by Unknown
"You okay?"
"Yes." I turned in his arms and tentatively stroked his chest.
His chest reverberated under my touch as his hand on my waist tightened. "Will you wait while I go in and fix up the food?"
I gulped and nodded. This had been a terrible first date, but the fact that it was over, and that there probably wouldn’t be a second bothered me more than I wanted to admit. He unwrapped his arms from me, and I staggered at the loss of his comforting embrace. Leaning against my car, I watched his back as he walked into the restaurant.
My phone rang and I answered it, not paying attention to who it was.
"Can you come over? I need to go to the hospital." Orion sounded tense on the other end of the phone, his voice gruff.
"What’s going on?"
"Hannah’s sick. Clo’s at the hospital. I need to go."
My heart dipped. "I’m on my way. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes."
I bit my lip and hung up. Dropping my phone back in my purse, I threw it onto the passenger seat.
"What’s wrong?" Drake asked, behind me.
I turned to see him holding two plastic bags with the food we'd ordered. "Hannah is sick. I need to go look after my nephew, so Orion can go to the hospital and be with Clo."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Take this. At least you’ll have dinner. I’ll head in to the hospital and see how she is."
Our gazes lingered on one another as I took the bag he offered. I couldn't believe I was considering… Sticking my tongue to the roof of my mouth, I blinked."Give me your phone."
"What?" he asked, but handed it over.
My heart thumped as I punched in my number and gave it back to him. "I have to go."
I climbed into my car, and he shut the door before he secured his bag on the bike and grabbed his helmet. Peeling out of the parking lot, I took one long last look at him and lifted my chin. Mellie would never believe I’d taken a chance and given him my phone number.
Chapter Six
Drake
I leaned against the bike for a moment. There was a reason I didn’t date, and it wasn’t because I was shit at it. Although, after tonight that was a statement I felt the need to retract. It had been so long since I’d wanted to get to know a woman the way I wanted to get to know her. Hell, I’d been friends with Hailey for years. We didn’t date so much as fall into a relationship.
I shoved my hand through my hair and pulled on my helmet. No, Hailey and I had been high school sweethearts, a romance of the schoolyard that had gone from necking in my beat up truck to a diamond ring within days of our graduation. There’d been no need for fancy dinners or getting to know each other. We’d known each other forever.
Birdie was something else. I mentally slapped myself in the face as I pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the hospital. Had I really asked her if she was a virgin? Her reaction when I told her I wanted to take advantage of her puzzled me. She’d been hurt. That much was clear. I’d lifted my gaze to the roof as she stormed out the second time and thanked God it was over. She carried her baggage around like a trophy, and I wasn’t the man to carry it for her. I’d only wanted to fuck her, not coddle her.
But then, I’d thumped my hand on the table and followed her out. Her head bent, her chin trembling, she fumbled for her keys. Yeah, I was fucked because that little tremor had me pulling her into my arms.
Going back into the restaurant gave me a moment to wrap my head around this new-found need to comfort her. It had to be the doctor in me. I’d give her the food, get on my bike, and stay the hell out of her way. The girl at the gym was still sending me all the right signals. She’d be the perfect fix to this problem. Back in the car park, she paced the length of her car, and I couldn't help but overhear her conversation. Her pain sucker punched me, and I exhaled as I strode over to her. I was familiar with the look in her eyes; had seen something similar in my own for years. There had been no other option than to come into work and check on her niece myself.
Pulling into the hospital parking lot, I maneuvered the bike into my usual spot. I wasn’t on call, but Hannah was one of mine, so no one would be surprised that I showed up to check on her. I’d put my patients’ lives ahead of my own since I’d become an obstetrician. Leaving the bike, I trotted over to the elevator, bouncing on the balls of my feet as I waited for it to stop. I made a quick detour to the locker room to pick up a coat. The moment I put on the white coat my tattoos disappeared and left me looking respectable. Patients tended to have a hard time reconciling the tattoos with my profession. My gut shifted, not knowing what I would find in the nursery. Birdie hadn’t given me any details as to what was wrong with her niece.
