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

29. Sienna

CHAPTER 29

SIENNA

“ H ere you go, honey. I brought you some coffee.”

“I’m pregnant,” I snap. “I can’t have coffee.”

Gramma says nothing, just gives me a look and places the mug down beside me. I shouldn’t be nasty. She’s just trying to be kind.

Pregnant.

I still can’t believe this has happened. I still don’t understand it. I mean, of course, I understand it. I know how it happened.

I just don’t know what I’m going to do next.

If it was just a surprise baby, I would be able to cope with that. I’ve always wanted to be a mother, but this isn’t exactly how I planned for it. It isn’t awful, however.

The awful bit is knowing that no matter how much I want him to be involved, Reece is never going to care to be the father of this child. He’s never even going to know about it if I don’t tell him. And I should. I know that. He has a right to prove me wrong, to be a father if he wants to.

Not that I think he would. But I’ll never know unless I tell him. And I just don’t know how to do that.

I’ve asked Gramma for her advice all week, and it’s been middling to poor. She says I should just give it to him straight, call him out of the blue and dump him on it like I’m forwarding his mail or passing on a note.

“You owe him the truth,” she keeps saying, over and over again, like I’m not listening. “Even if he doesn’t want to know, he deserves to.”

Part of me agrees with her, but most of me doesn’t have the words. How do you tell someone they’re a father? That their small-town fling has had consequences? How do you do that and deal with it if they don’t care at all?

“Honey,” says Gramma, sitting beside me on the couch. “I know they gave you this week off work, but maybe you should think about going back. You always look so sad when you have nothing to do.”

“Wow, thanks,” I say bitterly. “Great to know everyone thinks I’m miserable.”

Gramma fixes me with a stern look. “Now, Sienna, you know I don’t think like that. I think God’s just handed you a challenge this week, and you’re figuring out how to get through it. He’s testing you, but I have faith you’ll come through. You always do in the end.”

I sigh and lean in to rest my head on her shoulder. “Thanks, Gramma,” I say. Her words lift my spirits a little. Not a lot, but the only thing that could really make me feel better right now is if Reece walked through the doors and told me he was so excited to start our life together.

I scoff at myself. How stupid am I to be thinking like this?

“Will you at least speak to your boss today?” Gramma says, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Tell her that your Gramma said that you’re fit to work, and she’ll be dragging you to the hospital herself if they keep you away much longer.”

I chuckle and reach out my arms for a hug. Gramma obliges me, squeezing me tightly to her chest. I swear I will never feel safer anywhere but here.

“What would I do without you, Gramma?” I whisper.

“A hell of a lot worse,” she says before detaching my arms. “Now drink your coffee up. And before you say a thing, I drank plenty of coffee when I bore your mama, and she came out just fine. Besides, it’s decaf.”

Gramma leaves the room, and I watch as the steam from the coffee spirals up into the air. She made it just the way I like it, full of cream and with sugar. I swear, the only thing stopping her from getting into coffee art is the lack of equipment.

Okay. Maybe a cup won’t hurt.

I take a few moments to myself, then I pick up the phone and dial Giselle. I’m kind of expecting her not to pick up. After all, it’s a work day. Why should she?

But it only takes a few seconds for her voice to come over the line. “Hey, sweetie,” she says. “How are you doing?”

“Bad,” I say, pouting like a kid.

“Oh, honey. I wish I could give you a hug.”

“Gramma says I should come back to work,” I say, blurting it out before she has a chance to get talking.

“Are you sure?”

“I think I should. Being here at home is driving me crazy. It’s driving Gramma crazy. We’re getting in each other’s way, and she thinks I’m moping. So yes. I am sure.”

“You’ve had enough time to adjust your… situation?”

“Not really.” I sigh. “But I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. I’m just going to have to accept it, and I don’t think sitting around all day is helping. Besides, I’m excited about being a mother, so there’s that.”

“That makes sense, honey. But if you need any time off at all, you just tell us, okay? We’ll accommodate you wherever we can.”

“You’re the best,” I say, smiling. It’s on days like this that I love my job more than ever.

