Maya Banks - Colters’ Lady

Over the fireplace was a large portrait of the entire family, and Lily got her first look at the “dads”.

There in the middle of all the men were Callie and her mom. They all looked so happy, and the love reached out and wrapped Lily in its warm embrace.

This was a place that screamed home. Babies and children. Laughter and good times. The knot in Lily’s throat grew until each breath was agony to draw in.

“Callie, you’re home early. Didn’t expect you in until late tonight.”

Lily turned to see who she assumed was one of the dads a few feet away.

“Hey, Dad. I brought Lily home. Was hoping you’d fix us some lunch?” Lily smiled at the wheedling tone in Callie’s voice.

Callie turned to Lily then. “Lily, this is my dad, Ethan. Dad, this is Lily. She’s a friend of…Seth’s.” Ethan walked toward Lily with an outstretched hand. His eyes were warm and welcoming, and he wore a gentle smile.

“Hello, Lily. It’s very nice to meet you.” His gaze dropped down her bound arm, and he frowned.

“Are the other dads around?” Callie asked. “I thought Adam could take a look at her arm. And where is Mom?”

Ethan chuckled. “I’ll be happy to fix you ladies something to eat. Why don’t you get comfortable? I’ll holler at Adam and your mother. They’re out with Ryan. I think they just came back from riding.”

“I’ll help you,” Callie said in a rush. “Lily, you take a seat. I don’t want you overdoing it.” Callie followed her dad into the kitchen, and as soon as they were out of earshot, Ethan gave her an amused look.

“Okay, what’s up? You never offer to help with the cooking. Are you sick?” Callie made a face. “I needed to talk to you and the dads away from Lily. I don’t know what’s been said but I don’t want her to feel awkward. I think my moron brothers are doing enough of that on their own.”

Both looked up when the back door opened and her mom walked in followed by Adam and Ryan.

“Callie!” her mom exclaimed, and before Callie could respond, she was swept into her mother’s arms and squeezed half to death.

“Dang, Mom, you just saw me a few hours ago,” Callie complained.

“But I wasn’t expecting to see you for several more,” Holly said with a smile. “So it’s a nice surprise.”

Adam ruffled Callie’s hair and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “Taking things easy today?”

“Hardly,” Callie muttered. “Look, I need a favor. Can you take a look at a gunshot wound?” Ryan and Adam both scowled, and before they could explode, Callie held her hands up. “Obviously not mine. Lily is here. In the living room. Seth wondered if you’d take a look and rebandage it. Michael patched her up when it happened.”

Ryan’s eyebrow went up. “Michael’s Lily?”

Her dads exchanged looks while her mom glanced around in bewilderment.

“Well, I think she might be more Seth’s,” Callie said carefully. “But they’re in town sorting it all out.”

“Will someone tell me what on earth is going on? Who is Lily?” Holly demanded.

“Take me into the living room,” Adam said. “I’d like to meet her. I’ll take a look at her wound while I’m at it.”

“She’s pretty,” Ethan offered. “And quiet. She seems awfully reserved.”

“I’d like to meet her too,” Ryan said with a frown.

“Only if you promise not to scare her to death,” Callie said.

Ryan’s eyebrows lifted. “What?”

“If you make her run off, Seth is going to kick my ass,” Callie pointed out. “I’d rather keep peace in the family.”

“Will someone tell me what is going on?” Holly all but yelled.

Ryan put his hand on Holly’s shoulder, and she quieted. It always amazed Callie how much could be achieved by a simple touch. She’d love to say that her parents were cheesy and gross, but the fact was, the dads were so in love with her mom that every time Callie watched them together, she was gripped by longing so fierce she ached.

“Michael and Seth have both met a woman—the same woman,” Ryan told his wife. “Lily.” Holly blinked for a moment as she looked between her husbands.

“I think you can add Dillon to that list,” Callie said. “He met her in town awhile ago and there is some freaky chemistry going between them.”

“Well, shit,” Adam breathed out. “This could get complicated.” Ryan shrugged. “Not any more complicated than it was for us in the beginning.”

“You mean…” Holly broke off and ran a hand through her hair.

“Yeah, that’s what we mean,” Ryan replied.

“Oh dear,” Holly said, worry darkening her eyes.

“Ryan said she’s homeless,” Ethan said quietly.

“She’s different,” Callie offered. “I don’t know her story, but there’s something about her.

She’s…sad.”

“Come introduce us,” Holly said, tugging at Callie’s hand. “I want to meet the girl my boys are so interested in.”

Callie thought herding the entire family into the living room would probably make Lily run right out the front door, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now.

“Just be…easy,” she cautioned. “Lily just seems so fragile.”

“Gunshot wound will do that to you,” Adam said dryly.

Callie shot her dad a look and then walked ahead of her parents into the living room. Lily was still sitting on the couch, perched on the edge like she’d flee at any moment. She glanced up when they all entered, and her eyes widened.

“Lily, I want you to meet the rest of the clan,” Callie said in a cheerful tone. “This is my mom, Holly Colter, and these are my other two dads, Adam and Ryan.”

Lily looked cautiously at the people standing next to Callie. Adam and Ryan both stared at her like they were trying to pry every single secret she’d ever held right out of her head. Holly, on the other hand, hurried over and immediately gathered Lily in her arms.

“Oh, you poor thing. Is your arm hurting?” She turned to the others. “Adam, come check her arm, and Ryan, you get her something for pain. She’s trembling.”

“She’s probably terrified of you,” Ryan drawled.

Holly frowned ferociously at him.

“I just took some ibuprofen,” Lily said softly. “Dillon gave me some at the pub.”

“Oh well, good, then. Are you still hurting?”

