“Thank you, Julia. Not just for finding me, but…for saying what you said. I needed to hear it.” He slid his eyes closed and shook his head. “I’m needy like my sister.”
She patted his hand. “It’s okay. I like reminding you all that you’re important.”
“As long as you remember you are the most important. You’re the glue that holds us all together.”
“Well, I am here to stay.”
“For six months,” he answered as she rose and checked her phone again.
“Nope. For a lifetime. I told Grant while you were in surgery. I’m not leaving. You’re stuck with me.”
He smiled up at her. “Really? So, we don’t have to worry that my dad will screw up?”
“Nope. I’m here to stay.”
Sierra stood in the doorway, her eyes wide. “Seriously, Julia? Did I hear that right? No more trial period?”
Julia shook her head. “No more trial period. I’m here to–”
Her words were cut off as Sierra pummeled her, wrapping her arms around her and squeezing tightly. “This is fantastic news! This is the best day ever!”
Julia slid a lock of Sierra’s hair behind her ear. “I’m glad you think so. I was pretty excited, too.”
“We’re a real family! You’re my forever mom now.” Sierra’s eyes went wide. “You should adopt me. Then you could never get away from me. We’d be forever tied together. You’d always be my mom.”
“Oh, uh–”
“Wait what about me?”
“You can’t be adopted, dummy. You’ve kissed her too many times to qualify. It would be gross.”
“I just want her to tied forever to me, too.”
“Well, yeah, duh. You wanted to marry her. I mean, what are you going to say in your application? Since I couldn’t marry her, I’d like to have her as my mom?”
“We can talk about all of this later. Let’s just work on getting Kyle home. Where is that nurse with those discharge papers? I’m going to go see.” Julia left the two siblings behind arguing about adoption procedures and slipped from the room.
She tugged her phone from her pocket, finding no messages from anyone. With a sigh, she approached the desk and asked about Kyle’s paperwork.
“I’m just printing it now. We’ll have you out of here in the next few minutes.”
She breathed a sigh of relief, happy to escape the hospital that she’d spent far too much time in as both a patient and a concerned family member.
Within the hour, they finally arrived at Harrington House. Julia breathed a sigh of relief as they stepped into the quiet foyer.
“Welcome home, Dr. Carter. We have all missed you.”
Kyle shifted his gaze to Julia. “Did you pay him to say that?”
“I didn’t. I told you that you were important,” she said with a grin. “Now, upstairs where that capable medical professional Sierra arranged can take your blood pressure every twenty minutes.”
Kyle heaved a sigh. “I’m going to pay for all that medical attention I insisted you have, aren’t I?”
“Doubt it,” Sierra said as she followed behind them. “We all know you only did that so you could ogle Julia.”
“I wasn’t ogling her. We’re friends. I was genuinely concerned about her well-being.”
Alicia emerged from her room as they passed, her forehead creasing as she followed behind them.
