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me your curriculum vitae, that was all."
    "I see…." Ari watched the dark, waterlogged tree, which was at least a hundred feet long and more than three feet in diameter, slide on by them. From the looks of things everything was big down here in the Amazon. And then she laughed to herself. Look at Rafe ; he was a huge man! Tall like the proud and mighty trees she saw growing on the distant shore. Not many men stood six foot five. He carried it well. In her eyes and heart, he looked like a warrior from another era. A knight came to mind. Yes, he would definitely be at ease in the age of chivalry. He was such a gentleman in a time when the practice of opening doors for women and carrying their luggage was practically nonexistent, at least in the U.S.
    "Tell me about your mother's dream," he urged, steering the houseboat toward where the rivers merged. Inwardly, Rafe chastised himself for his nosiness. But Ari invited such close inspection whether he wanted to acknowledge it or not. All around them, currents swirled in clockwise and counterclockwise currents as the two rivers joined one another. It was always a little chaotic in this stretch, but Rafe was used to traversing the currents with his trusty, sturdy houseboat.
    Ari told him about her youth. When she got to the part about Janis dying, her voice ebbed to a painful whisper. "Janis was several years older than me. My big sister. She was such a daredevil. She loved to ride horses. My parents gave her a horse when she was five. And by nine years old, she was entering jumping competitions in her age group—and winning!" Ari smiled sadly as she felt his gaze settle on her. When she looked over, she met and held his eyes for a moment. Quickly looking away, she said, "Janis took a dare from a boy at the stable where her horse was boarded. He dared her to jump a four-foot stone wall." Flailing her hands helplessly, Ari continued, "Janis had never jumped four feet with Rosebud, her horse. But she loved challenges and she tried to make the jump. Rosebud balked at the last moment, throwing her into the wall." Closing her eyes, Ari whispered, "Janis died of a broken neck on the spot. I learned about it later that day. I was so shocked."
    Rafe saw her knitting her hands nervously in her lap atop the leather-bound journal. "That must have been very hard on you. Did you have any other siblings?"
    "Yes, Kirk. He's the oldest. He was fourteen at the time Janis died. Everyone was devastated, as you can imagine."
    "Especially you?" Rafe inquired gently. He saw the terrible loneliness and grief etched in her sky-blue eyes. Wanting to reach out and cup her cheek, let her know that someone else felt the pain of her loss, Rafe quickly squelched the impulse. Being around Ari was disconcerting. His protective instincts were on full alert. But the last thing he wanted to do was get involved with any woman again. Justine had wounded him too deeply for him to allow his feelings to resurface. Normally he was in tight control of himself. With Ari, he found himself aching to touch her, just to give her solace, or to share a joyful moment with her. And yet she was so painfully shy and timid. He was beginning to understand that losing her big sister as a vulnerable eight-year-old had taken a lot of vitality out of her.
    "We were close. Really close," she admitted hollowly. "After that…well, my mother fell ill. Really ill. About six months after Janis was buried, she fainted. They took her to the emergency room at the closest hospital. The doctors said she had a particularly aggressive form of leukemia. They didn't give her more than a year to live, even with chemotherapy treatments."
    Rafe stared at her, his jaw dropping momentarily. He quickly hid his reaction from Ari. Her eyes were huge and sad now. "That's a tragedy," he murmured, meaning it. To lose a parent was particularly devastating. Rafe knew from personal experience.
    "She died a year later, to the day," Ari said, gazing around at the muddy