He gave her a healthy tap on her butt. Monica covered her rear end with her hands and scooted out of the kitchen.
Eli settled against the counter with his coffee mug, shaking his head as he watched her ascend the stairs. There was no mistaking it; he had it bad for this woman.
When he arrived at the hospital a few hours later, after first stopping in to check on Mama, Eli discovered that Amanda Daniels had been admitted the previous evening. Her chart stated a fainting spell brought on by her anemia, but Eli wasn’t so sure the medical condition was the only cause. Mrs. Daniels’ blackouts could very well be stress-induced.
Given her mental illness, the strained relationship between she and her husband, and the news he had laid on her regarding the possible closing of the center, Amanda Daniels had several reasons to block out the world.
Eli lightly tapped on her door before entering.
Both Daniels were there, and—what? —they were holding hands? Well, he wouldn’t say Amanda was reciprocating the gesture, but the fact that she allowed her hand to rest in her husband’s palm was extremely telling. Maybe the two were on the track to reconciliation.
“Good morning,” Eli said at the foot of the bed.
“Dr. Holmes.” Jeffrey Daniels rose from the uncomfortable chair he had apparently slept in.
Eli tucked the clipboard under his arm and returned his handshake. “I heard you two had an eventful night.”
“It wasn’t too bad,” Amanda replied in a shallow voice.
“The good news is that the baby is fine. He, or she,” Eli said, respecting the fact that the couple did not want to know their baby’s sex, “is perfectly healthy. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the mother. You know what this means, right, Amanda?”
She nodded, a regretful look clouding her face.
Out of the corner of his eye, Eli noticed Jeffrey’s head volleying back and forth as if he were watching a tennis match. Eli didn’t have to be psychic to know Amanda had not clued her husband in on yesterday’s discussion.
“When will I be able to leave?” she asked in a voice so faint Eli could barely hear her.
“I’ll be back to see you in a few minutes,” Eli said, patting Amanda’s covered feet. “The phlebotomist will be in to take a little blood. I want to run a few more test, then we’ll talk about releasing you, okay?”
At her nod, he turned to Jeffrey. “Mr. Daniels, I’ll let you bare the burden of all the paperwork. Follow me. The sooner you get started, that’s the sooner you and your wife will be able to leave once she’s medically released.”
In the hallway, he stopped Jeffrey, saying, “I think we need to go to my office for a few minutes.”
“There’s something wrong, isn’t there? Something happened to the baby that you were too afraid to say in front of Amanda.”
“No, nothing like that.” Okay, he could have handled this better. He’d been in this business long enough to know he should not make such a vague statement to a man who’s wife was laying in a hospital bed.
“Do you know of your wife’s visit to the hospital yesterday,” Eli asked.
Jeffrey leaned back against the wall, dropped his head and sighed. “I found out she came to see you after she was admitted to the hospital last night. I thought I had a list of all of her scheduled visits.”
“Yesterday’s visit wasn’t scheduled. Amanda called with a few concerns typical of a first-time mother. It wasn’t anything too serious, but I did impart some important news that I have a feeling she has not shared. It’s something that concerns you both. Can we go to my office to discuss it?”
Jeffrey took another deep breath and nodded, and to Eli’s relief, took the news about the center’s possible closure rather well.
“As I said,” Eli continued as he sat behind his desk back in his office, “we are giving it our best effort to keep the facility open. I just want to make sure my patients have alternate care lined up.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Jeffrey answered. “The benefits with my new job will take care of Amanda’s hospital bills.”
Eli’s eyebrows lifted. “You have a new job? Congratulations.”
“Yeah, I got on with the company I’ve been contracting with. It comes with benefits, and I don’t have to worry as much about getting laid off. It happened at the best possible time, too. This new job is going to free up a lot of my time. I won’t have to take as many odd jobs, and I can give up my part-time job.”
“You were working a full-time and part-time job?” And Eli thought he put in long hours.
Jeffrey Daniels bit nervously on his fingernails. He glanced up at Eli, chewed a second longer, then asked, “Can I get your opinion on something, Doc?”
Eli wasn’t sure he wanted to hear this. He had a suspicion it had something to do with the state of the couple’s marriage, and with the brand new relationship he and Monica had just embarked upon, Eli did not want to think that people who were once in love could end up like the Daniels.
But, it came with the job. He had counseled frightened, uncertain husbands before. Besides, Eli was curious as hell about what had gone wrong in this marriage. He didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes with Monica.
“What’s on your mind?” He picked up his favorite pen and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger as he watched Jeffrey settle uncomfortably in his seat.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed the relationship between my wife and I is somewhat...umm...strained.”
“I perceived some distance between the two of you,” he said simply. “Women experience many levels of emotion during pregnancy. I thought maybe that had something to do with it.”
“No.” Jeffrey shook his head. “The problems started before Amanda got pregnant. In fact, she’d filed for divorce the day the baby was conceived. It was one of those, you know, for old time’s sake kinda things.” He paused for a moment. “As I think about it, things started going downhill around the time of the first pregnancy. You do know that Amanda miscarried once before?”
