Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides) by Heather Tullis Page B

order when it was delivered. A couple of times they had sent the wrong things and she’d had to send it back—that was much easier to do if she caught it when the delivery man was still there.
    She put her hands at the small of her back and stretched. A hot soak wouldn’t go amiss, either.
    “You look all done in,” Harrison said, studying her. “Are you getting enough sleep?”
    “I’ll live.” Rosemary rubbed her eyes. “You didn’t have anything better to do than to come hang out here tonight?” She kept her voice light, not wanting him to think she minded his presence. It had been fun—a fact that still surprised her when she thought about it.
    “Some of my favorite people live here.” He shifted closer, his gaze steady on hers.
    She wasn’t sure how to take his comment. He hadn’t visited this often when Sage lived with them.
    A scream pierced the air, and Rosemary ran for the stairs on instinct, headed for the sound—Cleo. Harrison was hard on her heels. The second scream was not quite as ear-splitting, but contained a word that made Rosemary’s heart nearly stop.
    “Snake!”
    Rosemary came to a skidding halt in the doorway when she saw Cleo on the bed and the snake swirling around on the floor between her and the door. Cleo looked at Rosemary, her face white with panic.
    “Hold on, sweetie. Just stay there.” Rosemary looked at Harrison. “Do something.” She was frozen with fear and didn’t think she could make her feet move again.
    He was down the stairs in a flash, taking the last three in one leap and bounding into the garage.
    “What’s going on?” Jonquil asked from the bottom of the stairs.
    “There’s a rattle snake in Cleo’s room.” Rosemary looked at her daughter and realized her reaction was freaking Cleo out even worse. Right. Calm. She took two deep breaths and looked at the snake again. It wasn’t being threatening at the moment—if you discounted its existence in the room as a threat, which she didn’t exactly. “Okay, I’m calmer. It doesn’t look poised to strike or anything, but I can’t get to Cleo because it’s between the two of us.”
    “A rattler, at this time of year?” Jonquil froze. “Did you block it in the room? Because it might feel threatened if it has nowhere to go.” She set one foot on the bottom stair, then hesitated as if she was worried about becoming snake bait.
    “Um, yeah, I guess, but it isn’t—” She stopped talking when the snake turned to her and started shifting in her direction. “Oh, crap. Now it’s headed for me.”
    “Back away slowly and keep an eye on it,” Jonquil directed. “Just, I don’t know, don’t let it get too close.”
    “How do you know about snakes?” Rosemary asked.
    “I rock climb. I decided knowing my predators was a good idea.”
    “Right.” She shifted back into the hall, keeping her eyes on the rattler, while listening to her daughter sob hysterically. “It’s okay, kiddo, it’s not interested in you. See?”
    “It’s going to bite you and then you’ll die, just like mom and dad,” Cleo wailed.
    “Not if I can help it.” The words were barely more than a mutter as terror gripped her. The rattler grew closer and she stumbled back into the railing that overlooked the living area.
    “How can you stop it?” Cleo asked, sobbing.
    Harrison exploded back into the house from the garage and took the stairs two at a time, a shovel in his hand. “Good thing Vince left this behind.”
    Relief trickled through Rosemary, though she didn’t know if Harrison had any idea how to use the weapon, now he had one. “He left one for Jonquil when she wanted to plant bulbs a few months ago. Never took it back with him.”
    “Lucky for us.” He paused to study the situation, then approached the snake.
    It reared back and he jabbed, hard and fast, severing the head about six inches back from the jaw.
    Cleo screamed, Rosemary shuddered, and the rattler slithered and jerked in its death throes,