Текст книги "Then Came You"

Автор книги: Jill Shalvis

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

Eighteen

At the end of the next day, Wyatt stood behind the front desk watching Emily attempt to print one of her files. When she’d said “Crap!” for the third time, he leaned over her and did it himself.

“Are you kidding me?” she asked, craning her neck to glare at him. “Why didn’t you do that five minutes ago?”

He smiled and showed her how to print the day’s receipts as well. Still leaning over her, the inside of his arm brushed the outside of hers, and she went still.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“It’s something. You moaned.”

“Did not.”

He stared down at her bowed head. Her hair had fallen forward, revealing the nape of her neck, a spot he badly wanted to put his mouth to.

As if she could read his thoughts she shivered.

Christ. They were in trouble.

A truck pulled into the lot. “Damn,” he said, not sure if he was grateful or frustrated at the interruption. Both, he decided. “So close to escaping on time tonight, too.”

Emily let out a breathless laugh. “There’s actually an on time?”

“Only if you run fast.” He gestured with his chin for her to make her escape. “I’ll take this, you head out.”

“No,” she said, stubborn to the end. “I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”

He looked into her fierce eyes and felt more than a physical arousal. Far more. “Emily.”

“I mean, what if it’s another woman in the Casserole Brigade?” she asked.

“Then maybe I’ll get something good for dinner.”

“And if she wants something in return?”

He smiled. “Depends on how good the casserole is,” he teased to lighten the mood.

Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not even funny.”

The driver of the truck walked in wearing jeans and a police sweatshirt, hoodie up, badge and gun on his hip, carrying a brown bag in one hand, the leash to a young pit bull in the other.

Wyatt recognized him as one of the players on the police team that he occasionally played flag football against. The guy worked for the county on Highway Patrol.

“We’re just closing up here,” Emily told him. “Do you have an emergency?”

The guy gave a nod to Wyatt as he came up to the counter and leaned on it casually, smiling at Emily. “No emergency,” he said. “Just been hearing about our new vet in town. You’re as pretty as they say.”

Wyatt mentally rolled his eyes and glanced at Emily, figuring she’d be doing the same as she had a very accurate bullshit meter.

She was smiling back at the guy. WTF?

“That’s sweet,” she said.

Sweet? How about stupidly cheesy?

The cop removed his dark sunglasses and pushed back his hoodie. “Evan Russell,” he said, and held out his hand.

“Emily Stevens.” She shook the guy’s hand and looked at Wyatt. “And this is Dr. Stone.”

Evan gave Wyatt a cursory nod. “Brought you something, Dr. Pretty,” he said to Emily. “I’ve got a ranch full of animals at home, so I thought knowing the pretty vet might come in handy.” He set the bag in front of her.

“A bribe?” she asked.

He smiled. “Open it.”

She opened the bag, inhaled deeply, and closed her eyes on a blissful sigh. “Chocolate chip cookies. Heaven.”

Evan smiled. “There’s more where those came from.”

“I bet,” Wyatt muttered.

Emily looked at him. Evan didn’t take his eyes off Emily. “So how’s Sunshine been treating you so far?” he asked her.

“Well, the traffic’s not as bad as it was in L.A.”

Evan chuckled. They all knew traffic was nonexistent in Sunshine. Well, except on the days that the errant cow escaped a ranch and stood in the middle of the road. “I think we’ve got more to offer you than better traffic. You ride?”

“You mean motorcycles?” she asked.

He chuckled again, and Wyatt had to resist the odd urge to put a fist through the guy’s mouth.

“Horses,” Evan said.

“Oh.” Emily smiled. “No. Not yet.”

“I’ll take you. You live nearby?”

Wyatt shifted. If she told the guy where she lived, he was going to have to kill him.

And then her.

“Not too far,” she said, reminding Wyatt that she was no pushover. She was in fact, a city girl, smart. Wary. Tough.

But so was Evan, and he wasn’t easily deterred. “Name the day,” he said.

“I’ll think about it,” Emily said.

Evan nodded, and gestured to the bag of cookies. “Enjoy.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I will.”

