Page 151 of The Doctor's Irreplaceable Love

“He is—I don’t think he even knows it himself, but I think he’s a little bent out of shape that Uncle Cash stayed here last night.”

“Why?I don’t understand.”

Tanya appeared beside Trip and piped up.“I was sad, too!”

Alana rolled her eyes.“I told you—Uncle Cash isn’t with Harper.He doesn’t want to be and neither does she—they’re just friends.”

“You mean your dad…?”Trip began.

“Yeah!He likes Harper—a lot.”Alana looked up at Shelley.“Do you think she might like him too?”

Shelley didn’t want to say the wrong thing.“I …”

Alana laughed.“It’s okay.I know that look—you think so, but you don’t want to say so.It’s all right—I feel like she does.Oh, but shush, he’s coming.”

Shelley exchanged a smile with Trip.

Emmett held his arms out when he reached them, and the girls went straight to him.

“Did you say thank you to Trip for …”

“’Course we did, Dad.”Alana sounded older than her years, not like a complaining teenager.

“I did, too!”Tanya told him.“And you should have seen Brookie in the green dress!”

“Did she take it?”Trip asked.

Alana shook her head.“You’re going to have to give her anything you want her to have—she won’t take it.”

Trip nodded.“I’ll have to find a way to …”

“Maybe the girls can show me which ones she liked and I can set them aside for her.I can drop them off …”

“I can drop them off,” Trip began.“You’re busy enough …”

Shelley smiled as she said, “Or we could ask Brody to do it.”

From the way Alana grinned at her, it seemed that she knew Brody’s secret.

As if Emmett was in on it too, he looked around and asked, “Where’s Blane?”

“I thought you might have a better idea than the rest of us,” said Trip.“You went to Jim’s with him and Mav last night.We haven’t seen him today yet, either.”

“I doubt we will,” said Emmett.

“Why?”

Emmett looked down at the girls.

“It’s okay, Dad, we know,” Alana told him.

Tanya bounced up and down on her toes.“Auntie Libby was at Uncle Jim’s house!”

“When Mav arrived?”Trip asked.

“Yup,” said Emmett.“She’d gone to check on Jim.When those two laid eyes on each other, Blane went to take care of Banner, and I hitched a ride with Cash when he showed up.”

“Wow,” said Shelley.“I didn’t realize there was so much else going on last night.”