Page 3 of The Prodigal Brother Returns

Nathan aimed. Blake caught his brother’s fist in his open palm before he could topple out of the bed and cause himself more injury.

“That’s enough, you two,” Jonas ordered in his sternest voice.

Fighting Jonas’s restraint on his shoulders, Nathan tried to sit up, groaned, then flopped on his back. Finally, he asked Blake tiredly, “Why are you here?”

He stepped back to get a better look at Nathan’s face. He was older. Of course. But he had the same tired look about him that Strawberry Ridge did. Quickly, Blake took in the dining room and the kitchen. Nothing had changed. The kitchen was the same, with its terracotta floors, beige cabinets, and beamed ceiling. The same small table he’d sat at when he was a kid was pushed off the side to make room for the hospital bed.

He frowned at Jonas. How much financial trouble was the Triple L in?

“I asked him to come,” Jonas said calmly. Now that Nathan wasn’t trying to plant his fist in Blake’s face, Jonas pushed his hands into his jeans pockets.

Asked him?That was not how Blake would put it, but he didn’t argue the point.

Nathan wasn’t done with his objection. He raised himself onto his elbows. “Why?”

“Someone has to run this ranch while you’re down. The doc says it’ll be eight-to-twelve weeks before you’re back in business.” Jonas was using the be-reasonable voice he always used when he wanted to get his younger brothers in line. It was the same strategy that had gotten Blake to return.

Nathan shot Blake a dark look. Blake stared back. Yup, it wasn’t just the house that hadn’t changed.

Without breaking their stare-down, Nathan growled at Jonas. “We don’t need him. You can run the ranch.”

“I don’t have time. I’ll be moving my law office from Denver to Strawberry Ridge. I got you a nurse, who should be here soon, and Blake will take care of the ranch just fine.” Jonas tossed Blake the don’t-mess-with-me look that he’d perfected after their father died. “Won’t you, little brother?”

“Sure.” Blake shrugged. He would do what needed to be done as long as Jonas got it that Timmy came first, no matter what. At least now he was close enough to visit the kid while he was at the camp.

Nathan scowled. “Don’t I have a say in this?”

“No!” Jonas and Blake practically shouted together.

“Excuse me, but what’s going on here?”

Blake spun to face the firm, feminine voice. Cinnamon-brown eyes took a sweeping look at the scene unfolding in front of her, and, he had a feeling, found the Lohmen brothers and their roaring argument wanting. Shoulder-length hair swirled in curvy brown, shiny waves. Expressive lips pressed into a firm line.

“And who are you?” he asked quietly, though he thought he could guess. Only one person was missing from this disorderly party.

“The door was open. And I did call out several times,” she explained. “My name is Malorie Harper. I’m the private-duty nurse that Mr. Jonas Lohmen hired, and if I’m not mistaken, that man you’re fighting with is my patient, Nathan Lohmen.”

Wasn’t this a pickle?as Tina would say. He’d been caught again on the wrong side of what was right, even if Nathan had been the one to restart Blake’s anger by taking a punch at him. As was his habit, his first impression wasn’t good.

Chapter Two

What the heck?

All three men looked at her with varying degrees of embarrassment. Malorie arched her brows, waiting for the tall men on each side of her patient to explain themselves. She’d seen family drama in her days as a nurse, but the two Lohmen brothers who weren’t injured were completely out-of-bounds. Even though his records said he was bucked off a horse, the scene playing out before her made her wonder exactly how her patient had ended up in a hospital bed.

The man in the bed, Nathan, presumably, was the first to recover. His eyes lit up. “Hi, pretty lady.”

The tallest of the other two stepped toward her, hand extended. “I’m Jonas Lohmen. You must be the nurse I hired. These two idiots are my brothers, Blake, and the other one”—he gestured at the man in the bed—“as you guessed, is your patient, Nathan.”

“I did knock and called out several times,” she repeated, then frowned. “The door opened on its own, but I assume you couldn’t hear through all the yelling?”

“A difference of opinion is all,” the apparent leader of the gang said as he gently urged her back the way she’d come. “We just got Nathan home from the hospital. They gave him extra medicine for the trip, and it’s made my little brother somewhat... uncooperative.” Over his shoulder, he said, “Blake, get Nathan ready for company.”

“Get out.” Nathan’s good cheer disappeared as she watched him and the remaining brother over her shoulder. He growled, “I don’t need you to come waltzing back and taking over the ranch. I’ll rest today and be up and around and back to running things by tomorrow.”

His hand still on her arm, Jonas Lohmen contradicted his brother firmly, “It’s going to be months before you can get back on a horse. Stop bellyaching. I’ll help as much as I can, but we need Blake to handle the day-to-day operations.”

All three men faced off. Somehow, she’d landed herself in the middle of an old-fashioned Wild West gunslinger standoff. Finding herself in the center of a family feud was not what she’d signed on for, and it wasn’t what Andee and Reece needed right now.

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