Romancing the Doctor

by Alie Garnett

  Twenty minutes later, he was home and had his boots off and was stripping as he climbed the stairs to their bedroom. By the time he found her sleeping in bed, he was down to his boxers and slid into bed beside her.

  Without waking, she nuzzled closer to him. To his delight, she was naked under the covers. Holden closed his eyes and said a silent prayer of thanks. He loved finding her naked. He loved being around her all the time, but naked and baby-less was going to be great.

  “You’re home early,” her voice was groggy as she burrowed even closer to him.

  “Jake let me go, so I could spend time with my fiancée.” He ran a hand up her body.

  “He’s a nice guy,” she purred, rolling over to face him. Her blue eyes were brighter than normal, sparkling with mischief.

  “How was your day?”

  “I spent time with Tim and slept, so it was pretty easy. Donna was nice enough to take him to her house, so I could get some sleep. Did you stop and get him?” she asked, hands warm and adventurous as they skimmed over his chest.

  “No, I was going to pick him up later.”

  She winked at him. “Good. I need a little time with my captain.”

  “Holden,” he answered automatically.

  “Him, too, but they’re so much alike, I can’t tell them apart sometimes.”

  “You’re wearing my ring.” His finger followed the chain from her neck to her breast.

  “I can’t wear it when I work. I forgot to move it to my finger.” She looked down at it.

  “Did you wear Chase’s ring like that?”

  Chuckling, she said, “No, it never actually fit. I never got around to resizing it, and then he was gone. At that point, I had started med school and couldn’t wear it much anyway.” As she talked, he unclasped the necklace and slid it from her body.

  Slipping the ring off, he put the necklace on the nightstand and slid the ring back onto her finger. “I like it better here, though I like that it’s my ring by your heart as you work now.”

  “I don’t need your ring there, Holden, you’re always there.”

  He looked at her intently and asked, “Are you still thinking about leaving? Do you still think you are a danger to Tim?”

  She thought about it for a moment before answering. “Sometimes the feeling is overwhelming, like I can’t even breathe because that would hurt him. But I can’t leave him again. He’s a part of me now, and nothing I do will ever change that.”

  “You’re ready to stay with us forever?”

  Dylan moved to climb on top of him and straddle his hips. She placed a kiss on Holden’s neck, just below his ear. “If I could have left you, I would have. Believe me, I tried.”

  Holden closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of her on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her even closer so that her chest was pressed against his. “I’m glad you couldn’t do it.”

  “Me too, Captain, me too.”

  Epilogue

  It was always hard the first day after a forty-eight-hour shift. After sleeping most of the day before and barely sleeping the night after, Dylan always found herself waking up late the following morning. Today she was grateful that Holden was home for the day to take over parenting duties.

  Over the last three years, he had never complained about her long hours, probably because she tried to make up for it on her days off. It was those days she cherished most of all. It seemed that even though she was working full-time, she wasn’t missing a lot of her son’s growing up. Even now, she couldn’t see herself going back to regular hours anytime soon.

  Elissa even enjoyed it, and they usually spent a good amount of their off time together, and with Mara when she wasn’t working. The two had turned into Dylan’s best friends and had bonded quickly over their sons. Last summer, when Mara had finally had her baby girl, Elissa had been right there in the delivery room. To the hospital staff’s dismay, Elissa had also been telling everyone how to do their job.

  Dylan quietly walked down the stairs, listening to Holden talk to Tim. The sound of his rich baritone hadn’t stopped making her stomach dip, even after all these years. Some days she still couldn’t believe that he was really hers. They had gotten married within months of their engagement, and this time, both their families had been present and happy for them.

  “Mommy’s up!” Holden said, spying her as she came into the room.

  Tim was sitting in his highchair at the island, his blue pajamas covered in sticky syrup as Holden made more pancakes on the stove. It was the picture of a perfect family, and it was hers. She promised herself that she’d never take that for granted again.

  “Morning, Tim!” She walked by him and kissed his sticky brown curls. At three years old, he looked more like her than his father, but that was something she wouldn’t have known if her mom hadn’t brought over her baby pictures not long after she came back into Dylan’s life.

