“Well, I did. So you can imagine how disappointed I was to find your apartment empty. You messed up my surprise.”
“I’m sorry. There was just so much to do here today.”
“On your day off?”
“The banquet is in less than a week, Eli.”
“And as I’ve said before, there are other people to take care of this stuff. You’ve done a wonderful job delegating, Monica. You should be in administration instead of the ER.”
She feigned an affronted gasp. “Bite your tongue.”
“I know you’d never leave the ER. But, seriously, you’ve done everything you can do for this banquet.”
“But I just want to make sure everything is lined up—”
“No!” he said. “You’re going to drive yourself crazy if you don’t stop.”
“I’m already there,” she said with a sad laugh. In the relatively short time she had known him, Monica had already learned fighting Eli on something like this was a losing battle. “Fine,” she said, conceding before he found out just how involved she had once again become in the banquet preparations. “What is this surprise?”
The devilish grin that curved up the corners of his mouth sent a tiny shiver up her spine. “We’re going to enjoy my number one hobby.”
Monica’s eyes widened. Teasingly, she said, “In the middle of the day?”
“My second favorite hobby,” Eli amended.
“And just what is that?”
“Nah uh.” He shook his head. “Just in case you don’t like it, I’m not telling you until we get there.”
“No fair,” Monica laughingly protested. “Really, Eli, I need to drive out to St. Charles Parish. I’m scheduled to meet with the coordinator in about an hour.”
“Cancel.”
“I can’t cancel.”
“Then send someone in your place.”
“I—”
Actually, she could send someone else. In fact, she had sent someone else. Kenya James, an RN on the site subcommittee, was already at Destrehan Plantation. Monica had no real reason to be there, she just wanted to make sure everything was up to her standards.
“You were saying?” Eli asked.
“Forget it,” Monica replied. “Let’s go. The capable site committee can take care of the details.”
“You see, if you would just accept everything I say as law, you could save yourself so much time.”
“Get out of here,” Monica laughed, pushing Eli out the door.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Eli maneuvered his SUV into the first empty parking slot he could find, sending her a smile.
“Miniature golf?” Monica asked, dismay making her voice hike up like a soprano.
“I couldn’t get a tee time at any of the courses that are up and running.” Eli step down from the SUV and went around her side. “Besides, I figured you didn’t play so I thought I’d start you off on something a little simpler than the front nine at English Turn.”
Monica halted in the act of getting out of the car. “Please don’t tell me you spend all your free time on the golf course. That’s so cliché.”
“Hey, I’ve got to be prepared for early retirement.”
She rolled her eyes and finally allowed him to assist her. Placing her hand in his, she stepped down from the front seat. She brushed passed him and Eli nearly died as he caught a nose full of her delicious, delicate scent. Maybe he should have opted for his number one hobby.
“You’re right,” Monica said. “I have no idea how to golf. I’ve never even held a club.”
As she crossed her arms over her chest, Eli’s eyes automatically zoomed in on her luscious breasts. He envisioned trailing his tongue along their delicate slopes before taking her taut nipple between his teeth. His groined tightened unmercifully.
“Forget the golf,” he said, taking her by the arm. “We’ve got better things to do.”
“No,” Monica pulled away. “You brought me out here. I’m ready to hit a home run.” She made a swinging motion as if holding a baseball bat.
“Wrong sport.” He rolled his eyes.
“It was a joke.”
“Fine. Ha. Ha. Now let’s go.” He went after her arm and once again she pulled away.
“Why are you in such a hurry to go?”
Eli looked into her eyes, making sure his smoldering gaze left no question to what he wanted. Her eyes traveled down to his crotch where the evidence of his arousal was more than obvious.
When he noticed the devious smile creeping up the sides of her mouth, Eli knew he was in trouble. Monica took a step back and crossed her arms over her chest again, but this time she rested them just under her breasts. They stood out as if they were being served on a platter. Eli groaned.
“I guess that’s a pretty good reason,” she finally answered. “But, umm, I think I’d rather golf.”
Oh, the woman was heartless.
Eli closed his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest. “You’re doing this just to torture me, aren’t you?”
“What?” she asked with angel-eyed innocence. Just the thought of all the un-angel like things they could be doing right now was enough to drive him crazy.
“Monica, please.” His raspy voice was filled with desire. He so needed to get her out of this parking lot and into a bed. He didn’t even care whose bed, as long as they were horizontal.
Monica tipped her head to the side and taped her finger against her chin. She squinted her eyes, as if thinking really hard. “Uh...no. I say we golf.”
“Woman, you are so evil.”
She was barely able to keep the laughter from her voice. “And you, Dr. Holmes, are way too used to getting what you want. I think someone needs to knock you down a peg or two.”
“Can’t you do that another night? In fact, I’ll let you. You can deny me anything you want tomorrow, but I really, really want you right now, Monica.” The last part came out like a man pleading for his life, though it was only fair since Eli was sure he would die if he didn’t have her in the next five minutes.
