Finding Her Prince

“But you would if you could,” she finished wryly. “It’s easy to promise something when there’s no way you can possibly be held accountable for not following through.”

Again he felt like he was paying the price for another guy’s sin. “I’m not running out on you like the last son of a bitch.”

Her gaze jumped to his as anger and hurt gleamed in her eyes. “So you’ll be around.”

“Yes.”

“I see.” Primly she folded her hands in her lap. “We already established that you can’t take over getting big as a battleship or deal with enough water retention to float it. So what else is there?”

“We’ll work it out as we go along,” he offered.

“Maybe you could finish up my classes and the internship I need for my degree.” She snapped her fingers and shook her head. “Nope. Wrong again. Someone would notice and I’d be out on my backside because of cheating.”

“Look, Cindy—”

“Actually, I can probably finish all of that before the baby is born.” She tapped her lip thoughtfully, but there was panic around the edges. “Then all I have to do is give birth and find a better job because I have to afford good child care along with having an infant who’s depending on me. Piece of cake.”

“The martyr act is admirable, but you didn’t get like this on your own. I’ll help you.”

“So in between saving premature babies you’re going to watch ours so I can finally get my career on track?”

“Like I said, we’ll figure things out.”

“I’ve never experienced a ‘we.’ There’s always just been me. My body, my problem.”

“My baby, too,” he said quietly.

All the fight drained out of her and she leaned back in the club chair. “Just so you know, I know I’m being unreasonable. If it’s all right with you, I think I’ll blame it on pregnancy hormones.”

“That works for me.”

As a corner of her full mouth quirked up, he felt an absurd surge of desire. The subdued lighting here in the bar made a sexy shadow of the small dent in her chin and he desperately wanted to explore it with his tongue. Somehow during that brief, passionate encounter when they’d made a baby, he’d missed out on discovering every single inch of her and wanted another opportunity. Not likely now. A good thing because it wasn’t rational. And definitely not smart.

He excelled at rational and smart, but somehow Cindy changed the rules on him. She was pregnant with his child and this was uncharted territory. It was also a medical condition and that was someplace to start.

He took a sip of his club soda. “Other than hormones, how are you feeling?”

“A little queasy,” she admitted.

He wanted to say something clinically clever, tell her how to fix it, but this wasn’t his specialty. “Have you seen an obstetrician?”

Her expression turned wry. “I just barely peed on the stick.”

“So that would be a no,” he concluded.

“No,” she agreed.

“Okay.” He nodded thoughtfully. “I can give you a couple of names. But Rebecca Hamilton is at the top of the list. She’s very good and I think you’d be comfortable with her.”

“I’ll see if she’s a tier-one doctor on the Mercy Medical insurance plan.”

“I’m sure she is because she has medical privileges there. If not, I’ll take care of it.”

“It? What does that mean?” Tension made her straighten in the club chair.

“I’ll take care of the expenses.”

“Because?”

“It’s my responsibility.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Wow, that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.”

“Is that the hormones talking again?”

“Yeah. Me, my hormones and I.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. When she met his gaze again, the hurt was back. “I’m not your responsibility, Nathan. I can take care of myself and this baby.”

Apparently, responsibility was one of those words that triggered a hormonal response. He tucked the information away and searched for something to say that wouldn’t tap into that well of defensiveness she had going on. He was attempting to say and do the right thing without research and training to fall back on. It was like trying to move a canoe with one paddle.

He blew out a long breath. “Look, Cindy, I want you to have the best prenatal care.”

“Why?”

The word responsibility came to mind yet again but it hadn’t gone over well either time. There was no reason to believe that had changed. So he rephrased. “Just so we’re clear, I am going to be involved. Because this is my child, too.”

She stared at him a long time before saying, “I guess this is a bad time to realize the flaw of sleeping with you to get you out of my life.”

And then she really did leave. He sat there for a few minutes as the situation sank in. A baby. It hit him like a meteor dropping out of the sky.

His baby.

Right now his child was growing inside her.

