Page 122 of Before You Can Blink
Frowning, I peeked over my shoulder toward the two little ones standing by the door. “No, Daze. They’re right here.”
Her gaze drifted lazily around the room, passing over the children before landing on me again. “They are? Where?”
Her disoriented state was cause for alarm.
“You know what? Why don’t you keep resting for a bit? I’ve got the kids.”
“Mmm.” Daisy’s eyes drifted shut.
I didn’t like the looks of this one bit.
Reaching into my back pocket, I withdrew my phone and immediately dialed the personal cell of Tucker Grant, who now served as Rust Canyon’s family physician, and held my breath while waiting for him to pick up.
“Hey, Jett. Everything okay out there on the ranch?”
“Not really.” I tugged on the back of my neck as I stared down at my passed-out wife. “I’m worried about Daisy. She’s acting strange.”
“Strange? Strange how?”
“Well, uh, she was supposed to be watching Sawyer and Ellie today, and from what I can gather, she decided to rest while they were taking their nap.” Pulling the phone away from my mouth, I asked Sawyer, “Did you come in here to try and wake Gramma up before I got home?”
His little head nodded, so I returned to my conversation with Tucker. “Guess they couldn’t rouse her, so went downstairs, which is where I found them all alone.” Speaking of which, I needed to get Ellie hosed down and into clean, dry clothes. “When I got here, I went to check on her, but she seems pretty confused and is having a hard time staying awake.”
Our friend and physician hummed. “I’ll have Emily clear my afternoon, and then I’ll pop over to check on Daisy. See if I can figure out what’s going on from a basic examination and, hopefully, rule out any cause for concern.”
“Much appreciated.” That’s all I gave in way of farewell before hanging up.
I ushered my grandchildren out of the room, explaining, “Gramma’s real tired.” Placing a hand on Sawyer’s head, I said, “I need to give Ellie a bath. You wanna hop in?”
He cocked his little head, narrowing his eyes. “Will there be bubbles?”
“You want there to be?”
With a firm nod, he said, “Yes, sir.”
“Bubbles it is,” I agreed.
The two of them took off running toward the Jack and Jill bathroom that used to belong to Tripp and Aspen growing up. Following closely behind, I managed to get them stripped and into the hot water in record time, not even caring that their raucous splashing caused bubbles to spill over onto the floor.
Seated atop the closed toilet seat, I made another call.
“Yeah?” I could barely hear Tripp’s voice over the wind whipping around him outside.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, my voice coming out gruff. “Gonna need you or Penny to come pick up the kids as soon as you can.”
My son’s immediate panic filtered through the line. “Why? Did something happen?”
“I think your mama’s sick or something. I’ve got Tucker headed this way to check her out, but I need to take care of her, and I can’t do that and keep my eyes on the little ones at the same time. Ellie’s already had an accident because she wasn’t being watched properly before I got here.”
He cursed low under his breath. “Damn. Okay, yeah. I’ll figure out where Penny is, and whichever one of us is closer will stop by and grab them. Mama gonna be okay?”
“I sure hope so.” There was no use in worrying him before Tucker got a good look at her.
“All right. We’ll be there soon.”
Turning my attention to the kids in my charge, I got them cleaned up and toweled off right around the same time that Penny’s voice called out from downstairs.
“Jett?”
