Colters' Woman: Colters’ Legacy, Book 1

by Maya Banks

  She wasn’t even going to ask which one…

  “We’re s’posed to tell you to snuggle us for five minutes and then to come eat,” Michael said as he burrowed further into her side.

  Dillon was usually her most lovey child, but Michael loved his snuggles too. She dreaded the day that he grew out of wanting so much affection from his mother. All her children were demonstrative. It was difficult not to be when they grew up in a house where they were showered with so much affection on all sides.

  She closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth and joy of having her children tucked up so close to her. She was nearly asleep again when Dillon stirred and stuck his head up.

  “Has it been five minutes?” He tugged on her arm. “We should go, Mama. I don’t want you to miss breakfast. They’re making your favorite!”

  “Okay, okay,” she said, laughing as they pulled her out of bed. “Let me get dressed.”

  Michael frowned. “But you’re still wearing the same clothes you had on last night.”

  She glanced down ruefully. “Exactly why I need to change. Why don’t you two go ahead. Give me just a few minutes to get cleaned up and I’ll be out. Promise!”

  They charged out of her bedroom and slammed the door with enough force to jar the entire room. She chuckled and headed for the bathroom.

  After a hurry-up shower and getting into clean clothes, she left her hair wet and went into the kitchen. All three men were behind the counter doing various tasks and indulging the pleas of three boys to “help”.

  When she slid onto one of the stools behind the bar, they all looked up at her. There was a slight hesitation as they gauged her mood and probably thought of what they’d say.

  She wanted to make it easy because this was not something she wanted to divide them. Ever.

  “Good morning,” she said cheerfully. “The boys said you were making my favorite.”

  Adam looked relieved. Ryan put down the glass he’d been pouring milk into and leveled a serious look in her direction.

  “We need to talk,” he said quietly. “About a lot of things. For now I just want to say I love you. After breakfast we’ll have that talk.”

  “What are you talking about?” Seth piped up.

  Ethan smiled and ruffled his hair. “Grown-up stuff.”

  Michael scowled. “We’re grown-ups.”

  “It’s girly talk,” Holly said, knowing that would turn her boys off faster than anything.

  “Eeewwwee,” Dillon exclaimed.

  Seth looked appalled. “Then why are the dads talking about girly stuff?”

  Adam laughed. “Son, in time you’ll understand that every man has to have a girly conversation with his woman whether he wants to or not. His survival depends on his willingness to accept it with good grace.”

  Seth didn’t look convinced, but neither did he want to involve himself in something so gross as girly talk.

  “Don’t worry,” Holly said lightly. “As soon as we eat, you boys can go outside to play while your dads suffer the indignities of girly talk. They’ll need comfort later so you can all fart and belch together and reaffirm that manly bond.”

  The boys giggled and immediately began a series of belches that would peel the paint off the walls.

  Ethan put a plate of French toast in front of Holly along with a bottle of real maple syrup. Not the fake stuff, mind you, but the exquisite goodness imported from Vermont. Ethan ordered it off the internet at least once a month.

  She dug in with delight and prayed her stomach wouldn’t rebel. The boys attacked their plates with gusto and soon the kitchen hummed with the sounds of laughter, teasing and typical morning conversation.

  Halfway through, Dillon and Michael got into a fight over the powdered sugar and the result was a cloud of white powder flying over their heads like a snowstorm.

  Ryan’s head hit the table, and he beat it repeatedly as he groaned. “You two are going to be the death of us all.”

  “We’re sorry, Daddy,” Dillon said solemnly. “We’ll clean it up. Promise.”

  Ryan sighed and stood, collecting his plate. “Come on, you two. First thing you’re going to do is clean yourselves up. Then you can come clean up the table and the floor where you made a mess.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the boys were clean, changed and the remains of their mess were no longer visible. The ran through the dining room hollering for Seth to hurry up just before they charged out of the back door and into the yard.

