Page 100 of Rocky Mountain Home

The next thing she knew Jesse was standing in front of her, face folded into a frown. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Drat. She’d automatically swung her legs around, intending to get changed. “Oops?”

“Dare.”

“I’m sorry. It’s hard to remember to sit still when I don’t feel sick, okay?” She tucked herself back under the covers and waited as patiently as possible, hands folded in her lap. “May I have my bag, pretty please?”

Vicki laughed, bringing it to the bed. “I’m glad you feel okay. Laurel said to apologize again for your face.”

“She’s not going to stop that, is she?”

Jesse raised a brow. “Apologizing? Probably not.” Then he laughed. “Although it is pretty hysterical when you come down to it. Remember the shiner I had the night we met?”

“Yeah?”

He grinned. “Rafe gave me mine.”

Ha. “Seriously? That was Rafe?”

“Yup.” His smile tightened a little when his gaze slipped over Vicki, then he ignored her as he pulled a chair beside Dare’s bed and sat down. “Here’s the scoop. I know phone coverage is the shits in here, so I went out to the parking lot and made a few calls.”

Dare dug through the bag as he spoke. “Obviously—Vicki.” She glanced up at the other woman. “Which, thank you again.”

“Oh, wait.” Vicki stepped forward and unloaded a second bag that had been slung over her back. “I brought your computer too.”

Hell, yeah. “I could kiss you. Perfect.”

Vicki eyed the bed before bringing the bag to the table against the wall. “How about over here for now? You’ll have more visitors soon, and you won’t want this tossed around or dropped.”

“Good idea.”

Vicki glanced between them, hesitated then backed toward the door. “I’m going to head out for a bit. I’ll be back later, okay?”

“Yes, please.” Dare didn’t want to keep the other woman from whatever else she had planned, but the desire to spend more time with Vicki was real. “I’d like to visit some more.”

Which was good and bad. You’re not supposed to fall in love with people, remember? she scolded herself.

Maybe that was a flawed premise, the other side of her brain offered. Buckaroo deserves awesome people in his life, and if you like them, they have to be awesome.

Dare dragged herself back to alertness to discover Jesse staring after Vicki as she left.

She waved a hand to get his attention. “Sorry for the interruption. Phone calls?”

Jesse shook himself. “Right. Your stuff. Then I called Ginny—”

“Oh God, did she panic?”

“Sort of? That’s what took so long. I was talking her off the edge. The minute I hung up with her, I’d made it nearly to the door when Caleb called wondering what Ginny was going off the handle about.”

Dare considered collapsing back on her pillow like some melodramatic princess. “They’ll be here in an hour, right?”

“Wrong.” Jesse adjusted position, stretching his legs in front of him, all long and lean and far too sexy for her mental peace. “I convinced them to wait until tomorrow.”

“Wow. You’re good.” Dare curled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. “You should be a hostage negotiator or something, because getting Ginny to change her mind is like magic.”

“That’s me. Magical Jesse.” He lifted his arms and folded them behind his head as he offered a grin. “No, that doesn’t sound right. Jesse and his magic tongue?”

He winked and she let out a contented sigh, kind of shocked that she was able to feel this relaxed. “I hate that I’m sitting here when we had such plans to visit all your family and hit Traders, and the rest, but I’m happy they figured out why I was dizzy.”