"It better be something simple," I muttered to myself as I pushed open the door to the nursery.
"How are we doing tonight?" I asked Clodagh, who was hovering next to the crib.
"I don’t know." Her eyes were red rimmed and blood shot. Purple beneath her eyes underscored her exhaustion. It was already hard on her, coming in to the hospital multiple times a day. I doubted she was getting much sleep.
Hannah’s arm had been splinted and wrapped in bandages with a drip tube running from it to the IV bag. Pulling her chart, I scanned it. Doctor Cruse was on, and he’d diagnosed a virus. The only thing going against Hannah at this moment was the high chance of infection, although she was on every antibiotic we had. I hung the chart back up. "She’s going to be fine. The virus has to run its course and in the meantime, the antibiotics will make sure she doesn’t contract an infection. In a few days you’ll see you have nothing to worry about."
Turning to Clodagh I asked, "how are you holding up?"
She blinked rapidly as her face slackened, letting the true extent of her exhaustion reveal itself. "I don’t know."
I shoved my hands in my pockets. "I’ll come back to check on Hannah in little while, okay?"
She rested her forehead on the crib and went back to staring at her daughter. "Thanks, Doc."
I let myself out of the nursery to go and give Birdie some news on her niece.
Birdie
Orion was waiting out the front, fiddling with his keys, when I arrived. I grabbed my dinner and strode toward him.
"Seb’s asleep. I don’t know when I’ll be back." He stalked to his car.
"Let me know how she is," I called out after him and went inside. The house was quiet, so I turned on the TV to keep me company and unpacked my dinner. Taking it into the living room, I took a seat and flipped channels. I hoped Hannah would be okay. We’d almost lost Clo when she’d had Seb, and even with Hannah’s arrival, it hadn’t been a smooth ride. My stomach tumbled as I prayed that this wouldn’t be the time we lost someone. Part of me breathed easier knowing Drake had gone to check on her. He’d delivered her and gotten Clo through a pregnancy that could have ended badly.
The way he’d dropped everything to check on her when I told him made me wonder if he was doing it for me. I put on a movie but couldn’t focus. My mind kept wandering back to Drake, to the way it felt when he held me in the parking lot, and the way he stared at me. How he seemed to see inside of me, and as much as it frightened me, it also made me feel safe. I cringed at how bad the date had actually been. He knew how to put me on edge, and I’d let him get to me far too much. So, why did I find myself checking my phone every five minutes?
I told myself I was waiting for Orion to call, and I was, but every time I looked at the screen, it wasn’t his number I was hoping to see.
Some time after midnight I fell asleep. It was still dark when the sound of my phone ringing woke me. I glanced at the time and answered it. "Orion? Is she okay?"
"Yeah." He sounded tired. "Doctor Barclay says she’s picked up an infection, so they’re pumping her full of antibiotics. Clo’s a mess. She’s exhausted, but I’m not going to be able to drag her away."
"It’s okay. I can stay with Seb for as long as you need. I’ll call work and take a couple of days off so I can help out."
"Okay, you go look after your girls." I hung up on him, and wriggled trying to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep, but I was too worried about Hannah.
My phone beeped and I picked it up again. Your niece is going to be okay. A few days on antibiotics and she’ll be fine. Ps, I can’t stop thinking about how terrible our date was.
I sniggered. It really had been, but I wanted to give him something to make him feel better about it. I can’t stop thinking about you.
I stared at my phone, waiting for another text but it didn’t come. Finally, I put it down and rolled to face the back of the couch. So that was it. I probably wouldn’t hear from him again.
I woke up to Seb poking my nose. "Where’s dad?"
"Dad’s at the hospital with your mom and Hannah." Sitting up, I pulled him on to my lap. "Are you hungry?"
"I want a drink." He bounced off my lap and ran to the kitchen, and yawning, I wrapped the blanket around me and followed him.
"How about pancakes, Seb?"
He nodded and jumped up and down as I poured his juice and pulled out eggs, milk, and flour.