  Seth pushed away from the table, picked up his plate and then came around to where Holly sat. “Are you finished, Mama? May I take your plate?”

  Oh, she wanted to squeeze him breathless, but she gave him her plate instead and smiled her thanks.

  “That boy is going to have girls clinging to his arms and legs,” she muttered as he walked away.

  “Takes after me,” Ethan boasted.

  Holly burst out laughing and Ethan shot her an offended look.

  As soon as the back door slammed shut, Adam glanced Holly’s way. “Come into the living room with us so we can talk.”

  She nodded and stood. Ryan slipped his hand over her shoulder and pulled her into his embrace. He said nothing, but he slid his hand down her side and then over her belly, splaying his fingers possessively over the area where their child rested.

  He kissed her temple and then nudged her toward the living room.

  As soon as she entered, Ethan arranged several pillows on the couch and guided her to take a seat. Then he propped her feet up. It was all she could do not to laugh, but they were being serious and so would she.

  They all stood in front of her, ill at ease, arms crossed over their chests.

  “Holly, I’m sorry,” Adam said. “I am so goddamn sorry for what I said. There was no excuse for what I accused you of.”

  She licked her lips and looked up at him with all the love in her heart. “I know that, Adam.”

  “Do you? Because baby, I’d do anything in the world not to hurt you and I know I did just that when I said that shit last night.”

  She glanced at the tortured expressions of her other husbands and smiled. “I should have handled it differently. I was a bit—okay a lot—shocked when I found out I was pregnant. And I knew you wouldn’t take it well—any of you. I should have just come right out as soon as I knew so we could deal with it together, but I was being silly and I wanted to ease you into the idea of having another baby. I thought if I brought it up casually to get your reaction then maybe you’d start thinking about it, so when I told you I was pregnant it wouldn’t come as such a shock. I was wrong.”

  Ethan took a step forward and then he knelt in front of her. He took her hands in his and squeezed before bringing one of her hands up to kiss her fingers.

  “No matter what, we didn’t have the right to say—or think—even for a minute that you would go behind our backs and do something on purpose. It was stupid of us, and we’d very much like your forgiveness.”

  “Oh, Ethan,” she whispered. “Of course I forgive you. I love you all so much. I just want…”

  “What do you want?” Ryan asked bluntly.

  She looked up and their gazes connected. “I want you to be as happy about this child as I am.”

  At that, all three men came forward, crowding around her. Adam and Ryan slid onto the couch beside her, and she was embraced in all directions, held, comforted and hugged.

  “I’m so damn happy I could burst,” Ethan admitted. “I walked into the boys’ bedroom last night and watched the four of you sleep. And all I could think was that as perfect as everything is, this is my family surrounding me, it’s only going to get better. Can you imagine how that makes me feel? To know that perfection will only become more…perfect?”

  “I’m scared shitless, baby. I won’t lie, but when I picture you getting big and round with our baby and how beautiful you are when you’re pregnant, and then I imagine you holding another baby to your breast while you nurse…well, I’m with Ethan. I didn’t
think things could get any damn better, but another child. I never dared imagine,” Adam said.

  Ryan pulled her closer to him and squeezed fiercely. “I’m happy. You make me happy.”

  It was all he said, but it was so typically Ryan that her insides went to putty.

  “Promise me you all won’t freak out and hover for the next seven and a half months,” she said.

  Their looks told her she was crazy for even getting such a moronic thought in her head that they wouldn’t. Still, she had to try.

  “I’m going to be fine. Dillon’s delivery was unfortunate. Sometimes those things happen, but there is nothing in my history to suggest that it will happen again. And if it does, we’re better prepared this time. I’ll be okay. I need you to believe that.”

  Adam kissed her long and leisurely. When he pulled away, there was such love in his eyes that tears crowded hers.

  “We have a surprise for you,” he said. “It was something we were going to wait on until the boys were back in school, but we want to show it to you now.”

