The Buckhorn Brothers Box Set: SawyerMorganGabeJordan

by Lori Foster

  There was a note of brittle urgency in her voice that tortured him. No woman should ever be put in such a position. Jordan again took her arm, this time pulling her to a stop. The children seemed fascinated. “Georgia, listen to me.”

  Utter exasperation, exhaustion, and near panic filled her face. “What?”

  Well aware of the kids’ engrossed attention, and at how close Georgia was to losing it, Jordan spoke softly, giving her a very direct look. “You can trust me, sweetheart. I swear it.”

  She shook her head, her face pale.

  “We’ll be in the waiting room,” he added, ignoring her refusal, “just around the corner, drinking hot chocolate and watching television and talking.” He reached out for Lisa’s hand, praying she wouldn’t shy away from him, and let out a breath when she released her mother and moved to his side. Her shy smile showed one missing front tooth.

  Jordan enclosed her tiny hand in his own. To Georgia, he said, “Did I tell you my oldest brother is a doctor? Well he is. Everyone at the hospital knows Sawyer, though he’s always chosen to work from home, treating the people of Buckhorn. He has an office at the back of the house. His son, Casey, is the one who’s bringing you some clothes.”

  She looked around and bit her lip when she saw her mother being wheeled beyond a thick white door. A nurse stood there, papers in hand, waiting for Georgia.

  Jordan felt something against his side and looked down. Adam, chewing on the edge of his coat collar and staring up with big brown eyes, leaned trustingly against Jordan’s thigh. His heart swelled with an indefinable affection. He put his hand on the boy’s downy head and said again, “You can trust me, Georgia.”

  She wavered, probably aware she had few choices, then dropped to her knees. Pulling the coat collar from Adam’s mouth, she said, “If you have to use the bathroom, or get hungry, tell Mr. Sommerville, okay?”

  Adam nodded, then gave her a huge hug. Lisa was next. “We’ll drink hot chocolate,” she said, mimicking Jordan.

  Georgia’s smile was misty. “Okay, sweetie, but not too much. It’ll keep you awake.”

  Adam tilted his head. “But we can’t sleep here, huh?”

  “Sure you can.” Georgia grinned, kissed him again, then stood. “There’s probably a nice soft couch for you to get comfy on. If you get tired, just close your eyes and pretend you’re at home. And before you know it, I’ll be right back.”

  Jordan watched her stride quickly to the desk, her legs looking absurdly long in the high heels. Her shoulders were stiff beneath his jacket, her hands fisted on the strap of her purse. Every line of her body bespoke tension and exhaustion and fear.

  A nurse, repeatedly looking Georgia over in her sexy costume, waited for her behind the desk. After Georgia had seated herself and began digging through her purse, no doubt hunting up an insurance card for her mother, Jordan looked down at the kids. Adam raised his arms and, without thinking about it, Jordan lifted the boy. He was stocky, more compact than his sister who looked almost fey she was so slight. Small arms wrapped around his neck.

  “Hot chocolate,” Adam said, trying for an adolescent dose of subtlety, “sure sounds good.” Jordan bit back a smile. It didn’t make any sense and he knew he must be losing his mind, but despite all the chaos, despite the horrid situation and his worry for Georgia and his disapproval of where she worked, he felt good, from the inside out.

  Probably better than he had in months.

  Oh, hell.

  4

  CASEY PULLED IN the hospital parking lot and turned off the engine. He’d driven his father’s car, a spacious sedan, rather than the truck he usually favored. As he understood it, Jordan was with a woman and her two children—too many people to fit into the truck. He was anxious to hear what story his uncle Jordan told to explain all this.

  But for the moment he was more concerned with how to handle Emma Clark.

  The truck, being a stick shift, would have guaranteed some space between them. But the car had bench seats, and Emma scooted much too close. She smelled nice, damp from the outdoors and sweet like a female. He was far from immune. She reached for his knee before he could open his door.

  “Just a second, Case.” Her voice was low, throaty. “Why’re you in such a hurry?”

  Very calmly, Casey took her wrist and lifted her hand away. She was the most brazen girl he knew, and the most insecure. It was something in her big brown eyes, something she tried real hard to hide.

