Page 27 of Rocky Mountain Home

She didn’t hesitate. “I’m your biggest trouble.”

He smiled into the dark. “Of course you are, darlin’, but I don’t want one of them to get the wrong idea and grab the castrator.”

Dare considered for a moment. “He’s not your biggest trouble, but you should talk to Caleb first.”

“The oldest, right?”

She nodded. “Sasha and Emma’s daddy. You can find him in the barns in the morning. Now go to sleep. I’m tired.”

“Good tired, I hope,” he teased.

“Shut up,” she whispered.

Silence fell again, but while she stayed quiet, Dare wiggled and squirmed and jerked far more than he remembered.

She finally rolled over, shoving his arm away. “I don’t mean to be rude, and thank you for my orgasm and all, but I can’t sleep with you right now. It’s too hot, and my skin twitches every time we touch, and normally I’d just get over it but I’m really, really tired…”

“Say no more.” Jesse kissed her nose then tucked her in again. “I saw a bed in your office, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

He paused in the door—she gave one enormous sigh then slipped right into dreamland.

Rest didn’t come as easily for him.

Every time he tried to close his eyes, her voice poked him awake. Just repeating one word, over and over.

Pregnant.

Which meant a baby. Which meant his life path had altered.

It had been simple to push that detail aside as they talked, as huge and life changing as it was. Like a single note hit off key during a song, the idea had slapped him upside the head and he’d reeled for a moment, but then it passed, and the things he’d been dwelling on drowned out the reality—

Not for long, but for long enough that every time the phrase pregnant hit his consciousness, his heart pounded and his breathing kicked up a notch all over.

It didn’t help that Dare was so matter of fact about it. Hell, if she’d been panicking, he would have an easier time dealing. Calming her down, offering his assurances. Lying through his teeth that everything was going to be okay.

He’d missed that stage, he guessed. The thought left him floundering.

He must’ve fallen asleep at some point, but come four a.m. he was wide awake like usual. No use lying in the postage-stamp-sized bed any longer, so he got dressed and headed outside.

Morgan joined him instantly, tail wagging hard enough that his hindquarters quivered.

Jesse petted Morgan’s head for a moment as he sat on the porch, feet on the stairs to put on his boots, looking around the ranch. The faintest pink light etched the distant horizon to the east.

A long, hard walk helped, the familiar scents of the ranch enough to set some of his panic aside. Okay, so this wasn’t what he had planned, but it was the hand he’d been dealt and he’d have to do the best he could. He felt like crap Dare had already dealt with months of this on her own.

That was the central thing on his mind as he wandered into the biggest of the barns after exploring for nearly an hour.

A dozen heads all turned in his direction. No, make that a baker’s dozen. The horses examined him briefly in the hopes he was going to offer them food.

A calico cat balanced daintily along the ridge of a railing, making its way along the length to a post where it sat to greet him with a good morning meow.

“Morgan, stay.”

His dog sat, hindquarters plopping into the dirt as Jesse moved confidently toward the cat to offer it a quick scratch under the chin.

The animal graced him with its presence for a moment before stretching regally. Then it jumped to the ground and, after offering Morgan a disdainful sniff, walked away with tail upright, the very tip flicking back and forth as she headed off hunting.