Page 5 of Reacher's Ride or Die

“I interviewed the agency that sent her over, and they matched her and Mom up. I’m sure that they were capable of selecting someone who’d be a good fit for her,” Yonkers said. Brandi seemed like a good fit for Gloria. She was nice and they seemed to get along. And yeah, Yonkers was right—she was hot, but he didn’t know if that was something that he should admit to his friend.

“Well, she seemed fine,” Reacher said. “Gloria asked me this afternoon if I could take her to her treatment tomorrow. She said that Brandi had plans that she couldn’t get out of.”

Yonkers looked him over as though he hadn’t heard a word that Reacher had just said. He was sure that he could see right through him. “Just fine?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, man,” Reacher said. “She’s hot, and when Wren sees her, she’s going to be pissed that you hired her.”

“Shit,” Yonkers grumbled, “I’ll just have to keep Wren from going over there when the nurse is there.”

Reacher barked out his laugh, “Good luck with that, man.” He tossed down some cash onto the bar top and stood from the stool. “I’m heading out now. I have to be over at your mom’s place bright and early in the morning.”

“Thanks for agreeing to take her for her treatment, man,” Yonkers said.

“No problem,” Reacher said back over his shoulder on his way out of the bar.

“Oh, and Reacher,” Yonkers said, stopping him at the door, “Keep your hands off of my mother’s hot nurse.” Reacher sighed, making sure that Yonkers didn’t hear him. His friend would take some sick pleasure in being right. He knew that Reacher would want to take his chance with Brandi—what red-blooded American man wouldn’t want her? He didn’t bother to answer Yonkers—he wasn’t really asking him a question, and Reacher wasn’t sure if he’d be able to follow the order that he had given because yeah, she was that hot.

Brandi

Brandi knew that taking off from her new job the day after she started wasn’t a good look, but she had no choice. She needed to take Mr. Cuddles Worth to the vet to get his vaccines, and then, she was going to file her divorce papers on her way home. Her lawyer said that he would do it, but she didn’t trust that man to cut the crust off her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He was completely incompetent, and she was lucky to have gotten out of her failed marriage with the shirt on her back. But he was all she could afford once Jarrod froze their joint bank accounts.

Marrying Jarrod Higgins wasn’t her finest decision, but she chalked up her bad decision to being young, stupid, and God help her, in love. Unfortunately, Jarrod didn’t feel the same way about her. Hell, the only person he loved was himself and maybe his secretary, who he had been screwing since before he and Brandi were even married. Brandi kicked herself for not seeing the signs before they said their vows. They were all there, but she chose to ignore them in hopes that she had found her happily ever after, but she was wrong. And now, she was sure that she’d never find her Prince Charming, but that worked for her. She putherself through nursing school and when she graduated, she told herself that there was no looking back, only forward. Filing the paperwork to make her divorce final was the very last thing she had to do to put her past behind her, and she was ready to do just that.

Brandi liked to torment herself and play the game, “What if” and that never ended well for her. Usually, she’d end up crying herself to sleep or drinking all night to forget the fact that at just twenty-eight, she had failed miserably at life—not that she was counting herself out yet. But she had sworn off all men, and it didn’t help that Gloria’s biker friend was hot as hell and kept showing up to check on her.

By the time she finished coaxing Mr. Cuddles Worth into his travel carrier and got him to the veterinarian, she was exhausted. That cat would be the death of her, but she was beginning to like having the fur ball around. She dropped the cat back off at her place and quickly changed into her scrubs. She was planning on filing her divorce paperwork at the local courthouse, which happened to be about ten minutes from Gloria’s, so she decided that she was going to stop by and check on her.

She really liked Gloria. Doing intake with her patients during their first meeting, Brandi really got to know them. Some she knew were going to be difficult to work out, and others, she instantly connected with, and she felt that way about Gloria. The sweet older woman was a badass in Brandi’s book. She had already beaten breast cancer once, and from the looks of the charts that the oncologist sent over to her, Gloria was going to make a full recovery again. Sure, she wasn’t God, and neither was Gloria’s doctor, but she had a really good feeling about her new patient’s recovery.

Filing the paperwork was easier than she thought it would be. She literally had to go through security, walk up to the countyclerk’s window, hand him the papers, and he stamped them and handed her back a copy. For some reason, she believed that it would be more involved to end her marriage. And expecting that to be true, she felt a bit disappointed when she walked out of the courthouse. Feeling as though she had failed in life didn’t help either. By the time she walked back to her car, she realized that she had been crying.

“Shit,” she spat. The last thing she planned on doing was to cry over Jarrod. She had moved past her ex, but for some reason, making it permanent had her crying as though it had just happened yesterday.

Brandi quickly dried her eyes after she got behind the wheel, and she headed over to Gloria’s house. With any luck, she’d get there in time to make her lunch and even take her to her appointments for the day.

As soon as she jumped out of her car, Gloria was standing in the doorway, smiling and waving at her like a crazy person. “I thought that you took the day off,” Gloria shouted. Brandi hurried to the house and smiled at Gloria. The poor woman was so tiny from her treatments making her sick, but hopefully, Brandi would be able to put some meat back on her bones.

“Well, I took half a day off,” Brandi reassured. “Mr. Cuddles Worth had a good checkup. He’s perfect, really, even if the vet said that he could stand to lose some weight. I told him that my cat was just big-boned, but he didn’t seem to buy that excuse.” Gloria chuckled at Brandi’s story, and she couldn’t help but smile. Gloria’s happiness was contagious.

“I’d love to meet Mr. Cuddles Worth someday,” Gloria admitted.

“Well, I’m sure that I can arrange for that to happen. Of course, you’ll have to come over to my place.” Brandi held out her arms to Gloria and she gasped.

“What happened to your arms?” she asked.

“Mr. Cuddles Worth isn’t a fan of his cat carrier, and he let me know it,” Brandi explained.

“Well, then, you’re right,” Gloria said, “I’ll have to come over to your place to meet him.”

“Anytime,” Brandi said, “my place isn’t very big, and I don’t have a lot of furniture, except for a great new couch, but it’s home for now.”

“You seem a little down today,” Gloria assessed. “Is everything okay?” It was nice of Gloria to ask, but honestly, she had only known the woman for just over a day, and sharing the fact that she had just filed her divorce papers wasn’t something that she wanted to do.

“Yeah, I’m good,” she said. “So, what can I do to help you out around here?”

Gloria sighed as though giving up on being told anything more, and that worked for Brandi. As far as she was concerned, she didn’t have anything more to say on the topic of her awful day that had put her in a bad mood.

“Well, I need to go through my medication and get rid of any that are expired. I have to order some of the new meds that the doctor gave me during my last visit,” Gloria said.

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