Eclipse Bay

doggy bliss emanated from him.
    The darkness grew heavier. So did Rafe’s mood. Hannah resisted the urge to break the silence. She was determined that he would be the one to do that. If he wanted to brood, that was his business. It wasn’t like she was his wife or even a close friend, she reminded herself. It wasn’t her job to cheer him up when he was down or jolly him out of a bad temper. Sure, they had made love a few times, but that didn’t mean they were lovers.
    Instead of rallying her, that thought lowered her own spirits.
    Wonderful. Now she was brooding too.
    For a while she thought Rafe might not speak at all. She was telling herself that she was getting accustomed to the silence when he finally started talking. The first words out of his mouth startled her so much that she was the one who was momentarily speechless.
    “Ever since the night Kaitlin died,” he said, his voice seeming to come from a distant place, “I’ve always wondered whether or not Mitchell believed that I might have killed her.”
    Hannah opened her mouth and then closed it again. She was so taken back she could not think of an appropriate response. Maybe there wasn’t one.
    “He never said a word.” Rafe turned the heated glass between his palms. “But that didn’t mean anything. His first loyalty is to Gabe and me. I’ve always known that. Even when we were going toe-to-toe about everything from my lousy job prospects and the motorcycle to my choice in girlfriends, I knew that he would stand by me no matter what. He might disapprove. He might be disappointed. He might be furious. But he would be on my side in a fight. Just like Gabe.”
    Hannah stared at him. “You actually thought that all these years Mitchell has been wondering what really happened that night? You weren’t sure he believed your story?”
    “I was never certain.” Rafe’s jaw tightened. “And I was too damn proud to confront him and ask him straight out.”
    She pondered that for a moment. “Maybe you were afraid of the answer.”
    He looked out at the lights on the far side of the bay. “Maybe. Or maybe I just didn’t want him to be put in the position of having to pretend that he never doubted me. Mitchell and I have had our problems, but we’ve always been straight with each other. Didn’t want that to change.”
    She thought back to what Mitchell had said about Rafe the first night they had invited him to dinner. He’s a Madison. He’s got a temper. But if he had been with Kaitlin that night and if there had been some terrible accident, he’d have gone for help and then he’d have told the flat-out truth about what happened.
    “Your grandfather knows that you had nothing to do with Kaitlin’s death,” she said. “He never doubted you.”
    “I know that now.”
    Hannah exhaled slowly. “Well, if nothing else good comes from this situation, it sounds like you and he are working out some sort of long overdue reconciliation. That’s worth something.”
    Rafe gave her a laconic, sidelong look. “Why do you care whether or not Mitchell and I patch up our differences?”
    “I live to bring joy and happiness to those around me.”
    “Try again.”
    She made a face. “Don’t pin me down.”
    “Right.” He took another swallow of the liqueur.
    She gave him a few seconds. When he did not volunteer anything further in the way of conversation, she tried another tack.
    “I promised myself I wasn’t going to ask what happened between you and Mitchell outside on the porch a while ago, but my curiosity has gotten the better of me.”
    “No surprise there.”
    She ignored that. “Look, you just told me that you’re no longer worried that Mitchell might be harboring some deep, dark suspicions about what happened on the night of Kaitlin’s death. And the two of you have decided that you’ll work together on our little investigation. Heck, you’re even having your grandfather over for dinner these days. Obviously your relationship is improving rapidly. So what went wrong out there on the porch?”
    “Nothing went wrong.”
    “Don’t give me that baffled, befuddled male stare. I’m not buying it.”
    He sank deeper into his lounger and wrapped his long-fingered hands around the balloon glass. “I thought I was pretty good at doing baffled and befuddled.”
    “Not funny, Madison. When you went outside you were in a reasonably good mood. You came back in a lousy mood. You can’t blame me for wondering what transpired on the front