Chapter 23
“AH, HELLO Doctor Mitchell.”
It was her. Nate wondered if the other staff in the room had noticed the sudden rush of colour to his cheeks. He was grateful for the mask covering most of his face.
“What do we have,” he asked Jess, doing his best to refocus.
“Thanks, Jess. Let’s get this baby born.
” He made eye-contact with the anaesthetist to check he could continue.
Doctor Robinson nodded and Nate stepped forward to make his incision.
Positioning low on the mother’s abdomen, he made careful incisions, going slightly wider than he normally would for a faster delivery.
Passing his scalpel to the nurse, he separated the abdominal walls with a firm tug.
“Here we go,” he said, glancing at Jess to make sure she was ready to take the baby.
She was so close to him, almost touching his side.
He could feel the heat coming from her, and everything in him wanted to reach out— convince her she was the only one he saw when he looked at her.
After the night at the premiere, when the reporter had mistaken her for his ex, he’d been left with a sick feeling in his stomach for days.
If only he could figure out how to make it up to her.
“Jess, at the premiere I’m sorry I—” With final smaller incisions, Nate made a space big enough to reach in and release the baby’s head. What was he going to say?
She flashed him an impatient look. “Don’t,” she growled. The anaesthetist looked back and forth between them, tipping her head at their exchange.
Jess was right. This wasn’t the time.
Tugging gently, he freed the baby from his mother and passed him to her waiting hands. He loved the feeling of holding a newborn in his palms—birth was an absolute miracle—but his job wasn’t finished.
He focused back on the mother, delivering the placenta and gently examining her uterus. The soft texture wasn’t reassuring. He pressed down, feeling for a sign of a contraction. None appeared. A conversation with Jess would have to wait.
“We have a problem,” he alerted the others, blood quickly pooling beneath his fingers. “She’s hemorrhaging.”
The team rushed into action, and Jess appeared at his side again, exchanging a concerned look. He resisted the urge to drop everything and take her into his arms to comfort her.
“What can I do?” she said, her voice refocusing him.
“Her uterus isn’t contracting. Can you massage externally?” He showed her where he wanted her to press and Jess slid her hands under the drapes, copying Nate’s rolling motion.
Nate continued to massage the uterus internally, silently urging it to contract.
“It’s going to be okay,” he mumbled, Jess’s face so close to his he could feel her breath on his cheek.
The healthy infant cried behind him as the nurses checked, cleaned and wrapped the baby. He desperately wanted to reunite this baby with his mother, and she wasn’t out of danger yet.
“Is it working?” Jess asked, and he wished he could tell her better news.
He shook his head. “I’m going to need to do compression sutures. You can stop now.”
Jess stepped back, leaving him to focus on the delicate task in front of him, but even the idea of her so close, watching him, sent a tingle across his shoulders.
The last stitch in, Nate held his breath and waited.
“The bleeding’s stopped,” he said, releasing his breath in relief.
“Thank you,” Jess whispered so quietly he wasn’t sure if she was directing it at him or some higher power.
They locked eyes, and his heart skipped a beat. “Thank you, Nate,” she repeated, gratitude and warmth radiating from her, and he knew he would do anything to have her look at him like that again and again.
Reluctantly, he broke eye contact and returned his attention to his patient.
By the time he’d finished up, and the mother was wheeled into ICU for recovery, Jess had left the room.
He leant against the wall, feeling his pulse speed.
Emergency surgeries often had his heart racing, but this time he knew Jess was the reason.
She’d been right there next to him. A hand over his.
Breath on his skin. He had to do something, he decided.
Even if he humiliated himself, he had to know one way or the other.
JESS PUSHED THE BASSINET carrying the tiny newborn into the recovery ward. Cara would be sent to ICU, and she braced herself for Maddie’s reaction. She found her waiting alone, her hands steepled against her face, eyes closed.
Maddie jumped up when she entered. “Is that him?” she asked.
Jess smiled. “Your lovely, healthy boy.” She pushed the bassinet into its spot next to the empty bed where Cara would have been.
Nothing had gone the way they’d planned, and it left her with a heavy weight of guilt in her stomach.
Births were often complicated, but it didn’t make it any easier.
Parents trusted her to make sure everything went smoothly.