“We discussed her miscarriage on her first visit.”
“Yeah, I guess you would know, being her doctor. You seem to know more about my wife than I do,” Jeffrey said with a grunt.
“Mr. Daniels—”
“No, it’s okay,” he waved Eli off. “The important thing is keeping Amanda healthy, and that’s what you’re doing. I just…I wish she would talk to me.”
The look he gave him made Eli feel ten kinds of sorry for the poor guy.
“I love my wife, Dr. Holmes. This divorce was her idea, and for the longest time I had no idea why she wanted out. Then, the other day, she accused me of cheating on her. I have never been with another woman the entire time we’ve been married. I don’t know where she got the idea that I cheated.
“I can’t lose my wife,” Jeffrey said pleadingly. “She and that baby mean everything to me.”
Jeffrey Daniels’s face had taken on an expression that was a cross between a fanatical preacher and a deluded serial killer. His eyes were wide and bright, like a man with nothing to lose but…everything.
“Mr. Daniels, I—”
“I’m only asking you to talk to her,” he stated. “She listens to you, respects you.”
Okay, here was one situation Eli had never found himself in before. This was not included in his job description. The hospital provided marriage counselors for things like this.
“You know, we have a great counseling center.”
Jeffrey shook his head, the defeated look on his face turning into one of determination. “I know Amanda. She wouldn’t go for that.”
“What makes you think my talking to her will make a difference?”
“You got her to move back into our house,” he stated simply. “It’s a feat I could not accomplish with months of begging. I can’t pinpoint what it is, but there’s something about you that, I don’t know, calms her.”
He’d heard this before. Back in med school, his classmates used to say he had the
magic touch when it came to pregnant women. His “gift” had aided him through a number of eventful births, but right now, Eli was ready to give the gift back to wherever it had come from. He did not want to be caught in the middle of this couple’s marriage.
“Just think about it, Doc,” Jeffrey said. No doubt, he sensed his discomfort. At this point, Eli was doing very little to hide it.
“I can’t promise you anything,” Eli said, rising from his desk, hoping the other man would get the hint.
Jeffrey rose from his chair and waited for Eli to round his desk. He grasped Eli’s hand between both of his, and shook vigorously. The genuine hope and sincerity on his face created a feeling of dread in the pit of Eli’s stomach. No use fighting it now; he was already in the middle of this. Eli resisted the urge to roll his eyes. How did he get caught up in these situations?
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, pulling his hand free. He looked up at the clock on the wall. He had about twenty minutes before he had to start preparations for his first C-section, one of five scheduled today.
If he got Jeffrey Daniels out right now, he could sneak to the ER for a few minutes to see Monica.
Eli had a feeling working at the same hospital with his girlfriend would get him in trouble. Maybe that was the real reason he never wanted to date doctors. Maybe it had nothing to do with Elizabeth Graves.
Nah, that wasn’t it. He had dated his share of nurses who worked here and had never broken his neck to see them while at the job.
This time, it was about the woman. Pure and simple.
Eli followed Jeffrey out of his office, closing the door behind him.
“Hey, Dr. Holmes.” A RN walked up beside him on the way to the elevator. “You hear about the strike?”
“What strike?” Eli asked.
“In Hattiesburg. Where have you been all morning? It’s all anyone is talking about.”
Eli glanced at his watch. He was down to seventeen minutes.
“Nearly all the physicians have walked out of the hospitals or closed their practices,” the nurse continued.
Okay, that sounded serious. Eli could only imagine the chaos that would ensue if something similar were to happen to the healthcare system in this city. Like New Orleans, Mississippi’s hospitals had been painfully understaffed since Katrina.
“What caused the walk out,” he asked, keeping in mind his ticking wristwatch.
“Insurance premiums.”
Figures.
“I heard that some specialists are paying as much as $200,000 a year in malpractice insurance,” she said in awe. “As much as I gripe about the difference in pay between doctors and nurses, even I have to agree that’s ridiculous.”
Eli nodded. He empathized with the Mississippi doctors. He could have paid for his house three times over if so much of his salary didn’t go for insurance. It was the price for practicing in the litigious land of mass tort lawsuits.
“I also heard they’re asking for docs from neighboring states to help out until everything is resolved.”
A sense of foreboding traveled down Eli’s spine at the potential implications of the nurse’s statement. He only hoped neither he nor Monica were called out.
“Eli!”
His chin dropped to his chest at the sound of William Slessinger’s jovial voice.
“I’ve been looking for you all morning. I’m happy I caught you before the marathon of Cesareans you have planned for today,” Slessinger said, draping his arm across Eli’s shoulders. “I’ve got a really big favor to ask. Why don’t we go to your office for a few minutes?”
The sense of foreboding evolved into all out dread. Eli already knew what would happen next.
He was on his way to Mississippi.
Chapter Twenty-One
As she threw her overnight bag on the backseat, Monica asked herself, once again, just what was she doing? She didn’t even know how to get to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Relying on directions she downloaded from the Internet, Monica could not believe she was actually about to get in her car and drive to another state.
