Page 4 of Falling for Brody

“Nice to meet you, Rhea. If Avalon is okay with waiting for my dad to get here for Roya, why don’t you have your son come on over and sit with us. It’s got to be difficult to have your son on the other side of the road.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course.” He lifted his chin toward the car. “Unless you think he’s going to be upset with all of the medical stuff.”

Rhea’s expression said she was confused. “Chip used to be at the hospital day care a few months after he was born. I’m convinced he’s going to be graduating from Med School before high school.”

“Go ahead,” Brody grinned at her, “bring him on over and I’ll get the gurney out of the ambulance so we can transfer her.”

Rhea looked at Avalon who gave her a half-dreamy thumbs up.

“Okay, thanks. It’ll just be a minute.”

"Hey, cuz."

He looked at Avalon and smiled at her. She looked a little dreamy but like she was fighting sleep. "You feeling okay?"

She shrugged one shoulder and gave him a half smile.

Concerned over the movements on one side of her body, Brody reached out and brushed the backs of his fingers against the cheek that hadn't tugged up with her smile. She winced a little on that side and he mumbled, "Sorry," to her. "You in some pain on this side?"

Again, she shrugged the other shoulder. "A little. I think that's the side I fell on, but I can't remember a whole lot right now."

He nodded. "You rest. It'll be clearer later. The doctor will want to know as much information as you can give him."

"I want some information, too," she sighed and looked down along her body toward the car across the road. "She doesn’t wear a wedding ring."

"Oh." Brody hoped he kept his interest out of his expression and his voice.

"You like her."

Fuck.

He turned and looked down at Avalon and her knowing grin. "She's nice."

"Riiiiight." She giggled and he remembered what she'd been like as a child, just as adorable. "Youlike her, like her." Avalon insisted.

He tried to brush it off. "Oh wow. What did Rhea give you in that IV?"

Avalon rolled her eyes and grinned at him. "I can see more than you think I can."

Brody raised an eyebrow at her. "That's the meds and adrenaline talking."

She started to shake her head and stopped short, wincing. "Your generation," she sighed.

"Generation? How old are you?"

She turned her head to look at him and Brody was surprised to see how clear her eyes looked. "Old enough to know that your dad and your uncle are different from you. You're like Joshua and Gabriel, guarded."

He leaned in closer and gently touched her uninjured side. "Well, Joshua and Gabriel aren't like that anymore."

She smiled, and her face was almost radiant. "They're in love and happy."

Brody gave her a melancholy smile and nodded. "But I'm not. I'm the lone wolf in the woods, Avalon."

She chuckled and had to stop almost immediately, hissing from pain. "That might be where you are now, but I know that's going to change."

Hardly, he thought. Sure, Rhea was gorgeous, and he thought he'd felt a connection flare between them, but that just meant they’d work well together. They’d be good partners. She had a little boy and there was likely a father in the picture. He’d have to be careful and put all of those thoughts at the back of his head.

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