And Then They Were Four by Elna Holst

Author:Elna Holst [Holst, Elna]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: NineStar Press, LGBTQIA+, FF romance, lesbian romance, pregnancy and childbirth, reunited, second chances, menage, holiday, international romance, seasonal, advent
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2020-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Fourth of Advent

Malmö, Sweden, 24 December 2000

Gunilla Andersson was working Christmas Eve. This year, the very first of a new millennium, it also happened to be the Fourth of Advent, a fact she only remembered because her colleague, Rania, had insisted on lighting the fourth candle of the advent candlestick holder in the break room earlier. Rania, who was Muslim by birth, took a whimsical delight in observing the watered-down, half-secularised traditions of her ‘new country’, as she referred to it with droll sarcasm. The little barb was not lost on Gunilla: twenty-four years ago, she had herself been part of the team that delivered midwife-to-be Rania Usmani into the world, right here at Malmö Allmänna Sjukhus.

As she exited the locker room, Gunilla smiled wistfully. She was getting on in life. One daughter engaged to be married, and the other—the other would have just landed in Reykjavik, after a lightning-speed reconciliation with her ex. It had made Gunilla laugh for a full five minutes when Fiffi and Roz dropped by to tell her; she couldn’t help it—it was just such a trademark Andersson thing to do. Of course, she would help Sofie sublet her flat, and of course, Mia would accuse her of babying her. God, but it made her miss Örjan. Even after all these years.

There had been others, naturally. She had been such a young widow—tragically young, as people were keen on dubbing it. But Gunilla hated calling her life a tragedy. She would always have a hole in her heart the size of Örjan Andersson, but she had lived and she had loved. She had been left with two young children, and that, quite frankly, had been distraction and occupation enough to see her through the worst of it. Her mother’s body had been well and truly exercised. Her lover’s body—some, but not much.

Her fleeting relations with men had never lasted long enough for her to even begin to consider introducing any of them to her daughters. As far as Mia and Fiffi were concerned, their obstetric-nurse single mum lived the life of a nun, wholly dedicated to their upbringing. It wasn’t true; but then again, it wasn’t far off the mark either. Her last fling had been Kjell, and that was already five years ago.

Yes, she certainly was getting on.

“Incoming!” Rania called from the nurses’ station, infectiously chirpy as was her wont. “Gunsan, full-term twins, you up for it?”

“Ugh, you do love to work these tired old bones.” She winked at the younger woman, whose smiling face was elegantly framed by the crisp white hijab that was part of her uniform. Gunilla tugged at her scrub shirt and accepted the chart Rania held out to her. They both knew that any potentially complicated delivery was preferentially given to the senior members of staff.

As she trotted off down the corridor to the appointed room, she eyed the paperwork, her gaze drawn to the patient’s name: Padma Lindgren. Now why did she feel like she had heard that name before?

A keening wail greeted her as she swung open the door.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.