Holy crap.

An hour ago Nathan had been talking to Cindy and now he stood in the NICU at Mercy Medical Center, staring at a baby small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

An infinitesimal embryo formed from his DNA and Cindy’s was actually growing into a baby. He just couldn’t wrap his head around the concept and make it real. Especially with the beeps, whooshes and noises of the hightech sensitive equipment filling the room. This was where babies ended up when there was a problem pregnancy.

“Why are you still here?”

Nathan turned at the sound of the familiar female voice. “Hi, Annie.”

The petite, blue-eyed brunette was his medical partner in the neonatology practice. They’d met in school and become friends. She’d introduced him to his late wife and was one of the select few who didn’t blame him when the relationship unraveled just before Felicia died. He knew the failures were all his and would carry the burden of that for as long as he lived. This woman’s friendship meant a lot to him, especially because he didn’t deserve it.

Annie looked up. The pixie haircut suited her small face. “You know I’m on call this week.”

“Yeah. I just wanted to come back and check up on this little guy.”

She glanced at the gladiator. “I just looked over his latest oxygen saturation levels. The CO2 and PO2 results are all in normal range. He’s doing pretty well for as small as he is.”

“Yeah. I read his chart.”

“Respiratory therapy was just here to check the ventilator. It’s all good, Nathan.”

“I’m worried about a bowel perforation.”

“You’re always concerned about that. I am, too.” She settled her hands on her hips and slanted a puzzled look at him. “But something’s up.”

“What makes you say that?” Was it tattooed on his forehead? One-night stand? Father-to-be?

“This is me,” she said. “Don’t even try to pretend I don’t know you better than you know yourself.”

He was pretty sure she was right about that and felt a little sorry for her. Because she was wasting her time on him. “Nothing’s going on.”

“Oh, please.” She huffed out a breath. “I’ll buy you a cup of coffee and we can talk.”

“Buy?” He stared at her. “Really?”

“Okay. Technically, I’ll pour. Doctor’s dining room. Now.”

Nathan looked at the infant, the tiny chest moving up and down with help from the ventilator. “I don’t know. What if he needs—”

“Don’t go there. The ‘what-ifs’ will make you crazy.”

He shook his head. “Maybe we should—”

“Look, Nathan, we’ll be right downstairs. If anything happens we can be here in a minute or less. On the really bright side—” She smiled tenderly at the baby who couldn’t see her. “This little boy gets two neonatal specialists for the price of one because you’re going schizoid on me. You need to talk. I know that look.”

“Okay.” From knowing her a long time he knew that it was easier to give in than argue and lose.

They headed to the dining room on the first floor of the hospital. It was reserved for the doctor’s use and available twenty-four hours a day. The tables were covered with white cloths and there was always one urn with coffee and another containing water for tea. Sodas were packed in ice beside the table with hot drinks. At specific times the steam table held varieties of warm food, but off hours there were only pastries, muffins and fruit.

Annie went to get two cups of coffee while he filled a small plate with sweets. They sat at a table by the floor to ceiling windows that looked out on Mercy Medical Center Parkway and the spectacular lights of the Las Vegas Strip in the distance.

Nathan bit into a brownie and realized he was starving. Lunch had been hours ago, and after Cindy’s baby bombshell, food had been the last thing on his mind.

He finished the brownie and scarfed down a muffin, then noticed the expectant expression on his friend’s face. “What?”

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“First you tell me why you’re so sure something is.”

She tilted her head and gave him an “oh, please” look, then sighed with resignation. “For one thing, you look just like you did when things between you and Felicia were going downhill.”

Ironic. Before the baby, there hadn’t been anything between him and Cindy except lust, but it felt like more than he’d ever had in his marriage. Felicia was a wonderful woman—pretty, funny, sweet and smart. They’d been friends and got along great. With his career on track, he’d figured it was time to get married. There was no lightning strike, but everything had pointed to them being a good match.

Only when it was too late did he realize that the logic was badly flawed and Felicia had left because he didn’t love her. That was the last thing she ever said to him.

