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Sage stood in the corner, supervising—and waiting on injury reports on Dusty’s sisters, for the official report. Or something. That was what Sage had told her. Dusty just suspected the other woman was there in case she was needed.
Just like Ben’s two brothers had stayed close, too. For her. Even if Fletcher was a bit grumbly. He’d get over it. He’d gotten his truck back, after all.
Her grandmother and uncle showed up a few minutes after Dylan and Devaney had been taken back by Shane Lowell and Dixie’s best friend Laney. Dusty’s grandmother came right to her and hugged her. “You just keep scaring me, young lady. Let me look at you. You are okay?”
“I’m okay, Grandma. I promise.” But Dusty fought the urge to cling. “I think it’s probably over now. No promises, but…”
“I have a lot to say to that wayward son of mine,” her grandmother said. “But first…”
She turned toward the two young girls who had just been sitting there in hard plastic chairs, not saying anything to anyone. Even each other. “You two.”
The younger girl looked up. The one wholookedso much like Dusty and Darcey. Just on a slightly smaller scale. “Yes, ma’am?”
“None of that ma’am stuff. You’ll make me feel old.” Dusty watched as her grandmother walked right up to them. “I am Grandma, sweetheart. Or Grandma Flo. I am your grandmother, and I always will be. And I always have been. From the moment you were each born. No matter what that dweeb of your father has done or told you or not told you. I promise.”
The girls justlookedat her. For the longest time. Then the blonde nodded. “I’m Dorothy. They call me Dorie, though. This is Dahlia. Her twin is Devaney. They are twenty-one. I’m nineteen. Dylan…she’s the…oldest, well, of us anyway. She’s almost twenty-three. Dahlia…she really doesn’t talk much. She’s very shy.”
“You are beautiful girls with beautiful names.” Dusty’s grandmother looked at Uncle Gerald. “This is your father’s twin brother, of course. Gerald. He looks a lot more intimidating than he really is. He’s a bit of a marshmallow. He has three daughters—Miranda lives in St. Louis and works for the FBI. She has a son. She is the eldest of my granddaughters. Marin is the tall, thin, pale blonde who seems to think she’s in charge at the inn and my diner. You’ll meet Gerald’s girls soon. Meyra is the quiet one. She, young Dahlia, looks a good deal like you. And I suspect you may have quite a bit in common with her. You also have a cousin Charlotte who lives in Finley Creek, Texas. She is a forensic scientist there who moonlights as a movie actress. She’s something else.”
“We have cousins?” Dahlia whispered. “Daddy never…told us…anything abouthere.”
“I know. And I’m sorry you had to wait so long to find out where you came from.” Her grandmother had always been a no-nonsense kind of woman. Don’t dwell on the past. Focus on the future. And whatyoucould make of it. Define your own destiny. That was what Flo Talley had always done.
Never had Dusty admired and respected her grandmother more than she did right now. Watching her grandmother hug those girls like that. Her grandmother pulled back. “Now. For the really important part. Your sisters. Your older sisters. I thinktheyhave waited a long time to meet you, too.”
“We probably should wait,” Dorie said. “Until Dylan and Devaney get back. We…tend to do everything together. We are really all we’ve ever had. Dad and Mom…we moved a lot. And we were homeschooled. We stuck close to home. Mom…isn’t really, well, you know. She gets afraid a lot. Nervous. She has anxiety disorder and panicsa lot.We…don’t really know what we are supposed to do right now.”
“We’ll figure it out,” a quiet voice said from the door. One of the other sisters stood there. The smallest one. “They are going to bring Devvie out in a minute. They want to take X-rays of her ribs where that one guy punched her and where the airbag hit her, too. But it will take a minute. They said she can come out here. With the rest of us. While they wait for the X-ray tech to get to her.”
Dusty looked at this little sister. She was so cute. For lack of a better word,cute.The hair stuck up literallyeverywhere.It curled, too. None of their hair curled, but this one’s…It was the exact same shade as Marin’s weird white-blond, too. She was the only one of them with actual freckles. “How are you feeling, Dylan?”
Dylan looked at her. There was mistrust in her eyes. “You were the one kissing that Tyler dude.”
“Yes. I was kissing that Tyler dude. I plan to kiss him a lot more in the future. He’s waiting in the cafeteria with his brothers. They drove me here. His sister is my best friend. I’ve known them forever. How is your arm?”
“Holy. Very holy.” She shot Dusty a wicked grin. Yes, it was definitely Daisy’s grin right there. “Entrance and exit actually. But they stitched me right up. Gave me some pain pills and everything, for later. I am probably going to be really sore later, too. From the airbag and everything. They gave me a shot of something, too. That Dr. Lowell dude is seriously hot. Does anyone know if he likes younger women?”
“His sister is the cop who fake-arrested you,” Dixie told her. “She’ll probably know.”
“Ask him for me?” Dylan asked Sage. “He is like sizzlingly hot.”
“I’ll do that, though I’ve never thought of him as sizzlingly anything before—except annoying actually. How do you feel about devil children? He has two…they tend to frighten most women away, though. They are so precious. I love them so much.” Sage’s niece and nephew had reputations, after all.
“Everyone really is related in this town, aren’t they?” Dylan asked as Laney came in, pushing the other twin in a wheelchair. She was wearing a hospital gown and had a blanket over her legs.
“Devvie!” The girl’s twin jumped up and went to her sister’s side. “Are you okay?”
“Just bruises. I promise. Dahlia, I am okay. They are just going to do X-rays to see if my ribs are actually cracked instead of bruised. I’ll be okay in a few days. They said they’ll probably let me out after the X-rays are back.”
“But where are we going to go?” Dahlia asked. “I don’t think the car is going to run very much longer. We were lucky to get it to town anyway.”
“Justhowdid you get it to town?” Dylan asked. She was the one in charge, Dusty suspected. “How did you know where to find me?”
“I drove,” the teenager said. “Dahlia tracked your phone on the app. We followed you.”
“Are you insane? The next time I am chasing armed gunmen down in a snowstorm to rescue Devaney, you two are to go in theoppositedirection! Haven’t we covered this before? Where did I go wrong raising you three?” She waved her good hand around exaggeratedly. “You are supposed to run away, Dorie! And take Dahlia with you! Devaney, for heaven’s sake, can you please refrain from getting Devaney-napped next time we have an actual adventure, okay?”
“There won’t be a next time,” Devaney said calmly. She seemed to say everything calmly. “Ireallyhope there won’t be a next time.”
