Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
“Your husband didn’t strike me as the romantic type. At least not with anyone but you.”
“He’s full of all sorts of surprises.” She winked at me. “We both are.”
I assumed she was teasing, but there was a thread of seriousness in her tone that made me wonder what kind of surprises she was talking about. But my curiosity was bound to be unsatisfied because I wouldn’t see Cressida and her husband again after today. Or their friend Leyton, which oddly made me sad since I’d never even said a word to the man.
Hours later, when my shift was nearing its end, I popped back into Cressida’s room. Pausing in the doorway, I curved my lips into a smile as I watched Aaron sit next to his wife. Andrew was nestled in his arms, baby and mother both asleep.
I’d helped many women give birth, but I’d never seen a man look at his partner with the level of love and tenderness blatantly visible in Aaron’s eyes as he gazed down at his wife. It was obvious that she—and now their newborn son—were the center of his world.
Oddly, seeing how Aaron was with Cressida made me think about Leyton. His name had been stuck in my head ever since she shared it. I didn’t know what it was about that man, but nobody had ever been able to distract me from my job before. And definitely not while I was in the middle of helping a patient give birth. Let alone to their first baby.
I wasn’t sure what to make of my reaction to him, except that the timing really sucked because I didn’t have any time to explore the attraction. It was just my luck that I’d finally meet—sort of—a man who sparked my interest on the same night that I was headed out of town for good.
Since we left him at the hospital doors when they first arrived, I had only caught glimpses of Leyton in the waiting room and at the window of the nursery. Each time, I still felt the zing of our chemistry from afar. He was dangerous for my ability to concentrate, so I stayed away and forced myself to focus on my job.
But I somehow managed to sense he was near toward the end of my shift, just as Dr. Charron came up and patted me on the back. “Great job today, Evette. If I’d gotten into the room any later, you might’ve been the one delivering a baby instead of me.”
“Aren’t there rules against doctors putting their hands on nurses while they’re working?” Leyton growled, stalking toward the nurses’ station where we were standing.
Dr. Charron lifted his arms, shaking his head. “My intention was not to be inappropriate. I have the utmost respect for Evette as a nurse and a woman. I would never do anything to hurt her.”
“You’d better not,” Leyton grunted.
I glared at the hot guy who was defending me from a doctor who I’d enjoyed working with over the past seven weeks. “Thank you, Dr. Charron. I appreciate your kind words.”
“My pleasure.” He tilted his head in acknowledgment before striding away.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I tapped my foot on the floor while waiting to see what Leyton had to say for himself. He raked his fingers through his hair with a deep sigh. “I might’ve overreacted.”
“Ya think?” I quirked my brow and tilted my head to the side. “If that was supposed to be an apology, it’s seriously lacking. You were missing a few words…like ‘I am sorry.’”
“I’m sorry to have irritated you.” He smirked at me, which I was shocked to discover sent a sensual shiver down my spine instead of irritating me. “Does that count?”
“It’ll have to since I need to get back to work.”
I strode toward the nearby door labeled as Employee Access Only, and he called, “I guess then I’ll see you when you’re done. I’ll practice my apology so it’s better.”
It was too bad that I wouldn’t have the chance to see Leyton’s second attempt at an apology. I had a hunch it would’ve been interesting, to say the least. But I hadn’t left much wiggle room in my travel schedule, so if I wanted to make it to my new post with enough time to get settled in before my first day, I needed to hit the road as soon as I clocked out tonight.
Unfortunately, I was going to be left with a lot of unanswered questions about Leyton. Something that was on my mind as I pulled out of the hospital’s parking lot an hour later. This morning, I’d been so excited to move on to my new assignment. But now, I felt like crying.
It was moments like these when I really wished my parents were still around. When they passed away in a car accident three years ago, I never thought the day would come when I didn’t think about them all the time. But now I went for weeks without picking up the phone to call them before remembering they were gone.