“You need us, Lauren,” she said softly. “Everybody needs their family. Especially when something terrible happens. I should know. I shut mine out when I should have been wallowing in all their love and support. Come home with us. I’m not leaving without you.”
Max spoke up for the first time. “She’s right, baby.” His voice was tender and coaxing. “And you know how fierce Callie is when she’s set her mind to something. She’s sick with strep throat and a hundred-and-four fever but hell if she wasn’t getting on a plane to come bring you home.”
Lauren smiled faintly. “My brother sounds afraid of you.”
Callie grinned. “That’s because he’s a smart man.”
Lauren’s expression grew more troubled. “I don’t know about this.”
Callie took her hands and squeezed. “There’s nothing to know or think about. There’s nothing for you here. Come home with us and heal. There’s no better place to be than surrounded by the Colters.”
Tears gathered in Lauren’s dark eyes and her lips trembled. Then finally she nodded. “Okay. I’ll come.”
CHAPTER 7
I’M starting to get worried,” Dillon said bluntly.
He folded his arms over his chest and stared over the bar at his two brothers seated on bar stools. Seth and Michael had come into the pub during their lunch hour on the day the pub was closed.
Usually Dillon would be home. With Lily. Usually if Seth was free for lunch, he came home to be with Lily. If Michael wasn’t busy at his practice, he would be with her.
But today, they had agreed to meet at Mountain Pass, away from Lily. To discuss … her.
“She’s not herself,” Dillon continued, eyeing the unease on his brothers’ faces. It was an unease he distinctly shared. Something wasn’t right, and it was high time to figure out what the hell it was.
“No,” Michael said wearily. “She isn’t. She puts on a good front, but when she thinks we aren’t looking, she seems … sad. Worried.”
Seth leaned his forehead against the edges of his palms and blew out a deep breath. “God almighty, I don’t know what it could be, but it scares the hell out of me. What if … what if this whole thing isn’t working for her anymore? What if she isn’t happy with the arrangement?”
Seth had voiced the question uppermost in Dillon’s mind. He’d pinpointed Dillon’s number one worry, and judging by the look on Michael’s face, Seth had nailed Michael’s primary concern too.
“Shit,” Dillon muttered.
Michael shook his head, his lips set into a fine line. “No. That can’t be it. It can’t. Lily …”
“Lily what?” Seth demanded. “Lily’s happy? I think we all know that isn’t true right now.”
“We don’t have to assume worst-case scenario,” Dillon pointed out.
“Why the fuck are we sitting here talking about worst-case scenarios?” Michael asked in disgust. “We should be asking her what’s wrong. This speculating is making me crazy.”
“Because we’re all afraid of the answer,” Seth said quietly.
Dillon blew out his breath. “Yeah. Right there. Scared shitless, and I don’t mind admitting it.”
“Do you think Mom knows what’s up?” Michael asked. “She’s been over there a lot lately. I don’t know what they’re up to. Could be nothing. But Mom doesn’t usually come over and kick us out.”
“Could be anything,” Seth said. “She might be working on a Christmas present for the dads. There are a lot of explanations for why Mom would be coming to see Lily all hush-hush.”
Dillon clenched his fist in frustration. “So we’re back to square one. Which is that we have no idea what the hell is going on with the woman we love, no idea how to fix it, because again, we have no idea what it is and we’re all too chickenshit to ask. Have I got it about right?”
Michael gave a disgusted sigh. “That about sums it up.”
“So what do we do?” Dillon asked.
He hated how fucking helpless he felt. Like his entire life was on the line and he had no control over how it turned out. He knew his brothers felt the same because their expressions said it all.