EMTs, sugar. You might feel better having them come along with us. We certainly have the room for them - although someone is going to have to use the last bordello-style bedroom. You know the one I mean, the one that's all pink and silver and so pretty."
Carrie laughed, because there was one bedroom left to redecorate.
"Grant can have that one," Andrew said. "He needs all the encouragement he can get to be pink and pretty."
"I love you, too, brother," Grant said. Despite the snarky tone, he came into the room, stood beside his brother, and had his attention on Chloe. He reached out and laid a hand on her blanket-covered leg.
Carrie didn't think she imagined the way his touch settled her sister a little.
"Don't I get a vote?" Chloe's voice dripped with attitude, but she didn't do anything to dislodge the Jessops' hands on her.
Carrie smiled. That sounded like the sister she knew and loved. She couldn't deny that there was something about these two firefighters that cut through Chloe's distress.
"Sure," Carrie answered. "You get lots of choices. Just not about this. I'll feel much better if we have trained professionals on hand to help take care of you."
She wondered for a moment if she'd overstepped, but the look of relief that came and went so quickly in her sister's eyes convinced her she'd done the right thing.
"I guess I'm outvoted," Chloe said.
"I guess you are," Carrie agreed.
All of the men in the room proved their intelligence right then and there by keeping their collective mouths shut.
Chapter 22
Brian couldn't get the image of what might have been out of his head.
All through the business of getting Chloe and his cousins installed at the ranch house, his mind played a horrible vignette for him. He imagined Carrie getting that phone call when she'd been alone - his woman was faithful and loved fiercely and there was no way in hell she'd have not gone to her sister.
He imagined her walking, willingly, into her own worst nightmare, thinking it a small price to pay to save Chloe's life. Carrie had no death wish and he knew that. She would have thought she could get away from that bastard once her sister was safe.
Brian's logical brain told him that Lockwood would have killed Chloe and made it impossible for Carrie to get away from him, ever. He would have incapacitated her and then he would have managed to get her away from Lusty, to God knew where.
The entire misadventure could have been over in minutes with no one in town any the wiser. It could have been hours before they realized what had happened, and they likely never would have been able to find her.
Carrie handed a can of Coke to her sister, and then came over to him and crawled into his lap. Her scent and the warmth of her body pulled him away from his dark imaginings.
"You have to let it go, darlin'." Carrie grinned as she turned his pet name for her back to him. Then her face turned serious. "I'm here, and safe, and it's over. It's over forever."
He met her gaze. The love he saw in her eyes went a long way toward erasing the terror still roiling in his gut.
"Might-have-been is no place to go, Brian. Trust me on this one, as a woman who has vacationed there many, many times."
Brian nodded, and then pulled her tight. "It'll take me a bit, Carrie. But I'll close the door on that, eventually. I promise."
"See that you do." She kissed his neck after she whispered those words to him, and he let himself celebrate the reality of her there, in his arms.
Still, that fear clung to him worse than the smell of manure. He shuddered, and then whispered, "I'd die if anything ever happened to you, darlin'."
"Jesus, people, get a room why don't you?"
Grant's comment made Brian chuckle. Carrie kissed his cheek and then slid off his lap, settling down on the sofa between him and Chase.
Brian skewered his cousin with a narrow-eyed stare. "Thanks, pal. I owe you one."
"My pleasure." Grant gave him a smile he immediately recognized, that of a cousin yanking his strings.
Brian looked around the recently redecorated parlor, where the six of them were relaxing, sodas in hand. Chloe hadn't wanted to be confined to bed as soon as they arrived at the ranch, and he couldn't really blame her. She took up the seat of honor, stretched out in the recliner. Andrew sat