“Yeah, it’s a Greek isle.One of the places my brother visited when he was stationed overseas.I’ve always wanted to go.”
She smiled.“Okay, I guess Corfu works for a pretty dog like him.”
“Actually her.And she’s pregnant.It won’t be long until we have a slew of puppies around here.”Tanner crouched down so the dog could lick his face, carefully keeping Beth to the side so the dog didn’t frighten her.
Bree stared at the dog, wide-eyed.“Puppies,” she murmured.“How many?”
“Usually between three and five.We’ll give most of them away to people in town.Definitely keep one around here.”
Bree just nodded.No sense thinking about cute little puppies that weren’t hers.Or the babies that weren’t hers.Or the home that wasn’t hers.
Or the man that wasn’t hers.
“If Corfu is around, that means Noah will be showing up any second also.”
Sure enough, a few moments later a man came riding out of the trees from the opposite direction than she’d been expecting him.
Tanner rolled his eyes.“Surveilling?”he asked his brother.
Noah shrugged and slipped from the saddle.“Can’t be too careful.”He turned toward her but didn’t move closer.“Ma’am.”
It was plain these two were definitely brothers.Both tall, broad shouldered.Same dark coloring and good looks.But where Tanner was approachable and trustworthy, Noah was closed off, wary, defensive.
She wasn’t drawn to Noah at all like she was Tanner, but she definitely understood him.
“Nice to meet you,” she murmured, taking a slight step back.
He gave her a brief nod before turning back to Tanner.“I’ve already gotten three calls from Cassandra, since you’re not answering your phone, and one from Mom.Gotten quite an earful about how you ran a young mother and her twin babies out of town.”He raised an eyebrow.“Doesn’t look like they got far.These yours?”he asked his brother, gesturing to the babies.
“No,” Tanner said, rolling his eyes.
“They’re not even mine,” Bree put in.
Noah tilted his head to the side and gave something that looked like a rusty smile.“You always did know how to complicate things, bro.”
Tanner chuckled, but it faded quickly.“They need to lie low here for a while.Completely off the grid.No phones anywhere around.”
That request didn’t seem to faze Noah at all.He just nodded.“Trouble?”
Tanner nodded.“Of a big kind.”
“How big?”
Tanner turned to her.“You want to provide details?”
She balanced Christian on her hip and turned to the side.“I can’t.Not right now.I’m sorry, but I can’t give you details.”If anything went wrong, it would be signing their death warrants.Although she might have done that even if she didn’t tell them.
“Makes it harder to protect you that way,” Tanner said.
She swallowed the panic building up in her.“I know.Maybe I should leave.If you could lend me a car or—”
“No.”Both Dempsey brothers said it at the same time.
“But I—”
Tanner moved closer until he was right in front of her.She had to crane her neck back to see him.“You’re not leaving here on your own.Nobody knows you’re here.You lie low like you said you needed to.We’ll figure out the rest.”
“Okay.But if—”
