Page 73 of Rocky Mountain Home

“Where do Jesse’s parents live?”

“Across the road from Jaxi and Blake’s. Everyone in the Coleman family plays musical houses. There are five houses and the bunkhouses, and no one stays put for long, although that might change now that everyone’s settling in a bit more. The trailer we’re in has been lived in by Matt, Daniel, Travis and now us. I don’t even know the history before Matt.”

“Silver Stone ranch has got my place, and the main homestead, and everyone else lives in bunkhouses. Although Luke has been building a new place off and on for the last year.”

Vicki offered a smile. “Joel and I are doing that. Well, the building a new place, not the off and on.”

“Really?”

The other woman answered with a lot more enthusiasm, as if glad to have a safe topic again. “We started this spring. The foundation is in, and we hope to get everything on the exterior done by the fall so we can spend the winter finishing the inside.”

“That’s exciting.”

“It is. It’s also nerve-racking, because part of me doesn’t want to take on too much debt, but Joel insisted building is a commitment for the future, and there’s no reason to hold off when we can enjoy it now.”

Dare nodded. “I understand the nervous bit. Sometimes it’s easier to keep on with the familiar, although change can be good.”

Look at her being all philosophical and positive and shit. The only change she wanted right now was to not be headed toward a meet-and-greet with Jesse’s mom and dad when he was nowhere in sight.

There was no getting out of it, though. Vicki drove to the house where they’d originally met, then turned east instead of west. The home was old but tidy, and an older woman was coming out the door before the truck engine was even off. She held a child in her arms with a small girl following at her heels.

Vicki offered a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Marion is okay. You’ll do fine.”

“I’m still going to kill Jesse,” Dare muttered.

A snicker escaped Vicki. “You fit right into the family.”

Dare didn’t even get to open her door. An older man, obviously Jesse’s dad, appeared out of nowhere, and suddenly there were two people with big smiles and two little people with enormous staring eyes, all waiting for her to climb to the ground.

Like the last time she’d stepped to the end of a high diving board, a full flock of butterflies were doing loops in her belly. Dare took a deep breath, mentally called down curses on Jesse, then took the hand his dad offered to balance herself as her feet hit the dirt.

“Welcome.” His parents said it kind of in unison as Vicki joined the gathering, winking secretly at Dare as she took the squirming little boy from her mother-in-law-to-be.

The silent gesture was reassuring, and enough to free Dare from her momentary panic. She lifted a hand to waggle her fingers. “Hi. You must be Mike and Marion.”

“And you’re Dare. You’re exactly like I pictured,” Marion offered with a happy smile, enfolding Dare in a quick hug before stepping back and giving her space. Marion rubbed her hands on her arms as if she itched to extend the embrace, but was resisting. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

“You too,” Dare returned, holding her expression as positive yet neutral as possible.

Mike held out his hand then shook hers gently, the power behind his grip tempered. “Not everyone is a hugger, but you let me know if you ever need one—my grandkids say I’m pretty good at them. Even the teenagers, if you can believe it.”

Dare nodded, unable to speak for a moment as the couple flipped in her brain from being the slightly intimidating “parents of the guy she’d slept with more than a few times and oops, now we’re sort of related” into simply Buckaroo’s Gramma and Grampa.

Which was why she and Jesse were here in the first place.

Marion laid a hand on the blond-haired little girl clinging to her leg. “This is Lana, and Vicki’s got a hold of PJ. Their big sisters Rebecca and Rachel are at summer day camp for another hour.”

Dare smiled down at the little girl. “Wow. You’re pretty lucky to get to stay and help take care of your little brother.”

“Gamma and me made cookies,” Lana informed her, the importance of which beat out taking care of her little brother by a landslide.

PJ had no opinions on the matter, just kept squirming until Vicki put him on the ground so he could run over to a dump truck that had been waiting on the grass.

“Do you need to go inside for a moment, or would you like to come sit on the porch?” Marion asked.

“Porch is great,” Dare assured her.

“Did you have a good drive up?” Mike asked, once they were settled around a picnic table behind the house with the kids installed in a sandbox on the porch where they were within sight and confined from running free.