Page 20 of Dr. Grump's Surprise Baby

Of course, Jonathan didn’t have that soft-looking blond hair, that long, graceful neck that she seemed to inadvertently show off by tipping her head to one side, that narrow waist offset by curves that made him imagine all kinds of unprofessional things…

Dominic cursed inwardly. He couldnotbe attracted to one of his interns. That was going to pose a huge problem. And yet, every time he looked at her, he half forgot that he was at work at all.

Her body made him breathe faster. Just being in the room with her caused a physiological response, and it didn’t seem to matter that he had gotten her to stop talking. Desire coursed through him. Now that he had admitted that to himself, it seemed to hit him that much more powerfully.

Emily tipped her head to the side and scratched the back of her neck absently, completely unaware of what he was thinking.

Dominic wondered — was it possible she had asked about his personal life because she wanted to know for her own reasons whether or not he was married? Was it possible she was looking at him the same way he was looking at her?

Well, if she was, it would have to be stopped. It wasn’t any more appropriate for an intern to have those feelings for her attending physician than it was for him to have them for her. Maybe it would be better to transfer her to another department…

No, he couldn’t do that. That would be unethical. She hadn’t actually given any indication that she felt anything at all for him.Asking if he had a family was a far cry from being the same thing as hitting on him. If she’d done that, he might be justified in taking action, but he couldn’t punish her for asking questions. And she had chosen to come here to study under him, to be an emergency room doctor. There was no excuse for transferring her to another department just because he was attracted to her. He had to be better than that.

There was still a chance she would wash out at the end of the program — but more and more, he found himself torn by the thought of that. Life would no doubt be easier without Emily Swinton around, questioning his every move, making her own calls when it came to patient care, distracting him with the way she bit her lower lip when she was studying a patient file… God, that wasn’t even fair. How was he supposed to focus with that sort of thing going on?

Yes, life would be easier without her… but he didn’t want to cut her. More and more he found himself facing the fact that she was probably the best intern he had right now. She was unafraid to face new challenges. She jumped into every situation without any hesitation. He would have been genuinely glad to have her on his team if she didn’t keep challenging him at every turn.

“What are you reading?” he asked her.

She looked up. “I thought you didn’t want to talk?”

Yeah, he had thought that too. “I just want to know what it is you’re reading,” he said gruffly. “I want to know if you’re putting your time to good use or not.”

“Remember the guy who came into the ER the other day with stomach pains?”

Dominic nodded. “Turned out to be appendicitis.”

“Right. I’m reviewing his case to see if there’s something that was missed earlier, while he was still at home. Something that could have alerted him to come into the hospital earlier than he did. He put himself at risk by waiting so long.”

“The surgery was successful,” Dominic reminded her. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“It kind of does,” she said. “I mean, I’m glad we were able to help him, of course. But if we can use his case to develop a primer of warning signs, we can publish it, and then people will be aware. They’ll be able to self-monitor their symptoms a little better and get to the hospital more quickly if they’re in trouble.”

“If you do that, what you’re going to end up with is a bunch of hypochondriacs coming in with acid reflux and claiming it’s appendicitis,” Dominic told her.

“Better ten of those than one appendicitis case staying home because they don’t know what’s wrong with them,” she countered.

“You really don’t object to making extra work for yourself, do you?”

“I didn’t get into this field because I didn’t want to work,” Emily said quietly. “If that was the way I felt about it… I mean, there are plenty of careers where it’s fine to slack off and collect a paycheck, right? This isn’t one of them. I know you feel the same way or you wouldn’t be here all day every day the way you are.”

He regarded her for a moment.

“You know,” he said, “there aren’t many people at the hospital who see it that way.”

“Well, I’ve always seen it that way,” she said. “I always will.”

“You’re going to be a good doctor.”

“You think so?”

“You just need to learn how to take direction, and stop doing whatever you think is best all the time,” he said. “You’re an idealist. But you don’t know better than everybody about everything. You need to be willing to learn.”

“I am willing to learn,” she told him. “It’s just that there are some ideas I won’t?—”

She cut herself off. The alert bell had just sounded, indicating that an ambulance was on the way in. Dominic jumped to his feet.

“Come with me,” he told her.

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