Unbuttoning the Bachelor Doc, page 11
“We still have an hour and a half till we get home. Go take a nap in one of the bunks. Maybe if we all get lucky, Marjorie will find something else to concentrate all her attention on.”
“I hope so too,” she said as she headed to the back of the bus to one of the curtained bunks, “just as long as it isn’t us.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
SKY HAD TO drag herself into the office Monday morning. She didn’t know how Mindy did it with the late-night parties and all the traveling. After getting home Sunday afternoon, she’d barely finished the laundry she’d left for the weekend, before she was crawling into bed. She guessed the glamorous life of musicians came with a cost. Just like being a midwife came with her being on call the next twenty-four hours.
“Good morning,” she called to the receptionist, stopping to see if there were any messages from any of her patients.
“Good morning. I see you had a good weekend,” Leo said, handing her a couple notes. “Lori said for me to have you call her as soon as you came in.”
Lori had been on for the weekend midwifery coverage at the hospital and would want to give a report on any of Sky’s patients she had seen. “I’ll give her a call. Anything else I need to know?”
“Nope. What about you? Anything you’d like to share?” Leo moved in closer over his desk. “You know I can keep a secret.”
Leo could keep a secret about as well as she could give up chocolate. “Nope. No secrets today.”
Besides, the only secret that anyone at the office would be interested in concerned her and Jared, and that wasn’t anything she planned on sharing with anyone...well, except maybe Lori.
She put her bag away and put on the white lab coat she wore around the office before glancing down at the messages Leo had taken for her. One was the message to call Lori. The other was a message from Jasmine asking her to call.
The call had been left with their answering service before the office had opened, which meant that the girl had been up early, probably getting ready for her classes. Sky put in the call but didn’t get an answer. Jasmine had probably already started her classes for the day and couldn’t answer.
Next she returned Lori’s call. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Where are you?” Lori asked, her words fast and breathless.
“I just got to the office. Why didn’t you call my cell?” Sky asked, taking a seat at her desk. By the sound of Lori’s voice, she knew something was wrong.
“I did call your cell. It goes straight to voicemail.” Now Lori’s words were clipped and sharp. Her best friend wasn’t happy with her.
Sky pulled the phone out of her pocket and realized it was turned off. “Sorry. Just tell me what’s up.”
“Me? Why don’t you tell me what’s up? I wasn’t off in Knoxville partying and I definitely wasn’t making out with Jared.”
Sky’s stomach did a bounce, a twist, and then dove down to her toes as her heart rate did its own dangerous dip. “How do you know about that?”
Sky was sure Jared hadn’t told anyone and she would have sworn no one had been paying attention to them at the party. But unless Lori had developed some new psychic abilities, someone had talked. She held her phone up and waited as it powered up then signaled that she had three missed calls and six text messages, most of them from Lori.
“Because ever since the office found out that Mindy has become one of our patients, the staff has been following the Carters’ reality show on social media. Check your phone. I sent you the picture someone sent me.”
Sky scrolled past a message from Mindy to the first message she had received from Lori this morning. A picture appeared on her screen and she recognized the room. It was the ballroom at the hotel. Trey Carter stood over to the side facing the camera with his arm around Mindy’s waist. In front of him with their backs turned to the camera, some of the band members were playing. Sky could recognize Jenny from this view, but not the other players. But it wasn’t the famous music stars who had been circled in red marker on the picture. From the angle of the camera, you could see two people in the background. It was unmistakably her and Jared tangled together in a kiss. That was what had been circled. That was what most of the staff had seen?
“Can we talk about it later? Maybe lunch?” Sky needed to make a call to Jared to warn him before his father saw the picture. And then she needed to have a talk with a certain receptionist who she was sure had sent the picture out to the staff.
Her phone beeped with a call from Jared. Someone must have already shown him the picture. While normally she’d be able to look at it as a reminder of a magical night she’d always treasure, she knew that this would upset him. He’d kept his life so private until they’d started working for the Carters.
And his father? He’d trusted them to represent the practice.
“I have to take another call. I’ll call you back to get a report on the weekend.”
She clicked over to Jared’s call. “Hey. I’m sorry. I’ll explain to your father that it’s all my fault.”
“Sky, I’m glad I got you. I’m over at the hospital. One of your patients, Khiana Johnson, just came in and it looks like she is having a placental abruption. They’re taking her back to the operating room now, but I thought you might want to come over. I’ve got to go. I need to scrub up now.” He hung up the phone and for a moment she just stared at it before she realized what he had been saying.
Khiana Johnson was a single mom and a nurse who worked at the hospital on the surgical floor. Jared hadn’t said how the baby was doing but if they had been in distress she was sure he wouldn’t have stopped to make a phone call.
The hospital was just across from the office, no more than a five-minute walk. If she hurried she’d be able to slip into the OR by the time the baby was delivered. She pulled off her lab jacket, threw it on the desk and headed for the back door.