“It was a car accident, Nathan.” Sympathy swirled in Annie’s light-blue eyes. “Some idiot had been drinking and was going too fast. He didn’t stop for the red light. That’s why she died. It had nothing to do with the fact that the two of you didn’t work as a couple.”

“I know.”

“That’s not what the look on your face says.” Annie sighed. “But I didn’t bring you here to rehash the past. I want to know why you’re hovering over that baby in the unit.”

“I always hover.”

“Not like this. Usually you’re cool and clinical. That’s not what I just saw.” She must have noticed his protest forming because she held up a hand and said, “Don’t even waste your breath.”

“Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“You didn’t.” She grinned.

He took a deep breath and said, “Cindy Elliott is pregnant with my child.”

“What?” Annie blinked. “Who?”

“She works in housekeeping here at the hospital.”

“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

If just seeing her was all he’d done there wouldn’t be a baby. Seeing her had only made him want her. Wanting her had made him determined to have her. He couldn’t even say he’d been irresponsible. After seeing her earlier, he could say that having her once had definitely not made the wanting disappear. If anything, his hunger for her was stronger.

Nathan took a sip of coffee, then set the cup back on the saucer. “I met her at the hospital fundraiser.”

“But you said she works here.”

“Right.” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t recognize her in a different environment.”

“You mean all dressed up.” Annie’s look oozed pity. “Bet that didn’t go over well.”

“You’d win that bet.” He laughed, remembering their verbal sparring that night and how clueless he’d been. It wouldn’t add anything to this story if he shared that the smell of Cindy’s perfume gave away her identity. “I asked for her phone number, but she refused to give it up.”

“Ah.” Annie held the coffee cup and her eyes sparkled with amusement that escaped him.

“What does that mean?”

“So many things, so little time.” Turning serious, she said, “You obviously got together in spite of not being able to call her.”

“Because I saw her here, there was no need for the number. I asked her out and we went to dinner.”

There was also no need to share that Cindy had agreed to see him in order to get him to back off. Now he knew that was about the jerk who used her. He wondered if having that information would have cooled his jets, then he figured probably not.

“And you’re sure the baby is yours?”

“The condom broke,” he said.

Perplexed, Annie shook her head. “Isn’t it amazing? We can build a space station and put people on it, but no one can manufacture glitch-free birth control.”

“Go figure.” He stared at the crumbs on his plate.

“So that’s the reason you’re hovering.”

He nodded. “I never looked at what we do from the father side of the fence before.”

“I see.”

“That makes one of us. The thing is, I’m a doctor. I know all the things that can happen. I know what can go wrong.” He pointed at her, then himself. “We see babies every day who don’t go full term. The chances of survival go down when they’re born too early—”

“Don’t think that way,” she warned. “There’s no reason to assume a healthy woman in her—”

“Twenties,” he supplied.

“Right.” She nodded. “With good prenatal care a normal pregnancy is the probability.”

That didn’t seem like enough to ensure a healthy child, he thought. “There must be something more I can do.”

“You’re going to hate me for saying this,” she informed him.

“What?” he asked, bracing himself.

“Support Cindy emotionally.”

If he had faith in feelings, Felicia probably would still be alive. Science was what he believed in. He wasn’t aware of any scientific study that proved emotional support would guarantee a full-term, healthy child. “You know better than anyone that I don’t do emotional.”

“Right. If you can’t see or touch something, it doesn’t exist.”

They’d argued this point for hours in medical school and finally agreed to disagree. “There must be something else I can do.”

“Other than finding her the best obstetrician in the valley there’s only one other thing I can think of.”

He waited, but she didn’t say more. “Are you going to share?”

“Make sure she has what she needs to minimize her anxiety,” Annie suggested. “Don’t let her exert herself. The rest of it will just fall into place if you’re supportive of her.”

He wasn’t so sure. Cindy had been pretty concerned about work, school and the expenses involved in caring for a newborn. “Are you sure that’s enough?”