“And because I’m the best,” she says, and I can just see the smirk on her face. “I’ve got some juicy gossip for you.”

I hum down the phone, curious. Giselle’s gossip ranges from her cousin with arthritis to the prices in the vending machines going up a few cents.

“We’ve just been bought out again,” she says like she’s dropped the news of the century.

“Oh, really?” I say, trying to sound interested. “That was quick.”

“Uh-huh. The new guy was dying to take over as fast as possible.”

“Well, good for them,” I say. I don’t have the energy for this. “Is that going to affect anything?”

Giselle giggles in a way that seems to suggest that she knows something I don’t, but I don’t really feel like interrogating that right now.

I’m tired. My back hurts, and since I found out that I’m pregnant, I feel sick all the time. Whether that’s in my head or not, I can’t tell. What I definitely don’t have is patience for playing along with Giselle’s little gossip trails. To be honest, I couldn’t care less about who owns the hospital as long as I still have a job.

“Come into your shift like normal tomorrow,” she says. “We’ll be pleased to have you back.”

When I arrive at the hospital the next morning, there’s little fanfare. People tell me it’s good to have me back, but we don’t linger on it. They smile, then move on. It’s business as usual, just the way I like it.

At least until I start doing my job, anyway. Giselle comes to sweep me up under her wing and follows me around for the first hour of the shift.

After the first hour and ten minutes, I snap. “Giselle, what are you doing here?”

“I’m getting you all settled back in.”

I frown at her. “You don’t need to hover by my side. I promise I’ve done my job before. I know what I’m doing.”

“I know, hon,” she says, her bright grin unfading. “I just want to make sure you’ve got everything you need.”

“I do. Thank you.”

“All right, sweetie.” She pauses for me to say something else, and I don’t. I have nothing else to say. “Well, you let me know if there’s anything at all I can help you with, okay?”

“Okay,” I say, possibly a little too curtly. She squeezes my arm before she deposits me back in my office, where I flop into my chair with a sigh.

The worst part about this is that everyone’s going to know about the baby because everyone found out last week after I fainted. So everyone’s going to be treating me like this for the next nine months.

Well, more like seven at this point. I’m not totally sure how long I’ve been pregnant, but it’s two months since Reece left, and I sure as hell haven’t been with anyone else since then.

Fortunately, after Giselle leaves, my day goes pretty much as normal.

People are nice to me and ask about the baby whether I want them to or not, but nothing is that unusual.

After lunch, Giselle comes back.

I force a smile to my face. She’s not really going to keep checking up on me every single day for the rest of time, is she? It’s nice that she’s worried, but I am an adult. I can look after myself.

I get ready to tell her that, but before I can, she beams at me and says, “Hey, Sienna. The new owner wants a chat with you.”

“What? Why?” I stammer.

She shrugs. “He’s speaking to all senior members of staff. It’s routine, I think.”

“I’m not senior.” I frown.

“You’re managerial now. That means you’re important enough to have a voice in this place.”

“Okay,” I say dubiously. “But why me?”

“Did you not listen to a word I said?” she scoffs, leaning against the doorframe and folding her arms.

I groan. This isn’t a fight I am going to win. “Does he want to meet right now? I’m in the middle of a report.”

“Finish your report and then come through to my office, okay? I’ll let him know you’re coming.”

As promised, I finish the notes and go up to the office. Giselle is waiting for me outside, and she smiles as I approach. “Good luck,” she says with a wink, then pushes me through the door before I can ask any questions.

Good luck. What am I going to need good luck for?

Surely, the new guy can’t be that scary. He’s probably just another rich fool from the city who thinks that owning a small hospital in the middle of nowhere gets him some status points. It’s not like he’s going to fire me. He doesn’t know me, and Giselle wouldn’t have been grinning if I was in trouble.

Right?

He’s facing the window when I step inside, a silhouette in a tailored suit and his blond hair in perfect spikes.

And my heart does a flip in my chest.

He turns around and smiles sheepishly at me. I stare at him in utter shock.

I’d recognize that shadow anywhere.

“Reece?”