He spent an extra few beats holding her gaze, and then walked out.

Emily dug into the bag and took a bite of cookie, sighed in pleasure, and then offered Wyatt one.

“You shouldn’t eat stuff from people you don’t know,” Wyatt said.

She laughed. She laughed so hard she choked on the damn cookie and he had to pound her on the back and bring her a glass of water.

When she could breathe, she grinned up at him.

“You ever worry about eating the things all those women bring you?”

“No,” he admitted. “But it seems different when it’s a guy.”

She just kept grinning. “Guess you’re not the only one getting in on the Casserole Brigade, Dr. Sexy.”

“Dr. Sexy?”

“Oh, like you don’t know it.” She took another bite of cookie.

“You didn’t give him the almost boyfriend line.”

Emily cocked her head at him. “You’re jealous.”

“Bullshit.”

“Good,” she said. “Because I’m perfectly willing to share.” She opened the bag and held it out to him, smiling guilelessly.

He stared at her, realizing they were on entirely different pages, and found himself laughing. “You don’t have a clue,” he said softly.

Her smiled faded. “A clue of what?”

He leaned in close, but not to take a fucking cookie. “That you’re the Dr. Sexy.”

The next morning Emily got up early to waste a little time online angsting over the fact that she’d upped her bid on Wyatt yet again.

She needed an intervention, she thought later as she walked into Belle Haven and, as she had since Jade had been gone, found Dell standing behind the counter, pulling out his hair. “Whatever happened to your three leads?” she asked.

He shoved his fingers through his hair. “First Choice told me there wasn’t enough money in the world. Second Choice told me that she’d love to . . . except she didn’t want to.”

Emily laughed. “And your last choice?”

Dell blew out a breath. “She’ll be here soon.”

“What does Jade say about all this?”

“She doesn’t know,” Dell said. “If I told her, she’d be home already, and I don’t want her to miss out on time with her family because of this.”

Emily smiled. “You’re sweet.”

Dell’s mouth turned up at the corners. “Hope you still think so after you have to take your shift back here.”

But she never got to take her turn behind the counter at all. Adam strode in, spoke to Dell for a terse minute, and then both men looked at her. “Field trip time,” Dell said.

“Where to?” she asked.

“Rob from Camarillo Ranch just called,” Adam said. “They need help. Three of their horses got spooked and tangled themselves in a downed barb wire fence. They need medical care ASAP.”

“It’s a good one for you to observe,” Dell told Emily. “It’ll give you a real taste of what’s out there for this type of practice.”

Camarillo Ranch was sixty miles north, and Dell contracted with them as their mobile vet care. Emily looked at her watch. “If we take a truck and go now, we could be there in an hour and a half—”

“One of the horses doesn’t have an hour and a half,” Adam said. “Brady’s readying the chopper right now. Wyatt’s already over there.”

The airport was literally across the street. “Grab my ready bag from the staff room and run,” Dell said.

She stared at him. “You want me to go in the helicopter and assist Adam and Wyatt in a horse rescue?”

“I want you to observe, and learn,” he said. “Unless you’d rather stay here and run this entire center by yourself while I go.”

Hell no. “But—”

“I’m offering, because it’s a great opportunity for you, and also with Adam, Wyatt, and Jade gone, I shouldn’t leave the center. You’ve got three seconds before I change my mind.”

Emily whirled and ran for the staff room and heard Dell’s low laugh behind her.

Twenty minutes later she was in the air, in her first chopper ride. It was terrifying and glorious at the same time. Adam was across from her. Wyatt sat next to her—Mr. Lived In Twenty Countries And Traveled The World Over—looking cool and calm.

Emily tried to look calm and cool, too. She failed. “Holy cow,” she whispered to herself as the chopper banked a hard right.

Across from her Adam grinned, and so did Wyatt, making her remember her headset.

The three guys could hear every word she uttered.

She could only see the back of Brady’s head but somehow she knew he was grinning as broad as Adam. She couldn’t find it in herself to care that they were laughing at her. She was a city girl, through and through. As a kid, once in a blue moon her parents would drive her and Sara to the mountains for the day.

