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Nate moved beside the bed. “Jess? It’s Nate.”

His brother’s uninjured eye opened. He blinked at Nate, then fixed on Eden.

She stopped beside the chair.

The eye narrowed.

“No.”

Nate bent closer. “What is it?”

Jesse swallowed. “No bride.”

Eden had traveled for days with a hundred possible answers to a hundred possible questions. She hadn’t prepared for that one.

His refusal was plain enough. At least, she knew where they stood.

She set down her reticule.

“Good,” she said. “I’ve had a long trip, Mr. Pickett, and I’m in no mood to marry anyone today.”

His gaze held hers. One corner of his mouth lifted before he closed his eye again.

Eden pulled the chair nearer the bed.

She could work with that.

Chapter Five

Jesse Pickett glared at Eden as though she’d come to drag him to the church herself.

“No bride,” he repeated.

“I heard you.”

“Then go.”

“I’m not here to marry you today, Mr. Pickett.”

“Ever.”

“That’s a discussion neither of us is fit to have.”

Nate made a sound behind her which might have been a cough. Jesse scowled at his brother, but the effort tightened his bruised face. He shut his eye.

Eden had seen Josiah do the same thing. An argument was easier than admitting a man had reached the end of his strength.

Nate reached for the water beside the bed. “Enough talking. A few sips, Jess.”

Jesse turned his face toward the wall.

“We’ve been through this,” Nate said.

“Then you ought to be better at it.”

Nate’s mouth quirked. “Unfortunately, you’re still my worst patient.”

Eden stepped back. “Would you prefer I faced the window?”