Chapter 5
Jonnas
Jonnas had spent the last three days trying to convince himself he wasn’t obsessed with Dani Hart, and he was failing miserably.
It started with the pregnancy, and that part made sense.
Any man would be concerned after finding out he was going to be a father.
But this went beyond concern, because somehow he’d become hyperaware of everything involving her.
Whether she’d eaten lunch during her shift, to how pale she looked during morning rounds.
Or the fact that she rubbed her lower back when she thought no one was watching.
And worst of all was the way her eyes searched for him now, like some part of her looked for safety before she even realized she was doing it. That part wrecked him.
Jonnas leaned back in his office chair, staring at absolutely nothing while replaying their conversation in the parking garage for the hundredth time.
“There’s a difference between helpless and cared for, baby girl.
” Jesus Christ. The second those words left his mouth, her entire body had softened, like she’d needed someone to say them to her—like no one ever had before.
A knock sounded at his office door before Elias walked in carrying coffee. “You look disturbed,” Elias announced.
Jonnas accepted the coffee. “Thanks.”
“That wasn’t a compliment,” Elias said. Jonnas ignored him, and Elias sat down across from the desk and studied him for a long moment. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Jonnas mumbled.
“You’re lying,” Elias accused.
“I’m thinking,” Jonnas insisted.
“You’re brooding,” Elias said.
“I don’t brood,” Jonnas grumbled.
“You absolutely brood,” Elias accused. Jonnas flipped him off, and Elias grinned. “There he is.”
Jonnas took a sip of coffee before muttering, “I think Dani’s scared of needing people.”
Elias blinked. “That’s an oddly specific thing to say.”
“It’s accurate,” Jonnas said with a shrug.
“And how exactly did you figure that out?” Elias asked. Jonnas hesitated because he definitely couldn’t tell his best friend that he’d accidentally stumbled into a very intimate understanding of the pregnant nurse carrying his child.
“She tries to handle everything alone,” he said finally.
“That’s called being independent,” Elias insisted.
“No.” Jonnas shook his head slowly. “This is different.”
Elias leaned back slightly. “Different how?”
Jonnas exhaled slowly. “She acts like being taken care of is something she has to earn.”
Elias stared at him strangely. “Well,” Elias muttered. “That sounds deeply personal.” Fuck, maybe it was.
Jonnas scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “I just—” He frowned slightly.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever really shown up for her before.
” The thought pissed him off more than it should.
Dani acted tough. She was mouthy as hell and extremely independent, but underneath all that, she looked exhausted—like she’d spent her entire life carrying too much by herself.
And now she was pregnant on top of it—with his baby.
Something possessive twisted in his chest again. Elias stared at him for another long second before slowly grinning. “Oh no,” he breathed.
Jonnas narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“You care about her.” Elias sounded like he was accusing him of something.
“I’m having a baby with her,” Jonnas countered.
“No,” Elias said knowingly. “You care about her.” Jonnas opened his mouth to deny it, and then stopped because the truth hit him square in the chest. He did care about her, way too much already, and that realization should’ve terrified him.
Instead, it settled something inside him, as though a decision had finally been made.
“She looked at me yesterday like she expected me to leave,” he admitted quietly.
Elias’s expression softened slightly. “And?”
“I can’t get it out of my head,” Jonnas breathed.
Before Elias could respond, a soft knock sounded at the open office door, and both men turned.
Dani stood there holding a folder against her chest, and suddenly Jonnas forgot how breathing worked.
She wore light blue scrubs today with her hair pulled into a messy ponytail.
Minimal makeup, tired eyes, and God, she was beautiful.
His gaze dropped instinctively to her stomach.
She was barely showing, but he knew that his child was there, and that thought hit him differently every single time.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked hesitantly.
“No,” Jonnas answered immediately.
Elias smirked. “I was just leaving, actually,” Elias announced, standing. “Try not to emotionally damage each other while I’m gone.”
“Get out,” Jonnas muttered. Elias laughed as he left the office. The second the door shut behind him, silence settled heavily between them. Dani shifted slightly under his stare.
“You’re staring again,” she mumbled.
Jonnas stood slowly from behind his desk.
“Can you blame me?” Color crept into her cheeks instantly, which he found cute—dangerously cute.
