Maya Banks - Colters’ Promise

“I’m not asking, Dr. Hollister,” she said calmly, because she’d long ago discovered that calm was hard to argue with. “I’d like to be discharged today. I understand your concerns, and I’ll heed your instructions to the letter, but I would recover more rapidly in my own home.”

“Nothing like throwing me to the wolves,” the doctor said dryly. “Those husbands of yours will kick my ass if I let you walk out of here before they believe it’s time. Hard to remember who has the medical degree here.”

The light sarcasm in his voice made Holly grin. Dr. Hollister had been Holly’s physician for years. He was well acquainted with her unusual situation, just as he was very well acquainted with her husbands’ huge protective streak when it came to her.

“I want to be home for Christmas,” she said, an ache in her voice that was more pronounced than any residual pain from her surgery. “It’s going to be so wonderful this year. And I’m cooking!”

Dr. Hollister stared at her over his glasses and tactfully cleared his throat. “Well, maybe it’s best if you aren’t puttering around a kitchen quite yet.”

Holly snorted. “You’ve listened to far too many stories about my lack of ability in the kitchen. My daughter-in-law is a dream cook, and she’s taught me how to make the most awesome holiday dinner.” Her smile softened wistfully. “All my babies are going to be home this year. That hasn’t happened in so long. We always have most, but not everyone. No way I’m going to miss that.”

Dr. Hollister smiled indulgently. “I’m going to let you go, Holly. I don’t fool myself into thinking that if I said no you’d actually listen to me. But I want you to follow my care instructions to the letter, and don’t think I won’t outline them in great detail to your husbands.”

She scowled at him. “I’m not staying in bed twenty-four/seven. Just so you know. Don’t even hint to my husbands that this is part of your care plan.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “What I’m going to tell them is that you are to resume normal activities with caution and that you are to rest perhaps more than usual until you’re feeling more yourself again. I want you to take your medications and I want you to listen to your body, Holly. I’m serious about this. If it’s telling you to slow down and rest, then do it. You don’t want to end up back in the hospital, I assume?”

She shook her head vigorously.

“Then follow my instructions and we’ll all be happy. Your husbands included.”

“Okay, okay,” she grumbled. “How soon can you have me discharged?”

He sighed. “One-track mind you have. Give me an hour, okay? I need to give the nurse my report and write your scripts. She’ll be down to set you loose as soon as I’m done. Happy?”

She beamed at him. “Thanks, Pete. You know I appreciate you.”

He rolled his eyes. “You only appreciate me when you’re bending me to your will.” He leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Take care of yourself, okay? I’ll want to see you again in a week. If you don’t want to drive up to the city, I’ll be happy to come out on a Saturday.”

Holly snagged his hand and squeezed. Over the years, Pete Hollister had become a family friend. During that terrible time when she’d been attacked and then had discovered her pregnancy, he’d been a rock. And because she’d trusted him, she’d continued to seek his medical care in the years afterward. She and her husbands had donated a large sum of money to fund his clinic for those who couldn’t afford healthcare and had no insurance, and as a result he felt deep loyalty to the Colters. It was nothing for him to drop everything and make the trip to Clyde if one of them needed care beyond what the general practitioner in Clyde provided. And, well, he didn’t seem to trust others to care for the Colters. He’d sort of adopted them, and while he gave her husbands grief over being so protective of her, he was just as protective of the Colters as a whole.

“Thanks, Pete,” she said again. “I hope you have a merry Christmas.”

“Not seeing you in my hospital again will make my holidays go a lot better.”

Holly smiled and nodded and then sank back onto the pillows behind her as the doctor left the room. A few moments later, the door swung open again and her husbands stalked in, suspicious looks on their faces.

“I thought you said Pete wasn’t coming by until later.” Ryan said with a scowl. “We just passed him in the hall and it looked like he’d just come out of your room.”

Holly put her hands over her lap and smiled serenely. “He did.”

