Free No Place Like Home (Holiday Classics) by Fern Michaels

they’re acting like snotty little vigilantes. They thumb their noses at you, and you still defend them. I just don’t understand that kind of thinking. You did everything you could. You made sure your mother was taken care of. How can that be wrong? Just because they think like the children they are doesn’t make what you did wrong. You would never forgive yourself if something happened to your mother, and I understand that. Now, what is it you want to do? Whatever it is, I’m behind you a hundred percent. Just know this, darling, you can find out everything you need to know and get the same results on the telephone as you would by traveling six hours.” Alexandra reached across the table to take his hand and squeeze it.
    “I guess I’m overreacting. You’re right about the trip versus the calls.”
    “I know I’m right,” Alexandra purred. “If there’s one thing we should both know for certain, it’s that your mother is safe with your children. I’m just as certain as you are that they won’t let anything happen to her. They’re probably all having the time of their lives while you sit here stewing and fretting over their antics.”
    It all sounded good and plausible, and yet something nagged at him. How easily he could be swayed. He forced a smile he was far from feeling.
    “Now, that’s the Jonathan I know and love,” Alexandra trilled.
     
    It was two o’clock when the Trips returned to the Larkspur Community Hospital. They agreed to take turns staying in the car with Freddie. Hannah took the first shift.
    “You know what I notice about this place?” Sam said.
    “No, what?”
    “The smell. Remember when Ben Foster broke his leg hang gliding, and we visited him almost every day at the hospital?” Sara nodded. “Well, this place doesn’t smell like that. You know, disinfectant, alcohol, brewing coffee, and all those other awful smells. This place smells like…vanilla and oranges. Kind of like Cisco’s kitchen when we were little and she was whipping up all those different-flavored caramels for the holidays.”
    “You’re right, it does. What do you think they’re going to say, Sam?”
    “I don’t know. I wish I did. Do you believe even for one minute that Dad stuck Cisco in that place for all the right reasons?” Sara shook her head. “He’s going to be pissed to the teeth when Cisco doesn’t go back.”
    Sara looked at him sharply. “We have to take her back to Laurel Hills, Sam. Cisco has to stay there till we break for the holidays. It’s just for a few weeks. We also have to think about Freddie. We can’t take her to the sorority house, and you can’t take her to your frat house either. Cisco will die without Freddie, and we all know Freddie has never been separated from her. I don’t see what other choice we have.”
    Sam slumped in the chair he was sitting in. He wished he was a kid again so he could run to his safe haven—the tree house in the old maple. It was where he and his sisters ran to hide and cry when things piled too high on their shoulders. They’d even slept there after their mother died. His eyes started to burn. What was going to happen to all of them? A family was supposed to pull together, not fall apart the way theirs was doing. Cisco was in fragile condition right now, their father was off the deep end with his latest girlfriend and now they had to cope and try to make things right for their family. As the immediate man of the family, he had to soothe his sister’s raw emotions. And his own. The sudden burning in his eyes made him bite down on his lower lip.
    He risked a glance at Sara. Even though she was the oldest and sometimes the bossiest, she was also the most loving and sensitive of the three. He knew she was hurting now. His arm reached out. She squirmed closer. They sat in an uneasy silence as they waited.
    From time to time, Hannah could be seen walking Freddie past the main entrance, Cisco’s scarf tied around her neck.
    At seven minutes