“Nope.” Monica shook her head. She grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him toward the colorful entrance to the miniature golf course, purposely swaying her hips from side to side.
“Stop that,” Eli warned.
“Stop what?”
“You know what. If you don’t want to go at it between two parked cars, you’ll stop shaking your behind like that.”
She stuck her nose in the air. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her hips rocked even more.
Eli reluctantly followed her to the cashier booth, trying like hell not to look at her firm backside. It was impossible.
When he took his wallet out of his back pocket to pay for the round of golf and club rental, he pulled his shirt from his pants hoping to conceal his erection. Obviously, his little man wasn’t going down any time soon.
For a sport he enjoyed almost as much as breathing, this was the most frustrating round of golf Eli had ever played. Monica did her best to distract him. She took her sweet time bending over and situating the ball on the tee, leaving her saucy butt in the air a few moments longer than necessary.
She was going to pay for this. He may not let get any sleep at all tonight.
“To say you spend most of your spare time playing golf, you sure are missing a lot of putts,” Monica remarked after Eli missed a three-footer he normally could sink with his eyes closed.
“I’m usually not this distracted,” he said in his own defense.
“Distracted? Why ever would you be distracted?” There was the doe-eyed innocence again.
“Keep it up,” he warned. Unable to guard against her infectious smile, Eli could not help the grin spreading across his face. That’s okay. He would be grinning a hell of a lot more in a few hours.
“So what’s your handicap?”
“Depends on who I’m playing with.”
She stopped in the middle of her putt and looked back at him. “H
ow so?”
Eli shrugged. “I tend to play better with Alex, but Toby brings my game down.”
“In what way?” She looked at him with genuine interest.
Eli thought about it for a minute. He’d asked himself the same question time and time again. “I don’t know,” he finally answered, because truthfully, he didn’t. “Toby and I have always been in competition with each other; especially after my dad died. Alex fell into the father role, and Toby and I were like the two kids who always wanted to impress him.
“It’s not a secret that Toby is the most athletic of the three of us, so when it comes to sports, my game always falters when I’m around him. It’s like I break under the pressure of trying to compete with someone I know is better than I am.”
“That’s the story of my life,” Monica said.
“What is?”
“Competition. I’m stuck in the middle of two geniuses. I told you about my brother, Phillip, who I spent my entire life trying to live up to. Then my little sister Ashley came out of the womb playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. She’s at Julliard now, probably teaching some of the teachers.” A smile touched the edges of her mouth.
“I tried to measure up”—she hunched her shoulders in helpless defeat— “but what can you do?”
“My brothers and I are always trying to one up each other, but it’s all in fun.”
“Wish I could say the same,” she said with a dry laugh. “It went far beyond just Phillip and Ashley, though. The competitiveness seeped into every part of my life, and just as you said, I would crumble under the pressure of working beside someone I knew was better than me.
“The worst instance happened back in St. Louis, at my old job.”
Eli dropped his club and walked over to her, taking her hand. He sensed the unease in her voice, but he had to ask, “What happened?”
She looked down at their clasped hands and gave him another of those sweet, but sad smiles. “It was during my second year of residency. A new doctor started in the ER. He was a trauma surgeon who wanted to change to emergency medicine, so he was put on a residency rotation. Of course, he blew all of the other residents out of the water.
“I studied my butt off that year. Went so far as to practice my incisions and suturing on raw chickens. I was determined to win even more accolades than Dr. Festerling. But my plan backfired.”
She was no longer looking at him, but instead focused on something over his shoulder.
“A six-year-old came in with an obstructed airway. Something so simple,” she said with a derisive laugh. “But, you see, the toughest part of my entire residency was my peds rotation. I had a hard time intubating small children. The narrower breathing passage,” she explained, taking a deep swallow. Eli could tell this was hard for her, but he would let her continue. She obviously needed to talk through the ordeal. He squeezed her hand, a silent message of encouragement.
“I was doing really well until Dr. Festerling invaded the trauma. As soon as he walked into the room, I froze.”
“Did the child die?” Eli asked, stroking his thumb over the back of her hand.
Monica shook her head. After another deep breath, she said, “Festerling stepped in and saved the day. I was devastated. I contemplated quitting.”
“Oh, Monica,” Eli grabbed her shoulders and brought her to his chest, cradling her head against him.
“Someone who would put some stupid competitive streak over the life of a child should not practice medicine.”
“It was a mistake.”
“Would you want to be the one to explain it to that child’s mother if he would have died?” She shook her head against his chest. “It’s this drive to be perfect. Do you know every decision I’ve ever made in life has been to prove that I’m better. I’ve got to get over this, Eli. No one is perfect.”
“You’ll get no argument from me there. I’ve told you more than once that there are other capable people on the planet. You do not have to do it all.”
She looked up at him, tears shimmering in her brown eyes.
“You’ve done wonders for me, do you know that? I can guarantee if I didn’t have you in my life these past weeks I would have put on this entire banquet by myself. I would not have even bothered to set up subcommittees.”
