Page 30 of Not A Whisper

“I figured you didn’t know it yet.” I shrug. “Or you just didn’t want me to know.”

Jason tilts his head side to side, his expression turning bewildered. “If there is anything you want to know, dollie, all you have to do is ask. You’re one of us.”

I could swoon at his inclusion. First Jason claims to adore me this morning, and now he’s lumping me in with the other people he loves? I lean back in my seat, feeling a bit lightheaded.

“Ok, so what’s the name of your business venture?”

“The Silver Staghorn Ranch.”

I grin. “I love it.”

Jason returns my grin with a wide one of his own—his dimples on full display. Reaching out, his hand lands on my thigh. Without trying to overthink it, I place my hand on top of his.

We drive in companionable silence for a while, each of us, lost in our own thoughts. As we draw closer to Groveton, I start to recognize a few places. My stomach grumbles. What are the chances I can talk Jason into stopping for lunch? Probably pretty good. But where?—

“So, you really want a kid?”

Jason’s voice interrupts my thoughts, but it takes a minute for the words to register and make sense.

Oh, he’s talking about Ernie, the baby goat. I look over at him. “No, I really was just looking. I have no idea what I’d do with a baby goat.”

“What about the human variety?”

Images of me holding a baby with hazel eyes flashes in my mind’s eye before I can stop it. I bite my bottom lip to suppress a groan. Ofcourseit’s easy to picture havingJason’sbaby—I daydreamed about before we’d even met.

Letting go of my bottom lip, I smile. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Yeah?” He shoots me a devilishly handsome grin that has a coy edge to it. “Because I was serious back there. You want one, we can start right now.”

Heat rises in my cheeks. “Stop it.”

“Stop what? If my girl wants a kid, I’m going to do my best to make sure she gets one.” He laughs at the sound of my gasp. “I knowIwant kids. Maybe two. Three would be fun, but I think the third would feel left out so we’d have to round up.”

Three kids?Round up? The horror must be written all over my face because Jason laughs loudly.

“I’m pretty sure Trip wants one too so maybe we can give him a go with it? That would cover the fourth… But what about Grant? If he wants one, that would make it an odd number again.” Jason shakes his head in mock solemnity as he ponders our future like it’s a given. “So either he or Trip would have to step up again so we get to an even number?—”

Thankfully, we’re interrupted by the loud ring of my phone. I pull it out to find Trip calling.

“Hey, you,” I greet with a grateful sigh, turning to look out the window as farmland shoots by.

“Where are you guys?”

Straight to the point. As always. “We’re on our way back to town.”

“Put me on speaker?”

I do as requested and hold the phone out for Jason to hear.

“Hey, man, we were just talking about how many kids we want,” Jason greets happily. “I just told dollie that I was thinking maybe three for me. I’m not a fan of having an odd number though. How many were you thinking you wanted?”

My gaping is totally ignored. Trip sighs heavily, clearly used to this type of foolishness. I expect him to ignore the question, to get back on track, but to my surprise, he answers,

“Two for me. A boy and a girl, don’t care which comes first. Still leaves us with an odd number. I guess we’ll leave it up to Grant to even it out.”

“Trip! Don’t encourage him!”

Trip’s snicker isn’t lost on either of us, and it causes Jason to laugh loudly.

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