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Rafe heaved an exasperated sigh. “Holly, this is my half sister Camryn. She and her sister Kaylin live with me. And I apologize for her rudeness because she never will.”
“Notice how he said half sister.” Camryn was sardonic. “Making sure you know that me and my sister are only half related to him.”
“I did notice that,” Holly said quietly.
She’d also noticed that Rafe was eyeing his younger half sister as if she were an alien from some incomprehensible galaxy. She’d seen that same look on the faces of the frazzled relatives of her angry and confused young patients back in Michigan.
“Oh, wow, get ready to apologize to our new neighbor again, Rafe. ’Cause here comes your other half sister to embarrass you, too,” Camryn taunted as Kaylin emerged from the duplex and walked toward them.
Rafe’s lips thinned to a grim straight line. Camryn had scored a direct verbal hit. He’d never realized it before, but he always did refer to the two girls as his half sisters. He always thought of them that way.
His half sisters. Never his little sisters. They’d shared the same father, Ben Paradise, but their mother had not been his. Maybe the fact that he had Eva, whose parents were also his, who had always been his adored “little sister,” kept that “half” firmly affixed in regards to Camryn and Kaylin.
Certainly all those years spent apart from the pair made him feel less connected to them. And the big age difference between himself and the girls didn’t make things any easier. Nor did their rebellious personalities.
He’d really enjoyed Eva as a teenager. Maybe if Camryn and Kaylin were more like her...but they were the antithesis of Eva. They scorned their older half sister as one of those “perky, girly” types, the same despised category Camryn had just assigned to Holly.
Rafe looked at Holly, saw her glance from Camryn to Kaylin and back to him with the alert intensity of a microbiologist who’d just discovered a new species of pathogens. That flare of sexual awareness he’d seen in her soft brown eyes was gone. Her interest in him now was as a prospective case study. One of the dysfunctional Paradise kin. He conceded they could give an ambitious shrink plenty of material to work with.
“Hey,” Kaylin greeted them cheerfully, and returned Holly’s welcoming smile with a shy one of her own.
Holly introduced herself.
“I’m Kaylin. Cam’s my little big sister.” The girl amiably slung her arm around Camryn’s shoulder, and Holly observed the four-inch difference in their height.
Camryn was a petite five-two, thinner and smaller-boned than her younger sister. Kaylin was cute with long, dark, straight hair and bangs. She wore no makeup at all, and was dressed in baggy oversize pants and an equally huge shirt that rendered her completely shapeless.
“You’re the big little sister,” Camryn amended affectionately. Then she looked back at Holly and Rafe, and her dark eyes flashed with anger. “Wait till you see the sainted Evita. You’ll know why Rafe and—”
“Camryn, drop it, okay?” Rafe cut in impatiently. “And since you’re both out here, make yourselves useful and help Holly unload her car.”
Holly was confused. “Evita? You mean the movie? Or the CD soundtrack? I haven’t gotten around to purchasing it for my collection.”
Camryn and Kaylin looked at each other and snickered. “Evita is no soundtrack—she’s Rafe and Flint’s wicked sister,” explained Camryn. “Not a half one, a whole one.”
“That would be Eva, the medical student?” Holly recalled Rafe’s mention of her.
It took no special intuitive powers to ascertain that the diminutive used by the girls was not based on fondness. The teens’ hostility toward their half sister was palpable.
Kaylin nodded her head. “That’s her, Evita the Witch Doctor. And Flint is Rafe’s Evil Twin.”
“Are you really a twin?” Holly looked at Rafe in genuine surprise. Or were the girls playing word games with her?
“Yes,” Rafe muttered.
He wasn’t about to deny his own brother, though he guessed what his admission would mean. Studies of twins were highly valued in the fields of both psychology and biology; he and Flint had certainly been invited to take part in enough of them by eager university researchers. As Native American identical male twins, they were coveted as a resource treasure. Rafe scowled. He did not appreciate Holly Casale viewing him as a potential lab rat.
“And Eva is not a wicked witch and Flint is certainly not evil,” he added, in defense of his siblings.
He reached inside the car and pulled out Holly’s bulging, battered old suitcase that she knew must weigh about eighty pounds. The muscles of his arms rippled as he carried it.
Kaylin pulled out a hanging shoe rack, the compartments stuffed with shoes, and dragged it toward Holly’s front door.
Camryn didn’t move. “You can see how much Rafe doesn’t like us,” she said, sensing Holly’s interest, watching her stare at Rafe and the suitcase. She smiled her angel smile. “Still, he’s the good one. When our mom called to tell him she was sick, he promised that Kaylin and me could live with him after she died ‘cause there was nobody else. And he came and got us when she did. Flint and Eva wouldn’t’ve even—”
“Stop stalling and get to work, Camryn,” Rafe called, feeling his anger rise.
He never discussed private family matters with anyone. And Holly was a shrink! That was easy to forget when his mind was fogged by her potent allure, but the appearance of his half sisters had cleared his head as effectively as a whiff of old-time smelling salts.
