thinks fighting is fun?” Blake shook his head. “There’s a name for people like you.”
Travis actually sputtered for a second before grinning broadly.
Jesse rolled his eyes dramatically then confessed the truth.
“Because that conversation is going places I don’t want to talk about, it was just a misunderstanding. And yeah, Dare was right—I stuck my nose in where it didn’t belong.” Jesse leaned back on the wall behind him, folding his arms over his chest. “I walked in on Vicki and Joel having what I thought was a full-out, drag-down fight. I waded into the middle because I knew they’d be upset if they actually tossed bullshit at each other that hard. But it turns out they were reciting some damn movie, and Dare was there, and so all three of them gave me hell.”
Travis snorted. “A movie? For fucks sake, can’t you guys even fight about something that’s not comical?”
“Screw you, asshole.”
“Diva.”
“Loser.”
“Jerk.”
“Ahhh, brotherly love.” Blake slapped a hand at the side of Travis’s head, dodging out of the way before his brother’s instant roundhouse could connect. “Stop your jawing, and let’s get to work.”
The entire morning was filled with the goodness of hard, honest labour, followed by a sweet, dirty interlude that left Blake grinning for most of the afternoon.
He thought about all the blessings in his world and wondered—
A sense of foreboding hung over him. Like everything was too good to be true. Something was going to rush in and shake things up in a way he couldn’t anticipate.
Totally superstitious nonsense, but it felt so real. He paused before leaving the barn to head back to Jaxi and his family, stopping to rap his knuckles against the sturdy wooden frame of the man door for luck.
What they had was priceless—was precious. He didn’t want anything to change.
2
The time it took to drive to his home in the middle of the Six Pack land wasn’t long enough to give Jesse a solution to his problem.
The concern, he could honestly admit, wasn’t the fact the three people he cared most about in the world had been mad at him before he left the house that morning. Travis had been right—it was a silly thing to fight about, and Dare had been justified in calling him on sticking his nose where it wasn’t needed. That misdeed had probably been forgiven before his truck had even left the driveway.
Nope, if there was one thing he was absolutely certain about—Dare loved him unconditionally, even when he was an ignorant bastard. And both Joel and Vicki cared enough to call him on his bullshit.
It was like being wrapped in a warm blanket on this icy-cold December day to have that kind of gut-deep assurance in his world.
His problem—
Jesse stuck his hand in the pocket of his sheepskin-lined jacket and worried the envelope again. Half a dozen times that day he’d considered pulling it out of his pocket and showing it to Blake, but he knew better. Even as tangled as the out-of-the-blue offer made his brain, it was Dare he needed to talk to first.
And obviously, ignoring the proposal he’d received wasn’t the way to go. He thought he could put it off until the new year, but the information kept buzzing at the back of his brain, distracting him and screwing with his concentration.
Hell. Jesse knew better than to get between his brother and his wife, for more reasons than most.
What was worse, there was no reason to sit there suffering. No reason why he wasn’t telling Dare exactly what was bothering him.
The final approach up the road to Sunset Ridge added to both the deep sense of contentment and the concern dredging through every part of his body.
Nearly identical houses sat silhouetted against the skyline, showcasing the comfortable yet compact homes where he and his twin were raising their families. It was everything he’d ever dreamed of—to be living next to his best friend, head over heels in love with a wonderful woman who was more than his equal. A beautiful little boy and the excitement of discovering their family would be growing—Dare was expecting in July.
Jesse’s fingers tightened instinctively around the envelope, and he cursed. The urge to throw the letter away, or burn it, was so damn strong. Yet he couldn’t.
He pulled into the parking space next to Joel’s truck, a grin coming unbidden as he glanced over to find his brother sitting behind the wheel waiting for him.
They both got out, meeting at the shoveled walkway that led toward the