Free Counting on Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series: Book 3) by Amelia Rose

because today…we’re losing him. Emma, we’re going to lose him, and we don’t know how to stop it. When you showed up here, it was an answer to prayers. You know what he’s going through, not us. And when you came here needing help, we gave it to you in abundance. Now I’m asking you to help him. No…I’m begging you.”
    The fight went out of Emma. She let her bag fall to the ground as she stood, eyes closed, waiting for the right decision to appear in her mind. Nothing came. The silence in her own head told her that she was on her own in this one. Slowly, she pushed her backpack higher up on her shoulder, and turned back to the house.
     

Chapter Thirteen
    The ride to Dallas was painfully slow, especially because of the slower speed of the oversized motor home. Miranda, Casey, Carey, and Gracie took up several of the seats near the front of the coach, while Bernard rode in the front passenger seat. One of the hands from the ranch drove.
    But elsewhere, in the back of the vehicle, Joseph lay stretched out on a bunk, nursing his sore back and glaring at Emma.
    “Tell me again why you’re here,” he called out to her, not meeting her eyes. Emma sighed, plastering a smile on her face.
    “I’ve already told you. Your family thought you might get bored on a trip this long, and might want someone to talk to, someone closer to your own age.” Emma was undeterred, answering him in her rehearsed way, without looking up from her magazine. She lay back on her pillow in her own bunk across from Joseph’s, aware that he was lashing out at people one at time now that his medication was no longer within arm’s reach.
    “That still doesn’t explain how you just showed up here,” he argued, baiting her. “You just dropped out of the sky to keep me company?”
    “Nope. I was between jobs, and when the opportunity to come along to Dallas came up, I took it. No big deal.” Emma turned a page and waited, her eyes not seeing the text on the page as she anticipated his next question. Only Joseph didn’t say anything. When she finally looked over at him, she saw him staring at her profile, soundlessly watching her face. “What?”
    “What? I’m just looking at you. I have nothing else to do, so I thought I’d stare at you for the next two days.” His annoying look of fake innocence irritated her more than anything he’d said so far.
    “Well, I’m gonna have to ask you to quit that,” she shot back acidly, pretending to go back to her magazine.
    “Because it unnerves you to have me watch you?” Joseph offered in his attempt at a sexy, husky voice before caving in to the laughter.
    “No, because it’s creepy, and it suggests that you might be mentally challenged.”
    “I’m not mentally challenged,” he shot back.
    “Then stop acting like it.” Emma turned over on her side, her back to Joseph, effectively ending the conversation. She had agreed to go along with the Carsons’ plan to give Joseph someone who understood him, but playing babysitter to someone struggling to even act normal was more than she bargained for.
    At the front of the large bus, things were decidedly less tense. Miranda alternated between talking to her younger sister about their first visit off the ranch together since moving to Texas, and talking to her husband about plans they could make when in the city. Carey just looked morosely nervous about the whole thing, letting his worry for his brother and his fear at being out of his element away from the ranch get the better of him.
    “What’s bugging you, Carey?” Gracie asked, getting up and coming to sit by him. He shook his head, but didn’t answer. “Oh, come on, I can tell something’s bothering you. What’s up?” He still didn’t answer. “Okay then, you leave me no choice. I didn’t want to have to do this to you, but…’Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall’ it is…” She took a deep breath to start belting out the song, but Carey smiled and clamped a hand over