Eclipse Bay

about history. Those who don’t learn from it are condemned to relive it.”
    Startled, she stared at him. “You sound just like Aunt Isabel. She’s always saying things like that.”
    “I know.”
    Hannah was floored. “You’ve talked to my aunt?”
    “She talks to me.” He raised one shoulder in another dismissive gesture. “I do some work around that big house of hers sometimes. She’s a nice old lady. A little strange, but then, she is a Harte.”
    She wondered what her parents would say if they discovered that Aunt Isabel hired Rafe to do odd jobs around Dreamscape. “I guess that explains where you picked up the quote.”
    “You didn’t think I’d actually read it in a book, did you?”
    “Everyone knows you do most of your reading at Virgil Nash’s porn shop.” Lord, she sounded prissy. “I doubt that you’d find a quote like that in any of the books or magazines he stocks.”
    Rafe was silent for a beat, as if her comment had surprised him. But he recovered immediately. “Right. Mostly I just look at the pictures, anyhow.”
    “I believe it.”
    “I’ll bet the jerk reads a lot.”
    Quite suddenly she’d had enough. It was time to level this playing field. Rafe Madison had four years and a lifetime of experience on her, but she was a Harte. She could hold her own against a Madison.
    “If you didn’t come here to play some voyeuristic games,” she said coldly, “what are you doing at Eclipse Arch at this time of night?”
    “Same thing you are,” he said very smoothly. “My date and I had a little disagreement, and she kicked me out of her car.”
    Hannah was astonished. “Kaitlin Sadler threw you out of her car because you wouldn’t have sex with her?”
    “We didn’t argue about having sex,” he said with devastating honesty. “We argued about the fact that she’s dating other guys.”
    “I see.” It was no secret that Kaitlin had been seeing other men. “I hear she wants to marry someone who can take her away from Eclipse Bay.”
    “You heard right. Obviously I’m not in a position to do that, what with my failure to achieve my full potential and all.”
    “Obviously.”
    “Hell, I don’t even have a steady job.”
    “I don’t suppose Kaitlin would consider flipping veggie burgers at Snow’s Café a position with a lot of guaranteed upward mobility,” Hannah mused.
    “No, she doesn’t. She made that real clear.”
    Hannah was appalled to realize that she felt an insidious little tendril of sympathy for him. “You’ve got to admit that you certainly can’t afford to keep her in the style to which she wants to become accustomed.”
    “I know. But I thought we had an understanding that while we were seeing each other, neither of us would fool around with anyone else.”
    “Kaitlin, I take it, didn’t share that understanding?”
    “Nope. She said she didn’t want to be tied down to me. Made it clear that her first priority was finding a rich husband. Naturally, I was crushed to learn that I was nothing more than a plaything for her.”
    “Yeah. Crushed.”
    “Hey, Madisons have feelings too.”
    “Really?” she murmured. “I’ve never heard that.”
    “The family likes to keep it quiet.”
    “I’m not surprised. Sort of ruins the image.”
    “Yeah. You know, you’d be surprised how irritating it is to date a woman who is actively hunting elsewhere for a wealthy husband.”
    “Kaitlin’s definitely active,” Hannah said neutrally. “Everyone in town knows it.”
    Rafe smiled thinly. “As of tonight she can be active with someone else.”
    “I suppose she was upset when you told her you didn’t want to continue in the role of, uh, plaything?”
    “She was pissed as hell.”
    She tried to read his face in the shadows, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking or feeling. Assuming that is, that he was thinking or feeling anything at all.
    “I get the impression that you are not particularly devastated by the breakup in your relationship,” she ventured cautiously.
    “Sure, I’m devastated. I just told you, I’m a sensitive guy. But I’ll get over it.”
    “What about Kaitlin?”
    “Worrying about Kaitlin’s feelings is not real high on my list of priorities at the moment.”
    Hannah gazed at him in amazement. “You mean you’ve actually got a list of priorities?”
    “Okay, so it isn’t a computer-generated five-year master plan like the one you’ve probably got tacked up on your bedroom wall. But some of us have