Page 116 of Rocky Mountain Home

A talk with Jesse.

Jesse’s mom had been surprisingly quiet during the trip to the parking lot. She gave him a fierce hug though before he helped her into the passenger side of his dad’s truck.

He closed the door and turned to go bury his frustrations in a night’s hard labour when his dad stepped in front of him. Jesse expected some kind of comment, but all Mike did was offer a slow nod of approval before walking away.

It was quiet in the barns. Jesse moved through his tasks meticulously, falling into a routine that was familiar and comforting. He debated giving Blake a call to assure his brother of his full agreement, but he figured the point had been made, and if his brother wanted to see him, Blake knew where he was.

By the time morning rolled around Jesse was back to a mostly Zen-like state. Today was when they’d find out if it was safe for Dare to leave the hospital, and at that point they could make some decisions.

He used the bunkhouse showers so he wouldn’t disturb Joel and Vicki. He’d put spare clothes in the truck so it meant he was at the hospital right smack on time to join Dare for breakfast.

He pulled out a second Egg McMuffin from the bag and made a second attempt at bribery. “Are you sure I can’t convince you to trade?”

Dare paused in the middle of another one of those damn sex noises she insisted on making while eating. “Nothing doing, buster. You keep your grubby paws off my oatmeal.”

Then she upended the small side serving of raisins over the surface and stirred them in quickly.

Jesse groaned. “Well, forget it now. You’ve gone and contaminated it.”

She licked her spoon, and his entire body tightened in response.

Tamara poked her head in the door. “I have news.”

Dare stiffened, and Jesse dropped his breakfast back on the tray so he could grab her fingers.

“Relax,” Tamara said, walking into the room. “This isn’t any big shiny news yet. That’s got to come from the doctor, and he should be here by about ten o’clock. By that time the lab in Calgary will have reported in, and I ran this morning’s tests down to the lab myself. So if everything is good, you could be breaking out of here sometime after lunch.”

Which was great, awesome and a complete relief…if everything was good.

Strangely Dare didn’t look as excited as he thought she would. “Thanks for that, Tamara.”

His cousin gave a quick wave and left the room at her usual rapid pace.

He let out a long slow breath. “Okay. Ten o’clock it is.”

“No one’s planning on stopping in this morning, are they?” Dare asked.

He shook his head. “It’s Monday, and since I worked all night I told Blake I was going to sit with you. I figured the doctor would be in. Depending on what happens, we’ll take it from there.”

She swooped her spoon through her oatmeal in distracted circles. “If I do have to stay in the hospital for longer, I don’t need nonstop visitors. I don’t mean that in a negative way, because your family has been awesome.”

“I get it, and I agree. But let’s wait to see what the doctor says.”

“Agreed.”

She finished her breakfast quietly. Jesse tried to distract her with descriptions of the time he’d spent the previous night taking care of the family’s horses. Like old friends, the character of each animal was tied up in his mind with different adventures, and they finished the meal peacefully.

But when the dishes were cleaned up, she patted the mattress beside her hip. “Come here. We need to talk about something.”

He pushed aside the tray and hopped up. “You’re not upset about last night, are you? Honest, things are better than I expected with Blake. Mom was out of line.”

“I wasn’t upset at the time,” she insisted. “I understand why she said something, but you’re right, you screwed up. I would think less of Blake if he didn’t make you toe the line for a while.”

A soft snort escaped before he could stop it. “Oh yeah, I screwed up royally. It’s what I do.”

His comment didn’t go over well. She leaned in so she could glare into his face. “Don’t be a jackass and put yourself down like that. I think you’ve done a lot of good things just during the time I’ve known you.”

Somehow she always managed to make him feel better about himself. “Okay, I can sort of agree with you. You’re a good thing, and I’ve done you.”