Page 45 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
Her dad’s face froze for a moment, then softened into abject relief as he shifted his gaze to her mom’s.
Her mom was smiling. “She’s okay,” she said. “She’s okay.”
He came around the bed and wrapped her in his arms, and they just clung for a moment. That was when Willow realized there’d been some question as to whether she would be okay. She looked around the room a little bit more, noticing things she hadn’t. Cards and letters were tacked to the wall beyond the foot of her hospital bed, filling the cork board there. Right beside it was a white board with the name of her nurse and the date.
She blinked and looked again. “I’ve been here two days? Two days?”
“You’ve been unconscious, honey,” her mother said. “Go get the doctor, Wes.”
“Who caused the accident, baby?” her father asked. “Was it Jeremiah?”
“Jeremiah? Why on earth would you think—no. It wasn’t him. Like I said, it was the motorcycle I was chasing. They spun around and charged us. I think it was deliberate.”
Her father closed his eyes and sighed.
Her mother said, “I told you.”
“Why would you think it was Jeremiah, Dad? It’s not like you to judge someone for their past.”
Shaking his head, her father muttered something about getting a doctor and left the room. So Willow turned to her mother. “Why did he think that?”
“Well…” Taylor titled her head, her eyes searching for words. “You’ve said his name. A couple of times.”
“Jeremiah’s name?”
“Not exactly. Gringo, is what you said.” Then she repeated, “A couple of times.”
“You said that twice. How many times, Mom?”
“Seven…when anyone was around to hear you.” She smiled slowly. “I think there’s a lot of good in him. He’s been here about as much as he could be without bein’ obvious.” She shrugged. “It was obvious to me, anyway.”
“What was obvious to you anyway?”
“He cares about you. In case you needed that verified, I can testify,” she said, holding up her right hand. Then she leaned closer. “Chelsea said that Maria said that Ethan and Lily found him pulled off the road on their way to the hospital that day. He was leaned over the steering wheel, and it looked like he’d been cryin’. His eyes were all red, and puffy.”
“Sounds more like he’d been drinkin’. Did they smell his breath for tequila?”
“Willow…” The tone had been ever so slightly scolding, but her mom didn’t finish the thought. Instead she stroked her hair back off her face with her soft, cool, strong hand and said, “You don’t need to think about any of that right now. All you need to focus on is recovering.”
“Yeah.” But she was focused on the Gringo, and given how the Brand family grapevine worked, she was sure everyone knew it.
Jeremiah waited until the last Brand had gone home, which they only did when forced by staff at the end of visiting hours.
But it was a small-town hospital with a skeleton staff, and it was easy to bribe a nurse to let him slip in late. She’d seen him with the family over the two days they’d been waiting for Willow to wake up. It had been a scary time. Nobody knew if she’d wake up at all, or how she’d be when she did.
So he stayed, and he charmed a nurse and brought her a signed copy of his brother’s newest CD. And that’s why he was by Willow’s bedside at ten-fifteen p.m. when she opened her beautiful eyes and looked into his.
Her smile was immediate and radiant, but she squelched it like pinching out a candle and shifted her gaze to the wall clock. “How did you get in?”
“Bribed a nurse. That’s off the record, Deputy.” He gazed at her face, into her eyes. They were clear, if tired. “You’re okay, then?”
“Looks like. They been runnin’ tests on me all day. If there was bad to find, they’d’ve found it. That’s what I’m tellin’ myself, anyway.”
“I had to see you, Willow, and I figured you’d prefer I do it out of view of the whole dang clan.”
“Yeah, well, they’re already speculatin’ about us. That cat might be well and truly out of the bag.”
“How do you want to handle that?” he asked. He moved his chair closer to her bedside, then reached for her hand.
