by Vivian Arend
Interesting. “I love hearing where names come from. I mean, sometimes it’s obvious, but that’s one with a lot of character.”
“Jaxi mentioned she lived on the Six Pack ranch. Big drinkers?”
“Ha, not really. Six boys, two generations in a row.”
“Damn.”
“Means there’s a bunch of Coleman around. Four of the original six settled in the area, so we’ve got Six Pack, Angel, Whiskey Creek—that one’s simple enough to explain—and Moonshine.”
“You’ll have to tell any child-appropriate stories to Sasha. She loves to know that kind of stuff. Have to be careful, though. She’ll talk your ear off if you let her.”
“Sasha seems like the type to want to tell a lot of stories.” Jesse paused. “Because she talks for Emma as well as herself?”
Dare turned toward him, pulling her feet up on the bench. “There’s a million things to say to you. So much history, and yet I can’t find a place to start. It’s not like a simple ‘what I did on my summer vacation’ essay.”
Jesse chuckled. “Don’t start on the school memories. I already feel a little as if there’s going to be a flash test sometime in the next half hour. Let’s start simple. How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“Me too.”
Dare’s lips twisted. “Gee, we have so much in common. We should get married.”
Jesse laughed. “Smartass. We do have a lot in common. Sounds as if you’ve got a lot of brothers.
She made a face. “I do, and I don’t. It’s complicated and it’s not something I enjoy talking about, so I should probably just get it out of the way before things get too awkward.”
“Snapshot is fine,” Jesse insisted. “We’ll have plenty of time to get to know details later.”
Dare nodded. “So—my parents and their best friends bought the ranch.”
“Joe and Walter?”
“Best friends, like I said, and they did everything together. Got married around the same time, moved to Alberta, bought the ranch, started having kids. Only ten years ago there was an accident, and all four of them and my little sister died.”
Oh my God. “Jesus, I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. It was hell, as you can expect, but Caleb was twenty-four and old enough to take over the ranch and be guardian to us all. I’m not legally their sister, but in all the ways that count, I am. Make sense?”
She’d said it clearly, and pretty much straight-up unemotional, but he was floored. “You told me in February you were holding a wake.”
“Yup. Ten-year anniversary of the accident.”
Jesse couldn’t stand it any longer. He slid closer to her and lifted her into his lap. She seemed almost not to notice because she didn’t protest. Just sat there, frigid and cold.
He curled an arm around her and pressed her close to his chest. “I’m sorry that they’re gone.”
“Me too.”
They sat in silence, Jesse rubbing her back as he considered how much pain that must have been for a sixteen-year-old to face. Just sharing the story had turned her brittle, her body stiff and nearly frozen, and minutes passed before she took a deep enough breath to supply her body with what had to be much-needed oxygen.
She softened slightly, leaning into him and resting her head on his shoulder. Her eyes were dry, but so, so sad, and something inside him snapped.
Jesse wanted to fix this. He wanted to be there for her. Not sexually—hell, he was attracted to her, but this was completely different. It wasn’t about jumping her bones, but man did he want to lighten her load. He wanted to turn this around…
And there was nothing he could do. He was helpless in a way he’d never been before.
A moment later Dare patted him on the shoulder and straightened up. “Sorry. I don’t usually lose it like that. It’s not as if I spend every minute of the day and night thinking about it. Not anymore.”
Jesse shook his head. “You didn’t overreact one bit.”
“But it’s in the past,” she said. “Ginny and I were sixteen when Caleb took over the ranch, and he did his best. The other boys helped as much as they could. We kind of all worked through hell that next year. Caleb, Luke, Walker, Ginny, me and Dustin. They’re not really my brothers, but they are. Anyone else who asks I simply say they’re family, but you and I—well, our relationship is a bit more complicated than the average pair of strangers.”
Way more complicated, she was right about that.
“They’re family,” he agreed. “It makes perfect sense.”
She nodded, climbing off his lap and brushing her hands on her thighs. “Come on. I’ll show you the falls.”
As if she wanted to walk away from the memories.
Jesse followed her down the path. The dirt trail was wide enough to walk side-by-side, but they strode in silence, Dare staring ahead determinedly, Jesse considering what she’d shared.
Hell of a thing for everyone involved. Heck, Caleb had taken over running the ranch at twenty-four? A momentary twinge struck Jesse, considering he was older than that and barely responsible for himself.
“Do you all work on the ranch? I mean other than I know you’ve got the blog.”
“The guys do. Walker is on the road a bit these days—he’s riding the circuit—but Caleb, Luke and Dustin are always around. And Ginny, of course. Plus, I’ve always done my share of chores but I have less time and energy now, and the blog brings in money. Well, it’s not enough to live on. Close, though.”
“Your blog looks great. You definitely post awesome photos.”
She snorted. “Thank you for being photogenic.” She glanced over and swore lightly. “I’m sorry, do you want me to take the picture down? I should’ve asked right away.”
“No reason. The horses are out of the barn, so to speak, and there’s no getting the pictures off the internet, so you may as well get as much mileage on your blog as possible.”