“Positive. Just physically be there.”

Okay. He could do that. He was a doctor, after all. Physical was what he did. So, it was settled. While Cindy was pregnant with his child, he would be her shadow.

Chapter Six

Peanut butter and jelly had never tasted this good when she was a kid. Now she was going to have one of her own and Cindy figured that was the reason.

She took the last bite of the sandwich she’d brought to work, savoring the sweet grape jelly mixing with the crunchy, salty softness of the peanut butter. She was sitting in the hospital’s serenity garden and savored that, too. It was peaceful, and she could use more peace in her life. Ever since she’d won that pesky raffle ticket, peace had been hard to come by.

She pressed the palm of her hand against her still-flat stomach and tried to really grasp the fact that a baby was in there. A baby fathered by Nathan Steele. Life as she’d known it would never be the same.

She was going to be a mom.

Part of her was starting to get excited at the prospect. The other part wondered how in the world she was going to do this on her own. Because, despite what Nathan had said to her about helping, she didn’t really believe he’d stick around.

And she was pretty sure she didn’t want him to.

At least he was honest, not trying to hide the fact that his birth control had failed. He’d only made a small blip on the blame-game meter when he’d hinted that she should be on the pill.

If only …

Because she’d sworn never to be stupid about a man again, alternative precautions and the resulting bloat and water retention had seemed unnecessary. Now she was looking at about eight months of both. Not to mention figuring out how to do it all and pay the bills.

“Hi, there.”

The voice came from behind her. It was deep and familiar and sucked the serenity right out of the garden.

Cindy half-turned just for visual confirmation that thoughts of him just moments ago hadn’t conjured him up. The blue scrubs, thick dark hair and serious expression equaled Nathan Steele.

“Hi.” She wadded up the plastic sandwich wrap and squeezed it into her palm.

He sat on the wooden bench beside her and glanced around at the shallow pond with the bridge curving over it. Several benches and chairs were scattered around the area. Three sides of the hospital threw the bushes, flowers and grass into shade.

“What are you doing here?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been here before.” His response didn’t actually answer the question.

“So your showing up while I’m having lunch is purely coincidence?” If so, she was going to have to burn a candle or something to reverse her continuing bad karma.

“Harlow told me this is where I might find you.”

Had he been looking for her? She didn’t like the stagger of her heart when she made that wild leap. She couldn’t go soft now. It was bad enough that through a horrible twist of fate this man had fathered her baby. One day he’d unjustly yelled at her and the next thing she knew she was pregnant. In between he’d refused to take a negative response regarding her phone number and she hadn’t stopped him when he’d kissed her. But kissing him had felt too good and now there were consequences.

Again, it was probably better to confirm. “Why did Harlow tell you where I was?”

“Because I asked,” he said simply.

Damn, there was that little heart skip again. She’d like to blame it on the changes of her body from the pregnancy, but that was probably not the case. How could this happen when she wasn’t even sure she liked him?

That thought didn’t even come close to stopping the pulse in her neck from throbbing, and her voice was just a little breathless. Darn him anyway. “Why did you ask?”

“How are you feeling?” Again he gave her a non-answer.

“Tired,” she admitted.

“Still nauseous?”

“A little.”

He glanced at the brown bag on the bench between them. “Lunch?”

“Peanut butter and jelly.”

He frowned. “Technically you’re not really eating for two, but the embryo will take what it needs from you. Nutrition is really important to its development.”

How clinical of him. A change from the flash of feeling displayed when he’d said this was his baby, too. That had melted her heart a little. Her bad.

“I did some research online. I know that eating right is the best thing for the baby.” She met his gaze. “Protein is important and peanut butter has lots of it.”

“Along with fat,” he pointed out.

“It’s a good fat. Better yet, it doesn’t make me want to throw up. And it’s not expensive.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t a soup and crackers week.”

“You mean just before payday.” She refused to be ashamed of her strict budget. It was digging her out of a deep hole. “As it happens, this is the lean week.”