“He’s perfect.” Maddie ran a finger down her son’s tiny nose. “Where’s Cara?”
Jess pressed her lips together. “She’s okay, but she haemorrhaged during surgery and had to have a blood transfusion. She’ll need to be monitored in the ICU for a while.”
Watching the colour drain from Maddie’s face, she could imagine what might be going through her mind.
This wasn’t the peaceful water-birth with incense and forest sounds they’d planned months before.
She always tried to warn people, but no-one wanted to picture the things that could go wrong.
The best she could do right now was help Maddie with the baby and hopefully that would bring her some comfort.
“Want to do skin-to-skin?”
“Can I?” Maddie’s hands shook, as if she’d spent the last hour in shock, which she probably had.
Seeing Nate in the operating theatre had put Jess into shock, too. What was he doing here? First she’d settle Maddie and then she planned to find out. Things had been going well in her life, and she didn’t need him disrupting it all again.
“Of course. Take a seat and I’ll help you.” She unwrapped the sleeping baby and placed him gently on Maddie’s chest, under her opened shirt. She covered them both with a blanket, and Maddie stared up at her with panic in her eyes.
“He’s okay?” she asked, her voice wavering.
“He’s totally fine,” Jess said. “We got him out quickly.”
“What about the strep thing?’
“The anaesthetist gave Cara antibiotics intravenously. Just enjoy your new little one. If he wakes up and wants a feed, ring the bell and I’ll help you get a bottle ready. The staff will keep you updated on Cara.”
Tears ran down Maddie’s cheeks as she watched her tiny baby, and it was hard to tell if they were tears of worry or joy. Likely both. Hopefully, the little family would be together again soon.
“I won’t be far away,” Jess said, wanting to give Maddie some space.
Back in the nurses’ station, Jess struggled to write up her notes, upset by the emergency birth and by the surprise presence of Nate Mitchell.
Why was he working as a doctor in a tiny New Zealand hospital? It didn’t make sense. He was meant to be in London. Getting married. Living in his fancy apartment. Doing whatever it was British celebrities did all day. Slurping oysters and watching horse races with royalty, probably.
Had he come back to see her? A crazy idea. Even if he had—and it was completely unlikely—it didn’t matter. She deserved better than being someone’s mistress. She deserved better than Nate.
It was the same thing she’d been telling herself for months. Except, annoyingly, she couldn’t seem to forget about him.
NATE PAUSED AT THE DOOR to the nurses’ station where he’d seen Jess enter minutes before. He took a deep breath and ran through various conversation starters.
Fancy seeing you here. No.
Great job back there. Not bad, but did it sound condescending?
Want to go out for dinner later? None of the etiquette he’d been taught in private school had prepared him for this. For goodness sake, just go, Nate told himself. He took a step forward and came face-to-face with Jess.
“Oh, I was just—” he stuttered, grabbing her arms to stop them both colliding.
“Nate.” Seeming far less rattled than him, Jess extracted herself from his grasp and stepped back. “Why are you here?”
“Here? I saw you going into the nurses’ station and I—”
“No, here in the hospital. In New Zealand. Why are you not in London?”
“I work here.” Next to her, his breath vanished.
Left him speechless. She was even more beautiful somehow in her scrubs than she’d been in the gown at the premiere.
Perhaps it was just standing this close, looking into her eyes.
He pressed his hands together, still feeling the warmth of her skin against his palms.
“You work here,” Jess repeated. Not a question. More like a confirmation. Was that disappointment in her voice?
“I bought a place in Rangiora and moved here after I got the job.”
Jess tipped her head at him and placed her hands on her hips, her pony tail flopping to the side adorably. “Why on earth would you leave celebrity life in London for a little hospital in New Zealand?”
“Why would I pass up slurping oysters, you mean?”
“I knew that’s what they did.”
Jess’s eyes lit up, crinkling at the edges with a flash of a smile that disappeared just as quickly. It was almost unbelievable to have her in front of him again. Words tumbled from him, afraid the moment would pass and he wouldn’t get another opportunity.
“No, I was back in the hospital in London, and my boss told me I was mad too, leaving my consultancy role, but—”
A nurse appeared next to them and cleared her throat, interrupting his rambling.
“So sorry,” he said as he stepped out of the doorway and allowed the nurse through, making the space between himself and Jess wider.