But the mountains for the day in Los Angeles were a lot different than these mountains.

And they’d driven there.

Now she was . . . well, she had no idea how many feet in the air exactly, seeing the countryside up high, coupled with the whistle and whine of the chopper. She was enthralled by mazes of mountains and valleys below, sprawled out for what was surely hundreds of miles. She could see forever, it seemed, nothing but crests of the ridges of the Bitterroots and beyond, countless lakes and rivers, and isolated, rugged territory as tough as . . . well, the men in the chopper with her.

Or maybe the land had made them so tough. She wondered if it could do the same for her.

In any case, it was a thrill, a rush, at least until Brady banked hard, and dipped hard toward the ground.

Emily gasped, a hand to her heart to hold it into her chest.

“Damn,” she heard Brady say with great disappointment in her ear. “That usually gets a scream out of the first timers.”

“She’s pretty good with the self-control at work,” Wyatt said, his warm tone making her belly go a little squishy.

She met his gaze and he smiled his bad-boy smile, and she knew what he was thinking. He was thinking that outside of work, specifically in bed, she wasn’t nearly so good with the control . . .

Which was true.

Maybe she hadn’t exactly screamed for him, but she’d come pretty damn close a couple of times.

He nudged her knee with his.

She opened her mouth to tell him to stop making her think about their . . . escapades. But the truth was, she thought of him all on her own, without any help from him. At least she could be secure in the knowledge that he was doing the same. There was comfort in that, that their misery was shared.

Except he didn’t look miserable. He looked hot and sexy, and then there was that light of trouble and mischief in his gaze, like maybe he wouldn’t mind having another . . . escapade to be teasing her about.

But that couldn’t happen. The first time with him had been the one-night stand she’d always wanted.

Twice had been . . . well, magic. So had their third time. And their fourth.

And their fifth . . .

After talking to Sara the night before, she’d decided to own those memories, collect them in her mind, and file them under the label Hot Fantasies to Pull Out as Necessary.

But to continue on like this would only prove Sara right. Someone—she—was going to get hurt. To continue on would surely take things to the next level, a level she didn’t even know what to call, other than a huge mistake, because as Sara had so helpfully pointed out, it could and would derail her life plan.

The chopper banked again, steeper now. Biting her lip, Emily reached out in blind panic, and felt her hand gripped.

Wyatt.

No longer laughing at her. “Okay?” he asked.

“Worried I’m going to throw up on your shoes?” she managed to ask.

“This is a no throw up zone,” Brady said from the pilot’s seat.

“Take your thumb and middle finger and press firmly on both sides of your wrist,” Adam told her. “It’s an acupressure point, and should reduce nausea.”

Wyatt didn’t take his gaze off Emily as he reached out and did the acupressure for her. “You’re all right,” he said, holding on.

She was very glad he thought so.

But he was right. She was fine. They landed on a concrete pad to the side of a huge ranching operation. And even better, she didn’t toss her cookies.

They were met by Tex, the ranch manager, and immediately taken by truck to one of the back pastures.

“The rains have wreaked havoc and hell on everything,” Tex said. “The creek overflowed, took down the northwest fence line. The horses got out at some point in the night, and a few of them tangled in the barbed outer line fence. We got all but Aurora free.”

Emily knew the recent night rains had saturated the ground, but she’d had no sense of how bad it could be until they alighted from the truck near a line of fence that vanished around a hill.

Even making their way closer was difficult, her feet kept sinking in the mud, and then a terrible scream stopped her heart.

Not human.

Horse.

There were three men surrounding the downed horse, who was struggling wildly, entangled in the barbed wire. Both Adam and Wyatt turned to Emily at the same time.

“Stay here,” they said in unison.

She started to balk because she wanted to help, but the look on Wyatt’s face was steel.

So she stayed, watching in horror, at the horse stuck in the mud and barbed wire, fighting itself and the men already in place trying to help. With every movement, Aurora only succeeded in embedding the wire deeper and deeper in her flesh.

