Page 47 of Rocky Mountain Home

Jesse: fiancés are allowed to be silly. Don’t argue, woman

Fiancé. It was still not real, or at less real than the baby, but then again, she’d had over four months to get used to the idea of Buckaroo, and not even a couple of weeks to adjust to the idea of Jesse being around.

Heck, it would probably take at least four months to finally come to terms with his presence, which was fine, especially if she didn’t need to spend a month or two of it puking. No quivering stomach was a win. The getting-married thing? Still not happening.

He makes other parts of you quiver that dry snarky voice in her head reminded her.

That he did. He’d been patient about her no-sex decree, although technically, she supposed they had had sex. Anytime they were alone in a room sexual tension simmered, and he’d gotten her off again during the last time he’d visited.

She was so weak, damn her hormones anyway.

With no real rush to be anywhere, she rode lazily, a pleasant buzz of relaxation resting on her by the time she returned to the barn.

She was brushing down Baby when a familiar voice called her name.

“Dare, you got a minute?”

She glanced over her shoulder at Dustin, continuing to stroke the currying brush over Baby’s flanks, the repetition soothing and peaceful. “You’re heading out late.”

“Not that late, but I wanted to talk to you.”

She turned to examine him closer. The fine crop of blue, purple and green bruises he and Jesse had been sporting had nearly faded to nothing. “I’m listening.”

“I don’t think you should get engaged to Jesse.”

Unexpected topic. “Oh? Why is that?”

“Well, you don’t need to. You can live here, on the ranch. You don’t need him around.”

She wasn’t sure where this was going. “I’m having a baby, Dustin. Jesse’s the dad. That kind of means he’s got the right to be around.”

“Yeah, well, but that doesn’t mean you have to be with him.”

The concern and outrage in his voice was too easy to read, and Dare sighed, leaning a hand against Baby’s flank as she turned to focus on the youngest of the Stone family. “He’s not a bad man. Spending time with him isn’t a terrible thing.”

“You should marry me.”

The currying brush slipped from her fingers.

He darted down and grabbed it for her, holding onto the brush until she looked him in the eyes. “Okay, that was not the way I intended to do this, but I mean it. If you want to get married, you should marry me.”

Wow. She’d had a fair number of surprises in the last while, but this one was really unexpected. “Dustin, you don’t want to marry me.

“Sure I do.”

She raised a brow.

“Honestly? I know we’ve never— But I’ve thought about—” His cheeks turned brilliant red. “Although not in a bad way, but I have thought about you as a woman. And you are. A woman, that is.”

This conversation kept getting better and better. “I am a woman. Thank you for noticing.”

He broke eye contact, scuffing the toe of his boot into the ground. “Yeah, I noticed. But not in a disrespectful way,” he added.

Dare fought to keep from laughing straight out, because that was the last thing his youthful ego needed. “I’m honoured, but I’m not interested in marrying you.”

“You should think about it. I mean we go way back. We know everything about each other, and I care about you an awful lot.”

“Awww, I know you do. I care about you too, but Dustin, I don’t care about you in that way.”