Page 31 of Stone Vows

I cock my head to the side. “Then why keep punishing yourself by eating them?”

She shrugs. “Sometimes it just wasn’t worth an argument.”

I nod in understanding. “Parents torture you with slimy sea creatures?”

“Something like that,” she says with a sad smile. “Kyle, I’m kind of tired, would you mind taking me back up to my room?”

“Of course,” I say, gathering up the spoons and cups and tossing them into a nearby trashcan.

She’s silent the entire way back to her room, making me wonder if talking about her parents is a difficult subject. Maybe they’re dead which is one of the reasons she’s alone.

When I get her hooked back up to the fetal monitor, she looks up at the TV and then back at me. “Kyle?” she asks. “Would you watch a baseball game with me tomorrow night? I mean, since you’re required to babysit me and all?”

“I’m not on duty then, so—”

“It’s okay,” she cuts me off, trying her best not to look sad. “Never mind then.”

“Elizabeth, would you shut up for a second,” I say, my lips twitching in amusement. “I was going to say that since I’m not on duty, I can stay for the whole game without being interrupted by pages and scut work.”

“I would never ask you to stay here on your night off,” she says, looking guilty. “You probably work too much as it is.”

“Watching a baseball game with my favorite patient is hardly work, Elizabeth.”

“I thought I was youronlypatient,” she says.

“You are. That makes you my favorite.” I wink at her.

She rolls her eyes just as my pager goes off.

“Get some rest,” I tell her. “I’ll be back to check on you later.”

“Doctor’s orders?” she asks.

“Doctor’s orders,” I say, walking out her door.

As I make my way to the nurses’ station to answer my page, I realize I’m excited about tomorrow night. And for the life of me, I can’t remember anything I’ve looked forward to as much as this.

Chapter Fourteen

I haven’t had time to check on Elizabeth since I did her daily ultrasound this morning. I’ve been slammed with patients because one of the other residents went down with a stomach bug and I had to take over all her cases. But I take a minute to stop by the nurses’ station to look at her chart.

“She’s doing great,” Abby says. “Still some minor bleeding today, but her BP is good and fetal heart tones are normal.”

“Good,” I mumble, perusing the chart. I flip to the back of the file and look at the pictures from her first ultrasound in the ER a few weeks ago. It was an extensive one. One that clearly shows the baby’s gender.

Elizabeth doesn’t know it, but she’s having a girl. I’ve had to catch myself sometimes when referring to the baby, and of course there is that note I wrote on the inner flap of her chart to alert staff that she doesn’t want to be told.

I try to picture her as a mom. My gut tells me she’ll be a good one. She’s calm, collected, and funny. And she loves sports, well baseball anyway. But she never talks about becoming a mother. She’s only ever mentioned the one time that this was unexpected. Maybe it’s because I’m a guy. Perhaps she’ll talk about it more when the girls come to keep her company.

“Someone special finally coming to visit her?” Abby asks, nodding down the corridor.

“What?” I ask, closing the chart and putting it away.

“Elizabeth,” she says. “She’s seemed giddy all afternoon, and she put on makeup and fixed her hair. Figured someone was coming to see her. The baby daddy maybe.”

I look down the hallway, not able to help the smile that overtakes my face. Elizabeth’s room is right at the end of the hall, so I have a clear view into it. I can see her sitting on the bed reading one of the pregnancy books Mallory brought her.

Abby must follow my gaze. “That girl is a strange breed,” she says, narrowing her eyes as she studies Elizabeth. “Every other patient spends hours a day on their phone or laptop. I’m not even sure Elizabethhasa phone. And the girl never complains. Not when I wake her up at six in the morning to take her vitals. Not even when she gets served crappy hospital food.” She laughs. “Oh, Lord, today is meatloaf day—bless her heart if she doesn’t complain aboutthat.”

---