She rubbed the side of her nose. “I’m so glad you aren’t an asshole.”
He was pretty sure there were mixed opinions on that assessment, but he’d take the compliment at face value. “That’s good, because one of my biggest life goals is to be considered not an asshole.”
Her sad expression brightened a little, and he counted it as a win.
They stepped out of the trees into a clearing and the falls burst into view, and the next while it was all about the scenery.
But something inside Jesse turned inexorably forward, like a set of old-fashioned wind-up gears that couldn’t be stopped until they’d reached their destination. The bright wild child who he’d played with for what he thought would be a brief moment in time was far more complicated than he’d expected.
The future was full of questions, and they’d barely even scratched the surface.
Chapter Four
What a twisted, mixed-up day. The Merriam-Webster definition of an emotional rollercoaster—Dare was nearing exhaustion.
They’d grabbed dinner-to-go from the local bar then she’d taken him around the back way to sit by the shores of Little Sky Lake for a picnic supper.
Somehow they’d gotten on to the topic of school and their favourite subjects. A random discussion, and low-key after the intense sharing she’d had to do right off the start. The storytelling was exactly what she needed to settle her soul.
Only the entire time they’d talked, there’d been this buzz of sexual awareness growing between them that she needed to fight.
Didn’t she?
The right and wrong of sexual attraction to this man was too much to consider while sitting beside him, his sleeves rolled up to reveal strong forearms, muscles flexing as he twisted the lid off a pop and handed it over.
Their fingers touched, and his gaze darted up to meet hers, a sensual smirk on his lips. “You got something on your mind, darlin’?”
“Just considering how I can take advantage of your mathematical genius,” she lied. “I barely made it through Math 30, and don’t ask me to
Jesse leaned back on an elbow, long legs stretched in front of him. “I’m game to help you, any way I can.”
He wasn’t talking about arithmetic, damn him anyway.
Dare ignored the innuendo best she could. “Tell me something about your family.”
His expression lost a little of the shine, and she wondered if they were treading into dangerous territory. The email from his sister-in-law had seemed good-natured enough, but sometimes it was hard to tell what was at the root of family problems.
Jesse rallied, taking a swig of his pop before answering her. “Lots of brothers, just like you. In fact, I beat you by one.”
“Ginny would tell you she’s as tough as any guy.”
He grinned. “I like her already.”
Dare poked him with her foot. “Five brothers. Let me guess. You’re the youngest.”
He frowned. “What’s that mean? I’m not the youngest.”
She shrugged. “The fact you’re here and not there makes me think you’ve got more freedom than some of the others, that’s all. I mean Caleb would cut off his arm before he’d leave Silver Stone, but Luke went on the rodeo circuit for a few years. Walker is there now, and I figure Dustin will head out at some point for a while.”
He nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense. Maybe there’s something about being the oldest that hits them harder about home and hearth. My brother Blake is like that—I told you about him. He’s the one married to Jaxi. They took over the house I grew up in. They’ve got four kids and another on the way.”
Dare swore. “Ambitious woman.”
“Coleman are a fertile lot.”
Great to know. “Thanks for warning me ahead of time, asshole.”
But she patted his hand to let him know she was teasing before urging him to go on.
“Next oldest is Matt. His wife owns a quilt shop, and they had their first kid last November. Middle brother is Daniel, and he married a woman with three older kids he’s adopted.”
“Middle?” She was going to need to write this down to remember it, but that made no sense. “You said there are six of you—”
“You’ll understand in a minute,” he promised. “Travis comes next, and he is a bit of— Hell, a wild card?”
“Black-sheep-of-the-family kind of thing?”
Jesse shook his head. “A Travis kind of thing. He lives with his boyfriend and girlfriend, and they’re expecting a kid this summer.”
Curiouser and curiouser.
“Whoa, that’s—” She was struck by something, counting on her fingers. “Six brothers, and three babies on the way, counting ours? You weren’t kidding about the fertile thing.”
“I’m glad to know it’s the baby thing that snagged you, not the fact my brother is in a permanent threesome.”
“Hey, whatever turns his crank, but damn—the babies…”
“There’s at least one set of twins every generation,” he informed her. “I’m a twin, and the firstborn, therefore not the youngest.”
Panic gripped her. “You’re kidding. You’ve got a twin?”
“Identical.”
Awesome, just what she didn’t need—two of Jesse messing with her hormones. They had to be devastating standing side by side, but even that image was rapidly overlapped by a bigger, more vital concern. “Is it catching?”
Jesse laughed. “Is what catching? Being a twin?”
“You said there’s a set in every generation. Oh my God, what if I’m having twins?” She collapsed dramatically onto her back and stared up at the sky.
Jesse stretched out beside her, obviously trying to temper his amusement. “You don’t know?”
“Haven’t gone to my first prenatal yet,” she confessed. “It’s a week away.”
His expression changed. “That’s late, isn’t it? I could have sworn my sisters-in-law were dragging my brothers to the doctor the day they suspected.”
