Her whole demeanor shifted. I thought she’d been tense from pain, and that was still there a little bit, but she softened and offered me a real smile. I returned it.
We spent the next ten minutes going over the stretches I thought best for helping her heal. I wasn’t a physical therapist but part of the beauty of family medicine was knowing a little bit about everything. Plus, it had been one of my favorite rotations in my third year of med school.
I wrote up the notes quickly and clicked all the right buttons so that Margot would have all the information she needed on her discharge. Then I shook Margot’s hand again and left, letting Lindsey know she could go back in and wrap Margot’s ankle and get her fitted with crutches.
I speed walked back to my office so I could finish the rest of my notes for today. I was ready to get out of here.
I was lucky that I loved my family and they loved me back just as much. Because of that, I didn’t mind still living in my childhood bedroom and, despite being twenty-nine and a whole ass doctor, still relying on my mom for meals. At least I did my own laundry and cleaned up after myself.
It still felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders the instant I drove onto the property. Bodhi and Crew, the two oldest, had lived elsewhere before my parents bought the spread that became Blue Creek Ranch, but my twin sister, Demi, and I had come home from the hospital to this house. One of my favorite pictures was from that day, Gigi Fern holding the both of us, sitting in a rocking chair when the living room still had flower wallpaper.
We’d been a year and a half when Gigi Fern passed away, so I didn’t have any active memories of her. But my parents and my oldest brother did. We all talked about the woman who had helped my mom and dad when they’d been teen parents, who had been a mother to them when their own parents abandoned them for their choices. It was because of Gigi Fern that my parents had been able to buy this property, and that we had everything we did now, even our last name. So even though I hadn’t ever really known her, I always sent a little grateful thought into the universe when I drove up the long drive.
I was only halfway to the house when Juanpablo started up, his loud-ass bray a warning to anyone within a couple of miles that someone dared to come close to his paddock. He lived ina spacious pasture right next to the house, with his very own shelter. Normally, donkeys were social creatures, but Juanpablo was the outlier. He basically ran any animal out of his domain. But he still got plenty of social interaction. My brother Hawk, who had rescued him, made sure he got attention. On top of that, Juanpablo’s two favorite people were my mom and my nephew Payton. The kid was going on six and when he arrived at the ranch a little over a year ago, he fell in love with the cantankerous donkey. Fortunately, Juanpablo loved him right back.
I chuckled, thinking of Payton. He still hated the outdoors, unless he was spending time with the donkey or his gaggle of corvids that hung out by the event barn. He would babble for hours about the ravens that flew in, and how the murder of crows who had taken up residence would always run them off but how “it’s not their fault, that’s just their instincts.” He was too smart of his own good.
I adored that kid as much as my biological niece and nephews. I hoped his dad, Mal, and my brother, Crew, decided to have more kids one day. They were amazing fathers.
I parked my midsize SUV in its usual spot and trekked into the house. It was almost six since by the time I’d finished my charting and made it out the door, more than an hour had passed. It was fine, because I made it home in time for dinner, which would make my mother happy. Jennifer Harrington was happiest when she had all her children together. Since there were ten of us, plus four significant others, that was quite a feat.
Even though it was still an hour till dinner, I was met with a wall of sound as soon as I opened the front door. I kicked off my shoes and hung my keys on my designated hook—Mom had used her Cricut and made name tags—and left the entryway. The downstairs had an open concept, one of the changes Mom and Dad made when they started renovating as soon as they movedin nearly thirty years ago. Mom wanted to be able to cook while keeping an eye on all of us.
The living room area was to the right, but the kitchen and dining space was to the left. It seemed everyone was there, laughing and talking. Everyone except Isley and his girlfriend Jerrica, that was. Isley had just finished his third year of vet school. He and Jerrica were spending a couple of weeks with her family before heading west.
They’d be here in plenty of time before the wedding.
That thought made me seek out my twin. Demi had Emerson on her shoulder and she swayed on the spot, patting his back. My namesake was seven months old now and really developing his personality. He was more subdued than his twin, Phinneas. Phinn was a social baby while Emerson preferred snuggling up with whichever adult held him.
The twins were the reason Demi and Luke had postponed their wedding last year, not wanting to get married while she was carrying the babies. Demi didn’t need the added stress of wedding preparations on top of a high-risk pregnancy. Plus once she found out she was about to turn their family of three into a family of five, Demi wanted to wait until the twins could be in attendance too.
I jokingly told Demi she just didn’t want to have to explain to the boys why big sister Aria was in the wedding pictures and they weren’t.
She hadn’t disagreed.
The rest of my siblings were, as usual, talking over one another. Except Hawk, who was leaning against his boyfriend Carter and just listening. Carter was holding court for them both, Fern and Bodhi tag teaming a story. Gemma was in the kitchen helping Mom; Judson and Keegan, the youngest set of twins, were making faces at Phinneas just to hear him squeal; and my dad had Aria on his lap, reading her a book. Payton wassnacking on carrots and interrupting his dads, Mal and Crew, who were talking with our guest.
Ville Aalto. His blue-grey eyes were fixed on me, even though he wasn’t missing a step in the conversation. As soon as my gaze landed on him, I couldn’t look away. He was everything I remembered, even though it had been a couple of years since I’d last seen him. I’d been in my second year of residency when Wren Paxton had invited me to his concert in Philadelphia. The show had been amazing. All of Wren’s concerts were. But it had been what had come after that was really seared into my memory.
It hadn’t been the first time, but it had been the last. But only because I couldn’t get away to make it to another show since. And Ville was never far from Wren.
“Now that Emery is home, should we get this meeting started so we can enjoy our dinner after?” Dad’s voice interrupted my thoughts and allowed me to blink. That broke the spell Ville had me under and I was able to look away.
I cleared my throat. “What meeting?”
“Ville?”
“Thanks, Mike.” Ville’s gaze was on me again, watching me walk to the table. Conveniently, the only seat available was next to him and he gave me a smirky smile before turning his attention to everybody else. “We need to up your security.”
“Hear, hear,” Bodhi grumbled. Fern elbowed him, but he didn’t budge. “I’ve been saying it.”
“I need to do a full assessment, and it’s impossible to secure every potential entry point. The ranch is too big. But I have some ideas already. My goal is to not only put permanent measures in place, so that you no longer have to deal with trespassers, but so that we can ramp up security for the time Wren is here.”
“Is it really necessary?” Fern asked, a wince on her face. “Not about Wren, I know that’s vital. But the rest of the time?”
“Yes.” Ville leveled her with a look. “I’ve been watching your social media feeds and I see several areas of concern. Not from what you’re doing, but from your following. Trust me, I deal with…overzealous fans regularly.”
“I’ll bet,” Crew said with a snort. “As the head of security for the most famous country music star on the planet, I’m sure you see more than a few whack jobs.”