He helped measure, and pour, and soon I was pouring batter into a pan, while he sat at the counter playing with his knife and fork. I slid the first one on to his plate and drizzled maple syrup over it before cutting it into pieces. Having wolfed it down, he pushed his plate over, so I could slide on another.
On the second one, he slowed down, and I ate with him, checking my phone between mouthfuls. Why did we always want things when we couldn’t have them? "What do you want to do today?"
Seb looked up at me. "Can we go see Hannah?"
His little face was so solemn. He took his role as big brother so seriously. Ruffling his hair, I couldn’t help see the similarity between him and his father. "Sure, you better go and get dressed."
He jumped down from his stool and went to get ready.
***
I held Seb’s hand as we walked to the nursery. Would Drake be here? Part of me hoped that I would catch a glimpse of the man who had me tied up in knots, but at the same time, I didn’t want to see him. After I admitted he was getting under my skin, he'd left me hanging, and I was sure that meant he didn’t want to see me.
We stopped outside the nursery, and I hoisted Seb up onto my hip, so he could see the babies. Orion glanced up from where he was standing behind Clo and waved to us. Clo held tiny Hannah snuggled against her chest. Her lips were pressed in a thin line, and the skin under her eyes was dark with exhaustion, but she gave a tight smile. I opened the door and took Seb to the sink to wash up before going over to them.
Orion took Seb from me and squeezed my arm. "Thanks, sis."
"How’s she doing?" I gazed at Hannah; her tiny arm splinted and wrapped in gauze had tubes running from it to an IV bag.
"She’s the same. We have to wait for one of the antibiotics to kick in, and then she’ll start getting better."
"And Clo?"
"She’s exhausted."
I nodded. I had no doubt any mother in her position would be. "Take her home, Orion. I’ll stay with Hannah."
"I don’t know if she will, but I’ll ask her. A shower and something to eat might help her feel a bit better, but she’ll be back as soon as she can." He bent down and murmured in her ear, and she glanced up at me, nodding. Orion called a nurse over, and Clo and the woman maneuvered Hannah back into the humidicrib.
Clo hugged me. "Thank you. I’ll be back in an hour."
"Don’t rush. I’m going to sit right here." I took her seat. "Until you come back."
Orion hefted Seb onto one hip and wrapped his arm around Clo, ushering her out of the room and leaving me alone with my niece. I stared at her. I didn’t know how long for. There was something about watching her tiny body as she slept that was truly amazing. Cooing at her, I caressed the side of the crib.
A hand settled on my shoulder, and I jumped. "Couldn’t stay away from me?"
I glanced up at him. He had marks under his eyes to match Clo’s, and I wondered if he’d been at the hospital all night. "I’m here to see my niece."
He ran his knuckles down my arm and took my hand. I didn’t fight him as he pulled me to my feet. Instead, my heart fluttered at the contact. When he hauled me against him, I gasped.
"I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that," he whispered.
His lips grazed my hair as I breathed him in. Maybe I did affect him as he did me. All too quickly, he stepped away from me and turned to the crib. "I thought I should check on my number one girl. How’s she doing?"
"She’s been sleeping."
He studied her chart for a minute and checked everything attached to her. "She’ll be fine in a few days. Have you held her yet?"
I shook my head. "I don’t hold babies."
He chuckled. "You don’t date, you don’t drink, and you don’t hold babies. Why do I feel there’s a story here?"
"There’s not." I gulped. Nobody knew the full story. It was enough that my closest friends knew I’d gotten too drunk to stop the advances of the first boy who’d wanted to sleep with me, or that they knew I hadn’t wanted to. "They’re fragile."
"No they’re not. They’re stronger than you or I."
"I don’t hold babies," I repeated and stepped back, worried he would take it as a challenge and try to make me.
"Okay." He smirked. "Now about that text you sent me."
My hand flew to my chest as my cheeks colored. "You didn’t reply."
"No." He pulled me into him. "I was a little preoccupied. We had several births last night."
