She answered on the first ring.
“Hello, beautiful Dr. Fisher…”
“Hello, Dr. Hiller. Is there something I can do for you?”
“How are you feeling? Are you sore? I can come back in if you need me.” They’d been two cars back from George, Ronnie, and Greer.
It was another miracle they hadn’t been hurt. They’d been there in place to help, instead. Maybe he wouldn’t be sleeping too easily tonight either.
“I’m good. I was far enough back we weren’t involved in the collision. George had slowed down a few seconds in front of us for some reason. Thankfully.”
His brother had slowed down enough that everyone had survived. Guthrie fought the sick feeling in his gut that brought. It made a man think.
No. Life was too short to not go for what he wanted. “I am lying here, in my lonely bed… planning my life.”
“Oh. And that necessitated a call to me at… two a.m.?”
“Of course. I am a planner, Aubrey Fisher, my love. What else would I be doing when I can’t sleep? Today was one hell of a day.”
“And what is it you need from me before you plan your life?”
“A quick answer… how many kids do you think is one too many? Four? Five? Inquiring minds want to know.”
Dr. Guthrie Zavier Hillerhad completely lost it. Aubrey would bet her medical license on that. “Excuse me? Why would my opinion on that be relevant to you at two a.m.?”
She had a feeling she knew…
“There is no other woman on the planet who could more effectively answer that question. You do want children someday, correct?”
She looked at his sister, sitting so close to her. They had put Greer in a room right next to Ronnie’s—and George’s. George technically could have been discharged, but he’d have stayed right where he was, anyway. Now, the system just showed the second bed in the room as unavailable. To give the new family privacy to recover from the trauma of today. The babies were doing well enough that they weren’t being put into ICU—though they were monitoring both babies closely. After the trauma of the accident, they wanted to keep Ronnie’s babies near her.
Greer technically hadn’t needed to stay at all—Aubrey thought Guthrie was being a bit too overly cautious. But she understood—that was his baby sister, after all.
Aubrey and Genny could have gone home—they were just taking turns going back and forth between the two rooms. Greer was sleeping. She didn’t need much, just monitoring. They were mostly watching over Ronnie and the babies, while George got some much-needed rest, too.
Not that Aubrey minded—she held a tiny baby boy in her arms right now. Genny held his twin sister. Ronnie and George slept nearby.
She looked down at Max, as they were going to call him, just like his grandpa. So precious. “Yes, I do. I definitely want children someday.”
She just didn’t know if she ever would make that dream happen. She was thirty now, she still had a while left to have children safely. But finding a man she trusted enough, a man who loved her enough… she just didn’t know.
Taking a chance on forever was absolutely terrifying.
She wanted a man who loved her the way Chad Fields loved Genny. The way Gene Hiller loved Chantal. The way George Hiller loved Ronnie.
She had seen the love in his eyes out there on that highway.
She would never forget it.
Love like that gave a woman real hope.
“So how many? If a man and a woman both have demanding, not strictly nine-to-five jobs. But had an entire army of babysitters seven minutes away who could help?”
“Three. Maybe… four? It would just depend, really.”
And why on earth was she sitting there, his little sister watching, listening to every word?
The man was crazy.