  She cocked her head and looked at him in puzzlement.

  “You’ll need your boots. It’s a short walk. If you’ll go get them on, I’ll round up the boys and we can be on our way.”

  She looked to Ethan and Ryan, but they just smiled and sealed their lips. She sighed and held her hands up so they could help her from the sofa.

  She loved surprises as much as they loved to give them to her, but she hated the waiting. She hurried after her boots and in just a few moments returned to the living room where the rest of her family waited.

  “Let’s go! Let’s go!” Dillon chanted.

  Ethan herded everyone in the direction of the back door. The late summer sun shone through the trees that would soon turn to gold with fall approaching.

  They took the trail that led down the slope from where their cabin rested. She frowned when she realized they were heading to the one parcel of land the Colters didn’t own.

  It was a beautiful mountain meadow that was firmly ensconced in Colter property. Over the years, the guys had bought up the land immediately surrounding their cabin, but this was the one piece they hadn’t been successful in buying. It was also Holly’s favorite.

  There was such peace to the view. Holly loved to sit above the meadow and look down to where the narrow creek cut through the gently sloping ground.

  The first thing she noticed was that the old barbwire fence was down that divided their property from the meadow. She hated the thing and always worried the boys would hurt themselves on it despite having been told to stay away from the meadow. The no trespassing sign was also gone.

  The men stopped at the property boundary and turned to look at her. Not understanding what they were doing out here, she looked around, expecting something, anything, to pop out and give her a hint.

  “What are we doing here?” she finally asked. “We probably shouldn’t be so close to the property. The owners are pretty grouchy about people going on their land.”

  “Well, that they are,” Ethan said with a smile. “We do take a pretty dim view of trespassers.”

  She cocked her head, sure she hadn’t understood.

  Ryan grinned. “It’s ours. Or yours, actually. We bought it for you.”

  Her mouth fell open. “You mean you convinced them to sell?”

  Adam nodded smugly. “The man who owned it passed away and his wife agreed to sell. Everything was final last week. We got out here to take down the fence and all the signs. It’s officially yours.”

  She couldn’t swallow around the knot in her throat. “It’s beautiful. It’s so gorgeous. And it’s ours.”

  “We can play here now?” Michael demanded.

  She smiled and nodded. She could so easily see the boys running along the creek, riding their horses, wrestling and just being boys. It was the perfect addition to the growing spread the guys managed.

  She leaped into the middle of her husbands and made a grab for them, her hands glancing over hard bodies, arms and chests. They laughed and gathered her as they circled around her and hugged her just as fiercely as she hugged them.

  “It’ll be a great place to take a new baby,” she told them. “So much beauty to share. We can watch the sun set in the evening and grab a few sunrises in the mornings.”

  Seth shot her a very disgruntled look. “Baby? Are you having another baby, Mama?”

  “Baby?” Dillon shouted. “What baby?”

  Ethan squatted down and pulled his boys in. Adam went down on one knee on the other side of them while Ryan held Holly to his side.

  “Your mama is pregnant, and we’re going to have a new member to our family. A little brother or sister in about seven months’ time. What do you think about that?” Ethan asked.

  Michael wrinkled his nose. “Gross. Babies are…gross.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Seth offered sagely. “Just as long as it’s not a girl.”

  Chapter Five

  The boys’ spring break was nearly over, and Adam, Ethan and Ryan had been run ragged keeping the boys entertained and out of Holly’s hair. Not that she minded the boys, but being eight months pregnant and trying to keep pace with three forces of nature had her worn out and her ankles swelling.

  But now the men looked near to exhaustion and so Holly laughingly told them she was taking the boys on a picnic to the meadow so the dads could get a break.

  If she had to guess, they’d be back in bed before she and the boys got five minutes from the house.

