Page 62 of The House on Memory Lane

Wyatt nodded slowly. “And what’s your plan for returning to work after the baby is born?”

She rubbed the spot between her eyebrows that always pinched tight when she thought about this. “I’ll be back to work pretty soon. That’s our life, right? But we’ll balance it as best we can.”

“Ever think about moving back to Canada?”

She took a deep breath. “And where would I find a hospital that wanted to hire a paediatric plastic surgeon?”

His grin returned, bigger than before, and spread his arms out wide. “Maybe right here.”

“And then he said…”

Kyle rolled his eyes as his friend Willem recounted how Kyle’s lecture went to two of their colleagues. The bastard hadn’t even been in his class. “That’s not exactly—”

Willem kept going, and Kyle kicked back, rocking on his chair’s back legs. It was entertaining, anyway.

He often missed out on these extended discussions that spilled into department pub nights, because his first choice would always be to head home to his wife.

But since Laney was gone, Kyle was free to stay and be roasted, apparently. He waved the waitress over and ordered another pitcher of beer.

Not that Laney would ever begrudge him being social.

Not at all.

Kyle’s desire to be at home with her was all on him, and his primitive caveman instincts which had reared up hard since Laney found out she was pregnant.

He grinned to himself.

A baby. Shit, he still couldn’t quite believe it.

“What are you so happy about, man? You said Professor Richards got up and left before you were even done.”

Kyle shrugged. At the end of the day, did it really matter if got reprimanded? “What is he going to do, block me from continuing in the program? I’d grieve that so hard to the Dean.” He blew a raspberry. “Maybe I won’t get a letter of recommendation to do my doctoral program, but I’m taking a year off to raise my kid next year. It doesn’t matter.”

And maybe when he decided to go back to work, he might want to be back in the classroom.

Might.

Ha. More like definitely wanted that.

He needed to have a heart-to-heart with Laney when she got home. Figure out the best option for getting him licensed to teach in Illinois. Right now he was in the States on a student visa, and when that came to an end, he’d be eligible to stay as Laney’s spouse. But getting a regular work visa would be more complicated. And also not what he really needed to be worried about right now, but with the baby on the way, all of his “take charge” instincts were on high-alert.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Speak of the beautiful devil. He pulled it out and angled away from his friends. “Hello, my wife.”

Laney made a happy sighing sound in his ear. “Hello, my husband.”

“You back at your mom’s farm?”

“Yep.” She yawned in his ear. “Ended up spending the entire day in Bluewater Cove and going out with some of the surgeons.”

“That sounds promising. How’d your meeting go? Do you like the resident?”

“Ellie Kim? Yeah, she’s great. I’ll recommend she come to Chicago for a short rotation, see how she fits with the team.”

“That’s awesome.”

“Mmm-hmmm. But it’s not why I called. Oh! Wait, how did your lecture go?”

He’d texted her a non-update update at lunchtime, but he hadn’t wanted to distract her with the fact that he’d been a bit reckless. “Yeah…you know. It went.”

---