Jesse

by C. H. Admirand

  Making his way back, he found his socks, toed off his boots, and put them back on. He noticed his shirt lying on the floor next to the bed and shook his head. “Damn, but that woman packs a lethal punch.”

  Stripping the bed, he noticed a faint glimmer reflecting off the window. Not enough time to wash the sheets. What the hell would he do with them? Looking around, he realized he couldn’t stash them here. Wadding them up, he hauled them back to the house and dumped them on his floor. Exhausted, but satisfied beyond his wildest dreams, he fell face-first onto the bed.

  He had two hours before he had to get up and he was gonna use both of them to recharge.

  His last thought before he drifted off to sleep was that he had to convince Dani and Lacy to stay at the Circle G for a few more days.

  ***

  “I picked up the mug and glass you left by the swing last night.”

  Ronnie looked at Emily and shook her head. “Dylan and I didn’t sit outside last night.”

  “Oh, well then, who…” Emily started to say and then she smiled. “Hmmm… sounds like someone else was making use of the swing last night.”

  Ronnie grinned. “It’s so romantic sitting out there in the moonlight.”

  Emily was staring out the back door. “Ronnie, do you think we should bring blankets out to the bunkhouse?”

  Ronnie thought about it and added a dash more milk to the batter and stirred briskly. “I’m not sure if their cousins are used to East Texas weather, but we might as well bring them over later, just in case they need them.”

  ***

  “Hey, Ty, were you over in the bunkhouse this morning?” Dylan wheeled the wheelbarrow into the barn, picked up the pitch fork he’d been using, and started on the next stall.

  Tyler paused and looked over at this brother. “No, why?”

  Dylan shrugged. “The door’s open and we usually keep it closed to keep varmints out.”

  Tyler leaned on his pitchfork. “Did you look inside?”

  “No. I noticed it while I was dumping the straw, but it didn’t sink in. Hell, Tyler, you know I’m not that sharp until I’ve had that second cup of coffee.”

  “We’re almost finished up here,” Tyler said, forking up another load of soiled straw. “Then we’ll go check it out.”

  Dylan put his back into it and then paused. “Have you seen our little brother this morning?”

  Tyler nodded. “Damn fool was whistling while he was tearing apart the fuel pump on the tractor.”

  “And you didn’t think that was odd?”

  “We’re talking about our little brother here.” Tyler hefted the wheelbarrow and wheeled it outside. Dylan put the pitchforks away and followed.

  When Tyler had stowed the wheelbarrow, they walked to the bunkhouse, steering clear of where their brother was working on the tractor. “Door’s usually closed.”

  Standing inside the doorway, Dylan mumbled. “Looks like everything’s as it should be.”

  Tyler shrugged and turned around. “Pat’s not coming, right?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Just checking to see if the girls made up enough beds.” Tyler stared down the row of twin beds and noticed the last one was pushed off to the side and devoid of sheets. “They must have been in a hurry.”

  Dylan had been about to leave, but he turned around to ask, “What makes you say that?”

  Tyler pointed to the last bed. “Every other bed is lined up perpendicular to the wall and made up, except that one.”

  “Is that so?” Dylan stepped around his brother to investigate. When he got down on one knee, Tyler started walking toward him, but when his brother started to laugh, Tyler hesitated.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Dylan held up an empty foil packet. “Seems like somebody got busy out here last night.”

  They shared a smile as Dylan tucked the packet into his back pocket. “I need coffee if I’m gonna lay into our brother about taking advantage of a certain little blonde divorcée.”

  Tyler straightened the bed so it matched the others and they headed to the house for breakfast.

  They were still chuckling when they opened the back door. “Morning, darlin’.” Dylan walked over and kissed the side of Ronnie’s neck. The wooden spoon dropped to the floor as she swayed toward her husband.

  Tyler swept his fiancée into his embrace and kissed her. “Whatcha making, Ronnie?”

  “Hmmm?” His sister-in-law was too wrapped up in kissing his brother to pay Tyler any mind.

  “What’s in the bowl?”