Wyatt, Adam, and Brady waded right in, not a single one of them hesitating in any way or dodging the possibility of getting caught beneath those wild hooves or the weight of the horse. She watched Adam take charge of the rescue while Wyatt did something with a syringe. Then he was adding his hands and voice to the mix. Calm. Sure. Absolutely one hundred percent in charge as he worked to soothe Aurora.

The horse thrashed and fought, not going down easy.

“The wire’s beneath her,” Wyatt clipped out to Adam.

“Get her up,” Adam said.

Heedless of the danger to himself, Wyatt dug his feet into the mud and added his bulk to the efforts of getting Aurora upright. Meanwhile Adam tried to work around the flailing horse to cut the wire free, all while Aurora did her best to trample the shit out of all of them.

Wyatt grabbed Aurora’s face and spoke right into her ear with calm authority, and Aurora’s ears flattened. She was listening. Not necessarily liking, but listening.

And Emily was transfixed. Watching Wyatt in action was like watching a rock star. A vet rock star.

Like Adam, like Brady, like Dell—all men she’d come to admire—Wyatt never rattled, was always willing and ready to be in charge of any given situation.

Just as they got the horse free of the wire, Aurora finally began to succumb to the sedative. The poor, exhausted thing dropped her head and huffed, pressing close to Wyatt, knocking him back a step.

Wyatt just spread his legs for better balance and wrapped his arms around her, stroking her face, murmuring something low that Emily couldn’t hear, while the other men pulled the rest of the wire as far from them as they could get it.

Wyatt gestured Emily in. “She’s good now,” he said, eyes locked on to Aurora’s. “Aren’t you, sweetheart?” He stroked her, loving her up, and the horse tossed her head. “I know,” he murmured softly. “You’re still beautiful.”

The horse, bleeding from a dozen deep cuts, snorted her agreement and gave Wyatt a not-so-gentle head butt to the chest that once again knocked him back a step.

He just grinned at her. “Still feisty. I can understand that. You’ve had a rough morning. Emily, you ready?”

She was ready, and side by side they began treating her wounds.

“Stay sharp,” Wyatt told Emily quietly as they worked. “She’s still looking for someone’s ass to kick after her ordeal.”

And indeed, when Emily shifted too suddenly, Aurora whipped her head around, teeth bared.

She might have taken a nice bite right out of Emily’s shoulder if Wyatt hadn’t given Emily a shove, a move that sent her flying back.

To her ass in the mud.

Aurora bit Wyatt instead, getting him on the forearm. Emily scrambled up to her feet and reached for him.

“I’m fine,” he said.

Great. He was fine and her ass was covered in mud and smarting from the fall. But this was the job. She knew this. She accepted this. So she pushed her own discomfort aside and dove into the work.

Wyatt showed her some quick bandaging techniques for temperamental, still pissed-off and frightened horses so that she didn’t get almost bit again.

It was the sort of experience she never would have gotten in the Beverly Hills vet office, and she knew it. By the time they all got back on the helicopter an hour later, she was exhilarated, but aching everywhere and starving.

Brady was there ahead of them, ready and waiting with—God bless him—food. Hot pastrami sandwiches loaded with cheese and spicy mustard. The exact perfect food. She stuffed in her first bite and moaned. “I could kiss you,” she told Brady.

Brady smiled. “That’s what all the women say.”

Adam gestured to her leg. “What’s wrong?”

He’d seen her limping. “Nothing,” she said quickly. Too quickly because Wyatt’s gaze narrowed in on her. “I’m fine,” she told them both. Sure, her butt hurt from the fall, but she’d probably just hit a rock or something. “I slipped in the mud—”

“You didn’t slip,” Wyatt said. “I pushed you.”

“Yes, well, I was trying to be polite.”

“You pushed her into the mud?” Adam asked him, voice low but a whisper of disbelief in the tone.

“To keep me from getting bit,” Emily said. “That, or for the whole mud effect.”

“I did it for the save-Emily’s-arm effect,” Wyatt said. “But checking out your bruise later might make it worthwhile.”

