“Nothing yet, Cade.” Sam glanced at Brock who shook his head as well. “There was no one else on the road that night that the police have been able to find out.”
Cade laid Marly’s clothes out carefully, frowning over the information he had received. He didn’t like the feel of this at all.
“Where’s the James boy?” He asked them.
“He’s waiting outside. He’s pretty scared of you after that episode at the wreck. We just can’t convince him that you always hit someone whenever Marly gets hurt.” Sam shook his head as though it made perfect sense to him.
“Especially the one responsible.” Cade grunted. “Get the hell out of here while I wake her up. Make sure the limo is running and warm, and I want it right outside the front door when we bring her down. You understand me?”
“Sure Cade.” They should know the drill well by now, Cade thought.
“Go on then. I’ll wake her.”
The two other men filed out of the room, glancing back at Cade with a frown. Cade shook his head; he had tired of trying to figure out the twins a long time ago. Their brains just worked differently than anyone else’s. Except Marly. He sighed wearily. These yearly accidents were going to have to stop. If this one had been an accident.
Chapter Fourteen
“Man, Marly your life is just too exciting here.” Greg shook his head as he packed his bags, his voice carrying a rich vein of bemusement. “Honest. I don’t understand it. You never had problems at school.”
Marly contained her laughter, her head still hurt too badly to be laughing out loud. But she smiled, lying comfortably on Greg’s bed where Cade had carried her after she had awoke that evening and been informed that Greg was returning to Dallas.
“You aren’t able to study are you, Greg?” she asked him with a smile.
Greg paused, shaking his head wryly. Marly knew Greg was determined to hurry and get through college as quickly as possible. Anyone who knew him knew this. He was desperate to find a way to support himself, and to begin paying off the student loans he was accumulating.
“I’ll miss you,” Marly sighed. “You fit in well here.”
And he did. When Cade wasn’t brooding over the younger man’s presence, Greg lightened up and actually had fun watching how the ranch was run. He had even learned how to ride a horse.
“It’s a great place, Marly.” He shook his head as he zipped his suitcase. “I don’t know how you bear to leave it for even a day.”
She heard the thread of longing in his voice, his need for a home, a place that welcomed him. Marly knew that since the death of his parents years ago, Greg hadn’t had that sense of ‘home’.
“I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to.” Marly yawned, shifting on the bed as she closed her eyes. Her head was pounding. “This is home, Greg.”
And it was. She missed the house, and the family terribly while she was away. She knew, though, that the day would come that she may not have a choice but to leave. If she couldn’t get Cade to see sense, make him see that he loved her as more than a niece, then it would no longer be her home. He would marry eventually, moving another woman in, and there would be no way she could live here then.
“Mr. August is having one of the ranch hands drive me in, so you’ll still have your truck when you want to come home,” he told her as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “Do you know when you’ll be back?
“Hm, next Monday,” she answered him drowsily. “Gotta test.”
A test she needed to be studying for and wasn’t. She had a few days, though, she assured herself. Besides, this damned medicine Cade kept poking down her throat left her too dazed to try to study. Not that he would let her anyway. He was like a mother hen trying to anticipate her needs since bringing her home that morning.
“Is she asleep?” Marly heard Cade’s voice as he entered the bedroom.
“Not really, mostly just drifting.” She heard Greg’s worried answer.
“Bret’s ready to take you back whenever you want to leave,” Cade told him softly as he looked down at Marly. “You don’t have to leave, Greg. She’ll settle down now with that concussion. For a few days at least.”
“I swear, I’ve never seen her like this,” Greg said with a shake of his head. “She’s always so quiet and contained at school. She never gets into trouble. Gets strange ideas sometimes, but no real trouble.”
Marly heard Cade grunt and imagined the look of disbelief on his face. She was always getting into trouble here at the ranch.
“She’s never quiet and contained, and she stays in trouble somewhere, somehow,” Cade told Greg with patient tolerance. “But we love her, so we deal with it.”
He sounded like an uncle again, she thought in disgust. She hated it when he did that.
“Well, I guess I’m ready to leave then,” Greg sighed. “I’ve had fun Mr. August, thank you for allowing me to accompany Marly.”