  “Oh,” Ronnie said, pushing out of Dylan’s arms. “Pancakes.”

  Dylan grinned and pulled her back for a quick but meaningful kiss. “She means flapjacks.”

  Ronnie shook her head. “Why do you call them that?”

  “What do you call them pancakes?” Tyler countered.

  Emily laughed. “How about we agree to call them breakfast?” Turning toward Tyler she asked, “Are you ready for more coffee?”

  “Desperate enough to hold off ravishing you until I get one.”

  The first thing Danielle heard as she walked down the stairs was Emily’s laughter. Still smiling herself, after the late night rendezvous with the dark-haired cowboy who had turned her world upside down, she hurried to the kitchen to make sure Lacy hadn’t been getting in the way.

  She froze in the doorway. Tyler and Dylan were sitting at the table drinking coffee while Emily and Ronnie were making breakfast… Lacy was nowhere in sight. “Oh, I thought Lacy was helping you.”

  Ronnie looked up and smiled. “She was, but when Jesse came in for coffee, she tagged along after him. Since he said he’d watch out for her, we didn’t think you’d mind.”

  “Uh… no.” Danielle tried to cover up the fact that she was feeling left out.

  “He’s behind the barn.” Tyler lifted his mug, but then didn’t take a sip. Danielle had the odd feeling that he was waiting for her to say something. When she didn’t he added, “By the bunkhouse.”

  Heat rushed up from her toes as memories of last night’s loving filled her to bursting. Her cheeks felt warm, and she hoped no one noticed.

  Tyler’s grin was just this side of wicked and mirrored by Dylan. The brothers lifted their mugs to her, as if in silent salute, and drank.

  “OK,” Ronnie said, hands on her hips. “What’s going on?”

  “Yeah.” Emily crossed her arms beneath her breasts and stared at the men.

  “I, uh, think I’ll go find Lacy.” Danielle couldn’t get out of the kitchen fast enough. Did they know how she and Jesse had spent the last part of the night? Walking briskly across the yard, she bypassed the barn and practically ran past the bunkhouse as memories of last night filled her.

  “So what’s that for?” Lacy was asking Jesse from where she sat perched on an overturned bucket next to the tractor.

  “It’s the gas line,” Jesse answered. “And probably the real problem—it’s clogged.” He shook his head and pulled the one end free. “Damn, and I just finished rebuilding the fuel pump… should have checked the gas line first.”

  Lacy got up and walked over to Jesse. Leaning close, she whispered, “You just said a bad word.”

  His delighted laughter warmed Danielle’s heart, but the sight of his black Stetson bent low next to her daughter’s hot pink one had her stumbling and nearly pitching to the ground.

  Jesse looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Hey there, gorgeous.”

  At a total loss for words, Danielle stopped and stared at him.

  He frowned. “Don’t tell me no one’s ever told you how beautiful you were before?”

  Lacy laughed. “Unca Jimmy tells her, ’cept he says prettier than a June bug.”

  Jesse’s look turned thoughtful. “That a fact?”

  “Uh-huh,” Lacy said. “But I think she’s beautiful.”

  He nodded. “She sure is,” he said. “And that’s why you’re beautiful too.”

  Lacy seemed to be hanging on his ev
ery word. “I am?”

  He laughed and pulled Lacy in for a hug. “Yes, ma’am. Your momma must have looked just like you when she was your size.”

  “Is that why Unca Jimmy calls me little June bug?”

  Jesse nodded as he let her go. “’Cause you’re pretty just like your momma.”

  Not used to being the center of attention or being talked about as if she wasn’t standing two feet from them, Danielle cleared her throat and told them, “Uncle Jimmy’s partial to bugs.”

  Lacy started giggling. “He is, ’cause you know why?”

  Jesse brushed his hands on his thighs and waited for Danielle to join them. “No,” he rasped, staring at her mouth. “Why?”

  Lacy shrugged.

  Danielle had to laugh at the expression on Jesse’s face. He hadn’t known Lacy long enough to know that half of her questions were really meant as statements. Taking pity on him, she said, “We don’t know. He just is.”