She choked on the bite she’d just taken. He was checking out her bruise never.

The light of intent in his gaze said otherwise, and her inner slut sighed in pleasure.

She shut it up with the rest of her sandwich.

Nineteen

They made it back to Sunshine in one piece. Emily exited the helicopter and walked across the street toward Belle Haven ahead of Wyatt and Adam, who’d stayed behind to talk to Brady for a moment.

She was glad. She’d joked about the mud incident, but sitting in the chopper had made her muscles tighten up. The back of her leg, between her butt cheek and upper thigh¸ hurt like hell.

Intending to go straight to the bathroom to take a peek, she started to walk into the front door of Belle Haven, but a hand clamped on her wrist.

Wyatt.

Without a word, he pulled her around the side of the building, through the back, and then nudged her into his office.

“Um,” she said, when he shut and locked the door behind him.

Leaning against it, his crossed his arms. “Strip.”

She choked out a laugh. “Excuse me?”

“I want to see your leg,” he said.

“What leg?”

“The one you’re rubbing.”

Dammit. She dropped her hand from the back of her thigh, which she’d indeed been unconsciously rubbing. “I’m fine.”

“No doubt of that,” he said and reached for the button on her pants.

She squeaked and danced back, right into his desk. She winced at the contact.

“Okay, that’s it.” His big hands settled at her hips and her belly quivered.

The good kind of quiver.

Before she could give that any thought, he turned her away from him, sandwiching her, her back to his front, between his body and the desk. Again, he reached around her for the button on her pants.

She sputtered. “You can’t just—”

He could, and did. Before she could finish her statement, he had her pants down to her thighs.

She tried to turn, but he put a hand between her shoulder blades and pushed her flat to his desk.

“Hold still,” he said.

She opened her mouth to tell him she’d hold still when he was good and dead, which would be as soon as she managed to get her hands around his neck, but then he stroked his fingers very gently, very lightly high up on the back of her thigh.

“Wyatt—”

“Shh,” he said, and then his fingers spread a little, and she was thinking she couldn’t be as hurt as she thought because those fingers felt shockingly good.

His thumb slid beneath her panties and scooped the material aside, giving her a first-class wedgie. Once again she started to squirm but then he set his whole palm on her butt.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low and gruff.

“For bending me over your desk?” She tried to inject a pissed-off tone into the words, and a sense that his life was on borrowed time, but she sounded annoyingly breathless.

“You’re bruised,” he said. He pressed between her shoulder blades again. “Stay right there.”

“Like hell—”

“Stay.”

Wyatt grabbed an ice pack from the staff kitchen freezer, and then headed straight back to his office. In the thirty seconds he’d been gone, Emily had straightened up from his desk. Her pants were still at her thighs, and her hot pink panties covered all the essentials—barely.

The view was heart-stopping.

She stood there, craning around, trying to see her own ass. And if he hadn’t caused the huge blooming bruise from her sweet ass cheek to the top of her thigh, he’d really be enjoying the sight.

He moved to her and placed the ice pack against her leg.

She squeaked and jerked.

“Shh,” he said.

“I am not a dog or a cat or a damn horse,” she said through gritted teeth. “You can’t animal-whisper me into a blissful, do-whatever-you-want-to-me coma simply because of your sexy voice!”

He adjusted the ice pack, smiling when she sucked in a breath. “Do-whatever-you-want-to-me coma?” he repeated.

“Yes,” she said. “That’s what happens when you talk to your patients. They melt.”

“And you?”

She turned away to face his desk, profile stony.

He smiled at the back of her head. “You want me again.”

“You’re a pain in my ass,” she said. “Literally.”

He stroked a finger over the pink silk. “I like these.”

“If you were a gentleman, you wouldn’t notice.”

“Emily, I’ve seen it all before.”

“Not bent over your desk, you haven’t!” she said

“True,” he said. “You were bent over the bathroom counter last time.”

She whipped around, still holding the ice pack to herself. “You’re enjoying this!”

He scrubbed a hand over his jaw to hide his smile, but nothing could stop it from creeping into his voice. “Yeah,” he admitted. “You’re the prettiest patient I’ll see today.”

