Page 25 of Auctioned to Dr. Daddy

“For you? Not a problem.” I shuffle to the elevator panel, bending down. “Go on, you can press it now.”

Tabitha stretches around, using her whole palm to hit the button for the fourth floor. She catches the fifth-floor button too by accident but just smiles wider when two lights burst into being.

The doors slide shut.

“Are you Tabitha?” Demi asks.

Tabitha’s head swivels toward her, eyes wide with surprise at having her name be said by a stranger.

“That’s right. Tabby, this is Demi. She’s your daddy’s new friend,” I answer for her,

Tabitha eeps and burrows her face into the front of my shirt.

Demi laughs. “You’re adorable, Tabby. I used to be the same way with strangers. But don’t worry, we won’t be that way for long. I bet that we’re going to be great friends.”

Tabitha tilts her head to the side, peeking out at Demi with one big blue eye.

Her messy hair hangs in long, straight strands around her, like a curtain. Perfect for hiding when she gets shy. Which is often.

The elevator doors ding. I step out, and after a half beat, Demi comes out with me.

“I’m just taking her to daycare, then I’ll give you a quick tour of Mercy, alright?” I tell her, leading the way down the hall. The pediatric ward has a much brighter color scheme than the rest of the hospital. Instead of large pictures of landscapes on the walls, brightly colored paintings have been hung.

Several of the hallways have stretches of wall where doctors have hung up the artwork of their patients. All of the waiting rooms that we pass by are filled up with toys and have brightly colored geometric pattern carpet down.

The daycare is at the very end of the hallway. Demi reaches around me and swings the door open. I step into a room that’s loud and bustling.

Kay, the woman in charge, catches sight of me and hurries over. “There’s my little Tabby Cat!”

I give Tabitha a kiss on the forehead, and then pass her over to Kay. “You have fun today, sweetie. Daddy will be back after work.”

“Bye,” says Tabitha, butterfly soft. She twists around in Kay’s arms and waves at me. Then, after a moment, she gives a much more hesitant wave to Demi.

Demi beams at her and waves back.

I take a few minutes to discuss hours with Kay, and then we step back into the hallway.

“Sorry,” I say. “Tabby was supposed to be there already, but I’m a bit behind.”

“Same,” says Demi. “And it’s no problem. She’s absolutely adorable.”

I lead the way back through pediatrics, toward the elevator. The cardiac ward is on the seventh floor. “A fan of kids, then?”

“I— I’m not sure,” admits Demi. “I’m a fan of other people’s kids, but I’m not sure how great of a mother I would be. Just because of the hours I work, and then the farm is almost like a second job, and—” She cuts herself off with a laugh. “Rambling, sorry.”

“Hardly,” I tell her, punching the button to summon the elevator a second time. “I think you’d make a great mom. Tabby seemed to like you. She’s shy, the fact that you got a wave—that’s a big deal.”

Personally, I think that her shyness has something to do with her mother and the divorce.

It took a long time for me to come to terms with the fact that just because I wanted to be a father and have a big, loving family, Emma would feel the same. Her desires had to do with nice jewelry and the resorts that came about whenever we traveled for one of my work conferences.

Realizing that is what eventually made me put my foot down and stop letting her come around. Now it’s court-mandated visits, only.

We step into the elevator when the doors slide open. Demi smiles at me, and her eyes are so bright, it’s easy to get lost in them. “I’m glad that I’ve made a good first impression on the both of you, then. That feels like a big deal.”

“It’s a good thing,” I promise her. I could spend hours talking about Tabitha, and just talking to Demi in general, but I force myself to step into work mode as we get out into the cardiac ward.

The head nurse for our unit, Becca Todd, waves me over the moment she sees me. Becca is a broad woman with so many freckles it looks like she’s taken a hit with a paintbrush. They’re almost red, the same bright shade as her hair.

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