Because she was starting her call rotation she was already dressed in scrubs, which meant she didn’t have to change her clothes once she’d made it up to the L & D unit. She covered her shoes and hair, then after washing her hands donned her mask. Opening the door to the OB operating room, she heard the weak cry of a baby. Jared looked over at her as he handed the baby to the nursery nurse waiting with a blanket to receive the little one. The baby looked to be around five pounds, a good weight for being at only thirty-five weeks gestation, but the little boy was pale and cyanotic. Not good.
The anesthesiologist recognized her and offered her his stool beside Khiana, but she shook her head. The young mother appeared to be sleeping after receiving a dose of general anesthesia. She was in good hands. It was the baby that Khiana would want her to watch over.
“How are we doing?” she asked the pediatrician as she watched monitors being applied to the baby.
“Not bad. Usually we see this in preemies. I’m thinking his Dubowitz score will put him around thirty-five weeks gestation so he has that going for him. He’s requiring some oxygen and we’re getting stat labs. Just looking at his color, I suspect he’s going to need a transfusion. Do you know if there was anyone here with his mom? I’ll need to get consent.”
“I don’t. She’s a floor nurse on one of the adult floors. She might have been at work. I’ve met her sister at one of Khiana’s visits though, and I’m sure her number is in our paperwork. I’ll call the office and get the number.” Sky left the room feeling better now that she could at least do something to help Khiana. She wracked her brain for some missed sign that this could happen but there wasn’t anything—Khiana had been in perfect health the last time she’d seen her. They’d both been happy with her weight gain and there had been no concerns for hypertension.
After calling the office, she called Khiana’s sister and found out that she was already on her way to the hospital after receiving a call from Khiana’s nursing manager. As soon as she hung up, her phone chimed with another call and she saw that it was Jasmine.
“Hey, Jasmine, I’m glad you called me back. What’s up?”
“I’m going to tell my parents that I’m giving the baby up for adoption today. I can’t do it, Sky. I want to, for my parents, but every time I think of trying to raise the baby on my own it doesn’t feel right. Maybe there’s something wrong with me.” The girl was becoming upset again, just like she had the day they’d talked at Legacy House.
“Take a deep breath, Jasmine. It’s going to be okay. Jared told me that he could tell your mother cares about you when she came into your visits. You might disagree on what is best for you and the baby, but if you tell them what you’ve told me I’m sure they will support you. Give them a chance to see that you’ve thought this through. In the end, this is your decision, not theirs. Even if they don’t understand it now, I’m sure they will come around. And until then you have a place to stay at Legacy House as long as you need it.”
“Okay,” Jasmine said, her voice calmer now. “Thanks for everything. I talked with your sister. She gave me the name of a local adoption agency where I can meet the people who would want to adopt the baby.”
Sky gave Jasmine some more reassurance and asked her to call back after she talked to her parents. A few minutes later Jared joined her in the physician’s consultation room.
“There wasn’t anything I missed. Her blood pressure has been in the normal range her whole pregnancy. She doesn’t smoke or do drugs. This shouldn’t have happened.” She’d had Leo pull up the vital signs from Khiana’s last three visits and had been reassured that just like she’d remembered, there had been no issues.
“I thought I told you when I called. We know the cause of the abruption. She fell on the floor after someone spilt something and didn’t clean it up. Her manager was livid.”
Sky’s body relaxed and she realized she’d been dreading this from the moment she’d gotten the call. She’d assumed that Jared would think it was something that she had missed. She’d hoped they were past that—working together so closely the last few weeks, he had to see that she took her patients’ care as seriously as every other provider—but clearly she hadn’t quite shaken off the fear that he would always view her, and possibly all midwives, as in some way less qualified, because of the circumstances of his birth mother’s death.
There was nothing she could do to change that. A part of her would have even understood—an error had been made and his life had been changed forever. And still, she was surprised at the depth of her relief at hearing that he hadn’t assumed she’d done something wrong with Khiana’s care. His professional trust meant a lot to her.
“I’m glad you were here to take care of her. I’ll go check on her before I go back to the office.” She looked over to see Jared busy working on his operating report. She hated to interrupt him when he was busy. Waiting to talk to him at the office would probably be the best. Except there was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t mention seeing the picture of them together before she could warn him... This might be the only chance she had.
“So, about this weekend...” Her voice trailed off. Why did this have to feel so awkward? The man had seen her naked. She should be able to talk about this without feeling so self-conscious.
“It’s okay, Sky. It was one night. Like you said, we’re both adults. And now that we’re back to the real world, there’s no reason to let it affect our professional association.”
Professional association? Was he serious in thinking that nothing had changed between them?
“Look, I just need to know if anyone has asked you about the two of us being in Knoxville with Mindy and Trey?”
