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.”