The Surgeon's Surprise Twins by Jacqueline Diamond

Author:Jacqueline Diamond
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Although Owen tried to turn a deaf ear to hospital undercurrents, he soon discovered that word of his blowup with Bailey had spread far and wide. He shouldn’t have been surprised, knowing how open she was, but respect cut both ways. This matter should have been kept strictly between them.

Still, he couldn’t muster up enough outrage to challenge her about it. For one thing, she proved an ideal nurse for the rest of the week, staying on top of developments, working skillfully with patients and anticipating his needs as a doctor. Too bad that, under the circumstances, he had zero chance of securing her in that position on a permanent basis.

Working as well as living with her, Owen had become keenly aware of the babies’ day-by-day development. Normally, he only saw maternity patients once a month at this stage, and took the miraculous changes more or less for granted. But these were his children swelling her abdomen.

And then there was Bailey herself. Bailey who sang beautifully in the shower and left funny little notes in the refrigerator (“Hands off or you die!”). When she paused to put her feet up in the middle of the day, he felt concern rather than annoyance. When he saw her eating lunch with Ned, a wave of something akin to jealousy washed over him.

On Thursday, when he arrived home early enough to sing a couple of duets with her—they’d exhausted their favorites from Rodgers and Hammerstein and moved on to My Fair Lady—Owen nearly told her the truth about his paternity. He wasn’t sure what good it would do, but she deserved to know, and besides, he held out the sneaking hope that she’d draw a little closer to him and a little farther from her pal Ned. But then he remembered how she’d spread word of his apology.

Most secrets caused only temporary embarrassment when they traveled through the hospital grapevine. If they reached the press, they ran off like raindrops on an airplane. But Owen feared that the news of his involvement in this soap opera surrogacy situation might cause a crash landing. So he kept it to himself.

On Friday morning, he spent a couple of hours in Dr. Rayburn’s office with Jennifer Martin and, by videoconference from her office in Louisville, Chandra Yashimoto, the Medical Center Management vice-president. They reviewed plans for the opening the following month, including a series of press conferences, seminars and events for the public.

These would be followed, in October, by a meeting in Los Angeles of the International Society of Embryology and Reproductive Fertility, at which Owen was to be the keynote speaker. Alec Denny had also been tapped for a prestigious panel. One of the highlights would be a paper presented by Cole Ratigan, M.D., the specialist from Minneapolis whom Owen had sought to head his men’s fertility program.

“The conference will give you two a chance to get better acquainted,” Chandra suggested. “Maybe you can change his mind. Otherwise we’ll have to find someone else.”

Owen ground his teeth.

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