Page 73 of Her Loving Hero

“Oh my God,look at the size of that mall,” Kristi pointed over Emily’s shoulder. “What’s the name of it? Is that a Ferris wheel? Do we have time to stop?”

It had been four hours in stop and go rush hour traffic, Emily wasn’t even driving, and already her head was pounding. It didn’t help knowing that Wyatt’s brothers were going through real problems, while Kristi was behaving like a spoiled little princess.

“Can we pull over?”

“We are not going to-”

Emily stopped herself when she realized it wasn’t Kristi asking, it was Carly. She looked pea green. “Are you in pain?” she asked.

“The pain medication is making me nauseous, and I’m going to throw up,” the teenager said as she punched the button to roll down the window. Riya didn’t say a word; she just calmly made her way over to the right-hand lane so that she could take the next exit.

“Just stop anywhere,” Carly pleaded.

Riya pulled into a gas station and Carly fumbled with the door handle, and practically fell out of the car when before making it to the trash can and upending the contents of her stomach.

Emily heard Kenna’s voice coming in through the car dash as Riya explained what was going on.

“Emily, can you find out what medication she’s been taking?”

Kristi thrust Carly’s purse to the front seat, and Emily handed it to Riya. “You look, I’m going to help Carly.”

She took a bottle of water and a packet of tissues out to her sister. Carly was holding her arm tight against her body, her forehead was sweaty, and her eyes looked glassy.

Great Mom, you couldn’t make the flight. Nice.

Emily helped Carly wipe up. “Here take some of this, swish it around in your mouth, then spit it out.”

Carly did it and gave Emily a grateful smile.

“I’m going to go into the little gas station shop and see if they have ginger ale, okay?”

Carly leaned back against the vehicle and nodded gratefully.

By the time she came back Riya had Carly back in the car. She handed a packet of crackers and ginger ale to her sick sister. “What did Kenna say?” she asked Riya.

“Between the flight, rush hour, lack of food and meds she’s not surprised this happened. We need to get her home and to bed as quickly as possible. She needs sleep.”

“Me too,” Emily muttered under her breath.

It was dusk by the time they got to Wyatt’s townhome. Carly was asleep but Kristi was going a million miles a minute as to what activity needed to happen tomorrow. The fact that her sister was injured and ill didn’t matter to her in the slightest.

“How are you putting up with this so well, Riya?” Emily asked Riya as they headed toward Wyatt’s door.

“I have sisters. Indian sisters. You’ve never seen the lead up to a big Indian wedding. My sisters went clinically insane for about two weeks. I hid under my bed for a month afterward. This is nothing.”

Emily was laughing when Wyatt opened the door, but she immediately stopped when she saw just how anxious he looked. Then she did a triple take. “What are you still doing here?” she demanded.

“Change of plans. You’re stuck with me, think you can handle that?” he said quietly against her lips. “Why don’t you introduce me to your Kristi?”