She curled up and nodded guiltily. “I was in denial for a while, and then I wanted to figure out for sure what I wanted to do. I tried to find you, as well—”
Jesse paused. “You want to keep the baby, don’t you?”
That was one question Dare could answer now without hesitation. “Yes. It might be crazy, but I think it’s the right thing to do.”
He nodded, and she was glad to see relief on his face. The baby was a shock, but he wasn’t going to try to change her mind about keeping it.
Not that proposing made her suspect he would.
Lordy. He’d proposed…
They cleaned up the picnic and headed back to her cottage, another stretch of silence between them. This time it wasn’t quite as comfortable, but that was more because Dare was thinking hard about what would happen when they got home.
They’d talked, they’d eaten. Was it wrong that images of fooling around kept flashing into her brain?
Sex got you into this mess, the angel on her shoulder reminded her.
Really hot, body-shaking sex that had not sucked? I remember, the devil on the other side retorted.
Jesse held the door open for her then followed her inside. It was bright daylight, and would be for a long time, so she debated asking him if he wanted to sit on the porch.
The alternative was asking him to strip and make her evening.
Dare ignored him for a moment and filled a glass at the kitchen sink, drinking the water as she gazed out the window and tried to slow her racing libido. There were cattle in the field on the far side of the lake, and she watched them graze. Peaceful and calm, completely different than the wild thoughts racing through her brain.
He stepped behind her, a hand landing on either side of her hips on the counter. Far enough back he wasn’t pinning her in place, but she was definitely in his arms.
Dare took a deep breath then pivoted.
Her gaze met heat and desire, and she swallowed hard to stop herself from too willingly accepting his unspoken invitation.
“I don’t know if we should do this.”
He caressed his knuckles over her cheek. “Are we doing something?”
Jerk. He was going to make her say it. “We could be. I just don’t know if we should.”
His fingers brushed lower, slipping down her neck. “I don’t seem to remember us having any problems doing it. I had fun, you had fun—or at least I’m pretty sure you had fun. Four or five times. Maybe six?”
“You’re playing dirty.” Every nerve in her body was tingling. Dare managed to get out the words, but her voice had gone low with lust. “The sex was awesome, and you know it.”
His cocky grin was back in place. “A guy likes to hear it, though.”
Amusement and desire warred, and she couldn’t decide what to do.
Jesse didn’t have the same hesitation. “Let’s put this into perspective. We met one night, and had a good time. If there weren’t consequences to that evening, and I tracked you down, what would you have been thinking right now?”
“I would have jumped you,” she admitted, the confession bursting free. “Three hours ago. The instant you arrived I would have hauled you into my bedroom, and we probably wouldn’t have come up for air yet.”
It was his turn to hesitate, the hand on her hip tightening as he fought for control. “Now who’s playing dirty?”
She let her hands roam up his chest. “But there were consequences, Jesse. That changes things.”
He shifted his position, and their hips bumped, the heat from his torso slipping over her.
“There’s a lot we’ve got to figure out over the next while that’s complicated. This?” His gaze roamed her body, a heated expression back in his eyes. “Sweetheart, this is the simplest thing in the world. It’s also the biggest thing we’ve got going for us, so we may as well take advantage of it and enjoy the ride.”
Forcing her brain to function was damn difficult when all her hormones were percolating like a soda machine set on high. “Wait. You’re right. If we’d found each other again, fooling around would be logical and fun, but there is something because of that night.” She looked him in the eye. “This isn’t just our lives we’re messing with. You clean, Jesse? Because I’m going to assume you’ve been with other women since me, and I’m not about to trust a condom, since they obviously work oh-so-well for us.”
He made a face. “I enjoyed our night together, a lot, but you’re right. It was only one night.”
Dare lifted her hands to his shoulders, easing them apart as the sexual tension slipped off potential-now-screwing-around into future-screwing-around, which was not great for her current aching hormones, but still something to look forward to.
“Then get proof and we’ll talk.”
“Oh hell, we’ll do more than talk.”
Jesse unbuttoned his shirt and stripped it off in record time before catching her against him. Once more she was trapped by strong arms, this time with the full-on furnace heat of his body melting her resistance.
He’d pinned her arms between them, and her palms were pressed to bare skin. She traced the muscular chest under her fingers. “You have a strange way of slowing down, cowboy.”
“You said no sex, which makes sense. I’m glad you’re going to be a stickler for keeping Buckaroo safe.” He lowered his voice, and a challenge came into his eyes. “Nothing to say I can’t get you off without sex.”
Something was wrong with her that she wasn’t nixing the idea immediately. “You’re not going to end up walking around with blue balls?”
“I have no intention of keeping the pressure so high they turn blue. I can get us both off in a way that keeps you safe.”
He nibbled his way along her neck, hands cupping her ass to pull her tighter to where his erection bulged the front of his jeans.
Distracting. Very distracting. Dare struggled to focus. “I still want to—”
“—fuck? Me too.”
She laughed. It was impossible not to. “Stop interrupting, asshole.”
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