Shock Baby for the Doctor by Charlotte Hawkes

Author:Charlotte Hawkes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-02-01T16:47:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

THROWING HIS GOWN and gloves into the bin, and checking his hands for stains, Bas pushed through the OR doors to de-scrub.

Jimi’s surgery had gone smoothly. A subcutaneous mastectomy with a direct resection of the glandular tissue.

Bas eyed his patient through the glass.

The peri-areolar approach with liposuction had been textbook, and Bas was confident that he’d achieved good contour regularity with accurate symmetry. Only time would tell whether Jimi would have numbness or loss of sensation. Or whether there would be any tissue-shedding as a result of blood loss.

It was as good an outcome as Bas could have hoped for. He ought to be happier.

But his mind—now that it no longer had the complex surgery to distract it—was already shifting back to Naomi. But not the amniocentesis from the previous day, so much as the conversation he’d walked out on the day before that.

The last time he’d been home in two days. Instead, he’d been hiding out here in the hospital, using his patients as his cover, and taking on additional on-call duties—all to avoid returning back home. Back to where Naomi was.

All because he hadn’t—wouldn’t, couldn’t—answer the questions she had asked him.

He’d challenged her to ask whatever she wanted, with the assurance that he would answer—his opportunity to make her trust him. But then she’d asked one of the few questions he simply hadn’t been expecting, and he’d cut and run, using the hospital and his patients as an excuse for not returning in some thirty-odd hours. And using the on-call room to catch some shut-eye.

The irony didn’t escape him.

He scrubbed angrily at his skin, wondering what his next step ought to be. He felt wrong-footed, and it wasn’t a state of being that he was accustomed to. He didn’t find it suited him well.

‘How are you doing?’

Whipping his head around, Bas cast his friend Grace an even stare.

‘The surgery went well.’

‘I didn’t mean the surgery.’ She moved to stand near him. ‘I meant you.’

He wasn’t sure he was going to answer, until he heard his own dry voice.

‘You mean, aside from the fact that my unborn baby is going to need surgery mere days after she’s born?’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Grace told him sincerely. ‘I can only imagine what you and Naomi are going through.’

A strange lump lodged in Bas’s throat. He told himself not to be so emotional.

‘Thanks. No amniocentesis results?’

‘Not yet.’ She pulled a face. ‘Seddon put a rush on it, but it still takes time—you know that.’

He grunted.

Knowing how things worked didn’t necessarily make it any easier to wait, though.

‘Do you and Naomi know what you’re going to do yet?’ Grace asked. ‘In terms of raising the baby, I mean?’

‘Do you mean how involved am I going to be?’ he demanded. ‘It’s my child, Grace. Or do you think the same as Naomi? That I’ll just dip in and out of their lives?’

Grace didn’t take the bait. He hadn’t really expected her to.

In many ways, she was like Naomi. Calm. Even-tempered. The main difference was

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