Page 2 of Eclipse Bay

“I never do that,” he assured her earnestly. “I’m proud to say that I am solely to blame for my own screwups.”

She was out of her depth here. She tightened her grip on the purse and took another step back.

“You sort of implied that you and the guy who just took off came here to talk privately.” His words pursued her in the darkness. “But I didn’t get the feeling that the two of you were having what you’d call a meaningful conversation. Who was the jerk, anyway?”

For some oblique reason she felt compelled to defend Perry, who, unlike Rafe Madison, would amount to something someday. Or maybe it was her own self-image she wanted to protect. She did not like to think of herself as the kind of woman who dated jerks.

Not that Perry was a jerk. He was a budding academic.

“His name is Perry Decatur,” she said coolly. “He’s a grad student at Chamberlain. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Guess he thought the evening was going to end a little differently.”

“Perry’s okay. He just got a little pushy tonight, that’s all.”

“Pushy, huh? Is that what you call it?” Rafe gave an easy shrug. “Well, it looked like you pushed back pretty good. For a minute there, I thought you might need a little help, but then I realized that you were handling him just fine on your own.”

“Perry is hardly the violent type.” Outrage flared. “He’s a grad student, for crying out loud. He plans to teach political science.”

“Is that right? Since when is politics a science?”

She was pretty sure that was a rhetorical question. “He expects to be offered a position on the faculty at Chamberlain as soon as he gets his Ph.D.”

“Well, shoot. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have worried about you even half a minute while the two of you were staging that arm-wrestling contest. I mean, a guy who’s going for his Ph.D. and plans to become a hotshot professor at Chamberlain wouldn’t try to force himself on a woman. Don’t know what I was thinking.”

She was profoundly grateful for the simple fact that it was midnight. At least Rafe could not see the hot color she was almost sure was staining her face a vivid shade of pink. “There’s no call to be sarcastic. Perry and I had a disagreement, that’s all.”

“So, do you date a lot of jerks?”

“Stop calling Perry a jerk.”

“I was just curious. Can’t blame me under the circumstances, can you?”

“Yes, I can and I do.” She glared. “You’re being deliberately obnoxious.”

“But not quite as obnoxious as the jerk, huh? I haven’t even touched you.”

“Oh, shut up. I’m going home.”

“I hate to mention it, but you are standing alone here on an isolated stretch of road in the middle of the night. Like I said, it’s going to be a long walk back to your folks’ place.”

She seized the only weak point she could find in his logic. “I’m not alone.”

In the pale moonlight, his smile gleamed dangerously. “We both know that as far as your family is concerned, the fact that I’m here with you makes your situation worse than being alone. I’m a Madison, remember?”

She raised her chin. “I don’t give a darn about that stupid feud. Ancient history, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Right. Ancient history. But you know what they say 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.”

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