Before Dan could say a single word in response, Jamie broke out in another huge smile. “Damn, but it’s good to see you!” he cried, pulling Dan into another heartfelt, although slightly less rib-crushing, bear hug.
This time, he released Dan without being prompted. A long sigh escaped him as he took a step back again.
“You’ve lost weight,” Jamie finally noted.
“I wasn’t exactly fat to begin with,” Dan reminded his brother with a self-conscious laugh.
“No, you weren’t. But I don’t recall your face looking this gaunt before—Damn, it’s so great to see you,” Jamie exclaimed again. “I thought... Well, for a while, I thought—” Jamie waved his hand. “Never mind what I thought. You’re alive and you’re here and that’s all that counts.” He blinked back tears that threatened to spill out. “Sit down. Make yourself comfortable,” he urged, gesturing toward the leather sofa in his living room.
Relieved, Dan sat down beside his brother. “This is quite a welcome,” he told Jamie, then confessed the fear that had almost made him turn around and go home before Jamie even knew he was there. “I was afraid you’d be angry with me.”
“You mean for leaving?”
Dan nodded, looking uncomfortable as well as embarrassed. “Yes.”
“I was,” Jamie admitted. “I was really angry for a while. Angry and bitter that you and Luke and Bailey had just picked up and left us. Left me,” he emphasized because that was what had been at the heart of his initial anger. “But then I realized that it wasn’t your fault. After Mom and Dad died in that car crash, Grandma and Grandpa didn’t exactly make it easy for the three of you to stick around.”
As his brother spoke, memories of his grandparents assailed Daniel. Reliving those harsh days, even now, was painful. But he needn’t explain them to Jamie, he realized, when his brother continued.
“I didn’t find out the truth till much later. That they’d made it quite clear that they might have to take in Bella and me—since they managed to get the other girls adopted—but the three of you who were eighteen or older could fend for yourselves somewhere else. They all but told you, Luke and Bailey to leave town, so you really had no choice but to go.”
Daniel could remember the day so clearly, though it had happened twelve years ago.
“But I didn’t know at the time that they had said that to you,” Jamie said. “All I knew was that my parents were dead and my big brothers had abandoned me just when I felt that I needed them the most.” Jamie shook his head, trying to block the painful feeling those memories aroused. “I was really angry at you for a long time.”
Dan made no effort to attempt to deflect the blame. However, the way Jamie had welcomed him was not the greeting of a man who still held a grudge.
“But you’re not anymore?” Dan asked, wanting to be perfectly clear just where they stood in relation to one another.
“No, I’m not,” Jamie readily confirmed.
Relief swamped him. Dan knew he should just accept that and be happy. He was aware that he was pushing his luck, but he had to know. “What changed your mind?”
Jamie laughed. “Simple. I found out that life’s too short to carry around all this anger and bitterness. And the triplets came into my life. Nothing like being responsible for three tiny, helpless souls to make you get over yourself—fast,” Jamie emphasized. “Once I stopped being so angry about everything, I left myself open for the good stuff, like love,” he told Dan with a wide grin. “And that’s when I fell in love with Fallon O’Reilly. After that, my whole world changed for the better—and now I couldn’t be happier.”
As if suddenly hearing himself, Jamie stopped right in the middle of his narrative, embarrassed. “Hell, I’m sorry.”
“About what?” Dan asked, confused.
“Well, I’m doing all the talking here.”
Dan shook his head. “That’s okay. I think it’s great. I haven’t heard your voice in so long,” he told Jamie. “Just keep talking.”
But Jamie was not about to get sidetracked again. He had questions for his older brother.
“No, first tell me what made you suddenly turn up on my doorstep now, after twelve long years.” Fresh fears suddenly surfaced in his mind. “Did something happen?” he wanted to know. “Has something suddenly changed? You’re not dying, are you?” he asked, alarmed.
“No, I’m not dying,” Dan assured his brother. “What happened was that I was in my cabin—”
Jamie cut in, surprised. “You have a cabin?”
“Yes,” Dan answered. He didn’t want to get into all that right now. That was for later. “Long story,” he said, waving it away.
Jamie was starved for any and all information concerning Dan, not to mention the rest of his family, except for his sister Bella, who was still in Rust Creek Falls, and other sister Dana, who had recently been found.
“Go ahead, I’m all ears,” Jamie told him.
Dan wanted to tell him about this part first, because it was what led to his coming back to Rust Creek Falls and to his seeking out Jamie. “I’ll tell you about that once I finish answering your first question.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Jamie said, then coaxed, “Go ahead, I’m listening.”
“All right, then.” Taking a breath, Dan began again. “I’d just put in an extra-hard day. Walking into my cabin, I turned on the TV for some company—”
“So you live alone?”
Alone.
Each time Dan heard it, the word burned more and more of a hole in his gut. “Yeah, I do.”
“You never married?” Jamie asked.
Dan shook his head. “Nope.”
How could he marry? His heart was not his to give to anyone. It was already spoken for—even if the woman who it belonged to had no use for it.
When he hesitated, Jamie apologized.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to pry,” he told Dan. “Go on. You walked in, turned on the TV for company and then what?”
When he heard Jamie summarize the events he’d just told him, the words had this incredibly lonely ring to them. He knew he’d felt the same thing time and again, but he’d talked himself into living with it. He’d made himself believe that his life wasn’t as soul-draining as it really was. But now he knew the truth. That he was exceedingly lonely—and that he had made the right decision in coming home.
At least for now.
“And then I heard this voice,” Dan said, continuing with his narrative, “this voice that was filled with pride and love, talking about his triplets.”
“Wait,” Jamie said, stopping his brother. “You heard me on TV? You caught that program that Travis Dalton taped in town? You actually saw The Great Roundup?”
Dan smiled at the eager disbelief he heard in his brother’s voice. “I did.”
“But that segment was on more than a month ago.”
Dan merely nodded and said, “I know.”
“You’ve been here in Rust Creek Falls all this time?”
“No, I just got here,” Dan corrected. He wanted his brother to understand that it had been his cold feet that had kept him from coming. “You’re my first stop. Possibly my only stop because I don’t know where everyone else is, or even if they’re still in Montana.”
But Jamie was still having a hard time making sense out of what he was hearing. The brother he remembered, the one he had idolized, had never been someone to drag his feet.
“I don’t understand. If the show was on over a month ago, what took you so long to get here?”
Dan wasn’t about to lie or make up excuses. “It took me a month to get up the nerve to come and see you. I wasn’t sure if you’d even let me come in your front door, or if you’d take one look at me, slam the door in my face and tell me to go to hell.”
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