Page 280 of Trouble from Abroad
“Thank you.”
“Now, rest. I’ll give you something to help.” Her brows bounce, hopeful, and I shut it down before she gets any ideas. “None of the good drugs, sorry. But enough to relax you. You’ve been through a lot.”
Her expression crumples.
“April?” I call, and my protégé steps forward. “Kate, meet the woman I was to you—the one in charge when I’mnot around. The most brilliant doctor I’ve ever worked with.”
“Dr. April Hadden?” Kate asks before I can finish. April nods, a proud grin slipping at the recognition. “I know your name from all the papers you and Pres publish together. Pleasure to meet you. Wish it were under better circumstances.” She huffs, then winces.
“The pleasure’s all mine. I’ll keep you company this first round,” April says. “Then Dr. Calista Maverick?—”
“My third in command,” I cut in. “Another brilliant doctor I’d trust with my life.” The tough, unshakable Cal sniffles behind me, taking the edge off the moment.
April keeps going, “Dr. Maverick will take over, and the rest of our team will rotate so you’re never alone, but we’ll do everything in our power to let you rest.”
I glance at April and Callie, finger raised in warning. “Any change, any change at all, page me, call me, knock my door down. Understood?”
By the time I finish the paperwork, call her sister, and check on her one last time, it’s past nine. Vitals solid, sleep steady.
I can go home again.
Lily will already be down. Mia, hopefully not.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
preston
The latch giveswith a soft click, and I step into the dark, still smelling faintly of sanitizer and hospital air. I pause and listen for any sign of Lily. Nothing. Good. She must be asleep.
I toe off my shoes and move through the house on quiet feet.
Then I see Mia on the sofa in the living room under my favorite blanket, the Kindle glowing soft across her face, and something in my chest loosens. She looks up, startled for a heartbeat.
“You’re back.” Her smile is pure candor, and it’s impossible not to return.
“I missed you,” I say, bare as a man can get, too tired to waste energy pretending otherwise.
Her gaze darts away, pink spilling over her cheeks. “Please don’t play me, Doctor.”
I catch her chin between my thumb and forefinger and tip it back toward me. “I’d never, Mia. You know me better thanthat.”
It’s easier to see myself when she’s looking at me. Mia is a kind mirror to look at.
She stands all of a sudden. “Oh. You left before we could reveal the big surprise. Lily gave me permission to show it to you once you got home. Come with me.”
She hooks her fingers through mine and holds on tight. I soak it in—how natural it feels, how easily we fit together. And the way she said it. ‘We.’ Not just her. Not just Lily. The two of them together. That ‘we’ doesn’t mean the nanny and my kid. No, for me, that ‘we’ means family. The family I want.
The word slams into me hard, and my chest answers with a pull I can’t ignore, because for a moment, I believe we can be just that: a family.
She leads me upstairs, not toward her room like I expect, but higher, another flight. “Where are you…”
Mia pushes open the door to my bedroom, unveiling the finished space before I can complete the sentence.
“It’s ready, Pres.”
I stop at the threshold, but she doesn’t let me stall, tugging me inside. “Come on.”
I take it all in. Not just the room, but the fact that she started this. She made it real. For me. For Lily. For us. She gave us a fresh start.