"I thought…"
"Oh, darlin’." He lifted my chin with his finger and trapped me in his gaze. "You might not realize it yet, but you are mine."
His words sent a shiver down my spine, and I pulled away. I couldn’t let him think I would fall at his feet. "Are you always so arrogant? Thinking you can have whatever you want?"
"No." He refused to let go of me. "Only when I know it’s the truth."
I thrust an eyebrow up and tugged my arm free of his hold. "The truth is, Doctor, that you will never have me."
I was full of shit. If we kept meeting like this, if he kept talking to me this way, and if he kept gazing at me the way he did, then I was screwed six ways to Sunday, and he would as he said, have me. I paced to the door, my hands clenched at my side, partly because I couldn’t just rush out of there, at least not until Clo came back, and partly to keep me from reaching for him and letting him hold me. "I need to get a coffee. I’ll be back in five minutes. Can you be on rounds or something by then?"
He grimaced. "My shift’s finished. I thought we might get coffee, together."
I stopped. "I don’t understand you at all. One minute you’re a cocky bastard, and the next, you’re asking me out for coffee?"
"Yes. That’s about the gist of it."
I walked back toward him. "Is that… is that what dating is like?"
He took a seat and patted his knee, but I didn’t take up the offer to sit on his lap, although the idea was tempting. A hand through his hair left it delectably disheveled "I don’t know what dating is like. I never—"
"Oh my God." I covered my mouth in mock horror and widened my eyes. "Are you a virgin?"
He cracked up, slapping his knee, and I had to wait for him to get under control before he answered. "No. I just haven’t been interested in anyone enough to date them in a long time. Now come here, woman. I haven’t got all day."
Just this once I would do what he said, because as much as it pained me to admit it, I loved the feeling of being in his arms. The heat of him, the smell, and the vibration of his skin against mine set off some kind of electric spark inside me. He tugged me back against him, wrapped his arms around me, and caressed my ear with his lips. The oddest sensation curled through me and pooled between my legs. I stared at baby Hannah and tried to make sense of why being locked in his arms didn’t feel un
comfortable.
Chapter Seven
Drake
Her breathing slowed and evened out as she fell asleep curled into my chest. I smoothed her hair back from her cheek, and she nestled in closer. Odd, that we had this connection. I didn’t remember the last time I’d actually encouraged a woman to sit on my lap. Shutting my eyes, I concentrated on her subtle movements as her chest rose and fell. I’d only wanted to sleep with her, and now? What the hell had I gotten myself into?
We matched each other breath for breath. It had been such a long night, and I hadn’t planned on being at the hospital still. I hadn’t expected to be there at all. Sleep tugged at the corners of my mind, and something else. Hailey.
Hailey curled up on my lap, almost too big now to wrap my arms around. I’d nestled my chin in her dark hair and breathed her in. Her warmth and the faded smell of chocolate chip cookies mingled to bring me home. She’d baked a lot toward the end.
She’d looked up at me, her brown eyes filled with warmth when I bent my head to capture her mouth with mine. This girl was my life.
I fell. My body jumped and brought me back from the edge of sleep. Only there, in that space between asleep and awake could I see her look at me like that, sense her so vividly, her scent clear and uncorrupted by time.
Her flushed cheeks as I pulled away from the kiss, were replaced by the ashen complexion from the last time I’d held her. Lively warm eyes glassed over as I pumped her chest. The sirens grew louder in the distance. Logic told me I’d lost her. There was no pulse. I put my ear to her chest, felt for her breathing on the back of my hand. Nothing. Everything that mattered to me was gone. I pulled her broken body onto my lap and held her as I sat on the side of the road and waited.
I tightened my arms and willed sleep to pull me from my twilight memories.
Birdie
"Birdie, Birdie." Clo was shaking me.
"Huh?" I opened my eyes.
Clo’s gaze danced over me, and behind me. "Doctor Barclay, care to let go of my sister-in-law?"
Oh. I scrambled out of his arms and stood beside Clo. "We weren’t. He wasn’t…"