Moving back to the Double Diamond to provide extra security when he wasn’t at work would be the best way to keep them safe. But he wasn’t sure he could stand to be around Jessie that much.
As he pulled up beside the ranch house, a large rectangular object sticking out of the trash can caught his eye. It was the picture Jessie had started at the cabin. Unfinished.
His stomach sank. Had the close call with Pendleton yesterday shaken her fragile self-esteem? Or was it something personal against him?
He pulled the canvas from the garbage can and studied it. It had suffered no damage that he could see. The painting was so good it made his chest swell with pride on Jessie’s behalf.
She obviously didn’t think so if she’d thrown it away.
He tucked it under his arm and walked around to the front door. After a brief knock, he walked in.
Jessie was nowhere in sight. But a sight he’d never expected to see in the late afternoon at the ranch greeted him. Jake sat on one end of the couch with Emily’s head in his lap. He pulled a brush through her long auburn hair. The sun hadn’t set yet, and his workaholic brother sat brushing his wife’s hair.
Robert bit back a comment about Jake’s man card. Emily would call him immature, and she’d be right.
Even though he always felt like Emily analyzed everything he said and did, he was happy for Jake. Emily was good for him. And Jake had been just what she needed last year when she suffered such a devastating loss.
“Hey,” Robert greeted them.
“Hi,” Jake and Emily said in unison.
“Jake, I need to talk with you, but first...is Jessie around?”
Jake motioned over his shoulder with his thumb. “She’s out on the back deck.”
Robert started toward the back door but stopped when Emily called his name.
“Be careful. She’s incredibly fragile.” She shot a pointed look at the canvas in his hand.
Was his disappointment that obvious?
He gave her a quick nod and continued out the door with no clue of what he’d say to Jessie. Jake was good at these kinds of things, Robert, not so much.
He stepped outside and looked around.
Jessie sat on the swing with a closed book in her lap. The book either didn’t hold her attention or she had other things on her mind. Heavy things, judging by the furrow between her brows.
“Hey.” Robert shot her a smile as he leaned the canvas against the railing and sat on the swing beside her. He probably shouldn’t sit so close, but all the other chairs were too far away to promote conversation.
Her feminine scent, a combination of flowers and fruit, hit him harder than he expected. He should have sat on a chair. Way over there.
“Hay is for horses.” Jessie said with a small smile.
Robert chuckled as he remembered the familiar exchange from when they were teenagers. Except, Robert was the one who pointed out hay was for horses every time Jessie greeted him with a ‘hey’.
“Welcome back to the ranch.”
Jessie said nothing. She just sucked in a deep breath and looked out over the pasture where the stock horses grazed.
“You should know, Pendleton’s bail won’t be set until Monday. It will probably be pretty steep.”
“It won’t matter. His parents have money.” Jessie’s face showed no emotion, and that concerned Robert. She was a passionate person and often wore her emotions on her sleeve. “I see you fished that out of the garbage.” She nodded toward the canvas.
“I thought you were enjoying painting again.”
“I was.”
“I take it you had a change of heart.”