She stared at him, and then rolled her eyes. “You can’t sweet talk me like you can an animal, Wyatt.”

Yes, he could. He’d done it. But he wasn’t stupid, so he didn’t point it out or respond. “Keep the ice on it for a few minutes. I’m going to start seeing our patients.”

“I’m supposed to shadow you.”

“Keep the ice for a few,” he repeated, and then in spite of wanting to strip her out of the rest of her clothes and bend her back over his desk, he left his office.

It was the usual afternoon insanity. For the last few hours, Wyatt had completely forgotten that, with Jade gone and her replacement a no-show, Dell had been left to face the chaos on his own.

He expected Mike to be behind the front desk. Or anyone other than who was sitting there.

Darcy.

The phones were ringing wildly, and she was using her walker to stand and face off with Colonel McVey.

Colonel was an old-timer. He’d been army way back, Special Forces, and he’d lost none of his fierce intensity or the ability to slay anyone in eye-contact range. He lived alone on his ranch with his cattle and his twenty-year-old cat, Betty.

Betty was blind but other than that, she was still spry and kicking. In fact, she was in better shape than Colonel.

“She hasn’t had a BM in two days,” Colonel was saying to Darcy.

“A BM?” Darcy asked.

“Bowel movement.”

“Oh.” Darcy laughed. “She’s plugged. Hey, it happens to the best of us.”

“Plugged,” Peanut yelled from his perch on the printer. “Plugged.”

Darcy grinned at the parrot. “What else do you know?”

“Boner,” Peanut said proudly.

Colonel wasn’t amused. “I want to see Dell,” he said, not cracking a smile. “And I want to see him now, young lady.”

Darcy’s eyes narrowed and she lost her smile. “Dell’s with a patient right now. How about you just sit down and take a load off, and I’ll do my best to work you into the schedule—”

“I’m not going to ‘sit down and take a load off’!” Colonel boomed. “There are dogs in the waiting room.” The tough, badass kissed the top of Betty’s bony head. “Betty doesn’t like dogs.”

“Well I don’t like people who yell at me,” Darcy said. “But we’re all stuck with each other, so sit down, zip it, and I’ll be right with you.”

Colonel glared at her, and Wyatt moved in to save his annoying sister’s ass, but Colonel spoke, his tone softer now.

“You got gumption, girl,” he said. “I like that.”

“Great,” Darcy said. “What’s gumption?”

Unbelievably, Colonel grinned. “You’re ex-military, right? Where did you get injured?”

“I’m not military, ex or otherwise,” Darcy said. “I’m not good with following orders. I got hurt by my own stupidity.”

This shocked Wyatt, since as far as he knew, she’d never once spoken about her accident.

Colonel took a seat and Darcy met Wyatt’s gaze as he came in close. “Betty here is a walk-in,” she said. “I’m putting her on your schedule. And before you blow a gasket, Dell asked me to come and answer phones.”

“Did he happen to mention that these people are his livelihood, and mine as well, and that you should be nice, even when they piss you off—which, trust me, they will?”

“I’m perfectly nice,” she said.

When Wyatt just stared at her, she shrugged. “If they’re nice to me.”

“It’s hard to be nice to someone who has a perpetual frown on her face,” Wyatt corrected. “Maybe you could try smiling.”

She flashed him a smile, only called such because she bared her teeth. “How’s this?” she asked.

“I said smile, not scare people away.”

“You know,” she said, “I don’t like your attitude. I’m going to double book you if you’re not careful. Maybe with Cassandra. And I have the power, too, you’re at my mercy, big bro.”

Wyatt considered strangling her but there were witnesses. That’s when Emily came out from the back. The mud on her pants had dried but she looked like she’d been wrangling wild horses. “Who’s in what exam room and where do you want me?” she asked Darcy.

“See?” Darcy said to Wyatt. “A little bit of professionalism and kindness goes a long way. Oughta try it sometime.” She looked at Emily again. “Dell’s in exam one. We’re full up, so if you want to hop into exam two, it’d be greatly appreciated.”