“What do you need, baby girl?” There it was again—that immediate reaction.
Her breathing changed, her thighs pressed together slightly, and suddenly, Jonnas knew with absolute certainty that the nickname affected her every single time.
Dani cleared her throat awkwardly. “I, uh, I wanted to give you this.” She handed him the folder, and Jonnas opened it. Inside were prenatal appointment papers, insurance forms, and doctor information. His chest tightened unexpectedly, because this was real—completely real.
“You already had your first appointment?” he asked quietly.
Dani nodded. “A couple of weeks ago.” And he’d missed it. Guilt punched him square in the ribs because he should’ve been there, even if they barely knew each other. Even before the paternity results, he should’ve been there.
“When’s the next one?” he asked.
Her eyes widened slightly. “You want to go?” The surprise in her voice irritated him instantly.
“Of course I want to go,” he growled.
“Oh,” she breathed.
Jonnas set the folder down carefully before walking toward her. “You really still don’t understand this yet, do you?”
Her brows furrowed slightly. “Understand what?”
“I’m in this.” He stopped directly in front of her. “Completely.” Emotion flickered across her face so quickly it nearly broke him.
“I don’t know how to let someone help me,” she admitted softly.
Jonnas reached up slowly, brushing his thumb across her cheek.
“Then we’ll learn together.” Dani looked up at him with those big, uncertain eyes, and something deep in his chest locked into place permanently.
Mine. The realization settled heavily into his bones, and for the first time in his life, Jonnas Black realized he wanted more than one reckless night with a beautiful younger woman.
He wanted mornings, too. He wanted to go to her doctor's appointments and argue over baby names. He wanted her things in his apartment, and her curled against his chest at night. He wanted all of it. The thought should’ve scared the hell out of him.
Instead, it felt suspiciously like peace.
Jonnas had exactly thirty-seven unread emails, three department heads waiting on approval signatures, a budget review meeting in twenty minutes, and not a single damn thought in his head that wasn’t about Dani Hart. It was becoming a problem.
He sat behind his desk pretending to review staffing reports while actually staring at the prenatal paperwork she’d left with him earlier.
She was eight weeks pregnant, and her estimated due date was circled neatly in blue ink.
A strange tightness settled in his chest again, and he still couldn’t fully wrap his mind around it.
Somehow, one reckless night had shifted the entire course of his life, and the truly insane part was that he wasn’t angry about it anymore.
Was he terrified—absolutely, but not angry.
If anything, he felt restless now and protective.
Like some instinct inside him had fully woken up the second Dani admitted she was scared.
A knock sounded against his open office door before Jessica, the hospital’s chief operating officer, stepped inside. Jonnas immediately sat up straighter. “Tell me you finished the staffing proposal,” she said without preamble.
“Working on it,” he lied.
Jessica narrowed her eyes. “That response concerns me.”
“She’s pregnant,” he breathed, as though that might explain everything. The words slipped out before he could stop them.
Jessica blinked at him. “Who’s pregnant?” Fuck.
Jonnas rubbed a hand over his face. “Ignore that.”
“Oh no,” Jessica said immediately, shutting the office door behind her. “Absolutely not. You don’t get to casually drop a statement like that and move on.”
He groaned. “Can we not do this right now?”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. “Who’s pregnant?” she asked again.
Jonnas stared at the ceiling briefly, reconsidering every life choice that led him here. “Dani Hart.”
“Oh my God,” Jessica whispered. “The baby is yours, isn’t it?”
“Please stop reacting like that,” he said.
“You got one of our nurses pregnant?” Jessica said.
“It sounds significantly worse when you say it out loud,” he mumbled.
“Because it is worse said out loud!” she spat. Jonnas dropped his head into his hands as Jessica paced once across the office before turning back toward him. “Please tell me this happened before she started reporting through your department.”
“It did,” he admitted.
“Thank Christ,” she grumbled.
“She’s keeping the baby,” he said. God, he didn’t need to tell her that part either.
Jessica blinked again before her expression softened slightly. “And how are you handling that?” Jonnas leaned back heavily in his chair. He should have been honest with his boss. He was handling this situation poorly and obsessively, like a man losing his damn mind.
Instead, he muttered, “I’m trying to do the right thing.”
Jessica studied him carefully. “You care about her.”