“I don’t have to!” yelled Camryn as Rafe lugged the suitcase into the condo. “And I’m not throwing a pity party for myself, either,” she added, as if to fend off that particular accusation.
Holly had no intention of making it. “From what I’ve heard so far, you have every right to.” She lay her hand on Camryn’s forearm. The girl was trembling. “I’m sorry to hear about your mother’s death.” Her training and her own natural instincts kicked in; she wanted to interpret and diffuse the rage and discord plaguing this family.
“Our dad is dead, too,” Camryn said flatly. “Kaylin and me didn’t know him at all. He got divorced from Mom when we were one and two years old and we never saw him again. We didn’t see Rafe or the others again, either, not till last year after Mom died.”
Holly found the information tragic and disconcerting but was skilled enough not to show it. “You and Kaylin hadn’t seen your brothers and sister from the time you were one and two years old until last year?” she calmly restated the essential facts she’d been told.
Camryn nodded. “And now I’m seventeen and Kaylin is sixteen, so you do the math.”
Holly accepted the challenge. “You hadn’t seen them in fourteen years.”
Which meant Rafe had last seen his half sisters as babies, but had taken in two distinctly individualistic teenagers. No wonder he’d stared at them as if they’d been dropped from outer space!
“Yeah, fourteen years. You’re a regular math genius,” Camryn drawled. “Color me impressed. But they’re our half brothers and half sister, don’t forget that. They never do.”
“Do you sometimes wish they would?” asked Holly.
Before Camryn could answer, Rafe was back, having deposited the suitcase inside the house. “Camryn, it may interest you to know that Dr. Casale here is a psychiatrist.”
Camryn’s expression was instantly thunderous. “I refuse to talk to any shrink! I’m not crazy.”
“No, you’re not,” agreed Rafe. “Don’t let her fool you, Doc. Camryn Paradise is no pitiful Little Orphan Annie. Vampira is closer to the mark.”
“What I am is a wild, in-your-face-brat with a bad attitude,” Camryn proclaimed. “Right, Rafe?”
“So we’ve been told.” Rafe sucked in his cheeks. “Some have claimed you’re the most monstrous brat ever to set foot in the city of Sioux Falls—or maybe the entire state of South Dakota.”
“That’s exactly what my history teacher said and the music teacher agreed!” Camryn was gleeful. “And how about my French teacher?”
“Let’s not get into that.” Rafe remembered the scene with the French teacher. It had gotten ugly; Camryn would not be taking French when she started her senior year the day after Labor Day, just a few weeks away.
“Aren’t you scared I live next door to you, Dr. Nutburger? You should be! You better not try to trick me into any stealth therapy because I’m capable of anything!” boasted Camryn.
Rafe tried to remember who’d made that last quote—“The little fiend is capable of anything!” The outraged home ec teacher? The hostile volleyball coach? Everybody in Riverview High had something to say about Camryn. None of it good.
“I’m not afraid of you and I wasn’t trying to trick you in any way, Camryn.” Holly remained unruffled. “But I am curious as to why both you and your brother are so opposed to the idea of any kind of—”
“Family therapy?” Camryn interjected. She made it sound as appealing as imbibing rat poison.
“So you’re familiar with the concept,” said Holly. “I wish it had been presented to you as a positive aid instead of a negative threat.”
“Forget it, Dr. Headshrinker. I won’t talk to you.”
“Nobody in the Paradise family has ever gone to a psychiatrist,” Rafe added.
“Watch out, Rafe, there are sooo many comebacks to that one!” Camryn was suddenly all smiles again. “She could really zing us good.”
Holly wondered if the duo realized they were both on the same side; she doubted that occurred very often. Unfortunately, they were allied against her and her profession. Still, she was accustomed to looking for strengths to work with and for the first time she saw a bond, however tenuous, between Rafe and his little sister. The insight cheered her.
“Too easy. I think I’ll pass.” Holly grinned.
Rafe found himself staring at her again. When Holly Casale turned on the full force of her smile, her whole face lit up and she was downright irresistible. He swallowed. Incredibly enough, he was starting to get turned on all over again, simply standing there gazing at her.
“Well, I’m not going to help you unpack your car, Dr. Head-case,” announced Camryn. “I have other plans.”
Rafe wondered if he should demand that she stay and help. He hadn’t heard of any plans she’d made for this afternoon—not that he was ever consulted first by either girl. Their modus operandi was to do what they pleased, hope they didn’t get caught, and show no remorse if they did.
His eyes met Holly’s, and he knew that she knew he was totally at a loss in dealing with his young half sisters. Part of him was angry, the other part relieved. He needed help but was loath to seek it, wasn’t sure how and where to look. He guessed that Holly probably knew all that, too.
They both watched Camryn stroll back into Rafe’s side of the condo.
“Don’t say a word,” warned Rafe.
“Who me? I wouldn’t dream of it I already promised I don’t troll for prospective patients.”
“Even though you think we’re a prime collection of basket cases.”
“I don’t think that at all, I just—”
“Uh-oh, this is awful heavy!” Kaylin called from the car. She had managed to get Holly’s television set out of the back seat and stood holding it—while tottering precariously.