Emily smiled at her. “Will do.”

Darcy smiled back, and Wyatt wondered if the muscles around her mouth hurt from the fact that she hadn’t used those muscles in a damn long time.

Emily turned to get to work but froze when the front door opened and a twentysomething woman walked in. The first thing Wyatt noticed was that she didn’t have an animal with her.

The second thing was that she waved at Emily, who was standing there looking surprised. “Sara,” Emily said. “Everything okay?”

The sisters didn’t look very much alike, but that might’ve been because Sara had platinum blond hair, cut in short spikes, and more piercings and tats than clothes.

“Yes, everything’s okay,” Sara told Emily. “I just thought I’d stop by on my way home from work and meet your people.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed slightly as she gave her sister one of those sibling looks that Wyatt recognized all too well. Sara was up to something and Emily appeared to know it. She came back to the center of the room to make the introductions. “This is Darcy,” Emily told Sara. “Our lovely temp receptionist.”

Darcy and Sara bumped fists.

“And this is Dr. Stone,” Emily went on, gesturing to him next.

“Wyatt,” he said, offering his hand.

Sara was slow to take it. “So you’re him,” she said.

“Sara.” This from Emily, and there was no mistaking the knock it off in her voice.

“What?” Sara said. “He is, right? Dr. Stone, aka Dr. Sexy?”

Emily’s face turned a lovely shade of pink.

Darcy grinned.

Wyatt had no idea what the hell was going on, but no one knew better than him exactly how a family dynamic could work against you, not to mention how insane a sister could be. Or two.

“Dr. Sexy,” Darcy repeated. “That’s a new one. Personally, I think of him as Dr. Pain In My Ass, but hey, whatever works.” She took a second look at Emily. “So you and my brother have been taking office politics to a whole new level, I’m guessing.”

Emily made a strangled sound and shot Sara a look that Wyatt recognized well. It was an I-plan-to kill-you-later-and-slowly gaze that he could really appreciate right about now.

“I’m busy,” she told Sara, possibly through her teeth. “Go home.”

“Sure.” Sara smiled and held out a brown bag. “But first I brought some brownies. I’ve got extra for everyone.”

“Nice touch,” Darcy said. “I should try that sometime.”

Wyatt snorted. “You’ve never brought me food. And if you did, I’d probably need a taste tester.”

Darcy rolled her eyes and looked at Sara. “Out of curiosity, what did Wyatt do to piss you off?”

“Nothing,” Emily said, answering for her sister.

“He took a piece of her,” Sara told Darcy.

“Sara,” Emily said.

“I’m sorry,” Sara said to Wyatt. “I realize it’s unprofessional of me to come here during your workday, but Emily’s never going to tell you this shit. She’s not going to let you see that your . . . relationship with her is only further messing her up.”

“Further?” Wyatt asked.

“Oh my God,” Emily said. “Sara, go home.”

“She’s a giver,” Sara said, ignoring Emily, speaking directly to Wyatt. “You know that by now. She’ll do anything for anybody, and that includes animals, too.”

“Out,” Emily said to Sara, pointing to the door.

“My point,” Sara said quickly to Wyatt, clearly knowing her time was limited. “Is that she’s a giver, and sooner or later everyone takes advantage of her good nature.”

“I’m right here!” Emily said.

“We’ve all taken a piece of her,” Sara went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “And that’s on us. Me, my dad, even Mom, rest her soul. And her friends, too. Although she doesn’t have many right now because she was in school so long and worked a bunch of hours, but mostly it’s because she got hurt there, too. Her first boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend. Knocked out her entire posse in one, right there.”

Emily reached for Sara and began to push her to the door.

Sara dug her heels in. “And then there was John Number Two,” she told Wyatt over Emily’s shoulder. “He took a piece from her without even knowing it. So you can’t take your piece. You can’t,” she said, struggling with Emily, “because I don’t know how many pieces she has left to give, and she’s everything to me.” Her voice cracked, her eyes shimmered. “So you need to stop playing with her, or you’ll answer to me. You hear me?”