For a man!
Okay, so things had not gone according to plan. Instead of staying man free for another year or so, she had gone ahead and fallen in love.
Was she in love?
No. Love didn’t happen this quickly. So what if the man cooked her breakfast, opened car doors, and looked spectacular in the buff? It took more than a couple of cozy dates, good food, and great sex to make her fall in love. Didn’t it?
Monica pulled away from the curb and headed for the interstate. She drove through Slidell, crossed the state line into Mississippi, and felt confident when she saw the sign for Interstate 59.
Peter Banyon, who was filling in for Eli, told her that most of the replacement doctors were staying at the Holiday Inn near the Hattiesburg hospital.
Two and a half hours after leaving New Orleans, Monica pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and smiled as she spotted Eli’s SUV. She parked, grabbed her bag from the back seat and headed for the lobby. The front desk clerk sat behind the counter, thumbing through a magazine.
“Can I have the room number for Elijah Holmes,” Monica asked. “He’s expecting me.”
Big lie. Actually, she had hoped he wouldn’t be there. It would have been a nice surprise to be waiting in his bed when he returned. Naked.
“Monica?”
Monica turned at the sound of Eli’s voice. She ran to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and slathering his face with kisses.
“Don’t ask me what I’m doing here. I have no idea.”
“I thought you had things to take care of for the banquet.”
“I blew them off,” Monica admitted, nearly giddy with the excitement of seeing him. How had she fallen so hard, so fast?
“I don’t believe it,” Eli said.
“I know. It’s so not like me. I don’t know what’s happened to me, Eli. I think I’m addicted to you.”
The smug smile that drew across his face made Monica wish she had the willpower to turn around and leave. Lord knows the man had a big enough ego. But she wasn’t about to deny herself. There was something about him that she was powerless to fight, and if that made her weak where he was concerned, so be it. As long as she was in his arms once again, that’s all that mattered.
Eli nibbled her neck, pulling her closer, his body’s response to her boldly pressing against her stomach. Monica shivered.
“You know,” Eli said, “some doctors prescribe going cold turkey in order to overcome an addiction. But I’ve always been of the mindset that if you really want to cure it, you need to feed it.”
Monica moaned. He felt so good. “What if I’m not looking for a cure?”
“Feed it anyway,” he whispered against her neck, causing a trail of goosebumps to travel across her flesh.
“Can we go up to your room,” Monica asked, remembering for the first time since she’d ran into Eli’s arms that they were standing in the middle of the hotel lobby.
“Yes,” Eli answered. “Food can definitely wait.”
Monica lifted her head from where it rested against his chest. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to stop you from eating dinner,” she said, untangling from his embrace. “Go and get something to eat. I can wait.”
“I can’t.”
“Eli, you need to eat something.”
He cocked a brow.
Monica’s entire body blushed. “I mean food.”
He looked to the girl behind the desk. She was still engrossed in her magazine, and to Monica’s relief, was not paying them any attention.
“How late does room service deliver?” Eli asked.
“Ten,” she answered, not raising her head.
“Dinner is solved.”
He grabbed Monica by the hand and led her up the flight of stairs to the second floor. Monica nearly shivered in anticipation.
She didn’t know what was happening to her. She enjoyed sex as much as any healthy female, but she’
d never been champing at the bit. Eli was turning her into a sex fiend.
And, my goodness was she loving it!
As soon as she crossed the threshold, Eli picked her up, kicked the door close and carried her to the bed. He laid her gently onto the soft bedding and covered her body with his.
This time they took it slow and easy, lavishing each other with moist kisses. Tasting each other with languid tongues. Loving each other with full hearts.
Monica closed her eyes and held on tight as Eli explored her body. She took pleasure in every soft, reverent stroke, relishing the great care he employed as he worshipfully made love to her.
When their pleasurable journey ended, Monica wrapped herself in a sheet and went to stand on the balcony while Eli ordered room service. A few minutes later, he joined her.
A million stars twinkled in the darkened sky, like a swarm of lightning bugs in a pitch-black rainforest. The night was quiet and peaceful, as if everyone had turned in early, leaving nothing but the crickets to beautify the night with their music.
Monica took in the clean air with a deep breath.
“Something wrong?” Eli asked. He came up from behind and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head and squeezed tighter.
Monica shook her head.
“You’re not talking much,” he commented, running his hands up and down her arms.
She smiled inwardly. “I’m speechless,” she finally said.
Elijah threw his head back, his deep laughter rumbling through the quiet darkness. “That’s about the best compliment I’ve ever received.”
Monica sobered. “Have you had many?”
“Many what?”
“Compliments. For...you know…”
She felt him sigh against her back. “Why would you pick right now to ask me something like that?”
She turned to face him. “Because I want to know.”
“You’ll just get upset and stop talking to me, and it’ll take the rest of the night for me to get back in your good graces. I had other plans for our night.”
“I won’t get upset.” She drew a cross over her chest with her finger. “I promise.”
Deliver Me Page 22