“Kaylin, put that down!” commanded Rafe. “It’s too heavy for you to carry. I’ll get it.”
“Okay.” Kaylin panted. She swayed backward, rendered off balance by the television’s weight, then leaned forward in an attempt to put it down.
Holly and Rafe were both watching at the crucial split second when Kaylin’s arm strength completely gave out.
The television set crashed onto the cement driveway.
Three
Kaylin burst into tears. “I’m sorry! I didn’t do it on purpose! It just fell!”
Rafe picked up the set, which had hit at an angle and then bounced to a facedown landing. The double impact caused the screen to shatter and the back console to split open. Inside parts began to spill out.
“Looks like a gutted trout,” he observed grimly.
“Stupid piece of junk!” wailed Kaylin. When Rafe placed the wrecked set upright on the ground, she gave it a furious kick, inflicting even more damage, though it was already plainly irreparable. “It only fell a little way and it broke into a zillion pieces!” She kicked it again. “Crummy old trash!”
“I’m inclined to agree with you.” Holly calmly surveyed the wreckage. “They obviously don’t make these things good and sturdy like they used to.”
Kaylin stopped crying and caught her breath. “Yeah,” she agreed, her voice tremulous. “If it was good and sturdy, it wouldn’t be so smashed.”
“It wouldn’t be so smashed if you hadn’t dropped it,” Rafe noted pointedly. “For crying out loud, Kaylin, you—”
“You’re mad at me! You hate me!” Kaylin screamed. “You’re going to send me away!” She raced to her own front door and disappeared inside.
Rafe and Holly stood in silence.
“I’m going to take a wild guess that Trent co-opted those heartrending lines from Kaylin,” Holly said dryly. “Both seem to share a penchant for highly dramatic exits.”
“They all do. And I honestly don’t know what to say, Holly.” Rafe jammed his hands into his pockets and stared glumly from the smashed television set to the smashed window of her condo. “An apology is hardly adequate, but I am terribly sorry that the kids—”
“Rafe, you don’t have to apologize. It’s okay. The set was ancient, it was on its last legs, anyway. I have a better one, a newer model, that’ll be arriving on the moving truck. Really, it’s no big deal.”
“It is a big deal,” Rafe countered. “Don’t try to minimalize what’s happened, Holly. Things started going wrong from the moment you arrived here—thanks to us, your hellacious next-door neighbors.”
Silently, dispiritedly, he ran down the list: Trent and Kaylin breaking her things, Camryn insulting her and her taste in music. And of course, both he and Camryn had heartily disparaged her chosen profession. Mustn’t leave that out, he reminded himself.
He shook his head. “You must be ready to—”
“I’m not about to run away screaming,” Holly assured him. He looked miserable, and compassion swept through her. “But I am ready to take a break from unpacking and I would love something cold to drink.” She gave him her most winning smile, inviting him to make her an offer.
“I’d ask you over but you probably feel like you’d be taking your life in your hands if you dare to step inside my place.” Rafe was morose. “And if the possibility of something crashing down on you or into you doesn’t scare you, the threat of being in the company of an ogre like me—who sends kids into shrieking paroxysms of terror—should.”
“I don’t believe for one minute that you’re an ogre. What I see are kids who are expressing their insecurities, but the fact that they can verbalize their fears shows they feel enough confidence in their relationship with you to—”
“English, please,” Rafe interrupted. “I’m not fluent in shrinkspeak.”
Holly knew she was not being all that obtuse.
“Simple translation—there are all kinds of families and you and the kids are working to establish your own version. I admire that.”
“God knows why! After seeing what you’ll be living next to, you should already be in your car, heading for the real estate office to demand another place to rent.”
“Hmm, that penchant for high drama must be contagious.”
Was she being wry or sarcastic? Her delivery left room for interpretation, and Rafe tried to decide. His eyes narrowed. “Why aren’t you heading for the hills, looking for another rental? Why would you consider staying here after—all this?”
Holly looked at him and felt her insides clench, heat pooling deep within her, her breasts tightening. Once again, her sensual response to this man floored her. She almost reached out and touched him; she ached with the need to.
But she didn’t dare. He was already suspicious of her. He would probably either assume she was making a pass at him—and she wasn’t ready to deal with the consequences of that!—or he would accuse her of applying some sort of touchy-feely therapy.
Holly folded her arms in front of her chest, a defensive gesture to keep her hands from reaching, touching, feeling. “If I was the kind of person who ran away at the first small sign of difficulty, I would have never made it through med school, let alone my psych residency.”
“So you’re saying that you’ve dealt with a lot worse than the likes of us?”
Rafe wasn’t pleased by her answer. He wasn’t sure how he’d expected her to respond but relegating them to the ranks of “bad-but-I’ ve-seen-worse” definitely wasn’t what he wanted. Hell, he knew what he wanted—her!—but the likelihood of that happening was about as probable as Eva, Camryn and Kaylin going to the Empire Mall together for a jolly sisterly shopping trip.