“Who would know we went to Knoxville? I haven’t even told my father yet,” Jared said, his head still bent over the computer.
“Oh, I’d say most everyone at the office and even some of the nurses here in L & D know we were in Knoxville.” There was no telling how many people had seen the picture posted on the Carters’ Way socials. Fortunately, most would be concentrated on the stars of the show, not two lowly health care workers.
“What are you talking about?” His fingers went still on the computer and he turned in his chair so that he could see her.
“Apparently ever since it was announced that we would be taking care of Mindy during her pregnancy, most of the office has been following the reality show.”
“You said you watched some of the shows. It’s not surprising that some of the staff might be curious about it too. What does that have to do with us?” His shoulders shrugged and he turned back to the computer. “If they posted something about us going with them to Knoxville, it’s not a big deal, though I doubt they said anything about their preterm contractions scare.”
She could only beat around the bush about this for so long. It might have been easier on her if someone else had made a comment about that picture so she didn’t have to be the one with news that she knew he wasn’t going to like. “I don’t think that was mentioned. Well, at least no one said anything about it. It’s one of the pictures they posted of the two of us that’s circulating through the office that has everyone’s attention.”
“Why? Everyone knew we would be working closely with Mindy. My father made it clear that good public relations with their reality show would be necessary. I don’t see why a photo of us would be cause for much interest.”
“Maybe you should see the photo. Then you’ll understand.” She waited for him to stop typing before she handed him her phone, where she’d pulled up the picture Lori had sent her.
He stared at the photo, not saying a word, for several moments before he handed her back the phone and turned once again to the computer without saying a word. For a second she thought about stealing the keyboard from him so he would be forced to talk to her. Then she thought of hitting him over the head with it to see if maybe that would be enough to get a human reaction out of him.
“How can you sit there and ignore this so calmly? If your father doesn’t know about this already, he will soon.”
“My father is not into reality shows, nor is anyone likely to have the nerve to send him the picture.”
“I think we should tell him. I’ll explain that it was all my fault. He knows how spontaneous I get sometimes. It might not be the kind of attention the practice needs, but except for our staff no one is going to recognize us in the background of that picture.” She realized that she wasn’t really worried about what other people’s reaction would be to seeing her and Jared kissing. Why would she be? It wasn’t like it was something she was ashamed of. It was only Jared’s reaction that had worried her.
Everything between them was new and fragile. She’d convinced Jared, and almost herself, that she just wanted to have a casual relationship with him. Nothing serious. Just two adults enjoying a night together.
But after what they’d shared in Knoxville, she didn’t know how that would really be enough for her now. Now she wanted time with Jared to discover if this thing between them was real. Because no matter how much she wanted to deny it, she’d fallen in love with him, something that he most definitely wasn’t ready to hear. Jared was a planner and he always liked to play it safe and keep a low profile. The last thing she needed was for the two of them to come to everyone’s attention, something that would be sure to have Jared running for cover. But it looked like it was too late to stop that now. All she could do was damage control.
“Telling my father isn’t necessary. Like I said, it’s not likely that he’ll hear about this. The best thing we can do is ignore all this and not give them anything else to talk about. In a week everyone will have forgotten all about it,” Jared said, his words calmly destroying all her hopes as he made it plain that was exactly what he planned to do.
So he was just going to ignore what they’d shared? Was it really possible that what had seemed so special to her had only been what she had claimed to want? Just one night for them to enjoy each other? She knew this was all her fault. She’d asked for just that one night without thinking it through. And now that she knew she wanted a chance for more, it was too late.
Without saying another word, she walked out of the room. Maybe he’d only meant they would let everyone think there was nothing going on between them, but she didn’t think that was the case. He’d never felt comfortable getting involved with her. He saw her as someone who liked to rush into things without thinking them through.
And in this case he’d been right. She believed life was too short to measure out all the moves you made in advance. But that wasn’t what this was between the two of them, she was sure of that now, because it had been building for a long time. She just hoped that Jared would see that.
She took her time getting back to the office from the hospital. The walk was mostly sidewalks and parking lots, but the spring air was soft and sweet. Spring had always been her favorite time of year. It held the promise that the cold, dark winter was over and the future held only sunshine and warmth. She used to love helping her grandmother with the planting of their garden. Then there was the waiting for those seeds to grow into the plants they would harvest. But sometimes, a late cold snap would come and freeze all the fragile ones. It always made her feel like everything she had worked for had been for nothing. Why put so much of yourself into something when you weren’t going to get anything back?
That was how she felt about her relationship with Jared now. She’d tried everything to show him who she was, and to get him to let her see who he really was and what they could have together. She’d put herself out there and bared herself to him in a way she’d never done before. And for what?
She opened the back door of the office and glanced down the empty hallway, glad that everyone was busy with their patients. The last thing she wanted right now was to be questioned about her and Jared.
