Joel eyed him with amusement. “Well, that’s disappointing.”
Confusion hit. “What?”
“I asked Blake to make you shovel shit all day. Doesn’t look like I got my wish.”
Jesse used his middle finger to scratch the bridge of his nose. “Hope you had fun on lost-sheep duty. Find them all, Bo Peep?”
“Ass.” Only Joel was grinning. “Cassidy and Matt called in the Moonshine clan. We got the entire flock back into the lower pasture, plus all the fences fixed and gates shut. The rest of the season is going to be a piece of cake.”
That was good news. “I really like this business of working with the entire family,” Jesse shared honestly.
“It’s damn handy,” Joel agreed. “Although it’s going to take a couple of years to get all the cows onto the same season. I’m not looking forward to them dropping all the way from February till May.”
“One thing at a time,” Jesse said. It was one of the things he was working on with his programming. He met his brother’s gaze straight on. “I said it this morning, but I’ll say it again. I’m sorry. I butt in where it wasn’t my right. I’m glad you told me to fuck off.”
Joel nodded once. “Vicki and I were more pissed that you thought we would say such crappy things to each other.”
“That’s the part that threw me,” Jesse insisted. “You and Vicki—if anything, you’re way too sweet and gushy. You don’t toss words like knives.”
“Good to know we’ve got you fooled.” His brother shrugged. “Don’t kid yourself. We still screw up, and words get heated. But we don’t let it stick. I swear Vicki’s been taking lessons from Mom—”
A laugh escaped before Jesse could stop it. “Jeez, you too?”
Joel dipped his chin “The last time I was ticked off about something, she plopped down on the footstool by my chair and waited.”
“Which means you have to talk about it. Or you have to admit, ‘I’m pissed off and don’t want to talk to you right now,’ which is okay some of the time, but mostly sounds as if I’m about eight years old and pitching a fit.”
They both chuckled before Joel let out a long, slow sigh. “This is probably why Mom and Dad’s fights are virtually nonexistent.”
“Because he knows he can’t win?” Jesse teased.
“Can we?”
“More importantly, do we want to?” Jesse winked before turning toward the path that led to his house. “We’re on shift together tomorrow?”
“Six a.m. You drive. Vicki needs the truck to pick up supplies for the Christmas party this weekend.”
Another thing Jesse had forgotten about in his distracted haze. “It’ll be good to see the Whiskey Creek girls again.”
After a final solid thump on the shoulder, Joel turned away and headed whistling toward his home.
Jesse did the same.
Inside, golden light shone onto the wintry landscape and reflected off the walls to fill the cozy space. Both the heat and the scent of dinner welcomed him in.
“Daddy.” Enough noise for a platoon of kids rushed toward him. His son, wearing a teeny pair of cowboy boots and riding a stick horse across the hardwood floor.
“Hey, Buckaroo.” Jesse swooped down and nabbed Joey, horse and all. “Where’s your mama?”
“’puter.”
“Ah. She’s still working?”
“She’s done.” Dare rounded the corner, and here was the true welcome. She squeezed up against him, Joey cradled between them. “Hey. I didn’t expect you for another half hour.”
“Blake sent me home. Told me I needed to come apologize before you decided I had to sleep in the barn.”
“Horsies,” Joey exclaimed.
“Yes. The horses live in the barn. Daddy lives with us, even when he’s being—” Dare paused.
“Go on,” Jesse encouraged. “I not only want to hear what you say, but I want to know how you’re going to say it in a Buckaroo-approved matter.”
Her eyes flashed, but he thought it was with amusement. “Even when he’s being a buttinski.”
Joey’s little face curled up in a frown. “Daddy buttski?”
Laughter escaped.
“Yes,” Dare agreed, squeezing Jesse and lifting her lips for a kiss.
“Don’t blame me when that kid says things we’d rather he didn’t in front of Grandma,” Jesse warned with a whisper in her ear.
“We’ll blame Grandpa.”
Worked for him. Jesse pulled her tight. “Hello, love. I missed you today.”
Then he kissed her. A sweet moment that made being apart bearable because he knew this was the reward waiting. The coming back together was not just fire and heat—although they had plenty of that between them.
After nearly three years, the quiet moments were growing richer. The conversations and the searching for