Holly sat down next to her and gestured for Adam to come over.

“I’m okay. Really. I don’t want to be a bother.”

Holly made a dismissive sound and hovered as Adam sank to one knee in front of Lily.

“What happened?” Adam asked softly.

“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Lily said.

“Looks like Michael patched you up good. Do you mind if I check it out?” Despite how fierce Adam looked, he was careful to treat her gently, almost as if he were afraid of scaring her to death. She relaxed and nodded and watched Ryan out of the corner of her eye.

He also watched her. She could feel the questions being hurled at a dizzying rate. They were curious about her but so far had bitten their tongues.

Adam unwrapped the sling and then the gauze around her arm. The bandage stuck with the dried blood, and he carefully pried it away. She winced when it came free and resisted the urge to rub the ache.

“Sorry,” Adam murmured.

“How does it look?” she asked anxiously. “Michael said if it got infected he’d make me go to the hospital.”

Adam chuckled. “Looks like she shares your view of hospitals, Ryan. And it looks good. A little red around the wound but otherwise it looks really clean. I’ll put some antibiotic ointment on it and bandage you back up.”

Her shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank you. You’re very kind.” Ethan ambled into the living room, hands shoved into his pockets. “Lunch is ready. Hope BLTs are okay.”

“Extra bacon?” Lily asked hopefully. Then she flushed because she sounded ungrateful.

Ethan grinned. “I did happen to make some extra. Won’t be any trouble at all to slap a few more pieces on your sandwich.”

Lily smiled then, and the others watched in fascination as the young woman in front of them transformed from merely pretty to absolutely stunning.

“So, what’s going on with you and Lily?” Dillon asked.

Seth leaned against the counter and eyeballed his younger brother. This was a hell of a note. “Michael will be here any minute now. Let’s just wait on him so there’s no rehash.”

“Tell me about her, then.”

Seth saw the tension in Dillon, how he curled his fingers and flexed them in and out at his sides.

Dillon…Dillon was usually laid back and had a complete I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude about life in general.

Seth had never known him to get his underwear in a knot over a woman.

Until now.

“She’s in trouble,” Seth began.

“What kind of trouble?” Dillon demanded.

“I’m not entirely certain.”

“Someone after her?”

Dillon’s expression had grown stormy, and he looked for the world like he wanted to kick someone’s ass.

“No. I don’t think so, anyway. Hell, I don’t know.”

“What do you know, then?” Dillon asked impatiently.

“I served her in a soup kitchen two days ago. She’s homeless.” Dillon’s scowl grew darker. The muscles in his arms rippled and his jaw tightened. “She’s what?”

“She was living on the streets. I talked her into going home with me. Michael arrived the next morning. I don’t know if he spooked her or what, but she took off. Michael found her in an alleyway, and when he got her back to my house, he discovered she’d been shot during a turf war downtown. We brought her here. It was Michael’s idea. He said everyone was worried about Callie, and well, I wanted Lily somewhere I didn’t have to worry about her running off into the city.” The front door jangled and Michael stepped inside. He looked at his two brothers and his lips twisted as if he knew all too well what had happened. Hell, he’d probably been expecting it.

“I take it he met Lily,” Michael said.

“Yeah, I met her. I want her,” Dillon said bluntly. But then leave it to Dillon to be a caveman when it came to such matters. To him everything was black and white. No in-between. And when he wanted something, he never took no for an answer.

“Yeah, well, there’s a problem with that,” Michael said, surprising Seth.

“She said you both kissed her,” Dillon said casually.

Seth looked sharply at him. “Why were you discussing us kissing her?”

“Because I kissed her too. I think she was warning me off,” he said with a shrug that clearly said it didn’t matter to him whether she was warning him off or not.

“Don’t be an asshole, Dillon,” Michael admonished. “Even you can’t be this dense. Think about it.

All three of us meet her and have this baffling, insane reaction to her?” Dillon gripped the back of his neck and stared Michael down like he was a bug he was about to crush.

“You aren’t convincing me that the three of us are destined to have the same sort of relationship with Lily that our dads have with Mom. That’s crazy.”

Even though Seth found it pretty crazy himself, he felt compelled to speak up. “Why is it so crazy? I mean obviously it’s happened in the past.”

Dillon shook his head. “You’ve lost your fucking mind. Think about what you’re saying. Since when have we ever planned on something like this? I mean yeah, I thought about it like when I was twelve and wondered if we were headed down the same road as the dads, but then I grew up.”

“Look, I didn’t plan on this either,” Michael snarled. “But I’ll be damned if I stand by and allow you or Seth to walk away with Lily. If you want to walk, fine, say the word.”

“Christ,” Seth muttered. “We’re taking a lot for granted here. We’re sitting around deciding Lily’s fate and not one of us has asked her what she wants. We know nothing about her past.”

“I don’t recall the dads asking a lot of dumb, sensitive questions when Mom hit their radar,” Dillon growled.

“Thought you weren’t considering a relationship like they had,” Michael snapped.

“I’m saying their method worked just fine.”

Seth stared hard at Dillon. “Yeah, well, they’re lucky Mom didn’t kick them in the balls. The caveman act might work for you, but it’s not what I’m doing with Lily.”

“You two are actually considering sharing this woman?” Dillon asked incredulously.

Seth’s breath caught. It had been hinted at. He and Michael had danced around the subject, but here it was in black and white.

“Let me ask you this,” Michael said. “If we make her choose. If she even did choose one of us, are the other two ever going to be content to watch their brother have a life with her? This isn’t some passing attraction—at least not for me. What is it going to do to our family for her to be with one of us or none of us? Can either of you really walk away?”