  When he didn’t look at her like he had last night, like he was ready to devour her, she started to worry. Needing a distraction, she wracked her brain to think of something to say that didn’t have to do with the breadth of his shoulders, the strength in his hands, or the devastating power of his kisses. She finally said, “Ronnie’s making flapjacks.”

  Jesse grinned. “That woman can cook.” With a dark and dangerous look that had her shivering in response, he asked, “Do you like to cook, Dani?”

  “I do,” Lacy piped up. “I can make pie.”

  He looked from mother to daughter and grinned. “Then I’m right glad you’re a team. I surely won’t starve.”

  Danielle stared at the two of them as the realization that they just seemed to fit swamped her, threatening her control. Her hands started to tremble, so she clasped them behind her and tried to think of something to say, but all she could think to ask was did last night have the same meaning to Jesse, did he want to build on the love they’d made? Was it the beginning of the relationship she wanted to build with him? Not one of those questions was appropriate right now.

  “What’s your favorite pie?” Lacy asked, while Danielle wondered if Jesse was in it for the long haul.

  “I like ’em all,” Jesse rumbled, glancing at her with a question in his eyes. Did he really want to know what she was thinking or was he just biding time until she and Lacy left? Would she have the guts to ask him outright?

  Probably not.

  Would she try to get him alone to ask him about last night?

  If I could, I definitely would.

  She’d spent too much time over the last few years worried about how long her ex would stay, knowing from the moment he’d said he’d marry her and give their unborn baby his name, it would only be a matter of time before he left.

  “What do you say we go get some breakfast before my brothers eat all of those flapjacks?”

  “OK!” Lacy reached up to take Jesse’s hand and the rest of whatever reservations Danielle held in her heart evaporated as Jesse reached down and took Lacy’s hand. When they stopped in front of her and he offered his other hand to her, Danielle knew she was lost.

  Walking back to the house, Lacy kept jumping while hanging on to their hands, so Jesse looked over Lacy’s head at Danielle and mimicked to tug Lacy up with his free hand. Danielle smiled and the next time Lacy jumped, they lifted her up off the ground. Her delighted laughter surrounded them.

  They lifted her high so she could land on the top step of the porch. More giggles had the screen door opening and Tyler stepping outside. “I wondered who was making that racket. Hey there, Miss Lacy.”

  “Hi, Tyler. Can I have flapjacks?”

  Charmed, he bent down, lifted Lacy into his arms, and carried her inside.

  “Hey.” Jesse pulled Danielle up the back steps. “Give me back my little cowgirl!”

  “Not until we feed her.”

  Following the sound of her daughter’s laughter, they walked into the kitchen and found her already sitting at the table with a plate in front of her.

  She grinned and lifted a forkful to her mouth. “Look, Mommy, I gots my own plateful!”

  “I can see that.” Danielle shook her head. “Are you sure you can eat all those?”

  “Don’t you worry none, darlin’,” Jesse said. “I’m sure I can eat whatever she can’t.” Turning toward the two women standing by the stove, he smiled. “Morning, ladies.”

  Ronnie shook her head and handed him a plate heaped with fluffy, golden-brown cakes. “There’s sausage and bacon.” She set a platter in the middle of the table. “Help yourselves.”

  “Coffee, milk, or orange juice?” Emily was watching Danielle rather intently, making her wonder if Emily could see the echo of last night’s passion shimmering around Jesse and herself… either that or Jesse and I did the wild thing was tattooed in the middle of her forehead.

  “Can I have juice?” Lacy asked, still shoveling in the pancakes.

  “Better slow down, sweet pea, or you’ll get a tummy ache.”

  With her mouth full, her darling daughter nodded and waited until she swallowed before reaching for the glass Emily set by her plate.

  “Here, why don’t you two sit down and while I fill your plates,” Danielle offered. “After all, you made breakfast and the coffee. It’s the least I can do to thank you for being so wonderful to Lacy and me.”

  Once she’d set a plate in front of Emily and Ronnie, she sat down and started to eat. “These are great, Ronnie, thanks.”

