Page 7 of Waiting in Wyoming

Brandt wasalmostconvinced Masterson County itself was out to kill him. The evidence was piling up. And he was too damned stubborn to pull up his newly driven stakes and retreat back to Finley Creek, where Barratts meant hotels and real estate and heaven knows what else.

Where he just blended in with the rest of them.

Brandt wanted more than that.

He wanted Masterson County.

And, damn it, he wantedher.

The very woman staring down at him now.

Brandt looked at her. She was just there. In a hooded sweatshirt, leaning over him in the snow. Like an angel from his dreams.

Well, in his dreams, she wasn’t exactly an angel, nor was she fullyclothed,but he had dreamed about her. Far too many times before. “Meyra, my little one, I seem to have gotten into trouble tonight. Best call 911 to come get me again, okay? I’m just goingto sit here and wait. I’m beginning to think this county is out to kill me…”

“Brandt, what happened?” She knelt next to him, and her cool little hand touched his cheek. She always had the softest touch. “How badly are you hurt? Who did this to you?”

He had wanted her almost from the first moment he had seen her. Then, he’d thought she was far too young, but she was older than she looked. But so, so sweet. Too sweet for a man like him. “Three men took exception to me telling them to get off my new property. I suspect they thought they’d killed me, stupid…bas—…buttheads.” He didn’t curse around her if he could help it.

She made him want to be gentle in all things.

He almost laughed at that.

When a Barratt fell, they fell hard. No denying that.

He’d fallen for her from almost day one. “Call 911. Trust me, I’m not going anywhere until you do.”

She was already dialing.

Of course, the Fates would drop him at the feet of the only woman he would ever fall in love with. It was the Fates’ way of messing with him, probably for something he had done to them in another life or something.

Brandt was still trying to figure that out.

Two years of knowing her, ofloving her,and she still treated him like she treated everybody else. Like he was just any regular old guest at the Talley Inn.

And for all his scheming, he hadn’t come up with a single way to make her see him any differently. Scooping her up and riding off into the sunset with her really wasn’t a viable option.

Barratts had done that in the past before—but he couldn’t do that now. Not in today’s society, anyway.

He’d have to remember that.

Brandt just stayed right where he was.

At least they wouldn’t find him floating in her damned duck pond in the morning.

There was that.

At this point, Brandt was just going to be grateful for small favors.

4

Meyra stayed with him.

After she’d dialed 911, she’d texted and told Darcey what was happening and to direct the ambulance to the side entrance. Behind the family wing. Where they had a small parking lot just for family.

Darcey came running moments after Meyra’s text. With blankets like Meyra had told her to.

“What happened? Brandt?” Darcey dropped to her knees in the snow next to him. She spread blankets over him quickly while Meyra helped. “The ambulance is on the way. But they’re about twenty minutes out. What can we do in the meantime?”