Page 117 of Rocky Mountain Home

Dare didn’t roll her eyes, but he could tell she was tempted. Then she took a deep breath and shoved him off the cliff.

“I’m going to go on the premise that everything is fine and I’ll be set loose today. Which means we pretty much get to go forward and do the next thing. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and I wanted to know what you think of us moving to Rocky Mountain House.”

Everything inside him froze. “When? Next year? Or after Buckaroo arrives?”

For some strange reason that made her laugh.

“Maybe sooner than that.” He sat back a little and she hurried on. “I’m not even saying for sure this is what I want to do, but I’m putting it forward as an idea. I don’t need to be in Heart Falls, and there might be good reasons for me to not be there.”

Okay, this was a conversation he had not expected to have right now. He fought to keep his emotions from showing, but it was probably a lost cause considering the hell yes and the oh my God, no battling inside him. He wasn’t sure what his face looked like.

Then his confident, always-together woman began rambling.

“Dr. Martins is leaving. So it’s not as if I even get to have her around to deliver Buckaroo. There’s no hospital in Heart Falls, just the clinic, which means I have to go to Black Diamond when it’s time. I like Dr. Kincaid, and obviously Jaxi and Blake like him, and your multitude of cousins. You said you could walk to the maternity ward with your eyes closed—I hope you don’t have to, but that’s kind of reassuring, all things considered.”

Now her reasoning made more sense, even though he was still confused. “So…you want to live here until Buckaroo is born?”

She was fidgeting with the edge of the blanket now. “I know Caleb offered you a job, and you would do awesome working at Silver Stone, and if that’s what you want then that’s what we should do, but…” Dare met his gaze again. “If you can work here with your family again, it seems like that’s what you should be doing. Not starting all over somewhere else. Not unless it’s what you absolutely need.”

“I don’t know that either job is better than the other. If we move here that means you’d be leaving your family. What about Ginny? What about the girls?”

Dare wrinkled her nose. “Okay, this is Ginny’s secret not mine, but she’s not planning on being around after September. Yes, I’ll miss the girls, but I also don’t want to be their mom. I’m afraid right now Caleb might take advantage of the fact that I would be home with the baby.”

“Oh, like hell would he take advantage of you. It’s one thing to help with the rug rats at times, it’s another for him to expect it of you.” There. Something he actually had a solid opinion on. Maybe he hadn’t lost his mind completely.

She shook her head. “I don’t think Caleb does it to take advantage of us. He’s a really good daddy, actually, but he is kind of oblivious to how much we do to help him out. You’re right, if we go back, I’ll have a talk with him. It’s another thing that makes coming here work, though. But if the idea is too hard to consider right now, I understand completely, and I’m just as happy to go back to Heart Falls. We’ll figure out the stuff with Buckaroo.”

Confusion returned. “You’re not making any sense. Which is it, Dare? Do you want to move to Rocky, or do you want to go back to Heart Falls?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before looking him in the eye again. “I think I would like to move to Rocky, but if that is too difficult for you, I have no objections to making Heart Falls work.”

Better, but it was still not quite there. “Why in the hell do you think it would be so hard for me to move to Rocky? I told you everything was looking great with Blake and the family.”

She broke eye contact. “I know why you left.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jesse’s stomach slid from somewhere in his belly all the way to the main floor. “What did you say?”

She folded her arms in front of her body, fingers rubbing softly on her upper arms. “Are you still in love with Vicki? Because if it’s a problem, then that’s our answer right there—”

Jesus fuck. “I’m not in love with Vicki. Who the hell told you that?”

It was Dare’s turn to look as confused as he felt. “No one told me, but every time you’re around her it’s as if…” Her eyes widened. “Oh my God, do you not know you’re in love with her? I mean, I hear that’s possible, to not know—”

“Stop it,” Jesse ordered. “I’m not in love with Vicki, and I never have been.”

Dare tilted her head. “So…she has nothing to do with why you left?”

There was the kicker.

He knew his mouth was opening and closing, but no sound was coming out, and sure enough, Dare’s jaw dropped open in shock as well.

Okay, this was the last conversation he’d wanted to have today, tomorrow or any fucking day. “She’s part of the reason why I left, but it has nothing to do with me being in love with her, and goddamn, never say that again. Joel would jerk my intestines out through my nose.”

Which was probably a fair description of reality, and something he should’ve thought of years ago before he’d acted like a stupid jackass.

Dare shook her head. “Okay, I’m not smart enough to make heads or tails of this unless you just pony up and tell me.”