  “So,” Dylan drawled, “sleep well, Danielle?”

  She inhaled instead of chewing the bite of pancake she’d just put in her mouth. When she finally stopped choking, she reached for the glass of water Emily was holding out to her.

  “Better?”

  Danielle cleared her throat and could at last breathe. “Thanks.”

  “Are you all—Ow!” Before Dylan could ask, he was frowning down at his wife. “What was that for?” he demanded.

  But before Danielle could ask what was going on, Tyler was saying, “I hope you didn’t have any trouble sleeping last—Oomph!”

  Danielle suspected that Ronnie and Emily were either pinching or kicking their men beneath the table so that they wouldn’t keep asking about what happened last night. Somehow the women must have figured out what had happened.

  Tyler had turned toward Emily and was about to say something when Jesse ground out, “Could I see to the two of you outside for a moment?”

  Dylan and Tyler got up so fast their chairs rattled against the wide-board floor.

  “Shouldn’t you go see what’s going on?” Danielle asked as the sound of angry male voices carried into the kitchen.

  Ronnie shrugged. “They’re just having a family disagreement.”

  “It doesn’t sound pleasant. Maybe I should go out there. I’m a good mediator,” Danielle offered.

  Emily shook her head. “They should be finished up in a few minutes.”

  As the deep voices increased in volume, Ronnie reconsidered. “Maybe you should go.”

  Danielle told Lacy to sit still and stay in her chair. Pushing open the screen door, she saw them standing just off the porch. Tyler and Dylan were standing side by side with their backs to her, while Jesse stood alone, facing them with his back to the barn.

  “That’s just not fair,” she murmured walking toward the steps. Before she could tell them to cut it out, Jesse whipped his bright white T-shirt up and over his head and the words got caught in her throat as she was spiraled back in time to the night before, when he’d taken off his shirt in his haste to make love to her.

  But something looked different. Maybe it was because he stood vibrating with anger instead of need… staring at Jesse, marveling at the beauty of the man who’d loved her until her eyes crossed, she realized it was the flash of brilliant green on his left pec that caught her eye.

  Jesse’s fist shot out at the same time she asked, “Is that a shamrock?”

  The men hadn’t noticed her standing
on the porch, but her question gave the older brothers the distraction they needed and used to their advantage; each one grabbed a hold of one of Jesse’s arms.

  “Hey,” Jesse shouted. “Lemme go!” He struggled against their hold, but was trapped like a fly in a spider’s web.

  Incensed that his brothers would gang up on him, Danielle flew off the porch and poked her pointer finger in Tyler’s broad chest. “You let him go.”

  His eyebrows raised in question, Tyler waited a moment before glancing in Dylan’s direction. “This is a private fight.”

  Hands on her hips, Danielle let her temper loose. “Well, it sure as hell isn’t a fair fight with you two goons holding on to poor Jesse’s arms so he can’t defend himself.”

  “He took the first swing,” Dylan said, calling her attention to him, and that was when she noticed blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

  Danielle crossed her arms in front of her to keep from striking Jesse’s brothers. “You must have done something to deserve it. Jesse would never just punch somebody without a reason.”

  When the three of them just stared at her, she realized that she’d have to try to reason with the brothers. “Lacy and I were going to stay for another riding lesson, but if you two beat the crap out of Jesse, there’s no point in us hanging around. We may as well leave now and let you get to it.”

  She spun on her heel and stalked back over to the porch.

  “Man, did she just tell us to go ahead and beat you up?”

  She could hear Jesse struggling against their hold a moment before she heard him say, “I can’t just let her leave.”

  She fought against the need to turn around, instead slowing her steps in the hopes that the brothers would see reason… hers… and let Jesse go. She’d reached the top step by the time he grabbed a hold of her arm and spun her around into his arms. “Please don’t go yet.”

  His lips were a breath away from hers, but she knew if she gave in and let him kiss her, she wouldn’t find out what the argument was about. She couldn’t explain why, but somehow she sensed that it was important that he tell her.