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“This is our grandmother,” Dahlia said in a whisper. She strongly reminded Dusty of Meyra. “Her name is Flo. And there is…him. Our uncle. We have an aunt and cousins, too.”
“And these are our sisters,” Dorie said.
Almost as one, the four turned toward where Dusty and her own sisters were standing. And they justlookedat each other for the longest time.
Dusty didn’t have a clue what they should evensay.
It was Dylan who took the first step. “Well, I think we’ve dramatically eyeballed each other long enough. No more staring contests. Dahlia always wins those, and it is really unfair. I think we should just get it out there, and then have a great big party. Family-reunion style. Hopefully with food—but…no ham, okay? I am so starving. I am thelittle one,yes, but, well, I eat like a horse. I wasseriouslyhoping at least one of you four would be smaller than me. No such luck, I see. I shall still be the runt forever, damn it. I am Dylan. She’s Devaney. Then it’s Dahlia and Dorothy. You all are?”
This little baby sister, well, Dusty suspectedthisone was probably one of a kind.
Darcey was the one who took charge. Like always. “I’m Darcey. I run the inn during the day. The inn has been in our family for one hundred years. I’m almost thirty. I also am on the radio three nights a week, and when needed in weather emergencies.”
“I’m Daisy,” Daisy said quietly. “I’m an elementary school teacher. I teach second graders. I’m the…well, IthoughtI was the youngest. This is Dixie. They named herDixon.Can you believe that?”
“Sheesh, yikes. I am likesoglad the ’rents got that one out of the way before they got to us,” Dylan said right to Dixie’s face. Dixie just gave a surprised laugh in response. “I thought being called Dylan was bad. Do you know how many times people have thought I should have a penis?”
Dylan looked so affronted, Dusty cracked up.
“I don’t know why you are laughing, lady. Didn’t they name you Dusty? I’m just glad they stopped at eight. Number nine might have been called Dirty or something. If they had to do the cute little naming thing, couldn’t they have come up with a better theme? I mean, we all eightcouldmaybe have been flowers or something. I’d probably have gotten stuck with delphinium, though. And that one is really hard to spell.”
Dusty didn’t know what made her do it. She just reached out. And hugged this little sister she had never known. She just looked like she deserved it for that one. “I think we will keep you.”
Dylan shot her a grin, but she looked so tired. Overwhelmed. Well, Dusty understood that. “Was there ever really any question? Everyone justlovesme, you know. Well, except for Truckboy Tyler. He’ll just have to get over me, though. I’m the love of Dr. Lowell’s life now, after all.”
But the girl started swaying while she said it. Dusty gasped, reached out.
She and Dixie caught their little sister just in time.
74
Dylan started to relax a little.Maybe because her new sisters weren’t running her, Dorie, Devaney and Dahlia out of town with pitchforks or anything. Or maybe it was because she was starting to really get tired and everything. Really tired. She couldn’t keep her eyes open or anything.
But she still didn’t know what was supposed to happen next. Somehow, her new big sisters—two of them—got her to one of the chairs in the corner. “Dude, they really gave me something in that shot.”
She heard one of the two nurses—Perci and Laney, they’d said their names were, she thought—talking to her new sister Dixie. Telling her the name of the shot or something. Dylan didn’t care. She just wanted two things—to make sure Devaney was okay, and well, to sleep.
They’d have to figure out everything else in the morning. Someone was holding her hand. She didn’t know if it was one of her new sisters, her old sisters, or—she forced her eyes open for a minute—it was the older lady. Her dad’smom.Her grandmother was holding her hand.
Like she actually wanted Dylan there or something. Cared about her and everything.
How cool was that?
She’d had so many fears. About this new family. About them not wantingheror the rest of them. Of them just hating them all. Resenting them and not wanting them around. But maybe it wasn’t going to be like that after all.
“Just sleep for a while, Dylan. I’ll make sure everybody is okay,” Dorie said on the other side of her.
Well, Dylan thought that sounded like a plan. She would just figure everythingelseout later.
75
Ben finally chased downhis woman. Not that it was all that hard to do, or anything. But he and his brothers—they’d picked up a Gilbert along the way when he’d met them in the inn parking lot, after having heard Fletcher’s truck was stolen—found Dusty and most of her sisters, Flo Talley, Gerald, and Sage in the waiting room. Sage was in official “chief-deputy mode” while Joel had Arthur Talley and his wife at the station.
Good old Artie. Probably lying through his teeth.
Arthur Talley was one man Ben would never like. It just wasn’t going to happen.
Dusty looked up when he came around the corner and the potted tree that gave the waiting room a small bit of privacy. “Ben.”
