Page 29 of Rocky Mountain Devil

Lisa put the money away. “That the children here would end up exchanging single-word insults within five minutes of seeing each other.”

“Children? I’m older than you,” Jesse complained.

“And it’s oh-so-obvious by your behaviour, isn’t it?” Lisa teased. “You guys are too predictable.”

Karen turned to Rafe. “We missed having you around this summer. Did you enjoy seeing more of Canada?”

“Back dirt roads and cheap motels,” Jesse offered. “Yeah, I’m sure he hit all the bright lights of our great country.”

Rafe ignored Jesse though his cousin wasn’t far off the mark. “I had a good time, but I’m glad to be back.”

“I bet he spent his summer sleeping in cheesy hotels watching lots of bad late-night cable.” Jesse leaned in slightly. “How’s your love life, cuz?”

Now that was a taunt Rafe could deal with. He offered an ear-to-ear grin. “Just fine, and about to get a whole lot better. What about you? Anyone left within a three-hour radius of Rocky willing to date you?”

Karen and Gabe let out hisses of approval at the cut. Lisa lifted a hand to her mouth and laughed.

Jesse glanced at them. “What? You think I’ve been striking out?”

Lisa whistled innocently.

“Hey, just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean I won’t punch you,” Jesse informed her. “You’re my cousin, and that means the rules go out the window. Be warned.”

Lisa shifted her horse away a few paces. “I was going to agree with you.”

Jesse looked even more suspicious. “Why does that not reassure me?”

She grinned. “Striking out would imply you got up to bat. Last I heard you’d been benched pretty hard.” She stuck out her lower lip. “Poor wittle Jesse. Did my friend Liz tell you to go away?”

Rafe joined in the laughter as Jesse’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “Who told you that? And I’m not saying it’s true.”

“You don’t have to admit it,” Lisa assured him, pulling out her phone and clicking through a few screens. “Oh good, I wasn’t imagining it. I’ve got video. I was thinking of posting it to YouTube.”

Jesse snatched at her, trying to nab the phone out of her hands, but Lisa pulled back and his horse skittered sideways, and the two of them circled until they got the horses back under control.

Karen rolled her eyes at her little sister. “This is very entertaining, but it’s not finding those runaways. If you don’t mind, could you leave off the taunting for a while?”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Lisa and Jesse spoke at the same time, and Rafe and Gabe lost it, both of them laughing full-out. Jesse offered a long-suffering sigh then winked before they moved farther downstream.

“What are we looking for?” Rafe asked.

Karen explained. “Couple of my new mares are pretty wild. They’re due to foal and they’ve gone missing. I think I know where they’re hiding.”

The group broke in two, Lisa and Jesse lazily exchanging taunts as they headed with Rafe toward the far side of the trees in the hopes Gabe and Karen could push the runaways their direction.

“So. You and Laurel Sitko.” Lisa changed topic and focused her attention on him. “Tell me more.”

He didn’t try to deny it. Number one because he didn’t want to, and number two, denial would be totally useless in this family. “I’m a little surprised it took you this long. It’s been over twelve hours since I kissed her.”

“You kissed Laurel Sitko?” Jesse demanded. “What the hell?”

Lisa tilted her head toward Jesse before clicking her tongue. “So sad. Some of us aren’t quite as observant as others.”

“I noticed that,” Rafe answered.