Cowgirls Don't Cry(7)

Jessie slumped against the wall. So far she’d been able to avoid talking to him.

Or maybe he’s avoiding talking to you.

She heard, “Miss Jessie!” and saw her boss’s twin daughters racing toward her.

Peyton exclaimed, “There you are,” and attached herself to Jessie’s hip. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”


Not to be outdone, Shannie hugged the other leg and added, “Yeah, everywhere.”


“I’ve been here the whole time.” Jessie whistled. “You look like princesses in those dresses.”


Both girls beamed and twirled in a flurry of ribbons, ruffles and frills that adorned their pink and lavender dresses. Not matching dresses. Peyton and Shannie were fraternal twins, but they’d exerted their individuality early on. Since Jessie ran the daycare at Sky Blue, she’d watched these girls over the last two years, always amazed by how different they were from each other, and from their older sister, Eliza.

Eliza, who was trying to keep up with her dozen or so boy cousins.

“Will you dance with us?” Shannie asked.

“Please?” Peyton begged.

“Where are your mom and dad?”


Shannie rattled off, “Mama is right over there, see? She’s helpin’ Aunt Ginger with her little babies since Daddy and Uncle Buck hadta take Hayden’s grandpa home.”


Jessie wasn’t surprised Kane and Ginger McKay had brought their twins, Madelyn and Paulson, to Keely’s wedding. Babies abounded at McKay gatherings because there were plenty of hands to help out harried mothers and fathers.

“Miss Jessie, can we ask you something?”


“Sure, Peyton.”


“How come we don’t call you Aunt Jessie? You’re a McKay, just like us, right?”


Boy howdy. How long had these precocious three-year-olds been waiting for a chance to ask her? She snagged a chair and sat. The girls scrambled onto her lap. “I became a McKay after I married your dad’s cousin Luke.”


“But he’s in heaven, huh?” Shannie said.

“Yep. Right after he…went to heaven, I started working for your mom at Sky Blue. We decided it’d be too confusing for the other kids in daycare if you two and Eliza called me Aunt Jessie, so we thought it’d be best if everyone called me Miss Jessie.”


Shannie exchanged a sly look with Peyton before she said, “So if you don’t got a husband hogging all your time, then you can dance with us.”


She smiled at their logic. “I suppose so.”


“Yay!” The girls hopped down, each grabbed a hand and tugged her onto the dance floor.

Jessie spun the girls through two songs. When a slow number started, she started to herd them off the dance floor, but Calvin McKay intercepted, scooping both his giggling granddaughters into his arms for a dance.

Before she reached her table, a firm grip circled her waist and she was towed back to the dance floor.

Brandt slipped his arms around her—at a proper distance naturally—and said, “Thanks for dancin’ with me.”


“Like you gave me a choice.”


“You would’ve said no if I asked, so I didn’t ask.”


She couldn’t help it; she smiled.

Brandt’s gaze wandered over her face. “You look beautiful tonight, Jess.”


She blushed. “Thank you. You clean up pretty good yourself.” No lie. Brandt wore a black suit with a silver vest. The same silver vest all Keely’s male McKay relatives wore, but he somehow wore it better…which was really saying something.