Unexpected Family Read Online Free Page B

turn off her thoughts.
    She followed the moonlight that lay across the floor in big sheets, heading out the door of the room. But instead of going to her own room, she went to the kitchen. And to whatever dinner leftovers might be in the fridge.
    The carpet of the hallway changed to stone as she walked into the dining room and she rounded the counter that separated the kitchen from the eating area. Then she stopped dead in her tracks.
    Walter, owner of the Ranch and Mia’s father-in-law, sat on the floor in a puddle of moonlight, small orange pills scattered around him. His face unnaturally pale in the bone-white light.
    “Hey,” he said, trying to brace himself against the floor so he could move. But she could see he was in too much pain.
    “What happened?” she asked, crouching beside him. She smelled booze on his breath and she stood back up. “You’re drunk.”
    “I fell.” His hard face cracked into a grimace. “I think I hurt my leg.”
    His ankle, which jutted out from beneath the frayed edge of his light blue pajamas, was swollen and purple. Damn it, it had to be sprained and who the hell knew how long he’d been sitting here.
    “You fell because you’re drunk.”
    He sighed, looking down at his body as if it had betrayed him.
    “I dropped a pill and bent down to get it… . I just lost my balance.”
    “Because washing down Parkinson’s medication with whiskey improves balance?”
    “Could you…could you just get Jack? Or Mia?” he asked.
    Anger popped and pulsed inside of her. “No.” She went back into the mudroom and jammed her feet in her boots, then she grabbed the keys off the counter, calling Walter all the names under her breath that she was raised too well to say to his face. Stomping back into the kitchen she glared down at him.
    He stared down at his hands. Ashamed. Good.
    “Sandra—”
    “Everybody is sleeping and I’m not dragging them out of bed because you were too drunk to stay on your feet. You’re stuck with me.”
    He nodded slightly, his white hair picking up the moonlight and glinting silver. Walter was still handsome, a big masculine man, but all she saw when she looked at him was ruin.
    “You’re going to have to help me a little,” she said, crouching beside him and flinging his arm over her shoulder.
    He grimaced. Sweat bloomed across his forehead but he didn’t groan. Nope, not Walter. Just like he’d sit here all damn night rather than scream for help.
    All that pride wasted when it came to drinking. It’s a shame.
    With a lot of effort she got him to his feet and when he shifted his body to go toward the living room she steered him instead to the mudroom.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I’m taking you to the hospital.”
    “I’m fine—”
    She shifted her weight away from him and he stumbled, catching himself on the counter that split the kitchen from the dining room. Tentatively he put his foot onto the floor and cursed when he couldn’t put any weight on his ankle.
    When he glanced at her she shrugged. “It’s sprained at least, and you’ve been sitting there for how long?”
    He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”
    “Right, then, we’re going to the hospital.”
    Hopping and stumbling and then begrudgingly accepting her help she got him out to the sports car.
    “Where’s your car?” he asked.
    “It turned into a pumpkin.” Carefully, she eased him into the passenger seat and then walked around to the driver’s side.
    She backed the car up, gravel spitting out from under her tires. He didn’t say anything and she drove into the night, the moon’s watchful eye hovering over the car.
    “I’m…I’m sorry,” Walter said, his chin up, his shoulders back. Clinging to the pride he had.
    “Tell that to my mother.”
    She stopped, realizing what had just happened. Walter had a sprained ankle. At least. Combined with the drinking, the Parkinson’s…he’d need help. And Sandra needed to be needed. Lucy couldn’t help but laugh out