with it, but I am not letting you start doing this go quiet until Jesse spills all the beans bullshit.”
“Not bullshit if it works,” Joel pointed out. The timer on the oven went off, and he turned to grab oven mitts. “Stay back, kiddos,” he warned as the children raced over to join them.
Jesse scooped the children up, pretending to be a bear. He growled and nibbled as their kids shrieked with laughter, allowing Joel to safely deal with the hot pans and close the oven.
It was only after the cookies were all baked and glasses of milk consumed, after everyone bundled up in snowsuits to go out to greet Vicki and Dare, who were expected to return soon, that Joel realized he’d never returned to the conversation with Jesse. Never found out what was bothering his brother.
He considered as they walked outside, laughter ringing around them and the beautiful setting of their homes a joy inside his gut.
Not knowing was okay.
Jesse knew he could tell him anything, but it wasn’t Joel’s responsibility to tease out the trouble. Jesse had Dare to confide in, to celebrate with, plan and even worry with. Joel had Vicki for all those same things. That was right, and it was good.
The bond between them as brothers was as strong as ever, but they no longer had to be everything for each other.
Joel held his daughter’s hand, walked beside his twin, and stared out over the land to where his wife and unborn child were riding slowly toward him.
This? Yeah, it might feel unreal at times, but it was exactly where he needed to be.
Dare took another deep breath of the crisp February air, letting it out slowly as their horses began the final slow ascent to the houses silhouetted against the winter sky. “I’m so glad we went riding today.”
Vicki grabbed hold of the saddle horn and let out an enormous sigh as she all but sprawled on the back of her mount. “Me too. Don’t think I’ll be riding for too much longer, and I’ll miss it.” She glanced over at Dare, eyeing her also blooming belly. “Your days are limited as well.”
“Truth.” Dare examined her sister-in-law and how relaxed she sat on the back of the horse. “I have to admit it’s rather amusing to know that the idea of not getting out on the big, stinky beasts is making you sad.”
“Shut up,” Vicki said, but she smiled.
It was neat to have been a part of each other’s lives for long enough now that even stories from when they hadn’t been friends were well enough known to be shared and teased about.
Vicki’s past fear of horses had been the catalyst for her getting together with Joel. Dare’s sadness over the loss of her family had triggered the one-night stand that resulted in both Buckaroo and Jesse changing her world forever.
Vicki knew the stories. Dare knew the stories. They were sisters by choice in a way that made each day special.
Which meant teasing was very necessary.
“We could put some horse manure in a bucket,” Dare offered. “We’ll stick it in the back of the crew cab, and then you can drive down the road with the windows open and have that same sensation—”
“You’re terrible.” Vicki sat a little straighter, but she patted a hand against her horse’s withers. “You’re not stinky. Nope. You’re a pretty girl.”
“Still think it’s funny.”
This time, when her sister-in-law glanced toward her, Vicki’s expression was more serious. Thoughtful. “Yeah, it is funny, but in all the right ways. I mean, it feels like a long time ago I made that confession to Joel. And back then, the idea of getting up on a horse was enough to make me want to get sick.”
Dare stayed silent, but again her gaze drifted over the other woman who had become a friend as well as family. There was no hesitation as she moved in an easy cadence with the solid beast under her. Vicki’s hands on the reins were competent, nearly as relaxed as Dare’s, and Dare had grown up on a ranch and been around animals her entire life.
Vicki continued, her voice growing clearer by the moment. “There’s a lot of things we think when we’re young. There’s a lot of—call it baggage—we have to go through. And I know we’re still young in many ways,” she said, meeting Dare’s eyes. “But we’ve got each other. We’ve got Jesse and Joel, and all the rest of their family supporting us… It’s