“Ha!” Jesse laughed shortly, then got a bemused look on his face. “My Bella? Peaceful? That’ll be the day.”
“Please,” Justice said. “Your wife’s a sweetheart. You want to see a woman with a temper, you take my Maggie on in an argument. You’ll be lucky to get out with your hide still attached.”
“You’re pitching Maggie’s Irish temper against Bella’s Mexican temperament?” Jesse laughed again. “No contest, big brother. Bella’s small, but she’s tough.”
Both men continued to compare their wives, each of them sounding so damn proud of the women in their lives that Jericho felt a moment’s envy. Which was new for him. He was even tempted to jump in and tell them both that Daisy was more woman than either of their wives.
That thought startled him down to the bone. Usually, all he experienced when his brothers started talking was a pang of sympathy for the women who’d chosen to love his hardheaded brothers. Now though, since Daisy, Jericho could understand just what his brothers felt for their wives. Didn’t make him feel any better to realize it though. Instead, it seemed to solidify for him the fact that he’d let Daisy get too close.
He’d allowed her to matter.
Jericho stood to one side, his gaze still locked with Daisy’s as his brothers ragged on each other. The banter was familiar and comfortable. The only difference this time was that Daisy was here, so Jericho’s mind wasn’t really on keeping up with his brothers. Instead, all he could think was that he wished the weekend was over so that he could drag her upstairs, lock the two of them up in his room and forget about everything but her for the next twenty-four hours or so.
Yes, he’d decided to tell her everything, his mind argued, but that wasn’t saying he couldn’t have one more night with her first. If that made him a selfish bastard, then he could live with that.
“Yo, Jericho!” Jesse punched his arm. “You alive?”
“Yeah, I am, little brother,” he said, tearing his gaze from Daisy long enough to give Jesse a hard stare that had once been known to freeze Marine recruits in their tracks. Naturally enough, Jesse didn’t even flinch. Disgusted, Jericho told him, “Load up the rest of the gear so we can get moving.”
“See?” Jesse pointed out to no one, “Still giving orders.”
“You guys have fun,” Daisy said with a laugh as she headed down the back porch steps and turned for the corner of the house. “Come on, Nikki,” she called to the little dog clearly torn between walking with her or staying to stare longingly at Jericho. “I’ve got some chrysanthemums to stake. Guess I’ll see you all tomorrow night?”
“We’ll be back by supper time,” Justice assured her.
She lifted one hand and kept walking, disappearing around the edge of the log house, with the dog pausing for one backward look before joining her.
“Staking flowers?” Jesse muttered with a shake of his head as he looked after her. “Why?”
“Do I look like a gardener to you?” Jericho asked with irritation. “How the hell would I know?” He scrubbed one hand across his chin. “I didn’t even know we had chrysanthemums.”
Jesse turned to the task at hand, tossing in sleeping bags and a camp stove, then he carefully set their fishing poles into the back of the truck, too. While he worked, Jericho simply stared off into space, watching the spot where Daisy had vanished.
“Something you want to tell me?” Justice asked quietly as he stepped up alongside him.
“Huh?” Jericho started and looked at him as though he were crazy. But it wouldn’t fool Justice. He’d always been the one of them to see things no one wanted him to see. Well, except when it came to his own life. Their oldest brother Jefferson had explained to Jericho just how badly Justice had screwed up his marriage to Maggie. And how close the couple had come to losing everything that was between them.
“I’m not blind, you know,” Justice told him. “I can see how she looks at you—and just how you’re looking back.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Damn it. He should have expected this, he told himself. Of course Justice would pick up on the tensions between him and Daisy. Of course he’d notice things Jericho would rather keep under the radar.
“Yeah? Then why is it you look like a man on the ragged edge?” Justice asked. “Hell, Jericho. You finally fall for a woman and you’re not going to do anything about it?”
“Nobody fell for anybody,” he argued, distinctly uncomfortable with the conversation.
“What’s this?” Jesse sidled up alongside Justice and stuck his two cents in. “The Almighty Jericho King falling in love?” He laughed and reached out to shove Jericho’s shoulder. “This is big news, man!”
“Will you shut the hell up?” Jericho snapped, shooting a glance at the spot where Daisy had last been seen just to make sure she wasn’t in earshot. Now that Jesse had caught wind of this, there would be no keeping him quiet. “Nobody said anything about love.”
“Didn’t have to. Hell,” Justice mused, “you practically set her on fire just looking at her.”
“Lust isn’t love, in case you didn’t know that already,” he told his brothers, sparing first one, then the other of them a hard glare meant to end the conversation once and for all. Of course, it didn’t.
“It’s a good start though,” Jesse told him, his unabashed grin nearly splitting his features in two. “First time I saw Bella…” He paused for a heavily dramatic sigh, then said, “Well, not the first time. The first time, it was dark and I could hardly see her at all. The second time, she was wearing this ugly-ass tent dress, but the third time,” he mused with a grin, “that’s the one that got me.”
“You’re an idiot,” Jericho told him. “And my sympathies to your wife.”
Jesse’s eyebrows lifted as he laughed, clearly unoffended. “She loves me.”
“No accounting for taste,” Justice put in.
“Hey,” Jesse shot back, “we were ragging on Jericho, remember?”
“And now you’re done. You talk too much,” Jericho told him. “Always did. A bad habit you ought to try to break.”
“Too late now,” Jesse said with a negligent shrug. He walked back to the truck and took a seat on the tailgate. “Besides, it’s part of my charm.”