Page 14 of Broken Boss Daddy

“Mercy Greenside Hospital, how may I help you?”

“Oh, um, hi. I was, uh…” I had to clear the ball of nerves from my throat. “I would like to find out if Dr. Adams is still at the hospital?”

“Are you looking to book an appointment, ma’am?”

I’m looking for something, alright.“Yes, preferably today.”

“Okay. Dr. Adams isn’t taking any more appointments for today, but he will be here for another hour for a walk-in appointment if you’d like.”

That meant that he was still there. I guessed that was a sign within itself. “Great. Thank you.”

After putting the phone down, I took a minute to think through my plan. My breathing picked up, and nerves settled around my limbs. I couldn’t believe that I was actually going to just show up there.

Well, technically he showed up at my place of work first, so really, I was just getting even.

Grabbing the bouquet and deciding my classroom was clean enough for tomorrow, I hurriedly left the school building while phoning my mother. Before I did anything else, I had to make sure she was okay with watching Abby for another little while. My mother would never complain, but I sometimes felt guilty asking more of her than I should.

Of course she said she was fine. My mom said she would pick up Abby from day care and that I should have fun doing whatever I was doing. Honestly, I would’ve also liked to have known what I was doing.

My car had just come into sight when Derek Peterson called out to me. “Hey, Jess. Where are you running off to?”

His dark hair was styled back with copious amounts of gel, and the wide-framed glasses he wore seemed to take over his entire face.

“I’ve got something to do. I’ll see you in the morning,” I said, shoving my things into my car and slamming the door against Derek’s oncoming questions.

I felt bad about doing that, but I knew if I didn’t get myself to Grant right then, I would never have the guts to do it again.

The entire drive was spent with me hyping myself up for the confrontation, and trying not to talk myself out of it. By the time I arrived, my watch told me it was just over half an hour since I’d called the hospital, so hopefully Grant was getting off shift soon.

I couldn’t recall the walk from my car to the sliding doors of the hospital, but my luck had Grant walking through them just as I stopped outside.

Seeing him was like taking a breath of fresh air. Even after what clearly looked like a long workday for him, I couldn’t fathom how he looked so good. It was a struggle to contain the longing sigh that wanted to escape my lips. His whole “disheveled doctor” look was definitely working for him, and for me.

“Jessica,” Grant said, surprised to see me there.

Oh lord, I felt his voice in the very place that has had no attention in years. I was more aware of that than I was before. “Hi.”

We stood in the same spot. “What are you doing here? Is everything fine?” he asked skeptically, checking me over to make sure nothing was wrong with me.

I found that incredibly endearing. However, I couldn’t find the words to say what I came there to say, let alone to let him know I was in one piece. We were stuck in a weird time-lapse moment where the world seemed to pass us by in a blur and not at all.

My doubts threatened to crash down on me, so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind before I lost my nerve all together. “You weren’t the only one to feel it.”

The corner of his lips lifted. He knew exactly what I was talking about. “I wasn’t?”

“No.” I swallowed as he took a step forward. “I felt it, too. It’s just that…”

“What?”

“Grant, you can’t possibly think that we’d run into each other and everything would be like it was that night.”

“I didn’t think it would, but I also didn’t think that you would avoid me like I was the plague.”

“I haven’t been avoiding you.”

“Seriously?” He lifted a brow, a smile on his face.

“Alright. Fine, I have.” There were no two ways around that.

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