Page 40 of Waiting in Wyoming

“You should go. Call him, as soon as you can. Make sure he’s okay,” Dylan said abruptly.

Meyra paused for a moment as her cousin’s words sank in. “I should. I want to be with him right now. He needs me. I wish I was with him.”

“Then make it happen.”

“What?”

“Go to him. You’re twenty-five years old.Make it happen.”

Make it happen. Go to him.

The words sank in, and she knew it was right.

Meyra was going to do just that.

Charlotte was throwingthings in a bag when Meyra pushed her way into her cousin’s suite. Charlotte looked sick. Worried. Meyra tightened the hold she had on her backpack. She didn’t need much. She had stuffed three pairs of leggings and five different T-shirts, five pairs of underwear and socks and three bras, as well as her toiletries, into her bag. Just like she had the last time she had been to Finley Creek. When Charlotte had been the one that was shot, hurt.She didn’t understand why this stuff kept happening.

“Mey? What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be at the diner? It’s almost five.”

“I’m going with you,” Meyra said the words without hesitation. “I need to be there with him.”

Charlotte just stared at her for a moment. “Quade is driving me to the airport in fifteen minutes. Have you talked to Grandma? Or Darcey and Marin?”

Meyra nodded. She had surprised Darcey and Marin when she’d woken them both—Darcey had apparently missed what had been happening between her and Brandt—but Meyra had made it clear. She was twenty-five years old. If she wanted to go to Texas to be with him when he needed her, there really wasn’t anything they could do to stop her. “I did. Marin told me she’d see the diner is covered, too. Dylan will run the dining room for me—she’s really good at it. It’s already figured out.”

“You sure about this? I don’t know what happened, what’s going on now, or when—if—I’ll be coming back up here anytime soon. You might have to fly back by yourself.” Charlotte zipped her bag and slung it over her shoulder.“You good with that?”

“He needs me,” Meyra said. It was as simple as that. She remembered his face after he’d first learned his sister had been abducted last week.

Meyra would never forget it. Nor would she forget how she had felt when Marin had been shot, and every time Miranda had been hurt for her job. Or how she’d felt when Dusty had been missing, or when Charlotte had been hurt. They were herfamily.She knew how Brandt had to be feeling now. And she needed to be with him. “I’m going to him.”

“Have you told your dad?”

Meyra shook her head. “I’m going to call him from the airport.”

“Probably a smart move. You can stay with me. We’ll grab you anything you need when we’re down there. Let’s roll.”

Just like that, they were on their way.

Quade was waiting for them in the lobby, wearing a sweatshirt and a ball cap. It really didn’t disguise who he was, though. Meyra didn’t tell him that. She really liked him. He was a few years older than she was and really nice. He liked kids, too.For a famous movie star, he was really kind of normal and everything.

He took a step toward Charlotte when he saw them. He took her heaviest bag. “I’ve got my rental running, so it’ll be warm. I checked; the storm is going to hold off. I’ll get you to the airport. You ready?”

“Meyra is going with me.” Charlotte looked at her. “Except...ticket? I still need to buy mine at the counter. I checked online, there are plenty of seats left.”

“Me, too.” Meyra pulled in a deep breath. She hated flying and always had. Since the time she’d flown from Spain back to America with her parents. After they’d first learned her mom was sick. She didn’t really remember much about that flight, just Miranda crying and crying and holding their mom really tight. Marin, too.

But she was going to fly to get to Brandt. He needed her now. Her stomach clenched—Brandt needed her. She needed to get to him. It really was that simple.

“Have you heard anything?” Charlotte asked Quade.

All Meyra knew was what the news had said. She listened as Daisy told them goodbye and to be careful and to call when they got there.

“Just what’s already been reported,” Quade said. “I texted Cara. She replied back that they are still at the hospital now with Heather.”

Heather had been hurt again this time, too. With Powell. Meyra didn’t know anything but what the news stations had been reporting. And even those reports were really confusing.

“I’ll call Mads on the plane. See what she can tell me.”