Page 99 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
I thought the whole thing was entirely unnecessary. About an hour after the Coffee Club met yesterday morning, everyone in the county knew that Wes had been murdered.
Tomorrow, Wes’s murder would be making the bigger Sunday papers in Montana. Reporters from Bozeman, Billings and Missoula had called Jess yesterday to get the official press release.
Rowen and I hadn’t ventured far from the farmhouse this weekend. Other than an overdue trip to the grocery store, we were lying low. I didn’t want people approaching me while I was with my daughter and asking what I knew about Wes’s murder. So we stayed at home and waited each night for Jess to come back.
Jess had arrived late on Thursday from the Drummonds’ house. Rowen had been long since asleep when he pulled in but I had gotten ready for bed and waited up for Jess, reading on the living room couch. As soon as I’d heard his truck coming down the drive, I’d hurried to the front door and met him in the entryway. After he’d shrugged off his coat, we’d wrapped our arms around each other and held tight, standing just inside the door, unmoving.
Last night had been a repeat of the same.
Tonight, I’d swapped the living room couch for my office chair. Earlier, I’d lit a fire so it was warm, but I was still cuddled up underneath a cozy blanket. I must have drifted off because one minute I was reading and the next minute I was in Jess’s arms and he was carrying me upstairs to bed.
“Sorry, I fell asleep.”
“It’s okay.”
“Do you want to put me down so I can walk?” I asked.
“No.”
I wound my arms around his shoulders and buried my head in the crook of his neck, content to let him carry me upstairs in his big, strong arms.
When we got to the bedroom, Jess set me down on my feet but didn’t let me go. He just held me close to his chest with one arm banded around my shoulders, his gaze so intense my cheeks flushed.
“Jess?” I asked.
He didn’t respond. He just kept his eyes on mine for what felt like an eternity until, finally, he broke the silence.
“Had a horrible few days. Don’t know how I would have made it through if I hadn’t had you to come back to every night. I love you, Georgia.”
I stood there motionless, holding his ice-blue gaze while his words rang in my ears. I wasn’t scared or unsure of what to say, I just didn’t want to break the silence. Because the sound of Jess saying he loved me in his deep voice was something I wanted to remember for the rest of my life.
When I had committed his words permanently to memory, I smiled.
“I love you too.”
A huge smile spread across his handsome face. I took it in, committing it to memory too, before his smiling mouth dropped intently toward mine.
The next morning, I cooked us all a big Sunday morning breakfast. While Jess and Rowen were in the living room watching TV, I made scrambled eggs, sausage patties, breakfast potatoes and French toast.
When we’d woken up, Jess had told me he wasn’t going to the station. It wasn’t because he didn’t have a mountain of work to do, but because he needed a day off. One day to take a step back and collect himself before another brutal week as the county’s sheriff.
After Jess had announced his plans, I’d declared it a pajama day. We weren’t leaving the house and we weren’t getting dressed. The only exception being for Roe. She could wander outside to the garage and play with the cats if she wanted, but other than that, we were staying in and we were lounging in the living room wearing sweatpants.
And if that meant I had to watch football morning, afternoon and night, so be it.
“Thanks, baby. That was great,” Jess said after demolishing a huge plate of nachos, his choice for a game-time snack.
Games, actually. I learned that Sunday Night Football started at eleven in the morning with multiple games going before the one officially dubbed the night game.
I was turned sideways in the couch, my legs extended so my feet were resting on top of Jess’s thighs. Rowen was sitting on the floor at the coffee table, glitter pens and markers scattered everywhere so she could color in one of twelve Disney princess co
loring books she had out. She had just finished coloring a page, rather beautifully I was proud to see.
“This is for your office.” She shoved the picture in his face. “It’s messy and needs some pictures.”
I burst out laughing. “Leave it to a four-year-old to tell you how it really is.”
Jess grumbled but the corners of his mouth turned up.
