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“Look, Ty,” she began, wincing when his gaze lifted to hers. “I—I have to get to the hospital. One of my patients coded and they couldn’t revive her. The family wasn’t there, but they’ve been called and asked to come to the hospital. I need to be the one to tell them.”
Ty nodded. As frustrating as he found her leaving without them talking, he understood. He’d feel the same.
As if his thought conjured a call of his own, Ty’s phone rang. The hospital. If not for the seriousness that would have prompted the call, he’d have laughed.
He took the call then clicked off his phone.
“There’s been a multicar wreck in one of the tunnels. Multiple injuries, at least two of which are infants and another’s a pregnant woman. Looks as if you aren’t the only one who has to head to the hospital. Let me grab some scrubs for both of us and we’ll share a cab.”
Eleanor stepped to the curb as the taxi Ty had hailed came to a screeching halt.
He opened the cab door and waited for her to step in. He’d barely said two words to her since he’d gotten out of bed and grabbed clothes for them both. He was upset that she’d been going to leave without waking
him. What had he expected? That she’d snuggle up next to him as if they were longtime lovers? Or that she’d awaken him with kisses and promises of an early-morning repeat?
Was that what he was used to?
“Where to?” the driver asked, eyeing the heels and gown Eleanor carried then letting his midnight gaze travel over the baggy scrubs she wore. With the drawstring waist they weren’t too bad and she’d rolled up their long legs to make them work.
Without meeting the driver’s gaze, because Lord knew he had to know how she’d spent her night, she spat out the hospital’s address.
Ty slid into the backseat next to her.
The cab smelled of years of use badly disguised with an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror.
So how in the world was it that the one scent that stood out in her mind was that of the man next to her? A scent that filled her mind with memories of the night before.
“You okay, darlin’?”
“Fine,” she answered, without glancing toward him. Really, what was she supposed to say? That this was awkward and that, yes, she’d kissed him all over the night before but now she didn’t know what to say to him and would like to crawl under the seat?
At least she hadn’t stuttered.
Eleanor couldn’t keep her eyes from watering as she sat across from the young couple on the sofa. The young couple to whom she’d just delivered devastating news.
“Did she …?” The young woman’s head bowed, then her tear-filled eyes lifted to Eleanor. “Did she suffer?”
Shaking her head, Eleanor reached over and took the woman’s hand. “No. She died in her sleep.”
The baby’s body just hadn’t been strong enough to maintain life outside her mother’s body. She’d lived a week, but only with the aid of the respirator and numerous other machines performing the bodily functions her tiny underdeveloped body hadn’t been able to.
“I should have been here,” the woman said between tears. “I shouldn’t have left the hospital.”
“Your family wasn’t wrong to want you to go home to get a good night’s sleep. Your body is recovering and needs rest,” Eleanor assured her, squeezing the woman’s hand. Her poor husband had his arm around her but looked as if he was about to burst into tears himself at any moment.
Eleanor spent a few more minutes with the couple then left the room to give them a few minutes of privacy. And to collect her own emotions.
Because she was a mess.
Losing one of her patients always tore her heart to bits, but her heart had already been in tatters before she’d even gotten to the hospital.
“There you are,” Ty said from right behind her.
She faced him, couldn’t help but immediately be struck with the memories of what they’d done only hours before.
“You okay, darlin’?” he asked, looking and sounding the same as he always did. Like handsome, charming Dr. Tyler Donaldson. Because for Ty last night hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary. But he’d probably rightly assumed that for her last night had been extraordinary.
Which was why she had to save face, to pretend she hadn’t seen stars when he’d made her orgasm, to pretend that last night hadn’t been the best time of her life.