  Twining his fingers with hers, he couldn’t help but notice how small boned she was, how her hand felt tiny in his own. “It’s almost one in the morning, Emma.” The parking lot was well lit, sending slashes of light across her features, making her eyes look even bigger than usual. “What were you doing out on the road alone?”

  She rolled one shoulder beneath the shirt he’d insisted she put on. He’d been left in nothing more than an undershirt, but that was better than seeing her traipse around half-naked. He still couldn’t believe she’d been moseying down the damn highway so late, wearing her short white shorts, sandals, and a hot-pink halter top that left more bare than it covered. He’d recognized her world-class behind the moment his headlights had hit her. Of course he’d offered her a ride.

  Of course she’d accepted. Emma had been after him for months.

  “A shrug is not an answer, Em.”

  She shrugged again, smiling at him and flipping her bleached-blond hair behind her. Casey assumed her natural hair color was a dark brown, judging by her brows and thick lashes. Although that could be makeup, too. She wore a lot of it. She looked…brassy. Almost cheap. And though he had no intention of telling her so, she made him sweat.

  “I got mad at my date,” she said in her low drawl, “so I took off.” Her mouth, shiny with lip gloss that a few of the guys had told him tasted like cherries, tilted up at the corners. “Why d’you care?”

  Casey snorted at that lame explanation and defensive response, deciding not to question her further. At seventeen, Emma’s idea of a date was to be picked up long enough to add to her already questionable reputation, then get dropped off again. He’d never understand her, but he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.

  Just as he couldn’t help wanting her.

  “C’mon. I need to get inside.” When he got out of the car, she scrambled out, too, and rushed around to him.

  “You’re not mad at me, are you?”

  He pulled the bag of clothes from the back seat, sparing her a quick glance. “It’s really none of my business, Emma.”

  She looked hurt for a moment, then the shirt slid off her shoulder and his gaze dropped to her scantily covered chest. He turned abruptly away.

  She ran to keep up with him as he headed inside. Thankfully it had stopped raining, but the air felt too cool and still too damp. Water dripped from every tree, shrub and building. He felt a bit chilled. Or at least he had moments ago, before he’d noticed that the night air had caused her nipples to tighten.

  He wouldn’t look at her there again.

  Once inside, he made his way to the waiting room, where he assumed he’d find his uncles. His stride was long, a little too fast, but a small smile curled his mouth as he remembered Gabe relaying the evening’s events. His uncle Jordan in a fight? It sounded absurd, although he’d grown up hearing stories of the few occasions when Jordan had lost it, giving into his fierce temper. It wasn’t something Casey had ever seen, but he’d believed it was possible.

  Jordan was just so…intense. Especially about things he really believed in.

  Or people he cared about.

  Casey rounded the corner to the open waiting area and stopped short at the sight of Jordan with a little boy sound asleep in his lap. There was a chocolate mustache on the kid, and he was snoring softly. Casey grinned. Jordan had a poleaxed expression on his face, as if deep in thought.

  Morgan sat on the floor opposite a tiny girl with a glass-topped coffee table between them, playing Go Fish. Casey had stopped so abruptly, Emma bumped into his
back. His breath caught as he felt her soft, young body flush against his. Her hands settled low on his hips and she went on tiptoe, her warm lips touching his ear as she whispered, “Sorry.”

  Casey ignored her.

  “Have I missed anything important?”

  Jordan glanced up, then raised one finger to his mouth, cautioning Casey to be quiet. Carefully, his movements very slow, Jordan removed the bundle from his lap and put the boy on the couch. He covered him with his coat. With a wide yawn and a little squirreling around, the kid resettled himself into a rolled-up lump and dozed off again.

  Morgan laid his cards down and pushed to his feet. “‘Bout time you got here.” He nodded to the little girl. “Lisa here is a card shark.”

  Lisa—long brown hair in disheveled braids—grinned at what she obviously considered a compliment. Morgan tugged on one of those braids with affection. “Maybe she’ll be gentler with you, Casey.”

  Casey leaned in the wide door frame. “I dunno. She’s got that ruthless look about her.”

