Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
JESSE
S he didn’t think her dad would ever release her when he nearly tackled her upon opening their hotel room door.
Especially because while she thought she was going to reassure him that she was fine, she immediately burst into tears.
Now she sat on their bed with her father and Josie holding her as she sobbed.
“Are you really okay, honey?” Josie asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. It was…something.” She looked at her dad. “Okay, I took time off work. Happy now?”
He froze before bursting into deep belly laughs, and she couldn’t remember the last time she heard him do that.
“We were so damned terrified,” he said. “I did try to be good. I texted you and tried not to worry that you weren’t responding until the park service called.”
“You get an A for effort, Daddy.”
Josie draped an arm around her. “The surprise of this,” she said, “is now I’m the one wanting to wrap you in bubble wrap.”
“So says the woman about to explode,” Jesse teased back.
Josie rested a hand on her stomach. “Yeah, well, I couldn’t risk having him and you not be here for it. When do we get to meet the men your father now wants to have sainted?”
Jesse’s face heated. She didn’t know how she’d break the news of their relationship to them, but her first step was to figure out exactly what this relationship with the men was first.
And best to do that before letting her parents in on the news.
Which led her to another thought.
“I love you, Josie. You know that, right?”
She cocked her head. “Yes, honey. I love you, too.”
Jesse teared up again. “You’re a good mom to me, and you’ll be a great mom to the tater tot. I know you will.”
Now Josie started crying, engulfing her in another hug. “I never wanted you to think I was trying to replace your mom,” she tearfully said. “But thank you. I want to be your mom.”
“You are.”
“Well, when we finish crying,” her father said. “Let’s eat breakfast and figure out how to get back home.”
“I can’t leave for home yet,” Jesse said. “Besides, I need to go back to Mark and Christopher’s. My things are all there.” And I need to talk to them to see if I even want to leave Yellowstone.
He nodded. “Okay. Well, I’ll go with you, and?—”
“No, Daddy,” Jesse said. “You stay here with Josie. I don’t want her going into labor alone.”
Josie cocked her head at Jesse, studying her for a moment. “Brand, let her go. She’s been through a lot. She probably needs time alone away from everyone.”
“She was just lost in the wilderness for nearly two weeks!” he protested.
Jesse grabbed the easy excuse. “I was cooped up in a tent with them for nearly a whole week of that, too. She’s right; I do need alone time. I promise I won’t disappear again.”
He finally agreed, and after eating breakfast at Melva’s, Jesse drove back into the park while the two security guys her dad brought with them drove them back to the hotel.
Her palms sweated as she made the drive and ran through several scenarios in her mind, working on scripts.
The men certainly seemed on-board with the idea of this being the start of something long-term. At least, that’s what she gleaned from their discussions.
When she pulled up in front of their cabin, both their trucks sat parked there, and the front door was unlocked, so she walked in. She heard the men talking somewhere in the back of the house, along with the sounds of the washer and dryer going, and headed that way.
CHRISTOPHER
The men stood in the laundry alcove in the master bath, sorting and folding the first load of clothes fresh from the dryer while another load started washing and the second load tumbled in the dryer.
“I’m saying don’t get your hopes us, Chris,” Mark said.
He wanted to strangle Mark. “Can’t you put your doubt aside for a little while? Why wouldn’t she want to be with us? Everything she’s said points to that.”
“I’m just saying we’ve gone through this before,” Mark snapped. “Wealthy tourist, fun fling, and nothing more. It’s the same pattern, especially with the rich ones. Certainly nothing to uproot our lives over.”
Chris shook his head. “I’m sure that’s not all this is to her!”
JESSE
Jesse couldn’t hear them clearly but as she approached their bedroom, Mark’s voice stopped her dead in her tracks.
“I’m just saying we’ve gone through this before. Wealthy tourist, fun fling, and nothing more. It’s the same pattern, especially with the rich ones. Certainly nothing to uproot our lives over.”
Chris started to say something in response but Jesse couldn’t hear it over the sound of blood roaring in her ears. She didn’t even realize she’d turned and hurried toward the guest room to grab her things until her suitcase and computer bag were in her hands. As she quietly made her way to the front door she snatched her purse from where she’d laid it on a chair on her way in and closed the front door quietly behind her.
