Sunday came, delivering one of those perfect early spring days filled with sunshine and a top temperature in the low sixties. Even so, Raif felt chilled as he got out of his car and walked toward the main house, where Ethan and Isobel were entertaining Shanal. She wouldn’t be pleased, he knew that. No doubt she thought she’d effectively seen the last of him that day he’d returned her wedding dress, but if that was the case she’d failed to factor in the Masters family’s resilience and determination to reach their goals.
He walked around to the back veranda of the house, which accommodated most of his family in its widespread wings to the sheltered spot where Ethan had texted him earlier to find them. Raif could hear the delicate sound of Shanal’s laughter as he drew nearer. Laughter that cut short as she saw him step up onto the covered wooden deck.
“Ethan?” she asked, turning to his cousin.
“He needed to see you, Shanal. I’m sorry.”
Isobel looked from one to the other and back again. “Is there something I’m missing here?”
“No, nothing,” Shanal insisted, but Ethan spoke over her.
“I’ll tell you, inside,” he said to his wife, rising from his chair and offering her his hand.
With another sharp look at Raif and then Shanal, Isobel took her husband’s hand. Raif waited until they were both inside and the door had closed behind them.
“I don’t know what you hope to achieve by this, Raif. I told you, I can’t see you anymore. We have nothing to say to each other.”
“Can’t see me? Or don’t want to see me? They’re two very different things, don’t you think?” he said, lowering himself to sit beside her at the beautifully laid table. “I don’t understand why you have to marry Burton.”
“It’s none of your business, Raif. Please, just leave me alone.”
“Oh, Shanal, that’s where you’re so very wrong. It’s entirely my business.”
Her eyes flicked up to meet his, a tormented expression clearly evident. Raif’s heart squeezed painfully that he had to be the one putting her through this.
“If you’re going to marry anyone, it should be me. I love you, Shanal, and I believe, if you’re honest with yourself, you love me, too.”
She shook her head sadly. “No, don’t do this to me, Raif. It’s not fair.”
“Not fair? Isn’t denying yourself the truth unfair, too? I think it is. Especially when that truth is what we mean to one another.”
Shanal drew herself upright in her chair. “You’re mistaken. We had a fling. A very brief fling,” she reiterated. “That’s all.”
Raif held back a sigh. She was going to fight him on this to the bitter end, wasn’t she? Well, if she thought he’d tuck his tail and run she had another think coming. He’d waited this long, he wasn’t going to wait any longer. He loved and respected her too much for that. “We both know that’s a lie. You’re not that kind of woman and it was way more than a fling.”
She smiled. “You think not? Well, I have news for you. You don’t know me as well as you think you do. I’m tired of playing games and of being some kind of toy to be fought over between you and Burton. I know you don’t like him. How do I know you’re not saying you love me just to get back at him again? You two were always competitive, even back in your school days, from what I’ve been told. Clearly that hasn’t changed.”
“It’s more than that. Way more. He’s not the right man for you.”
“Like he wasn’t for Laurel, either? And yet she chose him.”
Raif felt the barb strike home, but it only served to make him even more determined. “And look what happened to her, Shanal.”
“It was an accident.”
“It was carelessness. Burton’s deliberate carelessness, I’m sure. It couldn’t have been anything else.”
“The inquest found otherwise. He was exonerated,” she persisted.
“He lied. That’s the way he operates, can’t you see that? He’ll say whatever he needs to, and pay whoever he needs to, to get what he wants.”
Didn’t she want to understand? Raif fought the urge to strangle something, or someone—preferably Rogers—and dragged his focus back to the woman in front of him. Everything he said was the truth, but still she fought back.
Shanal huffed a derisive snort. “Of course you’d say something like that. But then, you’re not all that different, are you?”