Page 12 of Rocky Mountain Home

“Dare?” A youthful, masculine voice.

“Go away.”

“Who’s that with you? Open the door, Dare, or I’ll break it down.”

Jesse bristled on her behalf. “You need me to take care of him?”

Dare blinked, then rolled her eyes. “Oh, jeez. I forgot the whole express opinions with our fists bullshit is genetically built into all males. I can deal with him.”

She stood to one side of the door, blocking the bottom with her foot before undoing the lock so the wooden frame could only open an inch. “Dustin. Is there a reason you want me to rearrange your face?”

“There’s a man in there with you.”

“Really? Gee, I never would have known without you telling me.”

“Who is he?”

“None of your business.”

“Dare, I’m going to count to ten, and—”

She cracked the door open farther but spoke softer, her voice dripping icicles. “Seriously? You want to try that bullshit? Forget it. I was going to be polite, but you blew it. Go away, or I will tell Tansy at Buns and Roses you have a crush on her again.”

The blustering outside the door came to an immediate stop. “You’re nasty, Dare. I’m just trying to—”

“—be bossy and overbearing? You nearly succeeded, only I care enough to nip bad behaviour in the bud. I will rip you a new one if you so much as touch my door again.”

Barely visible through the narrow sliver Dare held open, the young man glared daggers in Jesse’s direction, dark brown eyes flashing in frustration. “Bring him to the house when you’re done. If he leaves without seeing us, I’ll track him down and peel the skin from his body to make a rope.”

Jesse held his tongue until the door was closed, taking a deep breath as she turned toward him. “That was interesting.”

“He’s a jackass, but he means well.”

Jesse paused. “Old boyfriend?”

She gagged. “Hell, no.”

“Protective.”

“You have no idea.”

He ignored the comment because waiting wasn’t making this any easier. It’d been ages since they’d been together. There really wasn’t a proper way to restart something after a memorable one-night stand, let alone ask some awkward questions.

Tracking her down—that was a good place to begin. “Thanks for putting up my picture. I had no idea how to find you until the guys at the bunkhouse spotted that damn meme.”

Dare frowned. “Sorry for the whole posting without your permission, but…meme? I just noticed today my blog post had a lot of hits.”

“Yeah, because someone found the picture about a week ago and slapped Prime Alberta Beef across my backside. It’s been making the rounds on social media. It took me until yesterday to track it back to your blog.”

She shook her head. “Sorry about the invasion-of-privacy issue. I’m usually a lot more careful about that.”

“Like I said, no problem. It was the breadcrumb trail I’d been looking for.”

Dare shifted farther into the little house, pointing toward the living room couch. “You were trying to find me?”

He offered a grin. “Is that so surprising?”

“We both said it was only one night.”