Adam sighed. “Let me guess. You strong-armed him into letting you go and you sent us out on a fool’s errand so we wouldn’t be here to disagree.”

She grinned because she wasn’t about to try and deny it. Her husbands knew her far too well.

“For God’s sake,” Ethan grumbled as he sat on the edge of the bed next to her. “Do you even want what we brought back for you?”

“Yes! I’m starving,” she said, pouncing on the bag Ethan held out.

“Do you even have time to eat?” Adam drawled. “Or will you be pushed out of here in the next fifteen minutes?”

She made a face. “I have an hour at least.”

Ryan’s eyes went heavenward and he shook his head in resignation.

“I want to go home,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not spending Christmas in the hospital.”

To emphasize her statement, she raised her arms and crossed them over her chest. She thrust out her chin in a gesture of defiance and sent them a mutinous glare.

Ryan leaned down and kissed her furrowed brow. “We worry about you. You know that.”

She went completely soft and she turned her face up to stare into those intense blue eyes so like Callie’s. “I know you do and I love you for it. But if you want what’s best for me? That’s to go home and be surrounded by my husbands and my children and to spend Christmas there. Not here. I can rest much easier there, and I’ve already promised Pete I wouldn’t overdo it. He’s going to give you a list of dos and don’ts so that he’ll be sure you enforce them.”

“I’ve always liked that man,” Adam said approvingly.

Holly snorted. “You just like him because he sides with you.”

Ethan grinned beside her and tugged her hand into his. “You know it.”

“I’m ready to be home,” she said softly. “There’s no other place I’d rather be.”

“And we want you there,” Adam said, emotion knotting his throat. “You gave us a scare, baby.”

Ryan stroked her cheek with his palm and then lowered his lips to hers. “Don’t do that again.”

She smiled. “I’ll try my best not to end up in the hospital ever again.”

“That’s what you said the last time,” Ethan grumbled.

Knowing her food was getting cold, she gestured for the portable tray and Adam wheeled it over to the bed, sliding the arm over her lap so she’d have a place to eat.

While she dug into the food, Ethan made phone calls to the boys and to Callie to let them know she was coming home that day.

Holly smiled in anticipation because she knew they’d all be waiting. All gathered in her home, just where she liked them.

SETH, Michael, and Dillon stood across the room from the couch where Lily lay sound asleep, and they smiled. She was curled on her side, head nestled on one of the cushions.

They were all tired. The last few days had been nerve-racking as they’d waited for their mother to be released from the hospital. Now that she was finally home, the dads had banished all the children to their own homes to get some much-needed rest.

“This pregnancy seems to be kicking her ass,” Seth said in a low voice. “Even before the thing with Mom, I mean. I’m as nervous as hell over this. I don’t want her getting so beat down that she feels even for a moment like she did with Rose.”

Dillon’s expression grew fierce. “That ain’t going to happen. I don’t care if I have to sell the damn pub or have Callie take it over so I can spend every waking moment with Lily. I don’t want her to ever feel that kind of despair again.”

“I second that,” Michael said somberly. “She’s had a hard time coming to grips with this. I don’t think she was ready. Hell, I’m not even sure how she managed to get pregnant. I know birth control isn’t foolproof but it still has a pretty damn good success rate.”

“No sense belaboring that point now,” Seth said. “What’s important is how we make her feel from this point forward. I don’t want her to doubt, even for a moment, our commitment to her and our child. I want her to go into the delivery room knowing that she has absolutely nothing to worry about this time.”

Dillon nodded his agreement. His jaw was set into a fierce line and Seth knew he was probably already planning the next seven months and beyond. It wouldn’t surprise Seth whatsoever if Dillon did let the management of the pub go. However, he doubted Max would ever allow Callie to take over the running of it full-time, and in this instance Seth would fully support his brother-in-law. Callie didn’t need to be stuck behind the damn bar every night, nor did she need to be dragging home at all hours of the morning.