Page 49 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
Willow counted backwards, sighed and shook her head, realizing the window-smashing bandit was probably long gone.
She sucked at being a peace officer.
“Are you hungry? Can we fix you something?” Drew asked. And when Willow scowled, her youngest cousin beamed at her, “You might as well enjoy bein’ waited on while you recover, right?”
She bit back her objection, relaxed deeper into the sofa, and said, “I could eat.”
Drew headed to the kitchen, apparently happy to have a mission.
Lily got up. She had a little bag in one hand. “You care if I check your vitals, Will?”
“I do, yeah. I feel fine.”
“Well, I can check them here, or they can check them back at the hospital where we’ll be taking you.”
“Yup,” said Baxter from his fireplace seat. His dirty blond mane needed a trim. He wore khakis and loafers instead of jeans and boots like the others, and round, silver wire-rimmed glasses. “And there’s too many of us to fight. Seven to one.”
That made her think of Jeremiah, being so badly beaten in prison by other men. It made her stomach clench.
She shook the image away because Lily was taking out a blood pressure thingie.
“Fine,” she said, and held out an arm.
While she pumped the device, Lily said, “Jeremiah drove you home, huh?”
“Yep.”
Lily let the air out of the thing and said some numbers and nodded. “A little high, but probably because we’re all up in your business. I know you don’t like that.”
“It comes with the family, though,” Drew called from the kitchen. “Did you call him for a ride, or?—”
“No! Why would I call him? He just happened to be there.”
“At the hospital,” Maria said. “After visiting hours.”
“After we all went home,” Drew added.
“Guys.” Lily popped a digital thermometer into Willow’s mouth, preventing her from having to answer. But it didn’t matter. The gang were quiet, waiting, every one of them trying to read her face.
She rolled her eyes. The device beeped and Lily removed it. “Perfect. You feelin’ any dizziness?”
“No.” Yes, she did.
“Pain?”
“Yes, you all are a pain.” And so was her head.
Lily just arched her eyebrows a little higher, and she capitulated. “Mild headache and general ouchies.”
“Where?”
“Kind of all over.”
Lily said, “You can have ibuprofen.”
“If I need it.”
She nodded and put her things back into her bag.
