Page 62 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
Lily said, “Listen to the most recent one, Will. Or the first and the last, since there’s no time to hear ‘em all.”
“They’re comin’,” Maria said.
Drew snatched the phone, tapping out of the app as she lurched toward Jeremiah’s chair, dropped it into the cup holder, and kept going past it toward the beer cooler, as if that had been her goal all along.
But she hadn’t clicked the phone off, so its screen was still lit up. And the guys were coming closer. Lily rubbed her baby bump and whispered, “You okay, Willow?”
And then Maria said, “That’s not the whole story. It’s out of context. You shouldn’t have listened to any of it.”
But Willow was still locked on that phone screen, willing it to go dark before Jeremiah noticed it. He was at the head of the gang, his arms full of deadfall from the scrub lot nearby. Ethan was beside him, Baxter on his other side, Orrin, Trevor, and Harrison brought up the rear.
Jeremiah got all the way to back of his chair, with the phone still lit, facing her, its back to him, and she was forcing her eyes to stay on his, and not shift downward, forcing her smile to not look like panic.
He frowned, though, dropping his armload of wood beside the fire pit, then turning back to reach for his phone, which was still lit up.
It went dark just before he made contact.
She sighed so heavily her back bent, and her cousins were exchanging looks of relief. And then, crisis averted, she let her smile die.
He was using her, had been the whole time, to find his father’s treasure. And she’d given him everything Uncle Garrett had on his old man, and run a background check on Juanita Lopez to boot.
It hurt like a knife in the back. It pissed her off, too, but she couldn’t find her anger just yet beyond the feeling of betrayal. She couldn’t hope to hide it, either. There were some angry, ugly tears coming and she’d prefer to be alone when they spilled.
She got to her feet. “I’m more tired than I thought. I’m headin’ home.”
“Oh, hey, I got you,” Jeremiah said, pocketing his phone, then pulling his keys from a pocket.
“No,” she said, and she said it too fast. His eyes met hers, full of questions. She didn’t have any answers.
Drew got to her feet. “I’m stayin’ over at Will’s tonight, so you’re off the hook. She’s helpin’ me study.”
“Oh.” Jeremiah said. The word seemed heavy. He was still searching Willow’s eyes and she was trying hard not to reveal a thing. But it probably showed.
“You guys can keep the party goin’,” she told her cousins. “Love you.” She headed around the bunkhouse and got into Drew’s little car.
Jeremiah found himself alone with the Brand men shortly after that. Maria and Lily muttered to each other, and then to their spouses, and then waved goodbye and left together.
So he sat there with his half-brother Ethan, Ethan’s cousins, Trevor and Baxter, and Ethan’s brother-in-law Harrison. Orrin was missing as he’d gone inside to use the bathroom. Ethan kept clearing his throat and it finally hit Jeremiah that he was trying to get his attention.
“So about you and Willow,” Ethan said, being the de facto leader of the gang.
Jeremiah looked around and realized this was going to be some sort of family talking-to. So he got to his feet, picked up his hat, and plunked it onto his head. “That would be between me and Willow,” he said. “Night, fellas. I’m hittin’ the rack. C’mon, Beans.” He strode directly into the bunkhouse with his dog as close as his shadow. Orrin came out, dang near bumping into him in the doorway.
Jeremiah let him pass then went in and closed the door behind him. He had a feeling he’d been about to get the third degree about his relationship with Willow, and was glad to have avoided it.
Willow.
Something was up with her.
And he knew what, because she had a terrible poker face. The whole time he’d been walking back from the woods, she’d been shifting her eyes between him and his chair, or more specifically the phone in his chair, as had become apparent when he’d got closer.
And he’d seen the shift in the area immediately around the phone when its light had gone out, which told him it had been on. Someone had messed with his phone. They wouldn’t know his password, of course, but then why was Willow acting so off?
He hit the bathroom and the shower, a deterrent, in case Ethan decided to come in for a one-on-one chat with him. He needed to find his father’s gold and get the hell out of this town.
He took his time in the shower, and by the time he finished and came out, stepping over Beans who laid on the bathmat outside the shower door, it felt quiet. Everyone had gone.
He went to the back door wearing a towel. The firepit was black, beer bottles picked up, cooler gone, folding chairs folded and returned to the shed where they kept ‘em. Someone had even piled up the scrub wood he and the guys had gathered.
