Page 144 of Rocky Mountain Home

“I know you do.” She was all but petting him, fingers twirling in his hair. “I mean that. Maybe you can’t see it, but I can.”

He took a deep breath. “I want to feel proud when Buckaroo arrives.”

Dare frowned.

“You know that expression Blake gets when his girls crowd around him? Or the way that Matt’s face damn near glows when he holds Colt. Hell, I want to look at Buckaroo the way my dad looks at us, his grown-up sons, or at least the way he looks at us when we’re not acting like asses. Like he’s shocked and amused and astonished all at the same time.”

“You don’t think you’re going to look like that?”

He hesitated. “I’m not sure. I don’t think so.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Silence stretched between them for a moment before Dare spoke again.

“I don’t think it’s my place to tell you how you should feel, so I’m not going to. But can I suggest that maybe you’re a little too close to the situation, and it’s making it hard to see the truth?”

More cryptic comments. Jesse chuckled. “I need to pin a note to my chest that says, Homegrown Cowboy: please use small words.”

Dare pressed her lips against his and kissed him softly. “Small words? Here you go. Tomorrow is another day. Now, cuddle me.”

She awkwardly rolled and curled herself up against him.

“See, that I understood,” he teased, pulling her hips more firmly against him before resting a hand on where Buckaroo was hiding out.

He fell asleep with a million thoughts racing through his mind, and the baby’s motions bumping his palm.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Text messages, February 8th, ten plus years ago

Dare: you guys on the road already?

Mom: heading out in five if your father and Walter can stop gossiping with the hotel owner

Dare: ha. Good luck on that

Mom: I know, but they’re having too much fun to interrupt. Anyway, we should be back by lunch. Don’t bother making anything in case we’re late

Dare: okay. I’ll see you when you get home

Mom: try to be dressed by then, k?

Dare: pyjamas are perfectly fine Saturday pants

Mom: lol. Sure they are. Love you, sweetie

Dare: love you too

…

Dare: you guys get lost or something?

…

Dare: Mom, where are you?

…