She threw everything into the back seat and managed to hold her tears at bay until she reached the road. Then she pulled over onto the shoulder so she could sob. It felt like a knife had split her guts open from neck to navel, her heart and dreams spilling out all over.
How could I have been so wrong about them?
She even tried closing her eyes, taking long, slow, deep breaths to ground herself, but her face still flamed, her heart screaming at her for leaving, her brain screaming at her for not leaving sooner?—
I can’t do this.
Still crying, she checked for traffic before pulling onto the road and returning to Gardiner.
MARK
“You’re wrong , Mark,” Chris insisted. “She’s not like that!”
Mark grabbed the basket of folded clothes. “I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m telling you to please stay grounded in reality, all right? If she walks in here and throws her arms around us and says she’s moving here for good, then I’ll be jumping for joy with you. I know you want to plan. I know it’s how your neurospicy brain copes. I know you want to consider every option and not focus on the ones with outcomes contrary to what we want. But I’m begging you, please let this happen however it’s supposed to.”
“Why are you acting like this?”
“Because I don’t want you to get your heart broken, okay?”
Chris engulfed him in a side hug even as Mark still held the basket. On top were a pair of Jesse’s panties. “I’m an adult, Mark. I think you’re more worried about your heart being broke than mine.”
“You can frame it however you want, but it works out to the same thing.”
Chris kissed him. “I need to clear a few more things off my plate. I want to be ready when she comes back so we can sit and talk. Hopefully we get to meet her parents!”
“Yeah. I’ll finish this.”
Chris headed for the living room while Mark started putting the laundry away, leaving Jesse’s neatly folded in the basket. He walked it to the guest room and neatly laid everything on the bed in piles to free up the basket. Returning to the bathroom, he started cleaning.
I should probably change the sheets.
He smiled. We should probably buy extra sets of sheets.
He stopped what he was doing, stripped the bed and remade it with clean sheets, leaving the dirty ones on the floor by the laundry alcove. Something nagged at him as he resumed cleaning, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“I’ll text her and ask her when she’s coming back, or if we’re meeting her in town, or what,” Chris called.
“Okay.”
He finished cleaning the bathroom several minutes later and headed down the hall, stopping and backing up as his gaze studied the clean laundry on the guest bed.
He turned, walking down the hall, and stood in the doorway.
Shit.
Her luggage had been on the bed when she left. He knew it. He saw it there.
“Hey, Chris?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you move Jesse’s luggage?”
“No, why?”
A black, cold hole opened at the bottom of his soul. He walked out to the living room and no, her car wasn’t parked by their trucks.
“Jesse didn’t take her luggage with her when she left to meet her folks, right?”
He looked up from his laptop. “No, it should be sitting on her bed. Why?”
Mark realized his jaw had clenched and he forced himself to relax. “Don’t text her again.”
“What?”
“I said don’t text her again!” He angrily turned. “Her luggage is gone.”
“ What ?” He stood and hurried down the hall to the guest room. “I know it was there! Hell, it was there when we started laundry, because I came in here to make sure I wasn’t missing any dirty clothes!”
Mark followed him. Chris turned and Mark stared down at him. “Do not text her again,” he quietly said. “Wait for her to text back.”
His gaze widened. “What the hell, dude?” He even started to lift his phone to do just that and Mark gently closed his hand around it.
“Chris,” he said, forcing his voice to stay low, calm. “She’s not coming back. Why would she sneak in here and sneak out again with her luggage?”
“Are we sure we’re not mistaken? Maybe she did take it and we’re?—”
“And we’re what, Chris? You want to call her and ask her why she snuck in here and took her stuff and didn’t say anything?”
“Well, yeah. That’s exactly what I want to do.”
Mark’s stomach clenched and he wasn’t sure he might not throw up. “You call her and we’re wrong—and I hope to god we are—it’ll piss her off and make her think we don’t trust her. If she responds to your text when she’s coming back, then there’s no harm, right?”
He didn’t look certain. “I’m not sure?—”
“Please,” Mark said, barely able to hold it in now. “Just do this for me, all right? Let her text or call us back. Besides, her father might not like it if we interrupt their time together.”
Chris looked even less certain now. “Okay. Fine.”
As Chris slipped his phone into his pocket Mark remained there, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.
I’m an idiot.
Because he knew, deep in his heart, that she wasn’t coming back.
And god how he fucking wished he was wrong.