Page 1 of Dr. Baby Daddy

CHAPTER 1

OLIVER

It sounds like a herd of elephants is racing down the street, eager to send me into an early grave due to lack of sleep.

My head has barely hit my pillow when a massive crash follows the herd of elephants.

With a groan, I sit up and run my fingers through my hair. The bright red numbers on the alarm clock beside my bed are mocking me. It’s ten in the morning, and I’ve been home from my shift at the hospital for all of an hour.

Whatever the noise outside is, surely it can wait.

Although, now that I’m upright, there is no getting to sleep right away.

I swing my legs out of bed and stand, heading over to the window. The gray morning greets me as I pull the worn navy-blue curtains to the side, looking down at the sidewalk below.

A moving truck is pulled tight to the curb while people move back and forth with boxes. The men all disappear inside thetruck before reappearing with a piano. I rub my jaw as they carry the piano to my building.

I pity whatever sorry sucker is going to have to live next to that.

The piano disappears inside as I let the curtains fall back into place. Exhaustion consumes me as I wander back to the bed, dropping down onto the mattress.

It takes a few moments of shuffling to find a comfortable position. The on-call mattresses are far comfier than my own, but I don’t need Victor on my case. If he were to find out that I spent another night at the hospital when I should have gone home after my shift, he would have my head.

I grab one of the lumpy pillows, squishing it this way and that until it’s finally a semi-supportive cushion behind my head.

Thirty-three is too old to have a bed that could be found in a frat house.

One of these days, I’m going to have to get a new bed and pillows, but there’s never any time. Between the hours I work in the emergency department and the few hours I get for sleeping and eating, there isn’t time for anything else.

Yet another thing Victor would get on my case about.

These days, I don’t have time to live my life.

The guitars collecting dust in the corner are a reminder of that.

I tuck my feet beneath the thin quilt at the end of the bed, though the warm spring air is enough to keep the room warm.

The second my eyes start to close, my phone rings from where it sits on the wooden nightstand. Exhaling slowly, I roll over andgrab the phone, not bothering to check the name on the screen before I answer.

The only contact calling my number these days is the hospital, and I like it that way.

“Doctor Pine speaking.” I dig the heel of my palm into one eye, trying to push away the exhaustion.

“It’s me.” Victor’s tone is clipped. Machines shriek in the background of the call and someone makes a page over the system. “We have a massive trauma here and there aren’t enough competent residents to deal with it. I swear their medical licenses were written in crayon.”

I grunt and haul myself back out of bed. “I’m sure they’re not that bad.”

Victor snorts. “They’re the worst round of residents I’ve seen since our year. I doubt that any of them are going to make it through residency. One of them nearly got a man killed because they didn’t check his airway.”

I shuffle into the kitchen, craving a cup of coffee. The lights are blinding as I flick them on.

As much as I don’t want to listen to Victor right now, it’s clear that he needs to get some stuff off his chest. If he doesn’t, he might head back into the emergency room and fire everyone.

The noise in the background grows softer. Victor hums to himself for a moment before a door beeps open and clicks shut. “I swear to God, Oliver, there is no way that I’m going to live through another round of first-year residents.”

I rummage through the cupboards, looking for the coffee grounds I just bought. “You know, you could tell management that you no longer want to be one of the teachers.”

“That only works for you because you’re a jerk in the mornings when your shift ends. Speaking of which, shouldn’t you be asleep right now?”

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