  Lisa looked up at him, blinked, and kept on looking. Like a natural-born flirt, she batted her long eyelashes at Casey and gave him a wide, adoring grin. She even sighed.

  Morgan turned to Jordan. “Would you look at that? She’s only six and even she’s smitten by him.”

  Jordan grunted. “He’s worse than Gabe.”

  “Or better.”

  Casey laughed out loud, well used to their razzing. “Kids just like me.”

  Morgan looked at him from under his brows. “Females just like you, you mean.”

  Casey shrugged. It was true, as far as it went. The females did seem to like him. Since he’d first become a teenager, they’d been after him. Not that he had any intentions of getting permanently caught.

  Morgan glanced around the waiting room. It looked like chaos with empty foam cups and candy wrappers and kids shoes on the floor. “You okay here now,” he asked Jordan, “or do you want me to stick around?”

  Jordan stretched tiredly. “We’re fine. Go on home. You’re starting to get worry lines.”

  Case walked the rest of the way into the room, keeping his voice as low as his uncles’. “And here I thought those were laugh lines caused by his sunny disposition.” Morgan swatted at Casey, making him duck. “Gabe told me to tell you that Misty is sound asleep, konked out from the medicine Sawyer gave her, so you don’t have to keep fretting.”

  Morgan’s shoulders—wide as an ax handle—softened with relief. “And Amber?”

  Thoughts of his little cousin, now nearing the terrible twos, which on her weren’t so terrible, made Casey chuckle. “She wore herself out chasing Gabe in a pillow fight. Last I saw her, she was as zonked as the little guy there.” He indicated the boy on the couch.

  Jordan rubbed his chin, appearing somewhat exhausted and ultimately pleased at the same time. It was a strange expression for him. “That’s Adam, Georgia’s son.”

  “Georgia?”

  Morgan leaned forward and said in a whisper, “The bar dancer who Jordan fought over.”

  “I did not fight over her.”

  “Shh!” Morgan gave him a severe frown for his raised voice.

  Jordan glanced at Lisa, who was oblivious as she attempted to shuffle the cards, which sent them all flying to the floor. “It was a misunderstanding,” he growled in a lowered voice.

  Casey noticed his uncle’s color was a bit high and choked back a grin. “Hey, whatever you say, Jordan.”

  Morgan shook his head, then looked beyond Casey with a questioning frown. Casey turned and saw that Emma had backed up until she was against the wall beside a plastic floor plant. It almost seemed she was trying to be invisible, which of course was impossible for a girl who looked like Emma.

  He frowned. So brazen one minute—especially when they were alone—and so timid the next.

  He held out his hand. “Emma, have you met my uncles?”

  Her big brown eyes widened at the attention given to her, and she swallowed hard. For the first time that Casey could ever remember, her face turned bright red. “I’ve…um, that is, I know who they are of course, but we’ve never actually been introduced or anything.”

  Since Casey still stood there with his hand out, she finally stepped forward and took it, the embarrassed heat positively pulsing in her cheeks.

  He rubbed her knuckles with his thumb, trying to reassure her. Damned if he knew why. “Emma, my uncle Jordan and my uncle Morgan.”

  Strangely enough, she did an awkward curtsy of sorts, then looked appalled at herself. “Uh,…hi.”

  Morgan grinned, which always made him look menacing. “You two out on a late date?”

  “No.” Casey turned her loose so fast, both his uncles scowled at him. He hadn’t meant to hold her hand anyway. “I just picked her up.”

  Jordan raised both brows at that.

  Emma pulled the shirt tight around her and folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Casey is just…giving me a ride. Home, I mean.”

  “But you live in Buckhorn,” Morgan pointed out. “Isn’t that right?”

  “Yeah.” Even her neck turned red. “I was…um, headed that way, but Casey said he needed to come here first, then he’d drop me off later.”

  Morgan glanced at Casey, then back at Emma. “If you’re in a hurry to get home, I can drop you off on my way. I’m heading out now.”