  Holden, still in black pajama pants and Army T-shirt, grabbed her around the waist and pulled her tight to him. Swooping down, he nuzzled her neck while making loud “dinosaur” noises, making Tim scream with laughter. Their son was into all things dino lately, and they were all over the house. Pulling back slightly, he whispered, “Love you, Dylan.”

  She snaked her arms around his neck and kissed his chin. “Love you too, Captain.”

  “He’s Holden, Mommy,” Tim corrected her from around a mouthful of pancakes.

  “I stand corrected. Holden, then.” She laughed at her kid; he didn’t miss a thing.

  “Did you sleep well?” Her “captain” didn’t let her go.

  “The usual.” She grabbed a pancake from his stack and took a small bite.

  “Is that good or bad?” He always asked.

  “I couldn’t sleep for a little bit in the middle of the night, but that turned out okay.” She ripped off another piece and offered it to him. Holden’s face lit up with understanding.

  “Just okay?” He pulled her tighter to him, so she could feel that he also remembered how she’d woke him up that night.

  “It was pretty acceptable.” She laughed at his comically pained expression.

  “Unacceptable. We’ll just have to try harder next time.” He nuzzled her neck again.

  “Any harder and it’ll kill me, I am over forty now, you know,” she admitted as his hand went up her shirt and cupped her breast. His groan at finding it bare was worth leaving her bra off this morning, and Dylan smiled to herself.

  A cry from across the room had them both groaning for a different reason. Pulling apart, Holden hurriedly pushed the pan that he was making pancakes in off the burner, the last one was half-raw and half-burned. “I’ll take Tim and clean him up; you feed Tuff.”

  Turning to the playpen that seemed to have become a permanent fixture in the corner of the kitchen, Dylan saw their second son standing up and looking at her over the side. His cries stopped the instant she looked at him. At almost a year old, Tuff was starting to come into his name, one that Holden had insisted on for their second.

  He was the spitting image of his dad and as rough-and-tumble as a Marquez boy got. Though under it all, he was a mama’s boy through and through.

  Picking him up, he held her tight—he always did. Dylan walked with him into the living room and sat in Holden’s old ugly chair. She’d never admit it to him, but she secretly it loved as a comfy feeding spot for her boys. From it, she could look at the drawing Holden had made her so long before.

  They hadn’t really planned on having another baby, but things happened, and it was a more relaxing pregnancy and delivery the second time around.

  When Tuff had drifted off to sleep, but she was still holding him when Holden came into the room, now in jeans and a red T-shirt and carrying a clean and dressed Tim. He saw her looking at the picture.

  “I should really work on keeping the romance alive.” He set the boy on his feet, who made a beeline to the back of the room where his toys were all put away.

  “No need; you have
me.”

  “Said no woman ever,” Holden replied, smiling. He took the baby from her and walked him into the kitchen, back to the playpen.

  Getting up, she followed him and enjoyed the view of his tight, jean-clad ass as he laid their son in the playpen. It never got old. “There’s no place I would rather be then here.”

  “Afghanistan?” he asked, his eyes now on her.

  She still missed the rush of being in a warzone, and probably always would. But her life was so much better now than it ever had been there.

  “Not really anymore. But this place is going to get a little more interesting in a few months.” She strolled up to him.

  His eyebrows raised in question, then he grinned at her. Grabbing her, he lifted her into the air and spun her around. She giggled and wrapped her legs around his waist, planting kisses all over his grin.

  Pulling back, he demanded, “You’re sure?”

  “I work at a hospital, so I think I can get a pregnancy test at any moment. It’s one of the perks, you know.” She ran her fingers through his hair. She absolutely loved touching this man.

  “Are you sure you want another one?”

  “As many as we can have, Captain. We’re pretty good at this parenting thing.”

  “Can I say, ‘I told you so?’” he laughed and squeezed her butt. “I told you s—” He didn’t get to finish teasing her, as Dylan’s lips claimed his, effectively shutting him up. But he was right and had been the entire time—about everything.

  Because of him, her life was perfect, so very perfect. All because he never gave up on her. He romanced his way into her heart, and she had no defense for him. She hadn’t stood a chance, and she couldn’t have been happier about it.

  Thank you so much for reading Romancing the Doctor.

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  About the Author

  Alie Garnett loves a little spice in her books. She lives on a small hobby farm in northern Minnesota with her husband and two kids. When she isn’t writing, she is doing everything that she didn’t ‘get to’ while writing.