Chapter 31

31

He felt real next to her. But... Chantal stood. He looked at her. So did Genny and her mother.

"Chan, you okay?" Genny asked. Her friend had worried about her almost constantly since she’d first been diagnosed with Type 1. "You look a little green."

"I need to eat something, Gen, that's all." It was a few hours past when she normally ate. "I’m feeling a bit off. I am late eating, and the stress, worry?—"

She waited for Genny to hop up and start trying to take care of her. Gene stood up instead. "I’ll take you to the cafeteria."

"Gene, you take her and feed her, then get her home. She needs to get some rest," Gene’s mother said. She had that worried look that told Chantal not to even think about arguing. It was an expression Gayle and Chantal’s own mother had both perfected years ago.

Chantal looked at Hala. She was practically asleep, leaning against Giavonna’s shoulder. Giavonna worked with Hala’s brother at the county attorney’s office. It wasn’t a friendly work relationship at all. But Giavonna was fiercely overprotective of Hala. And Greer. Giavonna was going to keep an eye on Hala. As was Aubrey, who ran the entire Barratt County Gen ER. Hala would be okay.

She still felt like she was abandoning her friends as Gene led her to his truck.

Gene had sent Gunn to the cafeteria to grab her something to eat. And they waited. In Gunn’s truck.

Gene wrapped his arms around her waist. "Are you sure you are okay?"

"I’m fine. But I do need to eat at regular times, and I just… forgot in the rush of things." She felt a little sick, but nothing she hadn’t dealt with before. Or wouldn’t ever deal with again. "Once I eat something and rest, I’ll be okay."

"I just want to take care of you. Hell, I want to take care of you and Calvin and my parents and my sisters. Even my lugnut brothers." His hand cupped her cheek. Then he was kissing her.

Right there in the parking lot of the hospital where both her brother and his worked.

He didn’t pull away until someone said his name. She gasped and turned, looked.

At the Hiller brother standing right there, a considering look on his face.

"Can I ask what your intentions are with that young lady?" The last man she had ‘dated’ asked. She’d accompanied him to a church organization meeting in Finley Creek a few months earlier. She would always love Gunn Hiller. The man was just one of a kind and down to his soul good. Sometimes Pastor Hiller was a bit too goody-goody for her, but she did adore him. "Honorable? If not, I can go get her brother from inside? He can ask you that very question."

But now... her cheeks flamed. "Gunn."

"Entirely honorable. You need to press your best marrying suit, Gunny. As soon as she realizes I’m the man for her, I suspect you’ll be making it official for us."

"I’ll get practicing in the mirror for when I do the ceremony."

"Hey!" Chantal didn’t know whether to be mortified or what here. The two doofuses sounded completely serious.

Gene kissed her one more time. Then lifted her into the back of the truck. "Put your legs in, honey. Let’s get you home."

She turned. He closed the door.

And then he and his dratted brother drove her home.

To their home. Not her own. And somehow, Gene just led her inside.

Like it was a done deal or something.

Chantal almost felt like a captive bride of old, carried away on—or as the case may be, in —Gunn Hiller’s steed. Shaped just like a Dodge Ram 1500.

Those Hiller brothers were dangerous to a woman.

Especially her sanity.