“It smells wonderful, Henry,” Ethan said as he opened the lift gate. “Tell Maebelle, we appreciate her holding food for us. Looks like you’ll probably run out before that line ends.”
“Glad to do it, Mr. Colter. Give our best to your brothers.”
“Will do.”
Holly slid back into the truck, and they headed back to Lacey’s office. This time she went in to collect Seth. She wanted to see how Lacey was doing. Lacey was a stubborn woman and insisted on working right up until she was forced to go on maternity leave. A fact that didn’t sit well with her husband, but he’d long figured out arguing with Lacey was an exercise in futility.
When Holly walked in, she stifled a chuckle at the sight before her. Seth was sitting on Lacey’s desk as Lacey queried him on all the parts to her handgun.
When Lacey looked up and saw Holly, she smiled. “Hey, Holly.”
Lacey stood and Holly got a good look at her bulging stomach. The Colter brothers liked to tease Lacey and say she was a toothpick with a marshmallow stuck on it. She was all belly and not much else when it came to her pregnancies. Holly wasn’t sure how the hell she managed to keep her balance.
“How are you?” Holly asked as she squeezed the other woman in a hug.
“Good. Tired but good.”
“Things been quiet lately?”
Lacey rolled her eyes. “As quiet as they ever are in this town. Most of the calls are dumbass tourists who get into trouble. The locals don’t give me too much trouble. I think they feel sorry for me.”
She eyed Holly speculatively as they returned to the desk where Seth sat fiddling with an empty gun magazine.
“You look different. What’s new with you?”
Holly flushed and looked away but not before Lacey arched an eyebrow.
“Spill!” she demanded.
Holly sighed and then bobbed her head in Seth’s direction. Lacey’s eyes gleamed with curiosity and then she took Seth’s hand.
“Hey, little man. I need to talk to your mom a minute. You know, girly talk. Why don’t you run out and get into the truck with your dad?”
Seth curled his nose and made a sound of disgust. “Dad says girl talk is booooring.”
“Which one?” Lacey muttered.
Holly snickered. “All of them?”
The two women laughed as Seth hightailed it out of the station.
“Okay, what is going on with you?” Lacey demanded. “You look…goofy.”
“Goofy?”
“You look all mushy and happy.”
Holly laughed. “I am happy.”
Lacey gave her a disgusted look. “You have that look in your eyes. Like when you’re about to burst because you want to tell me something. So spill it before one of your husbands comes in to haul you home.”
Holly curled her hands into fists and let some of her excitement bubble out. “I’m pregnant.”
Lacey’s mouth fell open. She stared at Holly for a long moment as if expecting her to say it was a joke. “Shit, you’re serious?”
Holly nodded.
Lacey sank into her chair. “Oh boy. Do the guys know yet?”
“Huh uh.”
“Oh shit.”
Holly laughed again. “Oh c’mon, Lacey. It won’t be that bad.”
“Honey, they’re going to shit a brick and you know it.”
“Laacceeyy. You’re supposed to be happy for me!”
Lacey sighed and got out of her chair. She walked around and threw her arms around Holly and squeezed tight. “You know I’m thrilled for you. I know how much you wanted another baby. But I also worry about you, and you know your men are going to be out of their minds after what you went through with Dillon.”
Holly hung onto her for a long moment. “I know. But they’ll be okay. I know they will. They love children. If I hadn’t had such a difficult time with Dillon, I’m sure they would have wanted a houseful.”
“When are you going to tell them?”
Holly drew away with a grimace. “I don’t know. Soon. I can’t keep a secret to save my life.”
Lacey grinned at her. “There is that. It’s a wonder your kids ever have surprises at Christmas.” She patted her own stomach and gazed thoughtfully at Holly. “Dan and I have decided that this will be our last.”
“Are you sure?”
Lacey’s mouth twisted into a rueful smile. “Oh yeah. I never figured to have one child. Didn’t think I had a maternal bone in my body. Amazing how finding the right man will make you think about home and family in a way you never did before. Funny thing was, Dan didn’t want kids either. Or so he thought.”
“At least you can cook,” Holly grumbled. “Which speaking of, if I don’t get out of here, our food is going to be completely cold by the time we get home, and the menfolk are going to be ticked.”
“Let me know how it goes, okay?”
Holly squeezed Lacey’s hand. “I will. Take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
Holly walked out of the station and got into the truck where Seth and Ethan were grumbling about girl talk. She rolled her eyes as they pulled out of the station. Lord, she loved her guys, but it would sure be nice to have a girl to offset some of the testosterone.
Chapter Two
Dinners around the family table were always fun in the Colter household. The adults took the ends and the middle and the kids got stuck in between to prevent the inevitable supper table wars. Usually started by Dillon.
Holly often looked at the child and wondered if there hadn’t been a mix-up at the hospital. It stood to reason since Dillon was the only child born in a medical facility. He was a ball of fire and frighteningly intelligent for a five-year-old. No matter which Colter brother she looked to, she couldn’t come up with an explanation for Dillon’s personality.
But he was also her lovey child—when he wasn’t threatening to burn down the house—and of all her children he was quickest to want a hug and a snuggle from Mom. Thank God he hadn’t gotten too cool for Mom yet.
Michael idolized his fathers. Not that they all didn’t, but where Seth spent so much of his time trailing after Lacey and absorbing all things police-related, Michael mimicked his fathers in all things. He’d shown a remarkable aptitude for animals early on, and Adam swore that the kid communicated with the horses because they did whatever he wanted them to.
“School starts in a week,” Holly said cheerfully. She turned to Dillon. “Are you excited about starting kindergarten?”
