Page 50 of Dr. Grump's Surprise Baby

DOMINIC

Work had become tedious. It was something Dominic had never imagined he would think. But every day, it got more and more difficult to drag himself out of bed. Every day he felt acutely aware of who wasn’t here with him.

When Emily had first announced her intention to switch to pediatrics, he had believed she was doing it to spite him. He had told himself she would be back in days, a week at the most, and that when she approached him begging to return to his internship — well, he would allow it, of course. She was the best in the group. But he would hold it over her head a little bit first, make sure she was aware that she couldn’t just walk away and then come back whenever she felt like it. She needed to know that she didn’t merit any special treatment from him.

And then the days had passed, and she hadn’t returned. She hadn’t even come to this department of the hospital. Whole days went by where he didn’t even see her.

Slowly, he had begun to accept the truth — she had meant it. It was real. She wasn’t going to be coming back.

But he wasn’t going to allow himself to feel anything about that. To be honest, it was probably for the best. He should probably be glad she had made that decision. He couldn’t have chosen to remove her from the program — that would have been unethical. This way, she was gone, and he didn’t have to be the one to pull the trigger.

He just wished it hadn’t been so difficult.

He wished he didn’t have to get up every morning and realize all over again that she wasn’t going to be in the hospital when he arrived — or rather, that she would be there, but that they wouldn’t cross paths. He had gotten used to the excitement of knowing that they would eat lunch together every day. He had gotten used to thinking of things he wanted to say to her and anticipating how she would respond. Now that was a thing of the past.

Which didn’t mean he never saw her.

She appeared to have the same work ethic he had gotten used to seeing from her. He didn’t see her every day, but when he did, it was as likely as not to be early in the morning or late at night. It had occurred to him to ask Jonathan whether she had been assigned the unusual hours, but he didn’t want to confess to his friend that he was spending so much time thinking about Emily. Besides, he didn’t really need Jonathan’s confirmation. He knew what the answer would be.

She’s too much like me. I’ve left too much of a mark on her.

He paced back and forth. He was down in the blood lab tonight, trying to expedite some results, hoping that he would get what he was after more quickly if he hung around and badgered the lab techs about it. So far, there had been no movement. Thisplace always felt dead and haunted late at night — unlike the rest of the hospital, there wasn’t any need to keep things fully staffed down here all night long.

So he was startled by the sound of a door opening behind him. He turned toward the noise and his heart sank.

Emily.

“Oh,” she said, looking down at her feet. “Sorry.”

“Sorry for what? You’re allowed to come to the blood lab.” He knew he sounded rude, and he wished he hadn’t said it, but it was too late to take it back.

“Yeah,” she said. “I just need to drop this off.” She was holding a sample in her hand. “Then I’ll be out of your way.”

“You’re not in my way.” The last thing he wanted was to let her know how much her presence affected him — how much it hurt him to see her here. He turned away from her so she wouldn’t see his face.

“Okay,” she said quietly.

He turned back. He couldn’t help it. “You’ve been working all hours,” he said.

“How do you know what hours I’ve been working?” she asked swiftly.

“I see more of what goes on around this hospital than I guess you realize,” he said. “I know when people are working odd hours.”

“I’m not working odd hours. Not for me.”

“Only because you have always worked odd hours,” he told her. “You shouldn’t do that.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Well, you’re not in emergency anymore, so things are different.”

“Yeah,” Emily said. “I’m not in emergency anymore, so I don’t need to listen to you. That’s what’s different. Can I please drop off my blood sample?”

“Nobody’s stopping you.”

He hated that he was acting like this, that things were so contentious between them, and yet he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He watched as she approached the counter and dropped off her sample.

She was just the way he remembered her. Still so beautiful. Even now, looking at her across the hospital floor, all he could think of was the way she’d looked in the bed of his hotel room. The way she had looked up at him with those inviting eyes that had made him want to crawl right into bed.

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