“Right.” He met her gaze. “If you run short, I can help you out. Healthy food is usually more expensive, but right now it isn’t an area of your budget that you should be downsizing.”

“You’re right.” She said that because he was right, but it didn’t constitute agreement to take anything from him.

“Have you made an appointment yet with an obstetrician?”

“Not just an appointment. I’ve actually seen the doctor, even though it still feels surreal to me,” she said. She’d called the day after telling him, and Dr. Hamilton’s staff managed to fit her in right away.

“Good. Prenatal care is the first line of defense to prevent premature birth,” he calmly pointed out.

“I’m on it,” she promised.

“Glad to hear that.” He looked around the garden again. “It’s nice out here.”

“Yeah. Quiet. This is a nice break from work. I’ve been really busy today.”

He frowned. “You have to be careful. Don’t overdo. Take it easy.”

“I’m pregnant, not an invalid.”

The retort was automatic, but for just a moment this conversation had felt like a fantasy. They could be a couple. He could be a guy sincerely anxious for the woman he cared about who was carrying his child.

Then reality reared its ugly head. She was carrying his child, but they weren’t now, nor would they ever be, a couple. The truth was that he didn’t care about her any more than she cared about him.

His concern was for this child. His job was saving the lives of babies born too early and that’s all this was about. Clinical concern. Still, she could respect that and him. In fact, she respected him very much.

“I’m fine.” She smiled up at him. “It’s just nice to be outside in the fresh air. In the shade with the breeze blowing it’s still cool enough to come out here.”

“Pretty soon it won’t be.”

“I know.” She took the tangerine from her bag and started to peel it. “It’s probably a good thing that I won’t get too big while it’s hot.”

He nodded. “The first trimester will be over before fall. That will be easier on you.”

“Yeah.” That sounded like a concern more personally focused on her. He got points.

“You need to get in a lot of fluids. Water primarily. To flush the amniotic fluid.”

Again clinical. And cute. As they stretched out the topic of weather in Las Vegas she ate the segments of her fruit, grateful to have something to keep her hands busy. She was much more comfortable with him when he was in doctor mode or chastising her for something not her fault. When Nathan was nice and charming, it made her nervous.

She glanced at the watch on her wrist. “I have to get back to work.”

“Me, too.”

They walked back into the hospital and the coolness felt good.

“Where are you headed?” he asked.

“I have to get my cart, then the NICU is next on my assignment sheet.”

He fell into step beside her as she moved down the first-floor hall on the way to Central Supply. All equipment had to be put away during employee breaks. Besides the liability of leaving cleaning products out in the open, there was the problem of obstruction in the halls and impairing movement of equipment and patients on gurneys.

Environmental Services was located next to Central Supply on the first floor. Cindy opened the door, then turned to Nathan. “Thanks for checking up on me.”

“You’re welcome.” He pushed the door wider. “Which cart is yours?”

She pointed it out, then was surprised when he grabbed it for her. “What are you doing?”

“I’ll take it upstairs for you.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she protested.

“You’re going my way. I’ll drive.”

There it goes again, she thought when her heart skipped. Three times since he’d shown up in the garden. Could it be she was actually starting to like him?

The glow lasted until they entered the elevator. Two of the nurses from the NICU got in behind them and noticed Nathan helping her. Hostility, like an invisible force field, backed her up against the wall beside Nathan.

“Are you on your way to the unit, doctor?” Barbara Kelly asked. She was a slim blonde, very pretty.

“Yes,” he said, and the nurse pushed the appropriate button on the elevator’s control panel.

Cindy felt as if she’d been caught cheating with another woman’s husband, and it brought her down to earth with a thud. Lowly housekeepers didn’t mix with medical royalty.

Nathan tested the weight of the cleaning cart and said, “This thing is heavier than it looks.”

Cindy decided not answering would be best because she didn’t want to give the nursing staff any personal information. Gossip spread through the hospital faster than the flu and the facts of whatever story was spreading were usually wrong.