Brandt sighed. “Ain’t no talkin’ you out of this?”
“Nope.” She buttoned her coat and slipped on her gloves. “Just double check that everything is shut off before you leave. I’ll call you when I get there, okay?”
“Okay. But first…c’mere and give me some sugar.” He curled his fingers around her lapels and tugged her closer.
Then he proceeded to turn her inside out with one of his long, drugging kisses, chock-full of passion, sweetness and heat. Boy howdy did Brandt’s kisses pack a wallop. Her knees and her will went weak.
Until he chuckled against the corner of her mouth. “You sure that didn’t change your mind?”
“Nope.” She backed up and he released her. She reached for the duffel bag strap but Brandt firmly knocked her hand away and picked it up. She still wasn’t used to all his gentlemanly quirks, but she really liked them.
But you could get used to them, couldn’t you?
Yes.
She opened her truck door and whistled. Lexie’s furry body was a blur as she leapt into the cab. Her tail wagged so hard it left wet prints on the passenger window.
Brandt hoisted the duffel into the truck bed. “Landon is gonna miss Lexie the next few days. Did you say goodbye to him?”
She wasn’t sure how Landon would take it, given he sometimes screamed when Jessie left him with Brandt or vice versa. The last thing Brandt needed was a cranky, confused toddler. But Jessie suspected Brandt wouldn’t see the logic in her decision not to give Landon an official goodbye, to tell him to be a Lorelei James
good boy and all that parenting stuff, especially since she wasn’t his parent. Yet, she didn’t want Brandt to think she didn’t care because she was starting to care too much and that scared the holy bejeezus out of her.
“Jess?”
Her gaze snapped to his. “Sorry. Give him a kiss for me, okay? I’ve gotta get on the road.”
“Promise me you’ll drive safe.”
“I promise.”
“Promise you’ll call me as soon as you’re at your mom’s.”
It was so sweet he worried about her. Had Luke ever obsessively worried about her like this? Not that she remembered. She smiled at him. “I promise.”
Brandt kissed her again. “Have a Happy Thanksgiving.”
“You too, Brandt.” She slammed the door and backed out of her driveway. The last thing she saw as she turned the corner onto the main road was Brandt still standing on her steps, watching her go.
Luke definitely had never done that.
The drive from Moorcroft to Riverton was uneventful, with the exception of sporadic snow flurries drifting across the road. By the time she’d reached her mother’s house, both she and Lexie were ready to get out of the truck. She texted Brandt rather than calling him.
When Jessie saw her mom standing in the doorway, she had the urge to run straight into her arms, like she had as a child. So it was no surprise to either of them she did exactly that.
Her mom hugged her tightly. “Jessie! It’s so good to see you. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too.” No matter where they’d ended up living as she was growing up, her mom carried the scents Jessie associated with home; coffee, Aqua Net hairspray, double mint gum and Jergen’s cherry-almond lotion. She inhaled deeply and sighed, happy that some things never changed.
“Come in. I’ve got a pot of coffee ready to go.”
“Thanks, but I’m wired enough as it is.” Jessie kicked off her boots, ditched her coat, hat and gloves.
Then she wiped Lexie’s paws. Her mom didn’t mind pets in the house just as long as she didn’t have to clean muddy paw prints out of her carpet.
“Where’s Roger?”
“At the college. He’ll be here later. He’s trying to catch up on paperwork so he can have the whole weekend off.”
Jessie didn’t really know her mother’s husband Roger Randolph very well. They’d met through the community college in Wheatland where he taught and she worked as an administrative assistant. By that time Jessie already lived on her own. Then she’d met Luke, married him and moved to the McKay ranch.
About six months before Luke died, her mom and Roger had relocated to Riverton. Roger was a nice enough guy, and he seemed to make her mother happy, so that’s all that mattered. “Is Josie coming?”
That gave her mother pause. “No. You haven’t talked to her?”
“She doesn’t exactly keep me on speed dial.” Jessie’s sister, Josie, had inherited her father’s wanderlust. After years spent waiting for Billy to get off the road, her mother had finally divorced him the year Jessie turned twelve. The sad thing was, it hadn’t affected Jessie’s life because Billy hadn’t been around much anyway.
But it’d affected Josie. Josie had romanticized her father and his lifestyle, so she took off right after she’d turned eighteen. It’d been a hard blow to their mother, and for that Jessie resented her younger sister.
Any close relationship they shared vanished when Josie did.
“I talked to her last month,” her mom said. “She’s working at a restaurant in Dallas.”
No big stunner Josie was in cowboy country in Texas. Jessie couldn’t muster interest in Josie’s latest escapade and refused to pretend. She also refused to mention to her mother she’d seen Billy because she doubted she could be civil about him, either.
She wandered into the kitchen and snatched an oatmeal raisin cookie. Her eyes nearly bugged out at the three different kinds of pie, and cinnamon rolls, and brownies, and two different types of cookies—all homemade—that crowded the countertop.
“You want milk with that?”
Milk. Right. Jessie smiled. “Nope. I’d rather have a beer.” She helped herself to one from the fridge.
“Do you have time to sit down? Or are you still whipping up food for tomorrow?”
“I’m mostly done. Gotta get up and put the turkey in, glaze the hamballs and peel the potatoes, but I figured you could help me.”
“Sure thing. How many people are you feeding?” She took a long pull off the Corona.
“Eight. Our friends Barb and Tim, our empty nest neighbors Rich and his wife Dawn, and Roger’s new teaching assistant, Jake.”
Jessie slowly lowered the bottle. “Mom. Please tell me you’re not trying to fix me up with this Jake guy.”
Her mother grabbed a dishrag and wiped cookie crumbs from the counter. “Not a fix up. But Jake is a really great guy. He’s single, so are you. You’re around the same age, I thought it’d be good for you to have someone show you around while you’re here.”