Eli pulled her tighter against him and bent down to kiss the tip of her nose. “You really need to learn to relax, woman.”
“I’m sure there are a number of ways you can teach me how to do that,” she murmured.
“Baby, I’m ready and willing. Right now.”
A couple passed them on the golf course, giving them the evil eye. Probably because they had hogged this hole for the last twenty minutes.
“Can we please get out of here?” Eli whispered into her ear.
“Yes,” came Monica’s husky reply.
“Thank God. Finally.”
“Finally?” she laughed. “Must I remind you that you are the one who brought me here? You wanted me to learn your second favorite hobby, remember?”
“Forget my second favorite hobby.”
Eli made quick work of returning the rented clubs. He grabbed Monica by the hand and nearly dragged her to the parking lot like a caveman hauling in his day’s catch. He helped her into the SUV and kissed her deeply as he drew the seatbelt across her torso and buckled her in.
“It’s time for me to show you how my number one hobby earned its prestigious place on the list.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jeffrey tried, but could not manage to lower his hand from the thin pane of Plexiglas separating him from his newborn daughter. He wasn’t sure how long he had been staring at her. One thing he did know, he could stay in this exact spot, doing this exact thing, for the rest of his life.
Another tear slid down his cheek. He had stopped trying to hide them hours ago. He didn’t care who saw him, he was more than proud to say his daughter brought tears to her father’s eyes.
She punched her tiny fist in the air, and Jeffrey’s heart lurched. He reached out for her, his palm coming up with hard plastic.
She was so fragile, so incredibly delicate. Just the thought of anything happening to her caused his chest to grow uncomfortably tight. His breath hitched at the knowledge that he was now responsible for the tiny human being lying on the other side of the glass. He held her precious life in his hands.
The awesomeness of his new responsibility crashed through him like a three-ton boulder.
One of the pediatric nurses walked up to the incubator, opened it and gently pulled his daughter out. She turned to Jeffrey and mouthed, “Feeding time.”
He nodded. He didn’t want her to go, but his baby had to eat.
“Do you want to feed her?” The nurse pronounced each word slowly so he could read her lips.
“Can I?” he mouthed back.
The nurse motioned with her head. Jeffrey waited while she buzzed him into the electronically locked double doors.
“You’ll need to scrub and put on a gown before you can come any further,” the nurse explained after he had taken a couple of steps into the nursery. It had the faint scent of talcum powder and that special newborn baby smell.
Taking one of the plastic packages from the shelf in the wash area, he ripped it open and used the pre-soaped pad to scrub his fingers and forearms. Watching all those episodes of ER had paid off. He could scrub down with the best of them.
The nurse waited next to a white wicker rocking chair covered with a blue and yellow seat cushion. She motioned him over, and once he was seated, tenderly placed his daughter in the cradle of his arms.
The overwhelming rush of emotion was enough to choke on.
Jeffrey accepted the small bottle from the nurse and ever so gently worked the rubber nipple into his baby girl’s mouth.
“You’re already a pro,” the nurse commented with a smile. “No one would believe this was your first baby.”
“She’s been a long time coming,” Jeffrey replied.
�
��Does she have a name yet?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. Not until her mother wakes up.”
They had tossed around a few names years ago, but he didn’t know what the trendy name was nowadays. Besides, he couldn’t name their baby without Amanda’s knowledge.
“Don’t worry,” the nurse said, placing her hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “Your wife is going to pull through.”
The knot that had already formed the moment he took his daughter into his arms tripled in size. Jeffrey tried to swallow, but failed.
Amanda had to wake up. Had to. He could not fathom himself and his daughter going through life without her.
All the future memories he was so anticipating—going to recitals, kissing scraped knees, his daughter dancing with her feet on top of his—had Amanda right there at his side. To think of raising this baby without her...
“Think you can handle burping her?” The nurse asked as his daughter sucked the last of the contents of her bottle. She had a healthy appetite. It had come from his side of the family.
“Actually, I think I’ll let you show me how it’s done,” Jeffrey said. Holding a bottle as he rocked back and forth was one thing. Burping a baby was an entirely different ball game.
“It’s not hard. Put that blanket over your lap.” Jeffrey did as instructed. “Now,” the nurse continued, “I’m going to lay her across your lap. Just rub her back gently and wait for her to burp.”
The baby made a sound worthy of a drunken sailor in a bar.
“That was a good one,” the nurse laughed. “We won’t have to worry about a fussy baby when it comes to this little one.”
“Mr. Daniels?” Another nurse came from the other side of the nursery. “I just got a call from recovery. Your wife just woke up.”
Deep down, in a far off corner of Monica’s mind, something told her more civilized human beings would have waited until they were in a comfortable bed.
Tonight, no one would accuse neither she nor Eli of being civilized. Tonight, they were down right primitive.
Monica brought her legs up and planted her feet more firmly on the coffee table. Her glazed over eyes barely registered the chandelier high above them as her head swam from the mind-numbing pleasure ricocheting throughout her body.
Deliver Me Page 25
