Chapter 52

52

Meyra just rocked the sweet baby girl while she listened to them talking. She was tired. Traveling, especially by plane, wasn't something she was ever going to like. But she had been with Brandt.

And he had needed her. He still did. She knew it.

She had some thinking to do tonight. Like about what she wanted. She didn't want to just go back to her room tonight as if the past three in Finley Creek hadn't happened.

Meyra just didn't operate like that. She listened as he had Dylan give him a room. Right outside the second-floor door to the family wing. Her room was just going to be a few doors down.

That had her relaxing a little. As soon as he was settled in his room, she was going to go to him. They had spent the night together in the hotel his family owned and now, they would spend the night together in the inn that her family owned.

Meyra liked the symmetry of that. Showed her that their worlds weren't all that far apart, really. Not if they worked together to make them closer.

She handed the little baby to Sage. She was a sweet baby; it made her sad to think that her mommy was dead. The baby was so, so young. Meyra would always miss her own mother, even though most of her memories of her were fuzzy. "I hope everything works out with her dad."

She had seen him before. She was sure of it. He'd been in the diner with Mr. King. But not her diner. Charlotte's friend's. In Finley Creek. His nephew or something.

Funny that she would see Mr. King down there and up here. And then see the baby's daddy down there, too. Masterson was such a small county, a small place. Finley Creek wasn't. It wasn't a huge city by any means, but it was ten times as big as Masterson.

Funny that she'd see people in both places. Mr. King, the baby's daddy—she hadn't caught his name, Charlotte. Charlotte's dad and stepmom. And Brandt.

"How many other people from Finley Creek do you think come up here on a regular basis? Truck drivers like him and stuff, that we don't meet?" Meyra asked, after Brandt kissed her on the lips once, then left to carry his bag upstairs. He had promised to come find her in time to grab something to eat from the dining room before it closed in half an hour. Not that she couldn't grab them something from in there, anyway… "I do think it's kind of funny…"

"What is funny?" Sage asked. "Mey? Tell me what you are thinking."

"All the people I saw in Finley Creek that I have also seen here before. Brandt, Charlotte, Powell and Gunnar and Cara—I didn't get to see Heather, though. She was way too ill. Mr. King. This baby's daddy. I saw him with Mr. King in both places. Here—and Finley Creek. The diner there, Mamaw's."

"Mr. King? Who is that?" Sage asked in a weird tone.

"He was a guest here recently. He's been here before. I saw him several times. He was in the diner in Finley Creek, too. Mamaw's Place. With Katie and her dad. And then I saw him in the waiting room at the hospital in Texas. But I didn't talk to him then, though. I got the feeling he was upset about something. We were at the hospital, after all. And he said he had family in Finley Creek." And Meyra hadn't been working the inn then. She hadn't had to make eye contact and talk to him then. Besides, she'd been focused on Brandt and his family. "I only said hello to him in Mamaw's Place because I almost ran into him. Me and Cara and Brandt and his brothers. I didn't want to be rude, and Mr. King was looking right at me and Brandt."

"Can you describe this Mr. King?" Sage asked in that same tone Miranda used when she was thinking about something serious.

"I am sure we have his driver's license info here," Dixie said, stepping behind the computer. "Do you remember his first name or a date, Mey?"

"Wade, I think. I remember because it rhymed with Quade, and they were both on the check in list that night. He was in room 307 the last time. But I don't remember what day. He was also in our diner a few times."

Dixie found his registration information. And the baby's dad's. "Tell me what I can legally give you, Sage."

"I'll just start with their names and license numbers," Sage said, pulling out her phone.

"Why?" Meyra was beyond confused here. Why did Sage care about a guest Meyra had seen in Finley Creek?

"Mey, the people who hurt Brandt's family, they have ties to Finley Creek. And they've been using trucks to move those drugs between here and there. I'm going to be safe rather than sorry. Just in case this Mr. King knows more than we think," Sage said, rocking the baby before passing her to Dylan. "I'm going to call Miranda. See what she can find on these names. Off the record, and everything."

Meyra just nodded. Sage had that look that Miranda got, too.

Well, they could do what they did best. Find bad guys. Meyra was going to go upstairs and find her man. Then she had to be in the dining room by five a.m.

It was time to get back to her routine. And figure out just how Brandt Barratt was going to change her world completely.

Because Meyra had realized something, watching him tell his sister goodbye and that he loved her. Watching him hug her so close like that.

Meyra loved him .

Just as much as Dusty loved Ben. As much as her father loved Rhea. And now she had to figure out what she wanted to do about it. And what kind of changes it would mean for her life now.

A new normal. She liked that.