Dutifully, he stepped forward and plucked the girl off her mother’s hip.
“You don’t have to hold her,” Jillian said, as if apologizing for her daughter.
“If I had to, I wouldn’t want to,” he said, and turned to look at the little girl clinging to him. She tugged at him, as completely as Brody did. But with Mac, he didn’t feel the twin tug of guilt that he did with his nephew. “What do you think, Mac? You want to stay here or go back to the ranch?”
“Horsies!”
Grimly, he nodded. “That settles it. You can stay at the ranch until you find a better place. There’s plenty of room there and—”
“No,” Jillian told him.
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t hear that word often, do you?” she asked. “Well, you’ll have to deal with it. Mac isn’t even two yet. Of course she wants to be with the horses, but she’s not the one making decisions for our family. We’ll be staying right here.”
He saw the stubborn glint in her eyes and knew she’d dig her heels in on this, so he let it go. For now. But the damn truth was, she and Mac could stay at the ranch with no problem. There was the main house, his mother’s cabin, a couple guest cottages…more than enough room for one woman and a tiny girl, and if they were there, Jesse wouldn’t have to feel like he’d dropped them off in a dump.
“It’s not a dump,” she said, and he blinked. Had he said that last part aloud?
“You’re not that hard to read,” Jillian explained.
That made him frown. No man liked to be told he was clear as glass, and Jesse more than most had always prided himself on his poker face. Unless he wanted them to, no one knew what he was thinking. Well, until today.
“Dump!” Mac cried, clapping her hands.
He laughed shortly. “She agrees with me.”
“Again,” Jillian pointed out. “She’s a baby.” Then, turning around, she plopped both hands on her hips and gave the whole apartment a thorough look-see. Took her about ten seconds.
“I’ll get a couple of rugs, but the hardwood floors are gorgeous.”
“Not very big,” he said.
“I’ll paint the walls a pretty green, I think…”
“Won’t need much.”
“I’ll get a crib for Mac and put it at the foot of the bed…”
“Don’t get a big one.”
She inhaled and sighed heavily, ignoring him. “Maybe a little table and two chairs…”
“Very little table.”
“You know,” she said, suddenly spinning around to face him, fire in her eyes and battle on her features. “You’re not being helpful.”
“I’m not trying to be,” he said flatly. “This isn’t much bigger than that motel you and Mac have been staying at.”
“It’s big enough. I’ll get that job, take my time, look around and find something else when I’m ready.”
“You should be ready now,” he argued.
“I don’t take orders from you.”
“I’m not giving you an order. If I were, you’d follow it.”
“Is that right?” She actually laughed and if he hadn’t been so irritated, he’d have been charmed. That deep voice of hers sounded even sexier when she was laughing. Her eyes lit up and that incredible mouth of hers moved into a smile that was too damn seductive.
“You think a lot of yourself,” she said, “but nobody tells me what to do.”
“Somebody should,” he countered, then huffed out an exasperated breath. “Look, I suggested this place, but now that I’m seeing it again, it’s just not right. You and Mac, you deserve better.”
Irritation slid off her face and she gave him another smile. This one warmer than the last. “Thank you. And you’re right. We do. But I’m the one who’s going to get it for us.”
Hard to argue with pride since he had plenty of that himself. “Can’t talk you out of this?”
She spun around again, taking another all-too-brief look. When she met his gaze, she said, “Nope. But you could drive us to the motel and help me move our things over here.”
“Yeah,” he said tightly. “Guess I could do that.”
“Jesse! Horsies?” Mac asked, cupping her little hands on his cheeks to turn his eyes to her.
“Not right now, sweet girl,” he said and frowned at the disappointment in the tiny girl’s eyes.
Over the last couple of weeks, Mac and her mother had been at the ranch several times, and each time they were, the little girl had demanded time with the horses. He’d taken her up for her first ride himself and she hadn’t been able to get enough. He knew what that felt like. He’d been about six the first time Roy Sanders had set him on a horse, and Jesse had known in that moment that he’d found where he belonged. Now little Mac had fallen for the same animals that had stolen Jesse’s heart so many years ago.