Full Rigged (Lost Creek Rodeo #4) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,5

and ice cream? Twenty pounds would be a cakewalk compared to this insanity. She’d turn into Craig’s running partner and take care of that.

But this?

She’d need to start walking between patients soon just to get her surges under control. Yoga at lunch. Whale sounds when sitting at her desk. Chocolate around the clock.

Well, she already did that, and it just made her less hangry.

Didn’t do anything about her surges.

Head pounding, eyes burning, Brynn inhaled slowly, and exhaled slowly, then sat up and checked her surroundings. No one around, no one to see. It was why she parked in the back, away from physician parking, away from patient parking.

Just . . . away.

Sniffling, she checked her phone, sighing at the message notification.

“Please don’t be from work,” she whispered to her car as she tapped the app.

She managed a smile as she saw her best friend’s name across the top.

Kennedy wants to see Auntie Brynn. Aaron is working late. Can we swing by with a pizza?

Cute goddaughter and free pizza? Maybe that would be the cure to volcano days.

She texted back quickly. Yes. Please. I’ll be home in fifteen.

The drive home was simple enough, even with traffic, and the heat of the day had little effect on her. Albuquerque had been home for six years now, and she hadn’t been bothered by the heat of it even once. Coming from Missouri, she was used to heat and humidity, but doing her residency in Arizona had opened her eyes to the glories of dry heat, and she was perfectly content to stay here forever. Her family was all over the country at this point, and even her parents weren’t in Missouri anymore.

A cross-country family, so to speak.

She had met Mandi shortly after she moved to Albuquerque with Minimus, and they’d connected at a company social for the airline Minimus and Mandi’s husband, Aaron, flew for. The men hadn’t really clicked, but Mandi and Brynn had been inseparable from then on.

When Brynn had been named godmother for their daughter, Kennedy, her life had brightened notably, considering the crap show it had been for that entire year. Rumors had been everywhere, but Minimus hadn’t said anything. Even when confronted, he hadn’t said a thing.

Baby Kennedy had given Brynn a reprieve from her growing misery.

Now she was a jabbering eighteen-month-old, and her sweet obsession with hugs was going to be exactly what Brynn needed.

Her condo was as neat and tidy as she left it, which meant she wouldn’t have to do any rapid cleanup before they got here. Just a few adjustments to make sure the place was Kennedy-proof, and she was good to go. Next step was to get out of the faux-fancy trousers she’d worn for the day, which were really yoga pants with a crease, and the sweats and oversized tee were as good as a warm blanket on a cold night after the day she’d had.

She always spent her free time in sweats and an oversized tee these days, but it felt especially good at the moment.

A very childish knock sounded at her door, and Brynn grinned at it, her energy spiking in a way she could have used hours ago. “Who could that be at my door?” she asked loudly. “I just don’t know.”

Her favorite giggles met her ears, and she opened the door to see the most adorable white-blonde pigtails and blue eyes known to man. And she was grinning at Brynn like she was the sun.

“Kennedy!” Brynn squealed as though this was a surprise, reaching her arms out. “Come see me!”

The little girl leaned for her, and immediately hugged her neck.

Brynn cradled Kennedy against her, breathing in the sweet scent of baby wash, grass, and apple juice as though it were the greatest perfume in the world. “Hi, sweet baby. Auntie Brynn needed her Kennedy tonight.”

“Any Bin,” Kennedy said, patting Brynn’s shoulders and giggling to herself.

“Where’s Mama?” Brynn asked her, frowning. “Where’d Mama go?”

Kennedy twisted in her arms and pointed at her equally blonde mother. “Mama dere.”

Brynn gasped as Mandi reacted to the identification, and held up the box of pizza.

“Mama’s here,” Mandi agreed in a singsong voice, “and she’s got dinner!”

“Then Mama can come in,” Bryn replied in kind, stepping back.

Mandi entered the condo, kicking off her shoes and dropping the diaper bag slung over her shoulder before shutting the door. “Good, I’m glad Brynn is having dinner with me tonight. I was a little worried it would be cranky Brynn again, which is why I went for