the B and B as the source of their problem, but he believed they needed to talk and grieve together. Something she wouldn’t do unless pushed.
“What if we see a marriage counselor?” he asked, surprising himself. “That way we can make sure we agree on how to fix what’s wrong before we try.”
“And before I invest my heart again.” She blinked, and tears fell down her cheeks.
He wiped her cheek with his thumb. “Your heart is still invested,” he said gruffly. “And so is mine.”
As he followed her back to her place, for the first time, Nick felt a glimmer of hope. She’d agreed to see a marriage counselor. Maybe a trained therapist could help her learn to talk about the miscarriage and guide them toward redefining their future.
He didn’t know if either of them could make this work. But he loved her enough to try.
RAFE SHUT THE DOOR, locking it behind his brother and sister-in-law. Then he set the burglar alarm. “First thing tomorrow I’m calling the alarm company and having a perimeter alarm installed,” Rafe said.
“Isn’t that what you have?” Sara asked.
“No. I have one that just hits the main doors and entrances. Truth is, I only installed an alarm at all because I’m rarely here. The crime rate is so minimal, nothing more was necessary.”
Sara bit the inside of her cheek. Guilt was already eating away at her. If she had been the target of the fire, she’d caused fear and aggravation for his family, not to mention the cost of the destruction of the booth.
“I don’t want you to spend more money on the alarm system because of me. If you didn’t need it before, you don’t need it now.”
“Don’t argue. It’s necessary. You came here to feel safe, and I intend to make sure you stay that way. Besides, it’s never a waste of money to invest in a better alarm system.” He shut the light in the kitchen and walked over to where she sat on the couch, sitting down beside her. “What’s wrong?”
“I just don’t want to cause problems for your whole family. Maybe I should go back to the city.”
He raised an eyebrow. “If you do, I’m going with you. Then we’ll have to have a state-of-the-art alarm system installed in your apartment and on the main front door, which will only piss off the landlord. So? What’s it going to be?”
“Okay, you can upgrade the alarm here.” But she’d pay him back, no matter how much he argued.
A satisfied grin settled over his face.
He was sexy when he was worried, sexy when he was happy, sexy when he had a satisfied grin on his handsome face. Boy, she had it bad, Sara thought.
“Earth to Sara?” Rafe waved a hand in front of her face.
“Sorry, I was distracted,” she said, shaking her head. “What did you say?”
“I asked if you thought Biff and Todd seemed like possible suspects.”
She wasn’t surprised he’d asked. He’d disliked them on sight. Besides, they’d begun to make her uncomfortable with the way they were constantly around. “They’re odd, but I already discounted them because when they checked in, they said they’d had the reservations way in advance. We could ask Angel, but I have a feeling they’re telling the truth.”