Page 48 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“Here, you can watch me if you can keep your eyes open.”
He opened her texts.
She snatched the phone from him, and tapped the screen herself, speaking her message aloud as she did. “Signed myself out. Gringo drivin’ me to the cottage. Have someone take his dog-sitter home. I’m goin’ to sleep so don’t pester me ‘til tomorrow.” The phone whooshed. She locked the screen and tossed it back into the phone-shaped depression in the console between the front seats. “There.” And she closed her eyes again.
The replies were pinging, but she was ignoring them, so he notched her volume down. She didn’t notice. Seemed she was really sleepy. And he had no idea if that was normal or a sign of trouble.
When he pulled into the driveway of Skydancer Ranch and veered left past the main house toward her little cottage, he drove as slowly as possible, so she wouldn’t bang her poor abused head on the window.
Her cottage door opened and her parents came through. Her father headed for the passenger side of the Jeep, and Jeremiah unlocked the door. Wes opened it and scooped Willow into his arms.
She smacked his shoulders, though, and said, “Put me down, Dad, I’m fine. You’re bein’ a drama queen.”
He ignored her, still holding her as he strode toward the house with Taylor keeping pace close beside her, searching her daughter’s face, worried.
“My phone!” Willow called.
“I’ll bring it.” Jeremiah unplugged the phone from his dash and got out of the Jeep, closing his door, then moving around to close hers. Then he headed into the house. That door hadn’t been left open.
He went in anyway. At least they hadn’t locked it.
Wes Brand would have carried his daughter straight through to the bedroom, Jeremiah thought, but she demanded to be lowered to the sofa. “I’m good, I told you, I’m fine.”
Headlights came through the windows as the troops arrived. Man, this family was a lot.
Willow closed her eyes, and muttered a cuss word under her breath.
Chapter Nine
Her family crowded the Gringo right out of her little place, but she never saw headlights through the front windows or heard his Jeep leave. Maybe he was hanging outside where it was less…Brand-y.
“You should stay down at the house where I can take care of you,” her mom said. She laid a blanket over Willow where she sat on the sofa, even though it was still eighty degrees outside.
“No freakin’ way, you guys aren’t going to miss your big trip for me,” Willow said. “Mom, that would make me feel terrible. I’m fine. And…Lily’s an RN, and Gringo knows about PT, and…” She pressed a hand to her head. “Honest to goodness, I just need some rest and quiet.”
Taylor sent a look toward Lily, her cousin Ethan’s pretty wife. Ethan had gone outside, she realized.
“I thought you quit being a nurse,” she said.
Lily did not take offense, though she probably should have. “One doesn’t just quit being a nurse. Besides, I’ve been taking on per diem shifts at the ER when they’re short-handed,” she said. “Keeps me from gettin’ rusty.”
Willow knew Lily’s confidence in her nursing skills had been restored after she’d saved Uncle Garrett’s life last summer. She liked seeing it in her cousin-in-law.
“Honestly,” Lily said, “all they’d be doing at this point is watching her and keeping track of her vitals. They’ve already run all the tests they could think of, and they all looked good. As long as there are no complications, she’s probably right. All she needs is rest and, you know, quiet.”
Wes Brand took the hint. “Okay, I got you.”
Garrett said, “Willow, anything you need?—”
“You too, Taylor,” Chelsea added. The others echoed their sentiments as the Elder Brands headed outside, no doubt to begin an emergency family meeting. Again, no headlights told her no one was leaving, so no doubt about it.
And the Gringo was out there, ripe for the questioning. The poor guy.
Her cousins didn’t look like they were in any hurry to leave. Orrin, and Baxter were sitting on opposite sides of the edge of the hearthstone in front of the fireplace she hardly ever used, a pair of blue-eyed blonds. Between them, standing, was Trevor with his dark curls and swarthy skin. People often mistook him for her brother, but his coloring was from Spanish ancestry, not Comanche like hers. He had his hands in his pockets, and sent her a sorry smile when he caught her looking at him. Drew had dropped onto the sofa beside her. Maria and cousin-in-law-Lily took the easy chair and the rocker respectively, Maria’s hubs, Harrison, stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. Ethan was outside with the seniors, probably asking Jeremiah to explain what the hay he’d been doing at the hospital after visiting hours.
Willow glanced at Lily’s belly, and said, “Dear Lord, your baby bump is bigger! Are you sure I was only out for two days?”
Lily ran a hand over her belly. “Our kid seems to be in a growth spurt.”
