Page 99 of Drifter’s Heart

“Yes, ma’am.” West closes his mouth and waits his turn patiently.

I squeeze my lips together to suppress a giggle. Because, hot damn, that man is cute when he’s sassy. I am far from the only brat in the room. I really hope Lanie didn’t come in with the intention of a serious conversation.

“I know you’ve known West for a long time,” Lanie starts.

“Is it a booty call or a sleepover if it’s a regular occurrence?” I interrupt her. I meet Cord’s icy eyes over her shoulder and grin. “Where is that line? I don’t think I’ve ever found it.”

“I don’t doubt that,” my brother says over Lanie’s shoulder.

West wisely keeps his mouth shut.

Lanie glares at me. “Am I going to be allowed to finish?”

“Sure.” I fold my hands in my lap like a chastised church mouse and fall silent.

She huffs. “When West called me after you left to head to him”—we all turn and look at West, who has never seemed so damn innocent in all his life—“I knew you were in trouble.”

“But I wasn’t,” I protest.

That earns me another glare. “As in, I knew you were in trouble because you hadn’t made any real plans to organize care for Sally, and you didn’t know when your next shift was. But you did need to go to him.” Lanie stares me down, unflinching.

Okay, so I see why my brother thinks she’s all that. Fighting Lanie is sexy Lanie.

I also get the message. Breath leaves my throat in a quick exhale. “I’m sorry I asked so much of you. I shouldn’t have.”

Lanie shakes her head. “That’s not what I mean.” She twists to face West, her hands and Cord’s supporting her belly. “You, both of you, need to be there for each other. Cord and I did this the opposite way around. We were… right there for each other from the start. Almost too much, at times.” She casts a bemused smile over her shoulder, and Cord presses a kiss to her temple. “But we were there, even when things went wrong. And eventually, we even talked about it.”

I blink at her. “Is this an intervention?”

A throat clears. After a moment, Cord tucks around Lanie like she’s the most precious creature in his world. “And we’re out. Good luck.” He pauses, then reaches across my bed, his hand extended.

Lanie and I both hold our breaths. For a moment, I wonder if West will hold to his stubborn streak and deny my brother. Then he detaches his behind from the windowsill and leans forward to grip Cordell’s hand.

“I’m gonna need it.” West nods as the pair leave with me staring after them.

“Did they just tell us to talk to each other?” I ask in a hushed voice, maybe even a little awed.

West laughs softly. “Something like that, yeah.” He scrubs a hand across the back of his neck. “You want me to get you a crappy hospital coffee, Winnie?”

I turn to stare up at him. “Oh, no you don’t.”

“I don’t what?” He gazes down at me, his slate-gray eyes opaque like the overcast day he took me out for our ghost-town picnic.

“You don’t get to run away from me. Drag that chair over here and sit with me, you great big cowboy lump.”

“There’s a pretty picture.” He does what I ask anyway, grabbing the chair Cord took before and hoisting it up the bed to sit closer to my pillow. “Satisfied?” His eyes glint darker in challenge.

“Hardly.” I tip my chin up, the best gesture of defiance I can manage. I think I’m onto what Lanie wanted, but it’s going to take a whole lot more than I want to give right now. Plus, something else is percolating in my mind. I start with that. “I quit.”

“You what?” His hand hovers just above my hairline like he wants to tuck my curls behind my ear but gets stuck halfway. “Just how much are they giving you, Winnie?” He leans back to check my dosage, as though he knows what he’s doing.

This is Wilder West. For all I know, he does.

“I quit,” I repeat quietly. “I’m going to stay home and look after Sally. But not that home and not anywhere to do with Brad.” I force my ex’s name out between my lips without making it sound like a curse.

West watches me. “That career was your choice, Winnie. Is this something you’ll regret in the next weeks, months?”

I’ve thought it over, and it’s not the drugs talking. I know because I had these thoughts in the last weeks before all the shit went down. Afterward the medication wore off and everything freaking hurt again.