Dillon scowled and shook his head, his mouth full of chicken. He looked a little deranged with his cheeks puffed out and crumbs spilling from his lips. Across the table, Ryan worked at keeping the smile from his face.
“I’m excited!” Michael said, his eyes bright.
“You’ll be a big first grader this year!” Holly exclaimed.
Michael puffed out his chest and looked every bit as arrogant as his fathers.
“What about you, Seth?” Ryan asked. “You ready to tackle the third grade?”
Seth pursed his lips and gave it heavy thought. Finally he nodded, though he didn’t look too keen on the idea. But then he brightened as if something had just occurred to him.
“Can I go to the station to see Lacey after school? I could stay with her until Mama comes to pick me up. I’m old enough to walk this year.”
Holly frowned and glanced at her husbands. Adam smiled indulgently at his oldest son. Ethan also wore a grin, but Ryan, who tended to be the most overprotective of any of them—Holly included—scowled.
“I don’t like the idea of you walking by yourself, even to the police station,” Ryan said.
“But Dad, it’s just two blocks from the school,” Seth protested. “I’m not a baby!”
Holly reached over and pulled him into her side. “But you’re our baby, and we worry.
I
worry. It’s not that you’re a baby, but we can’t control everyone else in the world. What if someone tried to pick you up on your way to Lacey?”
Seth pulled away and gave her a patient look. “I’d knee him in the balls just like Lacey says to do, and then I’d run away.”
Holly’s mouth dropped open about the time Ethan died laughing. Adam tried his best to look stern, but he gave up and dropped his head onto the table. Even Ryan’s mouth twitched.
The battle over whether to burst into laughter or reprimand her son for his language was over in about two seconds. She covered her face with her hands and laughed until tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Good going, moron. You made Mama cry,” Michael huffed.
“Lacey gave you some good advice, son,” Ethan said with a perfectly straight face. “However, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to walk from school to the station yet. I’d prefer you wait on your mom.”
Seth sighed. “Yes, sir.”
Holly squeezed his hand. “We’ll pop in to see her after school sometimes. Promise.”
He smiled and leaned into her, hugging her as he snuggled against her chest. Holly looked over at her two other sons and her chest tightened. Her baby was starting kindergarten. It didn’t seem possible.
Automatically, her hand went to her still-flat abdomen and a thrill worked warm and electric through her veins. It was all she could do not to smile like an idiot at the thought that another child grew there.
She glanced at her husbands, knowing she needed to tell them. Soon. But she worried over their reactions. She wanted them to be as thrilled as she was, and moreover, she didn’t want them to worry themselves sick over the next seven and a half months.
Somehow, she’d ease into the subject. She was way overreacting, and she herself was worrying far too much. She hated the way she always got hypersensitive and emotional when she was pregnant. The guys always teased her and called her a walking, sobbing hormone.
Ryan stood and began clearing the plates while Adam announced it was the boys’ bedtime. Thus began a chorus of moans and groans. Holly kissed her sons goodnight and sent them off with Ethan and Adam to be tucked in. As ornery as the three were and as much as they bickered, they all still shared a room even though the cabin had plenty of rooms to spare. They hadn’t shown any interest in being separated yet, and in fact, over the summer when Adam had suggested they split off into their own rooms, it had caused a storm of tears and immediate protests. The parents shrugged and hadn’t brought it up again.
After helping Ryan clear the table and load the dishwasher, Holly ventured into the living room. Ethan and Adam were still with the boys and probably being sweet-talked into just one more bedtime story. She chuckled at the image because the boys had their dads solidly wrapped around their fingers.
She settled onto the couch and leaned back, closing her eyes. Though she hadn’t been plagued by morning sickness as she had with all her other pregnancies, she was bone tired. It had killed her not to take a nap for the last week, but if she did, the guys would immediately think she was sick or something terrible was wrong.
Firm, loving hands grasped her shoulders and began massaging. She sighed in bliss and then tilted her head up and opened her eyes to see Ryan standing behind the couch. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“You look tired.”
She smiled. “I am. No excuse, really. Slept in this morning while y’all took the boys out. Lazy day, but it was nice.”
He walked around the couch and sat down then held out his arms to her. She curled into his chest and stretched out her feet, sighing in contentment.
A few moments later, Adam and Ethan came into the living room and Holly looked up. “Boys get to bed okay?”
Ethan lifted her legs and slid underneath, propping her feet on his lap. “They’re all tucked in tight. Dillon was already asleep by the time the second story was read.”
Adam slouched into an armchair across from the couch and put up his feet on the ottoman. “I must be getting old because I swear they run circles around me these days.”
Holly smiled. As much as she loved her children and loved the hectic days of boys running in every direction, she always looked forward to the evenings when she and her husbands relaxed in the living room and talked and enjoyed one another’s company.
It was the best part of the day, a time to simply love and be loved and reflect on the joys of the last eight years together.
Sleeping arrangements had been one of the sacrifices they’d made early on in the children’s lives. Each of the men still maintained his own bedroom, and they’d put the children in the larger bedroom at the end of the hall that used to serve as the master.
Adam, Ethan and Ryan took turns taking “kid watch” by sleeping alone in case one of them awoke in the night. Often the remaining two would sleep with Holly, but not always. The men cherished alone time with Holly, and it was something she herself valued. Time to reconnect with them individually. No matter how it was done, they all managed to make her feel loved beyond measure, and what more could she ask for?
“What are you thinking about, baby?” Adam asked.
She gazed at him with all the love in her heart and smiled. “You. Us. All of us.”
Ethan’s hand stroked up and down her leg, stopping to squeeze affectionately. “We still make you happy?”
“Oh yes,” she breathed. “I feel so lucky. My life feels so perfect.”