Chapter 4 #2
“He’s just having a hard time catching his breath,” I murmur as I listen. His sides are retracting, which means he’s laboring. “Dani, do you mind if I take your little man to the nursery, just so I can put the monitor on his toe to check his oxygen levels? I’ll bring him right back to you.”
“Oh, of course.” She bites her lip, and her blue eyes fill again. “Oh God.”
“Don’t panic.” I take her hand in mine and give it a squeeze. “Honest, I’m not panicking, either. I just want to make sure he’s getting all the air he needs.”
“That makes sense.” She nods and swallows down more tears. “Yes, let’s make sure.”
“I’ll be right back.”
I set the baby in his mobile crib, scan their wristbands, and roll him to the nursery. Once I get the pulse ox wrapped on his toe, I frown.
Ninety-three.
I don’t like that. It’s not horrifying , but it’s not great.
I take his temperature, and it’s just a little high at 99.2 .
“Little man, you’re going to make me work for this, aren’t you?”
He’s adorable, with all that dark hair. His coloring is good, but I don’t like that quick breathing at all.
I note his pediatrician’s name and put a call in to her, then wheel him back to his mom.
“Well, Dani, we’re going to keep an eye on little Bryce. He’s struggling just a little to breathe and has the tiniest fever.”
Dani frowns.
“Honestly, the fever could be from the trauma of birth. This fella has been through a lot today.”
She nods, her eyes pinned to her baby.
Thankfully, the pediatrician, Dr. Lachland, bustles in behind me.
“Well, hello there,” she says, smiling at Dani. “I hear Bryce is breathing a little fast.”
Dani bites her lip. “I should call my husband.”
“You’re more than welcome to do that,” I assure her. “Go ahead if it’ll make you feel better. Call anyone you need.”
She nods and quickly types on her phone while Dr. Lachland goes through the same vitals I did.
“Oxygen was at ninety-three,” I tell her.
“You know, Dani,” Lachland says after nodding gratefully at me, “there’s a chance this is nothing at all.
But there’s also a chance that Bryce might have aspirated some fluid when he was being delivered, and I want to make sure his lungs are okay.
I’d like to do a chest X-ray, and maybe even run some labs to make sure there’s no infection. ”
“He’s two hours old ,” Dani says, shaking her head and wiping tears from her cheeks. “How can he already have an infection?”
“It’s unlikely,” Lachland assures her. “This is preventative.”
Just then, two big men enter the room, and I step back out of the way.
“Oh, hello, Dr. Blackwell.”
My head comes up at that.
There he is.
Blake Blackwell.
The man who’s starred in every dream of mine for the past five months.
The man who gave me more orgasms and rocked my world in ways that have never happened before in my life.
I might be breathing harder than the baby.
He’s listening intently to Dr. Lachland, his handsome face in a stern frown, his arms crossed over his chest, and then the doctor is addressing me.
“Harper, let’s get Bryce’s X-ray done and draw those labs for me, and we’ll go from there.”
“Of course.” I nod and smile at Dani while every nerve in my body quakes.
He’s fucking married. There’s no other reason for him to be here. He’s an ER doctor, not an OB/GYN.
I glance at the card on the bassinet.
Bryce Blackwell.
His last name is on the freaking bassinet .
He cheated on his very pregnant wife with me.
Because of course he fucking did.
Jesus Christ, what am I? Some kind of black hole for piece-of-shit men who treat women like garbage?
“He’s safe with me, Dani. I promise. I’ll bring him right back to you. It shouldn’t take long at all. Then we can do some skin-on-skin time, okay?”
“You’re so nice,” Dani says with a nod as I scan her wristband, the baby’s, and then the one on his bassinet card. “Thank you so much, Harper.”
Silently fuming, I take the baby to get the labs and X-rays, but before I can close the elevator door, Blake comes running down the hall and slips into the elevator next to me.
Fuck me.
“You work here,” he says as the doors close. It’s not a question.
“Seems so.” My voice is so cold, I’m surprised he doesn’t have frostbite. “Congratulations, by the way. He’s beautiful. And don’t worry, I won’t say anything to that gorgeous woman, who deserves so much better , you jerk.”
He frowns down at me as the doors slide open.
“You should get back to your wife. The baby’s safe with me.”
And without a backward glance, I roll out of the elevator to get my work done.
This is not how I saw today going. I didn’t have run into the hottest sex of your life, who happens to be a new dad and a cheating asshole on my bingo card for this month at all.
Yet here we are all the same.
I keep an eye on Bryce’s pulse ox and am pleased that it never dips lower than ninety-three. In fact, right now, it’s ninety-five, which is an improvement.
But when I listen to his lungs again, I hear some gunk in there.
“We’re going to fix you up, Bryce. Let’s figure this out.”