Page 24 of The Hunt
“How bad is it?” Gunn asked. Her nicest brother was most certainly worried. He could be the worst of the lot when it came to hovering. And protecting, for that matter. Ever since the day they’d almost lost Greer, Gunn had been ridiculously overprotective of Genny and Greer, especially.
“She’ll be okay in a day or two. But wrapping it won’t hurt. Rest it, ice it, compress it, and elevate it.”
“No? Really? I never would have figured on that.” Genny widened her eyes at the doofus Dr. Chad next to her.
“Don’t be sassy, Genny. It’s just too cute on you.” His blue eyes shot a fire at her she doubted anyone else was close enough to see. Her brothers definitely didn’t. “It does things to a man.”
Thankfully, her brothers didn’t hear that last part.
They would kick his ass if they knew what he wanted from her now.
She wasn’t about to end up in the man’s bed. That was not going to happen. She wasn’t going to be just a number.
She let him wrap her ankle, then she sat up quickly. Put space between them. Guthrie and Aubrey were still talking quietly in the kitchen.
Genny considered going in there and rescuing her friend. But Guthrie was safe. He and Aubrey might bicker and squabble at the hospital, but her brother was a good man. He wouldn’t hurt Aubrey.
Genny knew Aubrey felt uncomfortable when Genny tried to protect her.
Giavonna and Greer handled everything after that—they chased off the guys, especially the ones that didn’t live there—Guthrie and Chad—and then made it clear they were going to watch girl movies. And the guys who did live there—Gene, Grady, and Gunn—had to make themselves scarce, or else.
There was a huge family media room upstairs, after all. The boys even had a foosball table up there. And a snack cabinet and fridge. They’d be just fine. Genny and Giavonna told them that, too.
If they needed anything downstairs, only Gunn was allowed to enter, and they had to send him to fetch. Because he was a minister, and it was a sleepover, and they seriously doubted Gunn would be one to go on a panty raid with his sisters’ besties’ undies. Or try to peek at things he shouldn’t.
With the way Gunn’s cheeks had turned bright red at what Giavonna said, that was rather a given.
It took longer than she had expected for Gene to get the message, though.
He just wouldn’t stop hovering over Chantal. Who had a wide-eyed, almost panicked look in her blue eyes.
The two had been at war for years, after all.
Everyone hadquestions…
Chantal had the answers.
That red-headed witch just didn’t want to cough them up.
Chantal could be sodifficultsometimes.
Just like her older brother.
20
He’d always hated workingthe emergency department on weekends. That was when all the imbeciles and idiots—the drunks and the handful of druggies that populated Value—found their way, through stupidity, to the hospital. He was so damned sick of sewing up some low-IQ idiot who had cut himself on a glass bottle, trying to impress some bar-hopping wannabe-hooker. Most of the women that frequented the two bars in Value were the kind that you had to be hellaciously drunk to get within twenty feet of.
Doug hated seeing Genny wasting her time on losers like that. But she treated them like they were the most important patient she had ever seen. Like she did every patient she had.
Hours passed, and they had little to no time to stop. To breathe. Genny’s ponytail started to droop. Her scrubs top was wet right there on the front where a baby had spit up on her. She was rumpled and disheveled and not at her best at all.
She deserved so much better than this.
He just wanted to scoop her close and tell her he would rescue her from this world.
Once they were together, she could retire from working the emergency room. There were dayshift positions available. He had an opening in his own office—he worked the emergency department two times a week, since they were such a small hospital—she didn’t have to do this dirty, seedy part of the medical industry life.
He wanted to be her hero.