“You called because you know I’m the smarter one,” Rafe said with a laugh.
“In your dreams, Palazzo. Fine. I’ll get off the phone. I have some plans to make,” Shane said before hanging up.
Rafe took his unfinished drink and sat by the fire. It was time to make his own plans. One thing he knew for sure was that Arianna Harlow wasn’t getting away from him this time. As he leaned back, he thought about what it was that had caused such a change inside him. It still shook him to his very soul when he thought back…
A Few Months Earlier
“Damn, Rafe. I need a break!” Shane grumbled as he hefted a thick piece of wood up to his best friend.
“Quit whining, Shane. I want this place done by nightfall. Maria is going to have the baby at any time.”
“I know, but she and her family are comfortable in the tents. If the baby comes, they’ll all be protected until the home is finished,” Shane said.
“No. I admire her. I want them to have a real home for the baby.” Rafe didn’t know why it was so important. Maybe because Maria and her husband, Pablo, were good people. They worked hard, and they had been so grateful for the help from Rafe and Shane and the other workers there with them.
Rafe hadn’t expected to get close to any of the villagers, but for some reason this young couple had managed to wedge themselves into his heart — the heart he’d thought was cold and shriveled when he’d arrived in Paraguay.
Shane stopped complaining and the two of them worked through the rest of the day, finishing the modest home as the last rays of the sun drifted behind the horizon. Rafe stood back, feeling a deep sense of accomplishment as he looked at what most people would consider a shack, but what Maria and Pablo would think of as a mansion.
He was humbled by the way these people lived, so grateful for the smallest of items — a bowl of beans, fresh fruit, a warm blanket. His eyes had been opened in many ways, and he would always remember this time in his life.
“You’ve done really well, Rafe,” Shane said as he approached, clapping him on the back.
“I feel better. I didn’t think it was possible, but seeing all this poverty, all this — I don’t know how to say it — simplicity? — firsthand, for so long, changes a person,” Rafe replied.
“Yeah, that’s why I keep coming back.”
“Then why are you still such an ass**le?” Rafe said.
“Look who’s talking,” Shane answered with a glare.
“Yeah, yeah. I know I have my moments. I really need to return to the real world, but staying here has been good. I still think about Ari all the time, but it’s more manageable now,” Rafe had to say.
“I know the feeling. I can’t stop thinking of Lia. The project is back on track, so I’ll finally have her alone. That will be good.”
“Should we insure you?” Rafe said, only half kidding.
“When I’m dealing with your sister, that may be a good idea. She’s more dangerous than any mission I’ve ever been on,” Shane said, before he went silent for a moment. “I’m shipping out in a few days.”
Shane hated to speak about it, but Rafe was the only one who knew. He had to have someone to turn to when it all ended up being just a bit too much.
“You’ll come home.” It wasn’t a prayer or a wish; it was a statement of fact. Because Rafe wouldn’t lose his best friend. He could lose a lot, but not his family and not Shane.
“Yes, I will.”
The two men stood for a while longer before separating and going to their small campers to try to get some rest.
The happy Paraguayan couple moved into their home that night, and Rafe went to sleep with a smile on his face. It was the first time since he’d lost Ari that he’d felt like smiling. Feeling good about what he’d been doing and starting to figure out ways of winning back the woman whom he couldn’t remove from his mind, Rafe slept better than he had since she’d walked from his life.
“Rafe, wake up.”
The morning light was streaming in through the camper windows, and the pained look on Shane’s face had him instantly sitting up.
“What is it?”
“Maria. She…she didn’t make it, Rafe.”
“No.” If he denied the words his friend was saying, then he could make them untrue.
“I’m sorry, Rafe. I know how much you cared about her.”
Shane had warned Rafe not to get attached, warned him to keep a distance. These people led a different life than they did — had a harsher reality. They were often lost at young ages and in tragic circumstances.
“No.” He denied Shane’s words again.
“I’m sorry, Rafe. The baby died in her womb several days ago. Maria passed during the night from complications. Her husband found her this morning.”
Rafe jumped from the bed and threw on his clothes, needing to see Maria — needing to prove that Shane was wrong. She couldn’t be gone. He rushed to their new home. The home Rafe had worked nonstop to build so she could have her baby there.
Quietly walking inside, Rafe found Pablo on his knees by the bed, a bed Rafe had specially brought in for just them. Pablo looked up, tracks of tears on his face, but tears that had obviously dried hours ago. The broken man had no more left inside him.
“She left me,” Pablo whimpered, his hands repeatedly stroking his cold wife’s face. “She left me alone. Our baby and Maria are gone,” he choked out, his voice broken, his spirit gone.
“No,” Rafe whispered, seemingly unable to say anything else.
“I can’t live without her. She’s my world. She’s my everything. How can I go on?”
The man was looking to Rafe for an answer, and Rafe didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have an answer to give Pablo. Never before had Rafe witnessed someone so utterly broken — so lost — so completely alone.
“Please, Rafe. Give her back to me,” the man begged as if Rafe were capable of saving her. “Please,” Pablo groaned as he turned back toward his wife and laid his head on her still chest.
Rafe stood in the doorway, his own heart broken, unable to move, watching the man hold on to his dead wife. Eventually, the men from the village had to drag the bereaved husband away as he cried out in agony.
That night, Pablo took his own life, leaving a short note. I will be with my wife and child for eternity.