Page 70 of Rocky Mountain Home

“As much fun as this is,” Joel interrupted, “I should get going. Who’s dropping me off?”

Matt checked his watch. “Not me. I’m heading over to the bunkhouse with information for the crew.”

Travis groaned. “Fine, I can get you home, but I don’t know why you keep arguing about taking an advance so you can buy a second vehicle for Vicki instead of making us drive you in circles.”

“We’ve spent enough money this year. I’m not dipping into the funds for something we only need occasionally.”

“I can drive you home,” Jesse offered. “I left Dare at your place to get rested up. She’s waiting for me.”

“There, all settled,” Matt said quickly, turning to Jesse. “Hope and I will be around tomorrow night if you want to stop by. She’s teaching a quilting class tonight.”

“Jaxi had planned to have everyone over three nights from now,” Cassidy pointed out. “I guess that’s off, with the baby arriving and all.”

“Ha.” Four voices, simultaneous. All the Coleman brothers eyed each other with amusement because there was no mistaking their commonly held opinion of their sister-in-law.

Travis slipped an arm around Cassidy and led him toward the barn door. “After all this time as a member of the Coleman family, and you still think Jaxi’s going to cancel an event because of a minor detail like she gave birth a few days earlier? Cassidy, Cassidy, Cassidy. You disappoint me.”

“See you there,” Joel said, heading out the door without waiting to find out if Jesse was following him.

The silence as they climbed into the truck was deafening. Jesse waited until he’d backed the vehicle up before attempting to make conversation. “You’re sharing your truck with Vicki?”

“Her car gave up the ghost in April.”

“There’s the old truck we learned—”

“It’s okay. We’ve got it figured out.” Joel stared straight ahead, eyes fixed on the road.

This was hell. It was worse than it had been before Jesse had left. Back then he’d finally managed to put in a full day’s work with his twin without any awkwardness. It was only when he’d bump into Vicki that things would go sideways.

Now to have Joel sit without a word when they were together…

So many things Jesse wanted to share. The new experiences he’d tried, the people he’d met—not all of going out into the world and being a part of a new operation had been bad, and Jesse had grown to appreciate the lessons learned by being a hand instead of one of the family.

He was itching to talk about the shock of finding out he was going to be a father, and he wanted to talk about Dare, and…

…and none of those were things he could share, not even with Joel.

The truth etched another deep scar in his soul.

They were closing in on the turn to the trailer when Jesse impulsively drove past, pulling in next to Whiskey Creek, the river that meandered through the Coleman land. There’d been a barn here at one point—it had burnt to the ground a few years earlier, and Jesse hopped out of the cab to discover the spot had been cleaned up and cleared out. Instead of the mess, a six-foot fence surrounded a garden area with growing green things stood in its place.

Behind him the truck door slammed shut, and he turned to discover Joel marching back up the road toward the trailer.

“Where’re you going?” Jesse called.

Joel stopped dead in the road for five seconds, his back a rigid wall, then stomped on without a word.

Jesse sighed, and went after him. “Fuck it all, Joel, stop.”

His brother whirled, fists clenched by his hips. “Why?”

“Because I want to…”

What he wanted was impossible. He fell silent under his brother’s intense stare.

Joel spat out the words. “Questions like ‘where’re you going’ don’t sit well right now, bro. That implies you give a shit about the other person, and since that’s not true, don’t—”

“Of course it’s true. Fuck it all.” Jesse laid his hand on Joel’s shoulder. “You’re my brother.”