Jessie’s chin tilted stubbornly. “I won’t leave. Not like this.”
“There’s no choice. You have no idea what it’s going to be like around here in a few hours. I won’t let you go through that.”
“I’m not leaving,” Jessie repeated adamantly. “I thought Angela would bring this family back together. It seemed to me just yesterday that you and your father were putting past differences behind you. I can’t allow our feelings to ruin your chances for a reconciliation.”
Luke stared at her incredulously. “Jessie, what the hell is going on here? You fought like crazy to get me to acknowledge my feelings for you. Finally, just last night, we agreed to stop fighting how we feel and try to build a future. Now you’re willing to put that at risk so my father and I can get along? I don’t get it. Where are your priorities?”
“Where they’ve always been,” she said quietly. “With family. Nothing’s more important, Luke. Nothing.”
He took a step back and studied her as if she were an alien creature. He didn’t understand how he had gotten it so wrong. She was still the woman he loved, all right. Her hair was tousled and just begging for him to run his fingers through it. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes glinting with determination. She was the most incredible mix of soft curves and fierce convictions he’d ever met.
Right now, though, it seemed to him their dilemma came down to a choice between family and him. If he understood her correctly, she was choosing his family.
Raking his fingers through his hair in a gesture of pure frustration, he shook his head. “So that’s it, then? After all this, you’re choosing them over me.”
He had to admit that Jessie looked shocked by his assessment.
“That isn’t what I’m saying at all,” she protested. “I’m saying we need to stay here and work it out.”
“Not me,” Luke said stubbornly. “You can make peace with the devil, if that’s what you want, but I’ll be damned if I’ll hang around with people who think so little of you and of me. Frankly, I’d think you’d have more pride, too.”
With one last look in her direction, he turned and stalked from the room. Just as he had with his father earlier, he ignored her plea for him to return. As far as he could tell, there was nothing more to be said.
Only after he had his bag packed and was outside did he allow himself to stop for an instant and think about what was happening. When he did, this great empty space seemed to open up inside him.
They had been so close. He had actually begun to believe that dreams could come true. In the end, though, Jessie’s love hadn’t been as strong as he’d thought.
He threw his bag onto the passenger seat of one of his father’s pickups and dug the keys out from under the mat. He’d hire someone to drive it back from his ranch tomorrow. He sure as hell wasn’t about to ask Harlan to have the pilot fly him home.
Besides, the long, tedious drive would do him good. He’d have time enough to figure out how he was going to survive not having Jessie and Angela in his life.
He was just about to turn onto the driveway, when a bright red pickup skidded to a halt behind him, blocking his way. Cody leapt from the truck before the engine quieted.
“Luke, what the hell are you doing?” his youngest brother demanded.
“What does it look like? I’m stealing one of Daddy’s trucks and going home.”
“Without Jessie?” Cody inquired softly.
Luke stilled and stared at his brother. “What do you know about Jessie and me?”
Cody rolled his eyes. “Hell, Luke, anyone who isn’t blind could see how the two of you feel about each other. Don’t abandon her now.”
“You’ve got it backward. She made the decision to stay.”
“You’re the one in the truck, about to head down the driveway,” Cody contradicted. “That constitutes abandonment in my book. I thought you had more guts.”
A dull throbbing was beginning at the base of Luke’s skull. “Whatever you have to say, Cody, spit it out. I want to get on the road.”
His brother shot him a commiserating look. “I talked to Jessie a little bit ago. She wasn’t making a lot of sense, but I got the gist of it. I know what Daddy said. It was a lousy thing to say. There’s no getting around that.”
“So you can see why all I want to do is get the hell away from here.”
“Sure can,” Cody agreed.
Luke was startled by the unexpected agreement. He studied Cody suspiciously.
“Of course, Jessie also told me a story. She said you’d remembered how Daddy taught us to be strong, how he made us fight for the things we wanted in life. She told me some cockamamy theory that he deliberately puts roadblocks in our paths just so we have to scramble over them. It’s his way of finding out how badly we want something.”
Luke closed his eyes. He recalled the exact conversation all too vividly.
“Isn’t Jessie worth fighting for?” Cody asked softly. “Seems to me like she is.”
His brother’s words reached him as nothing else had. Cody was right. He was running away from the most important fight of his life. Luke sighed and cut the pickup’s engine.
“When did you grow up and get so damned smart?” he asked as he climbed from the truck and snagged his brother in a hug.
“Not me,” Cody denied. “It was Jessie. She gave me all the arguments I’d need.”
“She could have tried them on me herself.”
Cody grinned. “She said you were too mad at her to listen. She figured since I was neutral, I might have a shot at getting through that thick skull of yours.”
“Daddy’s never going to approve of me being with Jessie,” Luke said. “Mother’s going to go ballistic.”
“Ought to make life around here
