Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
As excited as everyone was, I didn’t want to move the Bronc. I liked where it was and what my team and I had done. And other than one stolen iPod, the lots at the resort were not high-crime areas. I made everyone have a buddy—men and women—when they left the restaurant because that was just common sense in the world we lived in. But we weren’t exactly in the bad part of town. In fact, the resort wasn’t even in town, more of a ritzy oasis in the middle of cattle country.
“Are you hungry?” Stef asked me as I got really comfortable in the passenger seat of his car, slumping down a bit, liking the leather seats.
“No, I’m good,” I answered lazily, closing my eyes. “This is a nice car, Stef.”
He chuckled. “Uh-huh.”
I wasn’t really listening after that.
When we reached the house, I sort of staggered inside, said hello to Josie, who was there watching Wyatt, along with Rita Vallejo, the nurse on the Red. Stef wanted his son to get used to Josie before he left him with her for an extended period of time, and I was guessing that Rita was there babysitting the babysitter in case anything went amiss. I knew it wouldn’t. Josie was one of the most reliable people I knew.
I sagged down onto the overstuffed couch in the living room near the fireplace, loving, as I always had, how comfortable the piece of furniture was. I was sitting there, listening to Wyatt explain to Stef in excruciating detail, with lots of stopping and starting over, about a bug outside. I was surprised when Josie was suddenly leaning over me, her hand on my good shoulder.
“Heya, boss, why don’t you lie down?”
“Oh no,” I said, smiling at her. “I’m good, just a little sleepy. They say you’re supposed to rest in the hospital, but with all the noise and people poking at you and waking you up all the time, I don’t know how.”
“I don’t either,” she agreed, easing me back on the couch and gently tugging off one of my boots and then the other. “I remember when Callie had Rico, she told me the first good night sleep she had was when she got home.”
Stef put a pillow under my head, and I rolled sideways and closed my eyes. After a moment, I felt Wyatt’s hand on my cheek.
“You better have washed that hand after you touched the bug,” I warned him, and he giggled, petting my hair.
“Ungen.”
I opened one eye, and he was standing there with a ladybug in his hand. “You gotta take her back outside so she can get home to her babies.”
“Baby,” Wyatt repeated, and turned to Josie. “Outside.”
“Yeah, let’s go put her back outside,” she agreed, and he immediately lifted the hand without the ladybug in it and took hers.
He was off, and Stef said, “She’s great with him.”
“I figured she would be. She’s always good with the kids at the Bronc. She don’t get it from her folks, though, not the way they turned on her. But at least I got her out of there and didn’t get shot in the process.”
The nurse, Rita, gasped, and Stef caught his breath.
“What?” I asked, and yawned.
“Did you just say you didn’t get shot in the process?”
“Oh yeah,” I said, yawning again, settling, closing my eyes. “Her father had a gun. It could’ve gone bad. I told Rand about it, since dropping his name saved my ass.”
They were both quiet then, but I didn’t ask any questions. I was out.
When I woke up, for a moment I thought it must be evening, but when I checked my watch, it was only around three in the afternoon. It must have gotten really overcast outside. I went to move, but found I couldn’t without upsetting Wyatt, who was wedged against my chest, passed out. Looking across the room, I saw Stef on his laptop, sitting on a wingback chair I remembered from when I was very young. It had been re-covered, and there was now a matching ottoman he had his feet up on.
“Hey,” I said softly.
He met my gaze.
“I need to pee.”
His smile was warm. “And eat something, I’m guessing, and take some meds.”
“Meds might be a good idea.”
When he moved Wyatt, he woke up, and he had to pee as well. Once we were both done, Stef put him in his high chair in the kitchen, and I sat beside him at the counter. We both got grilled cheese, though my sandwich was on sourdough bread and came with tomato bisque, while Wyatt got sliced apples and goldfish crackers with his. Wyatt offered me an apple slice, and I offered him a taste of soup. Stef was stunned that Wyatt liked it and asked for more. I showed him how to dunk just the edge of his sandwich, and he liked that as well.