Page 107 of Rocky Mountain Home

His brother nodded and headed out without another word, but as Jesse dressed and got in the truck, it was the closest to normal they’d been since Vicki had come on the scene and Jesse had lost his mind.

As long as he was on the right road—he just needed to keep walking.

Chapter Twenty

Blog post: Look Deeper

Sometimes I wonder what I’m not seeing that’s right under my nose. When you live on a ranch in Alberta you get a reminder of this every spring as the crocuses come up, and a field that was barren and brown is suddenly dotted with purple.

Teasing us with a fresh reminder that what we see on the surface is not always all that’s there.

The weekend passed in a blur. Jesse made sure he was at the hospital first thing in the morning before official visiting hours, and he stayed late as he could in the evening before taking off to complete the tasks Blake left for him.

In fact, once enough visitors had shown up that Dare was entertained, he’d slip away and head back to the ranch and do whatever he could to keep himself busy for a few hours.

Somewhere in there he slept.

He was in the middle of scrubbing all the milking equipment when Travis stuck his head in the door. “Hey, asshole.”

Jesse pushed the brush against the inside of the bucket harder, but his lips curled into a smile. “What, buttface?”

A soft snicker escaped his brother. “I heard Blake gave you some jobs. I wanted to see if you remembered how to do this thing called work.”

His brother’s jerk-ish behaviour made Jesse feel a hell of a lot more welcome than if he’d tiptoed around. Jesse gestured to the chair beside the sink. “Go ahead, you lazy ass. Best seat in the house if you want to watch.”

“Actually, I wanted to ask if you’ve got time to go for a ride?”

God, yes. The temptation was strong, but Jesse glanced at his watch. If he indulged, he wouldn’t make it to the hospital on time to have dinner with Dare.

He shook his head reluctantly. “I’d love to, but I need to finish this before stopping today. Sorry.”

Travis marched in, pulling a second scrub brush from behind his back as he reached for the next set of buckets. “Right answer. I’ll give you a hand so you’ll have time for a short break before you go see Dare.”

Jesse stopped, slightly shocked as his brother began scrubbing. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I know, but I want to go for a ride, and Cassidy is taking care of Ashley, and you’re the only other person I know who’s willing to do the gully with me.”

Jesus. “Do you have a death wish? The rains last year made that impassable.”

Travis offered a huge grin. “Chicken?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t only Dare’s eighteen-year-old brother who had an issue. “Really? Did you revert to childhood while I’ve been gone?”

“I’m kidding.” His brother laughed. “Runoff this spring changed the landscape all over. There’s a new route you need to see. You game?”

“Hell, yeah.” It was a bizarre sensation to be back here where his life had been for so many years, scrubbing down equipment with Travis, fingers getting wrinkly as they worked together. Plans for trouble pushing them forward. “But I need to be back on time.”

His brother chuckled. “Good to see you’ve lost your mind over a girl. I didn’t think this day would ever come.”

Jesse aimed the water a little off angle so a spray accidentally splashed Travis in the face. His brother ducked but kept working. “I guess I saw you lose your mind, and it didn’t seem to make your balls shrivel up too much.”

“Oh, my balls are just fine these days, thank you.” Travis hesitated. “My balls are fine, but my heart’s ready to jump out of my chest, especially when I get thinking too hard about the baby.”

“I try not to think too hard about the baby,” Jesse admitted before hurrying on. “Not because the kid’s a bad thing, but it’s like my brain can only handle so much.”

Travis didn’t answer for a minute. Instead there was a quiet scratch of the stiff bristles against metal bouncing off the wooden walls to accompany the country music playing from the overhead speakers.

“It’s weird getting to this stage.” Trevor spoke slowly, a lot less brash than Jesse remembered him. “Before Ashley and Cassidy came into my life, it was about getting the job done and moving to the next thing that would bring me pleasure. Now I find getting the job done is a kind of pleasure all in itself. It’s like I don’t have to go to the extreme to be happy anymore.”