Perhaps reading my expression, or just knowing me better than anybody, Galen gave Wesley a warning look. “Your granddaughterhas been through hell for two days thinking something bad happened to you. Try not being a jerk, huh?”
Wesley, the king of grumps, shot back, “You’re not the boss of me!”
“Don’t do it for me. Do it for your granddaughter, who I know you love.”
“I told you I didn’t want to come here!”
“You’ve been missing for two days and you’re weak.”
“I’m not weak! I don’t get weak!”
Galen slammed his fist down on the arm of the chair in which he sat. “Don’t make me hurt you!”
Wesley scoffed. “Like you could hurt me.”
“I’m fond of you, but you’re being mean to my favorite person in the world. If you had your wits about you and weren’t weak, you’d be kicking your own ass for acting this way. So, I’m going to do what you would want me to and protect your granddaughter.”
“I don’t need protection,” I volunteered in a soft voice. “I’m okay.”
Slowly, Wesley tracked his gaze to me. He looked pained. I braced myself for another verbal onslaught. Instead, his eyes turned glassy. “I’m sorry.”
Galen visibly relaxed. “You’ve been through it,” he acknowledged. “I need you to understand that Hadley has too.”
“What happened to you?” I asked.
“We thought you were on a different plane,” Galen said. “It never occurred to us that you were in the cemetery. Being there tonight was a fluke. Were you in there the whole time?”
“I don’t know.” Wesley’s hands plucked at the blanket. “I’m not sure what happened. I didn’t mean to snap at you, honey. I just … it’s been a trying few hours.”
“Few days,” I corrected.
Confusion knit Wesley’s eyebrows. “Are you saying … what are you saying?”
“You’ve been gone two days,” Galen replied. “Your men called meyesterday morning and said they hadn’t seen you since the night before — about forty-eight hours ago — and they were worried because they couldn’t find you anywhere on the ranch.”
Wesley cocked his head. “I’ve been missing for two full days?”
I bobbed my head.
“That can’t be right.” Wesley concentrated so hard, as if willing himself to remember, I worried that he might pass out. “That’s just not right.”
“Tell us what you remember,” Galen prodded.
“I don’t know what I remember.” Wesley leaned back against the pillows, his eyes looking at the ceiling. “Things are kind of fuzzy.”
“You had a barbecue that night,” I offered, hoping to jog his memory. “Your men said you were in a good mood. They lost track of you after that. Nobody saw you go back to the house. When they went looking for you in the morning, they couldn’t find any trace of you. You weren’t in any of the barns. You hadn’t passed out anywhere.”
“Young lady,” Wesley’s expression was back to severe, “I don’t pass out.”
I laughed because I couldn’t help myself, but he was deadly serious. “We had to be sure.”
He didn’t look convinced. “I’m guessing you came to the ranch to look for me.”
“We did,” Galen confirmed. “Hadley and Booker took one of your four-wheelers out. They cast a locator spell. It led them to one of your fields. There was a symbol burned into it.” He stared hard at Wesley. “Is any of this familiar?”
He shook his head. “I don’t even remember the barbecue. I remember working and … that’s it.”
Galen smiled but it didn’t touch his eyes. “Hadley felt as if the symbol in the field was whispering to her.”
