Robyn Donald - Finding Her Prince

Annie looked up. The pixie haircut suited her small face. “You know I’m on call this week.”

“Yeah. I just wanted to come back and check up on this little guy.”

She glanced at the gladiator. “I just looked over his latest oxygen saturation levels. The CO 2and PO 2results are all in normal range. He’s doing pretty well for as small as he is.”

“Yeah. I read his chart.”

“Respiratory therapy was just here to check the ventilator. It’s all good, Nathan.”

“I’m worried about a bowel perforation.”

“You’re always concerned about that. I am, too.” She settled her hands on her hips and slanted a puzzled look at him. “But something’s up.”

“What makes you say that?” Was it tattooed on his forehead? One-night stand? Father-to-be?

“This is me,” she said. “Don’t even try to pretend I don’t know you better than you know yourself.”

He was pretty sure she was right about that and felt a little sorry for her. Because she was wasting her time on him. “Nothing’s going on.”

“Oh, please.” She huffed out a breath. “I’ll buy you a cup of coffee and we can talk.”

“Buy?” He stared at her. “Really?”

“Okay. Technically, I’ll pour. Doctor’s dining room. Now.”

Nathan looked at the infant, the tiny chest moving up and down with help from the ventilator. “I don’t know. What if he needs—”

“Don’t go there. The ‘what-ifs’ will make you crazy.”

He shook his head. “Maybe we should—”

“Look, Nathan, we’ll be right downstairs. If anything happens we can be here in a minute or less. On the really bright side—” She smiled tenderly at the baby who couldn’t see her. “This little boy gets two neonatal specialists for the price of one because you’re going schizoid on me. You need to talk. I know that look.”

“Okay.” From knowing her a long time he knew that it was easier to give in than argue and lose.

They headed to the dining room on the first floor of the hospital. It was reserved for the doctor’s use and available twenty-four hours a day. The tables were covered with white cloths and there was always one urn with coffee and another containing water for tea. Sodas were packed in ice beside the table with hot drinks. At specific times the steam table held varieties of warm food, but off hours there were only pastries, muffins and fruit.

Annie went to get two cups of coffee while he filled a small plate with sweets. They sat at a table by the floor to ceiling windows that looked out on Mercy Medical Center Parkway and the spectacular lights of the Las Vegas Strip in the distance.

Nathan bit into a brownie and realized he was starving. Lunch had been hours ago, and after Cindy’s baby bombshell, food had been the last thing on his mind.

He finished the brownie and scarfed down a muffin, then noticed the expectant expression on his friend’s face. “What?”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“First you tell me why you’re so sure something is.”

She tilted her head and gave him an “oh, please” look, then sighed with resignation. “For one thing, you look just like you did when things between you and Felicia were going downhill.”

Ironic. Before the baby, there hadn’t been anything between him and Cindy except lust, but it felt like more than he’d ever had in his marriage. Felicia was a wonderful woman—pretty, funny, sweet and smart. They’d been friends and got along great. With his career on track, he’d figured it was time to get married. There was no lightning strike, but everything had pointed to them being a good match.

Only when it was too late did he realize that the logic was badly flawed and Felicia had left because he didn’t love her. That was the last thing she ever said to him.

“It was a car accident, Nathan.” Sympathy swirled in Annie’s light-blue eyes. “Some idiot had been drinking and was going too fast. He didn’t stop for the red light. That’s why she died. It had nothing to do with the fact that the two of you didn’t work as a couple.”

“I know.”

“That’s not what the look on your face says.” Annie sighed. “But I didn’t bring you here to rehash the past. I want to know why you’re hovering over that baby in the unit.”

“I always hover.”

“Not like this. Usually you’re cool and clinical. That’s not what I just saw.” She must have noticed his protest forming because she held up a hand and said, “Don’t even waste your breath.”

“Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“You didn’t.” She grinned.

He took a deep breath and said, “Cindy Elliott is pregnant with my child.”

“What?” Annie blinked. “Who?”

“She works in housekeeping here at the hospital.”

“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

If just seeing her was all he’d done there wouldn’t be a baby. Seeing her had only made him want her. Wanting her had made him determined to have her. He couldn’t even say he’d been irresponsible. After seeing her earlier, he could say that having her once had definitely not made the wanting disappear. If anything, his hunger for her was stronger.

Nathan took a sip of coffee, then set the cup back on the saucer. “I met her at the hospital fundraiser.”

“But you said she works here.”

“Right.” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t recognize her in a different environment.”

“You mean all dressed up.” Annie’s look oozed pity. “Bet that didn’t go over well.”

“You’d win that bet.” He laughed, remembering their verbal sparring that night and how clueless he’d been. It wouldn’t add anything to this story if he shared that the smell of Cindy’s perfume gave away her identity. “I asked for her phone number, but she refused to give it up.”

“Ah.” Annie held the coffee cup and her eyes sparkled with amusement that escaped him.

“What does that mean?”

“So many things, so little time.” Turning serious, she said, “You obviously got together in spite of not being able to call her.”

“Because I saw her here, there was no need for the number. I asked her out and we went to dinner.”

There was also no need to share that Cindy had agreed to see him in order to get him to back off. Now he knew that was about the jerk who used her. He wondered if having that information would have cooled his jets, then he figured probably not.

“And you’re sure the baby is yours?”

“The condom broke,” he said.

Perplexed, Annie shook her head. “Isn’t it amazing? We can build a space station and put people on it, but no one can manufacture glitch-free birth control.”

“Go figure.” He stared at the crumbs on his plate.

“So that’s the reason you’re hovering.”

He nodded. “I never looked at what we do from the father side of the fence before.”

“I see.”

“That makes one of us. The thing is, I’m a doctor. I know all the things that can happen. I know what can go wrong.” He pointed at her, then himself. “We see babies every day who don’t go full term. The chances of survival go down when they’re born too early—”

“Don’t think that way,” she warned. “There’s no reason to assume a healthy woman in her—”

“Twenties,” he supplied.

“Right.” She nodded. “With good prenatal care a normal pregnancy is the probability.”

That didn’t seem like enough to ensure a healthy child, he thought. “There must be something more I can do.”

“You’re going to hate me for saying this,” she informed him.

“What?” he asked, bracing himself.

“Support Cindy emotionally.”

If he had faith in feelings, Felicia probably would still be alive. Science was what he believed in. He wasn’t aware of any scientific study that proved emotional support would guarantee a full-term, healthy child. “You know better than anyone that I don’t do emotional.”