“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.”
“Is that what that is?” Jericho lifted his gaze to the sky. They had a good four hours before sunset. Time enough to drive to the lake and set up camp. If he could get his brothers to back off and get moving. “So are we ready to go or what?”
“Changing the subject doesn’t make anything go away, you know.”
“I’m not changing the subject,” he said tightly, with a glare for each of his brothers. “There is no subject because I’m not talking about it at all. Not with you two. Not with anyone. Because there’s nothing to talk about.”
“Are you crazy or just stupid?” Jesse asked from his perch on the tailgate. “A woman who not only looks like that and can cook and can stand being around your crab-ass attitude for longer than five minutes and you’re not falling on your knees in front of her?”
Jericho sneered at him.
“He’s over the top again,” Justice said, with a little more heat in his voice than usual, “but Jesse’s got a point. For God’s sake, Jericho, you really want to spend the rest of your life a hermit on this mountain?”
“How am I a hermit? I’ve got people coming and going all the damn time.”
“Key word there in that sentence,” Jesse tossed in, “going.”
Jericho snapped at him. “Who asked you to talk?”
Jesse pushed off the tailgate, stood up straight to face his older brother and said, “You ever notice that your attitude gets even crappier when you’re wrong?”
“Just shut up, will you?” Jericho shook his head, looked at his more rational brother and asked, “Justice can I toss him in the lake?”
“You could try,” Jesse goaded.
“Nah,” Justice said, “Bella’d have a fit. And trust me when I say you don’t want to see that woman angry.”
“Amen,” Jesse muttered.
“Fine. No tossing in lakes, but no more ‘advice’ from you either,” Jericho said and slammed the gate of the truck shut with enough force to rattle metal.
“Fine,” Jesse agreed. “No more advice, even though you really need it.”
“Get in the truck,” Justice told him, then when Jesse was gone, he said, “He’s right, you know. About Daisy. And you. You might want to think about this before you screw something good up. I know. I damn near did the same thing myself.”
Jericho sighed, shoved one hand through his hair and said, “I’m glad you and Maggie made it work. Really. But this thing with Daisy, it’s different.”
“How?”
“There are things she doesn’t know,” Jericho said. “Things we haven’t talked about. But even discounting that…bottom line?” Jericho said with a slow shake of his head. “We’re way too different. I’m scotch, she’s wine. I’m outdoors, she’s in. Just wouldn’t work because, like it or not, she doesn’t belong here.”
* * *
Daisy bit down on her bottom lip to keep from speaking up and giving away her position. She should have known better than to stand there and listen in on Jericho and his brothers. And she really hadn’t meant to at first. But when she’d headed back for the house to get a pair of scissors to use to deadhead the flowers, she’d gotten caught back up in their conversation.
It had been fun listening to the three brothers go back and forth, making fun, teasing each other. She’d been reminded of how she and Brant had talked and laughed together, so she’d stayed hidden, enjoying the easy banter between them.
Then, when the conversation had shifted to her, she’d been too intrigued to leave.
Now, anxiety wrapped itself around her and she felt cold to the bone. She leaned back against the side of the house and curled her hands into fists at her sides. It took everything she had to stand her ground and not go rushing out into the yard, demanding that Jericho tell her what he’d been keeping from her.
What was it she didn’t know?
What was he hiding?
“And why?” she whispered, glancing briefly down at Nikki who sat, head cocked, ears lifted as if considering Daisy’s question.
But when no answers came, Daisy shifted her gaze to stare up at the sky. She didn’t see the clouds sweeping across that wide expanse. Instead, she saw Jericho’s ice-blue eyes looking down at her. In her mind’s eyes, she saw his face, emotion charging his features as he covered her body with his. As they lay together in the shadows, talking and laughing after the loving.
And she saw him now, as he’d faced Justice and said, She doesn’t belong here.
How could he still believe that? Hadn’t she made a place for herself here? Hadn’t she helped him with his clients, turned his stark, barren house into a comfortable home? Hadn’t she spent every night in his arms?
Irritation spiked inside her, warring instantly with the regret and sorrow that had her system strangling. He thought she was stubborn? They’d spent every day of the past few weeks together. Worked together. She’d gone on one survival trip with him and his clients and not only had she kept up, but she’d also handled the cooking and made the camp’s clients more comfortable. She’d proved herself, she knew she had.
Yet, he still held back.
Still stood to one side and pronounced that she didn’t fit. Didn’t belong. What would it take for him to admit that she did? Or would he, ever? If he was so determined to keep her out, would that ever change? Wasn’t she just setting herself up for disappointment and pain if she remained, waiting, hoping he’d see the light?
“This is your own fault,” she muttered as she listened to the rumble of the men’s laughter. “If you hadn’t fallen for him, then this wouldn’t matter at all. You’d simply leave as you’d planned to do in the first place and you wouldn’t have looked back.”
But that was the trouble, she told herself. She would be looking back. Always.
Jericho laughed aloud at something one of his brothers said and the rich, deep sound of it sliced into her.
Nikki whined and Daisy bent to scoop up the little dog and cuddle her close to comfort both of them. At the moment, she wanted nothing more than to walk right out there and confront Jericho. She wanted answers. She wanted him to look her in the eye and try to say she didn’t belong. That there was nothing between them.