Baby in His Arms Read online

  I know you fly out soon, but I thought you should know. Deena G has made another claim. That she’s pregnant. With your baby.

  Noah’s mouth dropped right before he gave a silent cry of rage. He’d suspected things would get worse. Glancing back one more time at the sleeping woman, he forced down a pang of guilt. It wasn’t her fault. But he never should have engaged her last night. The universe was already punishing him. He headed quietly to the door and turned the lock.

  The rustle of bedsheets made him pause.

  “Hey, I want to tell you something.” Her voice was thick and slow with sleep. “Are you there?”

  Thanks to the layout of the room, she couldn’t see him as he silently turned the handle, re-engaged the lock before he stepped out and carefully closed the door.

  And left.

  Baby in His Arms

  Elizabeth Otto

  Copyright © 2018 Elizabeth Otto

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. References to real people, places, organizations, events, and products are intended to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and not to be construed as real. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

  Chapter One

  “Large coffee, two creamers.” With a side of a million dollars, please.

  Afton Henningsen dug a five out of her pocket and handed it to the cafe worker. Money was tight. She shouldn’t be spending any on coffee, but she needed the caffeine boost. Another sleepless night meant getting through the day would be tough. Plus, sitting through two hours of hospital policy training had pushed her from exhausted to slightly brain-dead.

  If she could just get that cool million, she’d forget this new job, pay off nursing school, go home and take a nap.

  Behind her, a masculine laugh caught her attention. It was followed by the deep timber of speech that caused little prickles on the back of her neck. The tones were rich, quiet, smooth—a voice you’d hear whispered in the dark as you lay tangled and naked. Afton held her breath, hoping to hear the sound more clearly. He laughed again, softer but enough that her skin flushed hot. It was easy to imagine that she’d heard that voice before.

  Ah, damn. A smooth-talking man is the reason she had a five-month old at home and required extra coffee just to function every day. No way was she doing that again.

  “Here you go.” The lady behind the counter slid a paper coffee cup Afton’s way. She took it with a smile of thanks and pocketed the change.

  A flurry of people came up to the counter, medical students, and orientees like herself. She stepped to the side and scanned the crowd for Debby, the nurse manager who’d been giving her orientation. Taking a small sip, she browsed the cafeteria to see if she could match the honied voice with its owner. In the far corner, a man stood with his back to her, blonde hair catching in the fluorescent lights. Afton raised one brow as a pang of familiarity hit her.

  Tall, lean body clad in a white coat, strong lines of a tanned neck. A quick peek of a beautifully masculine profile. She frowned. Did she know him? Right, because Chicago wasn’t an overcrowded mess that left little chance she’d have met anyone in this hospital before.

  Then again, there was something about him that reminded her of... someone else.

  She really needed more sleep. Her poor, tired brain was matrixing him, making it seem possible that he was—

  The ding of her cellphone pulled her attention. She slipped her phone from her pocket and thumbed the message open.

  Why didn’t you tell me?

  Her heart fluttered at her father’s message. His disapproving tone came through in each typed word. After the way he’d behaved, she shouldn’t care if he disapproved or not. She’d all but cut herself off from that man and tried hard not to let him affect her. But he did, and she struggled with her emotions.

  A daughter’s guilt and all that.

  She put her phone away. Getting through the final months of college while pregnant had been hell, and now she had a new graduate nurse job with baby thrown into the mix—and sleepless nights. And never-ending anxiety that her daughter would get sick and cause Afton to miss a day.

  It was always something.

  For the past two years, her life had been one challenge after another with no signs of it getting easier.

  “Are you ready to continue?” Debby appeared as the crowd began to thin.

  Anything to distract her from what her father might want. “Yes.”

  “Good. We’ll tour the pediatric wing next. And then we’ll get you down to the emergency room where you belong.”

  Her phone vibrated inside her pocket. She imagined her father had typed one, single word.

  Afton!

  He wouldn’t stop blowing up her cell until she answered him. She reached into her pocket and depressed her phone’s silent button, praying the babysitter didn’t run into any issues and need to get ahold of her. She had the hospital’s main number, just in case.

  Silencing her phone was a risk, but she couldn’t pay attention to orientation and deal with the stress of her father’s tantrum.

  A week ago, she’d had a pending job offer at Regions, the prestigious teaching hospital where her father worked as the Chief Medical Officer. She’d been passed over, which she’d counted as a blessing. Working for her father would just create an extension of their terrible relationship. She’d only applied under pressure from him and danced around her living room when she hadn’t been hired.

  Instead, she accepted a job here at Central North, the armpit hospital of Chicago. Underfunded. Understaffed. Busy as all hell. And the best teaching experience a new nurse could ask for. It wasn’t optimal. But she had bills to pay and a baby to provide for.

  It had been too intimidating to tell her dad face-to-face that she wouldn’t be working with him. He’d been different since her mother’s death two years ago, and everything Afton did seemed to throw him into a frenzy. He was forever scandalized that she’d gotten knocked up during spring break. He loved his infant granddaughter, but his disapproval of the situation was ever evident.

  Like she’d planned to meet a nameless, sexy, care-free world traveler on the beach in Cabo San Lucas and end up in his hotel room... pregnant.