That seemed to be everyone’s favorite observation lately. Jonnas exhaled slowly. “I barely know her.”
“That’s not what I said,” she pointed out. No, it wasn’t, and that was the problem, because somehow this had become frighteningly personal.
“She looks at me like she expects me to disappear,” he admitted quietly.
Jessica’s expression softened further. “And does that bother you?”
“Yes,” he admitted. The answer came instantly, with no hesitation.
Jessica nodded like she understood something important. “Then don’t disappear.” Before he could respond, another knock sounded at the door, and Dani stepped into the office holding a paper bag and immediately froze when she saw Jessica.
“Oh,” Dani said awkwardly. “I can come back.”
Jessica’s eyes flicked between them once before a knowing smile appeared on her face. “No need,” she said smoothly. “I was just leaving.” Jonnas narrowed his eyes immediately.
Jessica ignored him completely as she walked past Dani. “Good to see you. Take care of yourself, Dani.”
Dani blinked in surprise. “Um, okay.” The second the door shut behind Jessica, silence settled heavily between them, and then Jonnas noticed the bag in Dani’s hands.
“What’s that?” he asked, nodding to the bag.
Her cheeks turned pink instantly. “It’s nothing.”
“Dani,” he said, her name alone sounding like a warning.
She sighed dramatically before holding out the bag toward him. “You yelled at me for not eating.”
“I did,” he agreed.
“So—” She looked adorably embarrassed. “I brought you lunch, too.” Something inside his chest tightened painfully.
The woman was carrying his child, dealing with morning sickness, hormonal exhaustion, and emotional whiplash—and she still thought to bring him food.
That level of sweetness was genuinely dangerous.
Jonnas stood slowly and took the bag from her, peeking inside it. “You bought me soup.”
“You said I needed real food,” she muttered defensively. “Soup counts.”
His mouth twitched. “You know my order?”
“I heard you complain about cafeteria soup to Elias like three times,” she said. That honestly made him absurdly happy. Jonnas looked down into the bag before noticing a second container.
“What’s this?” he asked.
Her expression turned guilty immediately. “Crackers.”
“Dani,” he warned.
“And fries,” she grumbled.
“Baby girl,” he breathed. “Fries aren’t real food.”
“I’m pregnant!” she defended instantly. “The baby wanted fries.” Jonnas laughed before he could stop himself. A real laugh, and the way Dani stared at him afterward made his chest tighten all over again.
“What?” he asked.
“You laugh more around me now,” she said. The observation caught him off guard, because she was right—he did.
Jonnas set the food down carefully before moving toward her. Dani immediately looked up at him with those big, uncertain eyes that were rapidly becoming his weakness. “Have you been sick all morning?” he asked quietly. She nodded. “Still throwing up?”
“A little,” she admitted. Concern tightened his chest instantly. Without thinking, he brushed his knuckles lightly against her cheek.
“You should be home resting,” he said.
“I can’t keep calling off work.”
“You’re growing a human being,” he reminded.
“And nurses don’t exactly get royal maternity treatment,” she said. Annoyance flared instantly, not at her, but at the world, and at the fact that she sounded so resigned about struggling through this alone. That protective instinct inside him surged again hard enough to make his voice roughen.
“You’re not doing this alone anymore, baby girl,” he said. Dani went still—completely still. Like those words affected her more than they should have. Jonnas noticed the slight shine in her eyes immediately and groaned. The last thing he wanted to do was make her cry.
“Hey,” he said, softer now.
Her bottom lip trembled slightly before she looked away. “You keep saying things like that.”
“What things?” he asked.
“Things that make me—” She swallowed hard. “Feel safe.” The vulnerability in her voice nearly destroyed him. Jonnas stepped closer until there was barely any space between them.
“That scares you?” he asked.
“Yes, she said, giving him an honest answer. He liked that about her. Dani told him the truth, and that was a rare quality. Jonnas tilted her chin upward gently.
“Baby girl,” he said quietly, “you don’t have to be scared of me taking care of you.
” Her breath caught instantly, and then, for the first time since this entire mess began, Dani leaned into his touch instead of away from it.
That tiny movement hit him harder than anything else had.
Because it wasn’t submission, it was trust, and Jonnas realized in that moment he would do just about anything not to break it.