  She packed the lunch that Ethan had prepared and listened to the boys’ excited chatter. Seth and Michael both had baseball gloves and a bat and couldn’t wait to practice hitting in the open field. Dillon scowled and told them baseball was for sissies. He tossed a football up and caught it as he watched Holly finish loading the food into the picnic hamper.

  “Okay, guys, you ready to go? Everyone have all the stuff they want to play with?”

  They all nodded and held out their toys.

  “Do you have your book, Mama?” Seth asked.

  She smiled. “Yes, thanks for thinking of me, though.” She’d put Shelly Laurenston’s latest book into her bag and couldn’t wait to dig into it once she had the boys all taken care of.

  After calling to the guys that they were heading out, Holly herded her boys out of the house and down the path toward the meadow. The house probably sighed in relief.

  It was spring, though, and the boys had more than their share of energy after being cooped up for most of the winter. Snow still capped the mountains and the streams were fuller as it began the spring thaw, but there was still a decided bite to the air.

  She pulled her sweater tighter around her and led the way. A half hour later they picked the perfect spot alongside the bubbling creek, and she spread out the blanket. She shooed the boys off to play and stretched out on her side, one hand holding her bulging stomach and the other holding her book.

  She loved the gentle contractions that squeezed her stomach. Preparation for the big day, the doctor had told her. In another week, despite her objections, the entire Colter family was packing up and moving to Denver for the last weeks of her pregnancy.

  It wasn’t her preference, but she wasn’t about to argue. The guys had really been great throughout her pregnancy. Yeah, they’d hovered like anxious mother hens, and they’d waited on her hand and foot, but they’d eased off on the terror that something awful was going to happen as it had with Dillon’s birth.

  She’d enjoy her last few days at home with her boys and then look forward to the time she’d return with another Colter baby.

  Lost in her book, she wasn’t focused on how rhythmic the gentle squeezes were around her abdomen. When the boys came running over, complaining that they were starving, she shifted and leaned up. As she did, wetness poured down her leg, soaking her pants.

  Her eyes widened as she watched the darkening stain grow larger. Oh hell, not again. She closed her eyes and would have sworn a blue streak if i
t weren’t for the fact that three boys stared at her with huge eyes.

  Seth’s birth had been fast. Easy and fast. No painful contractions leading up to the big event. She hadn’t even known she was in labor until it was far too late.

  But then Michael’s? Holy hell but that kid had wanted to make his appearance memorable. She’d been in labor for hours, each contraction like someone was setting fire to her insides. Dillon hadn’t been much better and was only preferable due to the alarming speed in which he was delivered.

  She simply hadn’t imagined that she would progress through another labor with the ease in which she’d delivered Seth. And certainly not an entire month early!

  “Mama, are you okay?” Seth asked anxiously.

  “She peed on herself,” Dillon whispered to Michael.

  Seth rounded ferociously on Dillon. “She did not!”

  Holly held up her hands. “Boys, please. Let’s not argue. I need you to help me up. We have to get back to the house as soon as possible, okay?”

  With their help, she got to her feet but then hunkered over when a stretching, burning sensation assailed her. Oh God, she knew what that was. It was unmistakable, which meant that the baby wasn’t going to wait for her to go anywhere to be born.

  “The radio,” she gritted out as she sank back to the ground. They always carried two-way radios when they left the cabin, something Adam insisted on. “Call your fathers on the radio. Tell them to come quickly.”

  Seth yanked out the radio but didn’t wait around. “I’ll be right back, Mama. I’ll get them.”

  He took off running as fast as his legs would carry him, shouting into the radio the entire way.

  Holly lay back for a moment to gather her breath and her strength. Then she smiled. It looked very much as if she’d get her own way after all. Dillon was the only one of her children to be born off the mountain. Somehow it was fitting that the new baby would be born right here in this meadow.

  “Mama? Are you all right?” Michael asked anxiously.

  She smiled. “Of course, sweetie. I’m going to have a baby. That’s all.”

  Dillon’s eyes bugged out. “Right now?”