The Doctor’s Simple Life (Love Heals All Wounds #3)

28. Sienna

CHAPTER 28

SIENNA

I am having a normal day. As normal as it can be anyway.

Since Reece left, I’m not sure what normal is anymore.

I should forget him. I know I should. Gramma seems insistent that I should reach out to him, but I wouldn’t know what to say. I’ve already forgiven him for being exactly who he always was. I still don’t think that means he would want to speak to me.

But I don’t need him. I’ve never needed him, and I am never going to need him.

Doesn’t stop me from missing him.

“Good morning, Sienna,” a familiar voice says as I step into the waiting room. It’s Louisa, the waitress from the diner.

“Louisa? What are you doing here?”

“It’s nothing too serious,” she says with a faint smile. “I think it’s just a bug going around. I feel so hot and sweaty and like I’m about to faint.”

“Yeah, I think there must be. I’ve been feeling that too. Something must be going around. Oh, and congratulations on your wedding, by the way.”

“Why, thank you.” She smiles, a faint blush bringing some color back to her pale cheeks. “I’m sorry we didn’t have space to invite you to the reception.”

“No, no, don’t be silly,” I scoff. “I hope you had an amazing day.”

She smiles widely. “Thank you, we really did.”

“Let’s get you checked out, okay?” I gesture to her, and she gets up to follow me.

And that’s when another rush of nausea slams into me. I stop and take a sharp breath.

“Sienna, are you okay?” she asks, placing a hand on my shoulder. I nod, but my vision starts to blur. I don’t say it, but her hand feels like the only thing anchoring me to the ground. What’s wrong with me?

“I’m fine,” I gasp, my head spinning. “I just feel kind of sick…”

That’s the last thing I know before I hit the ground.

I wake up on the floor, nauseous. I’ve never fainted before, and it’s not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon.

Nurses and people flock to me and help me get back on my feet. I still feel kind of dizzy, but not too much to walk. Nurse Arnold rushes over to stare at my eyes and throat, then orders someone to help me to a bed.

“I’m fine, really,” I try to insist. “I don’t want to take up extra space.”

But Nurse Arnold fixes me with her firmest stare, and I don’t argue again. An intern hooks her arm around me and leads me away to one of the smallest rooms, then makes me lie down. I nearly start arguing again, but she’s new and I don’t want to cause her trouble. She doesn’t need to get yelled at because of me.

She makes sure I’m comfortable, takes a blood sample, and gives me water. “I know you know this, Nurse Hale, but please get good and hydrated, okay?”

“Thank you,” I say softly. “I’m sorry, remind me of your name?”

“Martinez, ma’am. Olivia.”

“Thank you, Olivia. You’ve done good. Now go tend to a real patient, okay?”

She hesitates, and I shoo her off. I don’t need an intern to sit with me, not when there are real patients with real problems who need help. I guess Louisa must have been right. There must be some virus going around. This isn’t the first time this week I’ve felt dizzy and nauseous.

I doze off for a while, and when I open my eyes again, Giselle is standing over me, staring at my chart and tutting.

“I’m fine, right?” I say, shuffling to sit up. “I tried to tell them that I was fine, but they made me lie down.”

She shakes her head. “It’s a mystery, Sienna. In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never taken a day sick. You’ve only ever been late as many times as I can count on one hand.”

“So I am fine?”

“Your chart seems perfect, hon, but fainting? Let’s wait for the bloodwork to come back. Then we’ll see you back at work. Okay?”

I sigh. “I guess.”

“We can’t have one of our best nurses out for the count, can we? You’re not going to move from this bed until I get back, are you?”

“No.” I groan. “But I do feel fine now, really.”

She gives me the same stern look everyone has been giving me for the last hour, and I flop back on the bed, defeated.

It’s kind of a lie, anyway. I don’t feel that good. My stomach is still churning, and my head isn’t all here. But I have a job to do. I’m not a slacker. Fainting at work is probably the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.

And everyone saw it.

I cringe, closing my eyes and pulling the sheet up to my chin. I have nothing to distract me, so all I can do is keep running it around in my mind.

At least thinking about fainting is better than thinking about Reece.

Damn , I curse at myself. I shouldn’t have thought that because now I am thinking about him. I bet he’s never fainted at work. I bet he’s gone right back to being Mr. Perfect with his perfect hair and perfect smile and fancy job.

I don’t miss him. I refuse to.

Fortunately, about twenty minutes later, Giselle comes back to free me from my spiraling thoughts.

“Well,” I say as she comes through the door. “Tell me I’m not going to die.”

“Exactly the opposite.” She grins.

I raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

She comes to sit beside me and takes my hand, which does nothing to ease the terror that she’s about to tell me I have something terminal and bad. “Sienna,” she says gently, squeezing my hand. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’ve been blessed. You’re going to have a baby.”

“I’m what?”

“You’re pregnant, Sienna.”

My mouth drops open, and, not sure what else to do, I burst into tears. Of all the things I thought she was about to say, a baby was way, way down on the list.

And I know exactly whose it must be.

And so does she.

“Are you going to tell him?” Giselle asks once I’ve caught my breath.

I shake my head. Then I nod. Then I slap my hands against my face and groan. “I don’t know. Yes, probably. I have to, really, don’t I?”

“No,” she says, and I chuckle. That’s Giselle, as straightforward as ever.

“We were careful,” I whisper. “We used protection.”

“These things aren’t foolproof. You know that. Mistakes happen.”

“This is a pretty big mistake.” But even as I say it, I don’t believe it. Any baby of mine could never be a mistake, no matter how it happened. Reece might have been a mistake, but my baby? My baby will be loved and looked after like they are precious, because they will be.

A baby has always been part of my life plan.

Being a single mother though… that’s something I’m going to have to adjust to.

“I’ll tell him later,” I say. “It’s not like he’s going to care.”

“But he should know,” Giselle says gently.

“I know,” I whisper.

What I don’t tell her is that I’m still furious with him. I’m mad at him for leaving. I’m mad at him for lying. I’m mad at him for crawling right back to his old boss and acting like nothing was different, then treating me like I was the problem for refusing to play along.

I’m mad at him for making me fall in love with him.

Without him here, somehow it’s easier to confess that to myself. And until today, I thought I would never have to face admitting it out loud to anyone, especially not him. But with the baby, with him being a father — I don’t know if I’m strong enough to tell him that without yelling at him.

Or worse, without blurting out a confession I don’t want to make.

He’s probably off in Miami with another girl already. That thought twists my stomach up with a jealousy that he doesn’t deserve. He can do whatever he wants. That’s the worst part.

Because whatever he wants doesn’t include me.

How can I ever forgive that?