Page 15 of The Hunt

Three days at the Barratt still hadn’t cleared her head. Not that she had been there that whole time. Mostly just to sleep, after the first night. And to interrupt whatever plot her brother had where Chantal was concerned.

Gene was most certainly up to something.

Chantal was practically jumping out of her skin.

Genny was of two minds on how to proceed with the knowledge that her most commitment-phobic brother was trying to seduce one of her two best friends in the entire world. One, tell Chantal to run like hell as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Or two, help Gene out as much as possible, because she loved her brother and she loved Chantal, and ifGene would just open up a little, she could see the two of them being good for each other.

And Calvin. Gene’s son was awesome. Genny loved getting to be a part of his world every single day. She’d moved in with her brothers when Calvin was three. And had helped take care of him ever since.

Calvin already adored Chantal, anyway. Chantal would visit Genny on her days off right after Calvin would come home from preschool. Some mornings she was there to drive him to preschool and drop Genny off at the hospital. Calvin knew Chantal very well.

Chantal would make a wonderful mother to Genny’s nephew.

So what was a girl supposed to do?

At the Barratt, she’d watched the three of them together when she got a chance.

They looked like a family. Gene watched Chantal like he already adored her. Which was kind of crazy—they’d been fighting each other for years.

Gene had a history with women that was a bit concerning. It was hard to forget that. Still, the way he’d watched Chantal—Genny had never seen him look at a woman likethatbefore.

Now Genny was back at her own home, in her own bed.

And trying to come up with some sort of plan regarding what to do about Chantal’s brother. He was just as worrying as her own. She and Chantal had discussed the two lunatics in minute detail. Trying to figure out what wacky weed the two had gotten into, to go… so… hunter-caveman lately.

The odds that Genny’s brother and Chantal’s brother would both turn so determined with their sisters’ best friends at the same time was a bit… well,odd.It just didn’t happen that way.

At least not in real life.

They still had no answer.

But that Gene and Chad were both hunting, how weird was that?

And what was Genny going to do about Chad now?

She had to go back to work tomorrow. He was probably going to be there. She was going to have to come up with a plan.

Fast.

15

Genny was still thinkingabout Chad Fields two afternoons later, when she was sitting in an elegant ballroom at the Barratt-Finley Creek, dressed in a brand new dress that cost way too much money to think about. She was surrounded by extremely attractive doctors and lawyers and stockbrokers and local politicians and—why she and her other bestie in the world were sitting there tonight—investors.

Carrington Group, the medical group that owned the hospital now, wanted to expand the offerings. But they wanted more local investors to help. Aubrey said she’d been told that local investment meant people cared more about their own hospital’s success. And she and Aubrey were there to represent the staff.

They looked good tonight. Like grown-ups, at least. Even if Genny did want to shoot a rubber band at that local billionaire Houghton Barratt, who was droning on and on right now.

The man should probably not give public speeches. He just wasn’t very good at it. His wife was so much better and really knew how to work the crowd.

Genny and Aubrey looked presentable in fancy dresses and made their hospital look a little less like it was filled with a bunch of hicks.

Genny knew why Dr. Alvaro’s wife had asked them to come tonight. It was because they looked presentable in fancy dresses.

Well, Genny was presentable. Aubrey was flat-out gorgeous. Aubrey had that whole stare-worthy ice princess thing going for her, that beautiful woman.

And Aubrey had the ability to calm the savage beast that was their boss, Caine Alvaro, when he got into it with the head of the Carrington Group, Jordan Carrington. Caine’s father-in-law.

Since Caine’s wife, Nikkie Jean, a surgeon at Finley Creek General, was just as bad as her husband at needling her own father, it could be rather explosive. Nikkie Jeanlikedmaking her father explode. At the worst possible times.