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Someone had shot at them last night. Stan hadn’t asked if Fred and LaDonna were all right. But he didn’t think the man had been lying about that. And where were Dylan, Devaney, Dahlia, and Dorie now?
Sean was going to have to find them, fast. Those four…they were defenseless. Completely. So sheltered and naive. They weren’t like the Browns’ four older daughters. They just weren’t.
And that made them easy targets.
There wasn’t anything Sean wouldn’t do, he realized, to find those girls and keep them safe.
Maybe he and that asshole weren’t all that different in the first place.
46
She was tired,confused, a little sore—that cot had been incredibly uncomfortable—but she would live. She washomenow. The inn would always meanhometo her. Dusty understood that more now than she had just the day before.
Her uncle had driven her home from the hospital. Dusty was in the backseat, with a blanket—and a fussing, hovering Dixon Genevieve Talley. Ben and Nikki and Hunter followed in Ben’s truck. He was sticking close. Dusty wasn’t ready to think about how that was exactly what she wanted.
She hadknownout there that Ben was coming for her. Had trusted him. More than she had ever trusted a man before. And when she’d woke, it had beenhimshe had looked for.
Dusty needed to figure out exactly what thatmeant.
No denying that.
Her uncle pulled up to the curved drive and the portico that had sheltered the entryway to the inn for decades. Dusty opened the rear door.
“Stay there, young lady. It looks like Ben is going to help you inside,” her uncle said. He had always made her feel so safe. Like her uncle could protect them all from the hurts of the world. She studied him for a quiet half moment. Seeing him there, but remembering his identical twin brother. They were very different. Her uncle was rigidly honorable, for one thing. Uncle Gerald always tried to do the right thing. Always tried to help those who needed.
Her father? She didn’t think he was like that at all. She’d always heard he’d been arrogant and a little self-centered. Well, now she most certainly believed that.
Except where Dusty’s mother was concerned. He definitely lovedher.
“Ben was a mess,” Dixie told her, fussing with her blanket one more time. “You really scared him. He searched for you for hours. Ben and both of his brothers. They tried to get Gil to stay behind, help coordinate searchers but Gil insisted he was going to be out there with his brothers. They really love you, Destiny Marie. Just like we all do. But Ben…there was a look in that man’s eyes when you were brought in that I will never forget.”
There was a question in her big sister’s beautiful eyes. Dusty didn’t know how to answer. If she couldn’t explain what was happening between her and Ben to herself, she wasn’t ready to put it into words for anyone else. Just not today.
Not today. She just nodded instead. Looked away. Looked for him.
Her door opened.
Ben leaned in. “Hey, babe. Let’s get you inside. Out of the snow.”
She wanted away from thesnowmore than she did anything else right now.
Ben slid his arms beneath her knees and behind her back. Dusty felt herself being scooted right out of the truck. “I can walk, Ben.”
“I know. I don’t think there is anything youcan’tdo, Destiny Marie Talley. In fact, I am certain there is nothing you can’t do. But for today, I am going to be the man who carries you. I just am. It’s what the heroes in romance novels aresupposedto do, I think.” There was so muchdepth,meaning, in his words, tears hit her eyes again. “I don’t know yet. I haven’t read one. But I’m going to. For research purposes, you know.”
Somehow that man got her right out of the truck and into his arms. He stood still for a moment, balancing himself. Balancing her. In more ways than one.
The rest of herfamilywaited on the porch. Her best friend was right there, too. The inn stood strong above all of them. Sheltering them like it always had.
She washome.Dusty wrapped her arm around Ben’s neck and cried.
For everything that had happened before.
47
When Dusty wokethe next time, she knew everything had changed. For one thing, there was a man sitting in a chair next to her bed. That was definitely not a sight she had ever anticipated. One of her sisters, yes. Her cousins, her grandmother, even her aunt Rhea. Nikki—most definitely, it wouldn’t have surprised her if Nikki had been the one sitting there, guarding her as she slept. Ready to defend her with a toothpick if that was all she could find.
But Nikki’s brother slept there instead.
