Page 149 of Rocky Mountain Home
Dare shook her head. “It didn’t look like hate to me.” She paused. “You don’t think that way now, do you?”
Vicki frowned. “No. Actually, I was telling Joel that the other day, how different it is now with Jesse. So much more comfortable…” She panicked for a moment. “Not in a way like I’m hot for him, or anything. You know I’m head over heels in love with Joel, right?”
“Of course you are.” Dare sucked in her courage. “I don’t know how to be head over heels. But I want to be.”
“With Jesse?”
“It would be convenient, seeing as he’ll be in my life, and all.”
“Oh, honey, there’s nothing convenient about Jesse Coleman. Or about love, when it comes down to it.” Vicki shook her head. “But I don’t get it. Why are you acting as if you just figured out you’re in love?”
Dare fidgeted for a minute before confessing. “He offered to marry me because I was pregnant. He was doing the right thing.”
The confusion on Vicki’s face grew thicker. “Okay, you’re not making any sense whatsoever. You think Jesse is just doing the right thing?”
“Of course he is.”
Vicki flustered for a minute before waving a hand. “I mean, I agree he’s doing the right thing by being there for you and the baby, but…”
Dare waited, impatience rising by the second.
Her friend stopped fussing and a look of complete satisfaction replaced the earlier frustration. “Oh, this is good. This is really good.”
“What?” Dare didn’t attempt to keep her irritation out of her voice. “I will do something evil to you if you don’t stop looking at me like I’m the most interesting science experiment you’ve seen in a long time.”
Vicki relented, a smile blooming across her face. “It’s just that it’s pretty clear to me that you’re in love.”
Dare swallowed hard. My God, she hoped wearing her heart on her sleeve didn’t end up embarrassing Jesse. “You can tell?”
Her friend nodded. “Unless you’re up for Academy-nominee-level acting awards, everything since you showed up on Jaxi and Blake’s doorstep has said you were a couple. A real couple.”
Dare did a double take. “Wait. You think Jesse’s in love with me?”
“That’s what I just said.” Vicki raised a brow. “You didn’t know that part either? What have you two been doing? And that was a rhetorical question because obviously…”
She gestured toward Buckaroo.
“Hey, you’re in the same condition,” Dare pointed out.
“Well, it’s pretty damn hard to say no to a Coleman when they’re being all sexy and whatnot, but this isn’t about the babies.” She leaned back in her chair, a gloating expression on her face. “So. What do you do with this newfound knowledge? Or more specifically, how can I blackmail you with it?”
“I’m not too pregnant to put a hurt on you,” Dare warned, but she was smiling because maybe it wasn’t a terrible thing. Maybe if Vicki thought she and Jesse were already a real couple, then it wasn’t too far of a stretch for it to be real.
Still, she was cognizant of the fact Jesse was still finding his way back home. He had enough things he was working on.
She met Vicki’s gaze. “I think what I need is for you to just be happy for me, and let me figure out when and where it’s right to let Jesse know how I feel.”
Vicki caught her fingers in a squeeze. “I am happy for you. I’m actually really happy, because I didn’t expect this.”
“For me to fall in love with Jesse?”
Her friend shifted uncomfortably for a moment. “It’s a little more selfish than that. I didn’t expect Jesse to have such good taste when he fell in love. I always thought he’d pick someone who was a bit of an asshole, but you’re not.”
“I’m a lot of an asshole?” Dare teased, glowing inside from the phrase Jesse falling in love.
Vicki laughed. “What you are is a wonderful person, and I’m glad he brought you into my life.”
“I’m glad too.” It wasn’t just family for Buckaroo that she’d discovered. It was family for her as well, and she shuffled out of the chair and offered Vicki a close hug, and it was nothing like that first day when they’d met, almost reluctant to discover they enjoyed each other’s company.
