Lost and Found

Jesse had been right. I did almost pass out into the pancake batter the next morning. Although it was huckleberry, not blueberry.

We did go to sleep. Eventually. But an hour of sleep didn’t really cut it. I was waiting for the coffee to brew and almost counting the minutes until I could be with Jesse again.

It would be one long-ass day.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Rose came up beside me holding a bowl and beating the eggs inside it with a wire whisk.

I didn’t care if she offered me a million dollars for my thoughts. I would not admit having dirty thoughts to the mother of the boy I was having them about.

“It’s too early for thoughts,” I said, flipping a few pancakes. After my first pancake catastrophe, I hadn’t burned another batch.

Knock on wood.

Or . . . ehem . . .

Shoot. I was blushing in front of Rose.

“Did you enjoy the dance last night?” she asked.

Focus on the pancakes and try not to sound like an imbecile. “I enjoyed myself.” Especially the after party.

“I’m glad, sweetie,” she said, heading back over to the stove with her whipped eggs. “We all work so hard around here, it’s nice to let your hair down and have a good time.”

Mission accomplished, then.

I was about to check the pancakes when the back door swung open and a string of cowboys wandered in. They were all a little bleary-eyed, but one was especially so. Tired as he looked, Jesse had an I-just-got-laid grin on his face.

He hung his hat up and headed my way, making no qualms about it.

I’m pretty sure I flushed again as a few of the high, high points of last night ran through my mind. Our second time, I’d introduced Jesse to the cowgirl position—I thought he could especially appreciate it—and we’d taken our time. Well, we’d taken a bit more time. Not much.

“Good morning,” I said with a bit of inflection as he stopped in front of me. He was close, a little too close for being in a kitchen of people who thought we were just friends.

Jesse snatched an apple from the copper bowl on the counter. “Why, yes. Yes, it is,” he said, crunching into the apple. He managed to keep that grin on his face the whole time.

“How did you sleep?” I teased, smiling into the griddle.

He leaned in closer and whispered, “I didn’t.”

A shiver ran down my spine in the middle of a hot kitchen on a summer morning. The man had the art of inflection down.

“How do you feel this morning?” I asked, trying to sound like we were having the most ordinary of conversations.

He sunk his teeth into the apple again, his eyes gleaming. “Like I lost something,” he said before chewing the chunk of apple in his mouth.

I snickered quietly.

“Oh, no, hun,” Rose said, appearing out of nowhere. “What did you lose?”

Jesse’s mouth stopped crunching as he did that whole deer-in-the-headlights thing again. He’d done a lot of that in the past twenty-four hours. “Uhhh . . . I don’t know . . . what I lost?” He glanced at me like he was looking for some help.

I was still too frozen to talk.

Rose gave him an amused face. “Then what were you just saying you lost?”

Jesse gulped down what was left of the apple in his mouth. “I don’t know. I won’t remember what I lost until I find it.”

I joined Rose in giving him an amused look. She lifted her hand to his forehead and ran it over his face. “Are you coming down with something, Jesse?”

“Nope,” he said, sliding me a quick look. “I’ve never felt better. But I want to tell you and Dad something.”

My mouth dropped open. He wouldn’t do that yet. When he said he’d tell his parents, I thought I’d at least have a few days to get used to the idea. Apparently not. I mouthed What? at him.

His response? A wink and an I’ve got this mouthed back.

“Well?” Neil said, coming up behind Rose and resting his hands on her shoulders. “Tell away.”

I was wincing before Jesse said one word.

“Rowen and I are dating,” he said, all matter-of-fact. “We’re together. We like each other. She rocks my world. I rock hers.” He shot me a sideways look and tried to keep his smile contained.

My mouth fell open a bit more.

Jesse lifted a shoulder. “We just wanted you both to know so it didn’t seem like we were sneaking around behind your backs.”

If climbing up a chimney to get to his room so I could seduce their virginal son wasn’t considered “sneaking,” perhaps I needed to look that one up in the dictionary again.

Jesse wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. He’d said it, so he was showing it.

Ground? Please open up and shallow me right now.

I chanced a look at Rose and Neil, certain they’d scowl at me like I was the wolf they’d let into their precious little flock of sheep. Instead, I found the opposite. Neil had a small smile on his face, and Rose’s smile was tipped a little higher on one side.

“We appreciate you telling us, Jesse.” Rose patted her son’s cheek. “We kind of figured that out on our own.” Neil and she exchanged a look. “But it was nice of you two to finally figure it out, too.”

My mouth could only drop open. It certainly wasn’t up to forming actual words.

“Yeah, well, Rowen kind of made me work hard for it,” Jesse said, back to working on his apple. Neil just shook his head and smiled his way over to the table.

Rose glanced purposefully at me, standing beside Jesse, protected under his arm, and she winked. “As she should have.” Then, like nothing especially profound had just been announced, Rose headed back to the stove and her eggs.

“See?” he said, kissing the top of my head. “Easy as that.”

I rolled my eyes and smacked his butt as he wandered toward the table. A few of the guys who’d noticed gave him a thumbs up or lifted their cups of coffee my way. The embarrassment wouldn’t end that morning.

“Yeah, that was the epitome of smooth,” I said after him.

He spun around, his dimples on full display, and lifted his hands at his sides. “It was as smooth as I’m capable of,” he said before sniffing the air. My shoulders went rigid before the next words came from his mouth. “The pancakes are burning.”