and fatigue, and she couldn’t deal with Finn’s disappointment anymore. She moaned and refused to move when he shook her shoulder, trying to make her reengage in the conversation. She allowed the fuzziness to steal over her, willing herself into oblivion.
Finn stood up and walked to the door. “Go ahead and sleep for a few hours. If you’re feeling up to it tonight , we’ll brainstorm that new song. Tomorrow we have to start filming. There’s no more time for fooling around. I was hoping we could spend some time this weekend enjoying the area, but I guess you weren’t interested in that. Rest now, Daph.”
The door closed behind him, but Daphne was already asleep.
* * * *
Decker emerged from the woods feeling more hopeful than he could remember having felt in a long time. Nothing like a good long hike, he thought as he made his way past the barn toward the house. He’d missed lunch, but that was okay. The rumbling in his stomach made him feel alive again. He’d left at dawn, taking the steepest parts of the path that he could find, trying to push past the deadness that had been settled in his chest for the last year. It was time to get over the guilt he’d been feeling and pick up the pieces of his shattered life again. It might have been the atmosphere of Clifftop Fantasies, or the fact that he was around a woman who was strong and capable and obviously very sensual. Seeing pictures of her around the house, erotic pictures, beautiful pictures—he shook his head. Being here was awakening something—the knowledge that his life wasn’t over, even if Sharon’s was. Sharon wouldn’t have wanted him to shut down, bury himself or give up the lifestyle and the community that he loved. He needed to find a way to reclaim who he was.
It wasn’t that he wanted Allie in a sexual way. He sternly ordered himself not to even entertain that thought. She was happy, in a relationship, and had a M aster of her own. He envied the energy that he saw between Allie, Brad , and Karl. The two men were obviously close friends, even though they were completely different. Brad seemed to look up to Karl almost like a father figure, and Allie—she was the heart of the place. It would be easy to fall in love with someone like her. But that wasn’t his path, he knew.
He became aware of voices from behind the barn. He slowed, trying to determine whether he should listen in or not. There had been a voice, or a tone, or something that had grabbed his attention.
“Come on, baby. Let me take care of you. You don’t need him—either of them. I’ve always been here for you.”
Decker shrugged and began to move on. Obviously it was none of his business. He must have been imagining things.
“Blaze! Stop! I told you I wasn’t interested.” The female voice cut off with a sharp scream. Before the sound had died away, Decker was tearing around the corner of the building, his fists balled up, ready for action.
There were two people there, but for a fleeting second Decker couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. They both wore leather vests, jeans that showed more skin than material, and had almost identical scruffy black hair. But one had a grip on the other one’s arm, and as Decker got closer he saw that the struggling one was the female who had screamed. The other one was a biker type, or at least dressed like one. A small part of Decker’s brain registered the fact that the man’s boots and vest were too new, too clean for him to be a real biker. His face was twisted in an ugly leer as he pulled the woman easily into his arms. She tried to lift a hand to slap at his face, but Decker’s fist got there first.
As the scruffy-looking man flew backward, Decker got an arm around the girl before she fell as well, setting her on her feet behind him. Then he turned back to assess whether the pseudo biker was going to get up immediately.
He wasn’t. He sprawled on the ground, looking dazed. Finally his eyes refocused and