  Jordan made a disgusted sound and stepped in front of Morgan. Casey knew he was trying to shield Emma, since Morgan tended to always look a bit like a marauder. “You and Casey can both head out. I think they’ll probably get Georgia’s mother settled in her own room soon.”

  Emma glanced at Casey. He took his time thinking about it, not wanting to embarrass her, but not wanting to give her the wrong impression either. “You want to call your folks first, so they won’t be worrying?”

  “No.”

  She said that far too quickly and Jordan and Morgan shared a look. It didn’t surprise Casey; he’d already figured out Emma’s home life wasn’t exactly ideal. If it had been, no way would she have been walking home alone at this time of night. Or done half the other things her reputation suggested. He turned back to his uncles.

  “You’re sure you don’t want me to stick around, Jordan?”

  Jordan gave Casey a searching look before he shook his head. “We’ll be fine.”

  As Casey handed him the keys to the car, Morgan took Jordan’s arm. “I want to talk to Jordan for just a minute, Case. Can you keep an eye on the kids?”

  Lisa looked up and sighed at him again. Casey smiled. “No problem.”

  “Thanks. I’ll bring the Bronco around and wait out front for you both.”

  * * *

  THEY WERE barely around the corner when Morgan asked, “What the hell is Casey doing out so late with that girl?”

  Jordan shrugged. “Hell if I know. But I don’t think there’s anything going on between them.”

  “Why not?”

  “She doesn’t look like his usual type.”

  Morgan snorted. “Like Georgia is your usual type?”

  Jordan almost faltered. He did frown. “Who says I’m even interested?”

  Morgan came to a complete stop and turned to give Jordan an incredulous look. “Well, let’s see. You can’t look at her without tensing up. And that hard-on you had while arguing with her might be a good clue.”

  Jordan flushed. And it made him madder than hell, because not a single one of his other damned brothers would have. They’d have grinned, hell, they might’ve even bragged. They would not, however, have turned red. But Jordan wasn’t at all pleased that all he had to do was breathe in Georgia’s scent and he wanted her. Bad.

  Morgan shook his head. “It’s a full moon tonight, did you know that? Maybe that accounts for a few things. Like Casey showing up with a girl that I know damn good and well has a reputation that far exceeds the one Gabe had at her age. And that’s saying something.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Jordan frowned
, concern for his nephew overshadowing his embarrassment. And talking about Casey was definitely preferable to talking about himself. Or Georgia. Or him and Georgia.

  “Yeah. It’s a long sad story and I’m too damn tired to go into it tonight. Besides, I reckon Casey has a handle on things. Though she’s not eighteen yet, so if you get the chance, warn him to be careful, okay?”

  Jordan nodded. While Casey was only eighteen himself, he gave the impression of being much, much older.

  “At least it’s stopped raining.” The doors slid open as Morgan approached them. He looked outside, giving Jordan his back as he surveyed the starless sky. With a nonchalance that didn’t fool Jordan for a minute, Morgan asked, “Should we expect you back at the house tonight?”

  Jordan hadn’t really thought about it, but now that he did…He dropped his head forward, brooding. His muscles felt tight and he rolled his shoulders, trying to relieve some of the tension.

  But there was no hope for it. “She doesn’t have a car,” he said, stating an obvious fact. “Hers is still at the bar.”

  Morgan nodded. “I know.”

  “It doesn’t seem right to leave her and two kids at a house alone, with no transportation. What if something happened? What if she no sooner got home and her mother needed her?”

  “And odds are,” Morgan interjected, going right along with him, “even if her mother rests easy tonight, Georgia’ll still want to check on her first thing in the morning, so she’ll probably need a ride. Assuming you all get to go home tonight at all.” Morgan faced him again. “I can’t see you leaving her here alone.”

  “No, I wouldn’t do that.” Jordan gestured at the mostly quiet hospital. “With the kids and everything….”

  “Yeah.” Morgan tilted his head, his expression thoughtful. “So I guess we’ll see ya sometime in the morning.” He stepped into the open doorway. “Let me know tomorrow if there’s something I can do to help.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Oh, and Jordan?”

  Wishing his damn brother would just go away, Jordan raised a brow. “What?”

  Morgan grinned. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better. I just thought I should let you know that.”