Page 19 of Four Love (Ever and Always 2)

“The doctor already warned us before surgery that her visiting hours would be limited during recovery. If we go now, we’ll be home soon enough.” She winked at him as she put on her shoes.

Owen laughed, but she had been serious. Would he want to do something about the desire smoldering between them? Or would he insist on waiting for Trent? She looked to Lorenzo, who frowned, then shrugged.

But she couldn’t worry about it then, because she really needed to see her mom and follow up with the doctors. Sure, she’d called for updates several times over the past twelve hours since she’d returned, but it wasn’t the same as seeing her mother, hugging her, and getting her ass chewed out to make her sure the woman was okay.

“Let’s go.” Owen opened the door, then stepped cautiously outside.

Lucas relaxed his bulldog stance and said, “There’s a taxi waiting at the curb. I’m going to follow you in our van with all our equipment and stay right outside the hospital entrance. Maybe whoever nabbed Holly will be dumb enough to try it again. If they do, don’t worry. We’ve got you.”

He pressed plastic fobs that looked like garage door openers into their hands.

“A panic button?” Holly wished she’d had one of those the other day.

Lucas nodded. “Push it if you suspect anything, however tiny, is off.”

“I will.” There was no way in hell she was getting separated from Owen and Lorenzo again. She wasn’t foolish enough to assume she’d manage to escape twice.

“Go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.” Lucas strode to his van with only the barest of detectable limps and climbed inside as Owen and Lorenzo sandwiched her in the taxi.

On the way, Owen made small talk with the driver while Lorenzo brushed his thumb over her hand. And when they arrived, Owen paid the man, telling him to keep the change.

“That was nice of you,” she said to him when they were heading for the hospital’s revolving door.

“Yeah, well, I know how it is to depend on tips. Some people gotta make up for the rest, you know?”

Holly nodded. Owen wasn’t wealthy like Trent, far from it. She suspected his struggles made hers look tame, and yet he was more generous than people who had a hundred times as much. As if he could read her mind, he reopened his wallet, which he still had in hand.

Focused on seeing her mom and getting an update on her condition, Holly didn’t notice the man curled up on the bench beside the door until Owen stopped short, and she nearly collided with him.

He fished out a few bucks and tucked them into the Styrofoam cup clutched in the sleeping man’s hand. The guy wasn’t awake to ask for money, but Owen gave it to him anyway.

Her heart twitched.

Lorenzo paused, holding the door open, and smiled sadly when he saw what his friend had done. She was going to have to ask what was up with that. Later. After they’d made sure her mom was okay.

Entering the hospital took her breath away, and not because of the astringent odor lingering in the air, stinging her lungs yet somehow failing to make her feel clean. Everything that had happened in the past few weeks felt like a bizarre dream. One she was afraid to wake from, where her mom got the kidney she’d so desperately needed, and Holly had found something equally as valuable in the form of not only one but three life partners.

Things were so different—this future had been inconceivable to her. But now that she had stepped into this world, she would fight to keep from slipping back into her old existence.

They were quiet as they rode the elevator up to the transplant ward. Holly gripped Owen and Lorenzo’s hands tighter as they approached her mother’s room, afraid of what they might find within it. As soon as she poked her head inside, her mother wagged her finger and shrieked, “Holly Hendricks, what the hell did you get yourself into?”

Holly burst out laughing. She rushed to her mom and tried to ignore the tubes and machines so they could hug each other. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I could say the same.” Her mom glowered. “Don’t go scaring me like that ever again.”

“Sorry. Believe me, I didn’t intend to.” Holly wasn’t sure how much her mother had been told, but she didn’t want to worry her with the full story if she didn’t have to.

“I will admit, waking up to find you missing was one way to take my mind off the surgery.” Mom lost a bit of her energy then, so Holly helped her to lie back. “When I’m more with it, you’ll tell me every last detail. I mean it.”

“Yes, Mom.” Holly’s eyes filled with tears. They weren’t entirely out of the woods yet, but this was progress. “You look good. Your color is so much better already.”

“I feel ten years younger.” Her mom smiled and squeezed her hand. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. It’s because of you that I made it this far and that I had this chance at all. You and your boyfriend, of course. I owe you both more than I could ever repay.”

Holly’s weepiness only increased at the mention of him. She sniffled and so did her mom, who didn’t know the half of what he’d done for them yet.

“WhereisTrent?” her mother asked, her eyes narrowing as if she could spy the answers to her question, and those she hadn’t yet probed about, in Holly’s expression.

“The police needed to speak with him.” She sighed.

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