Page 42 of Waiting in Wyoming

He turned.

Blinked.

Brandt took a step toward the two women who were standing there. Waiting. “Meyra.What are you doing here, little one?”

Her shorter cousin was right next to her. Charlotte smirked at him and his brothers. “Where is Powell?”

Brandt was barely aware of Cara answering the question. He took two steps toward the woman staring at him, an uncertain look on her face. “Meyra? Sweetheart?”

She took a step toward him, clutching her bag tightly. “I wanted to be here if you needed me.”

“I will always need you.” No lie. This woman...kept his heart beating stronger. She always would. Brandt just held open his arms.

Meyra walked right into them. He wrapped her up close and buried his face in her hair. She smelled beautiful. Perfect. “Why didn’t you text me? Let me know you were coming?”

“We didn’t want to take you away from your family,” she said simply. “How are they doing?”

“I haven’t seen my dad or my sister yet. But Mom says they are going to all be okay. Dad has a concussion. Powell ended up getting stitches. She was grazed by a bullet. Gunnar was touch and go for a while, but he’s been upgraded to stable. I can’t believe you came down.” She’d left Masterson. For him.

“She cornered me in my suite at five this morning, already packed and ready to go. I just had to buy our tickets,” Charlotte said. “When Meyra makes up her mind about something, there is no stopping her. And I think she may have made up her mind about you.”

Brandt barely heard her words. He was too busy holding the woman he loved.She had come to him. Because he needed her.

“Powell is upstairs with Gunnar,” Cara told Charlotte. “He is sleeping. He’ll be okay. Him and Daniel both. Eventually. But it was really scary.”

He listened to Cara and Alex fill Charlotte in on what had happened. But he mostly just held Meyra. Meyra didn’t pull away.

He knew long embraces were hard for her, but she let him hold her. Then Brandt pulled back. Big, beautiful green eyeslooked at him. “Did you eat anything on the plane? The food in the cafeteria isn’t that great here. It’s actually pretty bad when I think about it. But I haven’t had breakfast, either.”

There were other people coming into the lobby that he recognized. Including Powell’s friends, who were probably intent on finding her.

They saw Charlotte first.

Then they were surrounded.

Brandt just wrapped his hand around Meyra’s and held it. She’d left the safety of Masterson. Left her routine.To be with him.That rocked him. More than he could have ever thought it would.

He looked at her. “Thank you.”

“You needed me. So here I am.”

He fell for her even more in that moment. Meyra Talley had his heart completely.

33

Meyra hatedhospitals and always would. She suspected most people who weren’t in the medical profession felt the same way. But she was there to take care of Brandt. That meant just dealing with it.

The antiseptic smell was the worst part. And it brought back really bad memories of when her mom was sick and her Aunt Jessica.

But Brandt needed her. He went upstairs with his oldest brother to see their father for a little while, leaving her with Charlotte. Meyra had told him to take care of his family. He didn’t have to worry about her.

Cara, the girl she’d met when Cara and Heather had been in Masterson, had promised to stay close if Meyra needed her.

“I’m going to work for Powell now,” Cara told her. “Since she needs a personal assistant she trusts.”

Meyra talked to her for a while. Then Brandt’s mother came back to the lobby. She sat down, right next to Meyra and Cara. “Girls, thank you for being here. It’s been a scary night.”

She looked so tired. And scared. Of course she was. Her husband had been really hurt. And her daughter could have beenkilled. For what? So bad people could make money off of drugs that just hurt others? “They’ll be okay.”