  “Oh good, Madeline, over here.” Debby waved to a woman down the hall.

  Afton recognized her from yesterday’s orientation. Tall, lithe, and sporting a head full of glossy brown curls, she wasn’t the kind of woman you didn’t notice. Madeline joined them with a carefree smile and an annoying amount of sparkle in her brown eyes. Must be nice to feel that awake.

  “Afton, Maddie will be working in the ER as well. Get familiar. You’ll be spending a lot of time together.”

  Afton gave a tight smile. If she had any mental energy to spend on making friends, she’d be all over it. For now, just no.

  “Nice to meet you.” Maddie held out a perfectly manicured hand. Afton gave it a quick shake, frowning at her own nails. It had been months since she’d had them done.

  “You, too.”

  Debby explained their rotating day and night shifts as they walked down the hall and climbed a staircase. Afton couldn’t discern if she felt more nervous, excited or just straight-up intimidated. That was her default, after all. Or... it used to be. The Afton that used to second-guess everything and self-depreciate herself about, well, everything, took a hike when she began breaking free from her dad, let her brazen inner-woman out and slept with a hot stranger in an exotic country.

  No, that experience had been damn empowering. A response to grief over losing her mother, yes. But also, amazingly, incredibly empowering. And
the best fucking sex she’d ever had.

  A flush of heat spread to her hairline and down her neck. She’d never gotten his name—nor had she offered up her own—but she could recall his face on demand. Tanned skin and blonde hair with sun-kissed tones of dark honey and platinum. He was older than her, much older. But the sexiness of his toned body and scruff on his jaw, and those hands... Christ, those perfect hands had made age a non-issue.

  Just the thought of him made her insides prance like a circus pony.

  “Questions?”

  Afton snapped Debby a look. Shit. “What’s that?”

  “Any questions so far?”

  Her mind had trouble refocusing away from the sexy memory replaying in her mind.

  “N-no.” Jesus, get it together!

  She’d just had a baby. No way was a boyfriend or any type of relationship on her mind. Her life revolved around her little family. Period. Maybe one day she’d meet a steady, reliable man. Someone willing to take on her daughter as his own. Someone willing to be a family, like she’d dreamed of since she was young. Her mother had been the most stable person in her life, the pillar of Afton’s rocky teenage years and early adulthood. Her father was so difficult to live with, that for as long as Afton could remember, her sense of family had involved herself and her mom. But it hadn’t stopped her from longing for a good marriage of her own, a man to love and who loved her unconditionally.

  Her mom has taken every meaning of family with her when she’d passed. A pang of longing punched her in the chest. Now that she had a daughter of her own, Afton wished for her mom more than ever.

  Debby paused at the nurse’s station and introduced them to the staff. They finished their tour there and headed downstairs, exiting the elevator and stepping into a hallway filled with chaos.

  She took a small step back as an aide rushed by with an empty gurney. The hallway was lined with beds, some occupied, some not, medical carts and IV poles.

  Maddie paused and gave Afton a glance. The sparkle had left those brown eyes, replaced by a shade of intimidation. Good, we can both feel scared as hell.

  They weaved past staff and patients until they reached a large, circular desk with eight feet of plexiglass above the counter. Debby used her badge to unlock one of the side doors and ushered them inside.

  “This is the Core. Everything is processed and managed back here. You’ll need your badge to get into any of the four doors. Always be sure the door shuts completely behind you.”

  “Is this bulletproof glass?”

  Afton looked closer. The glass was thick, clear, giving staff a 360-degree view of the department, and a sense of security.

  Debby shrugged. “Somedays, it’s hell out there. This secured unit is for your protection in case of a violent patient, and to keep charts, medications, etc. safe from wandering off.”

  Jesus Christ, Maddie mouthed, her eyes going wide. “I’m already convinced that OB is the place for me.”

  “Yeah, well, if you survive your time down here, you’re free to work in any unit you’d like.”

  Debby’s tone said she was kidding-not-kidding. Seriously, that applied figuratively and literally. There was bulletproof glass around the nurses’ station for God’s sake! Afton forced the nerves down and listened closely as Debby walked them around the unit. Her temple began to throb at the run-down of the patient intake process, how to receive an ambulance, which room critical patients went to and which were for non-critical.

  They stopped before a set of sliding doors that slid slowly open to reveal a mass of people.

  The waiting room.

  People stood or sat on the floor since all the chairs were full. Children cried, someone coughed like they’d expelled a lung, and an older man was screaming at one of the receptionists. A trickle of adrenaline rushed through her. Fight or flight time, and damn it if she wasn’t tempted to run.

  “Your nursing instructor assured me you could handle the craziness, Afton.” Debby touched her shoulder. “I hope he’s right.”

  She caught her mentor’s eyes, her shoulders straightening at the seriousness looking back at her. Her instructor had probably filled Debby in on who Afton’s father was. Anyone who dealt with Yeager Henningsen needed cast iron balls and a spine of steel. Being his daughter meant that she must be tough as they come by default, right?

  Too bad that wasn’t the truth.

  Afton took a breath. “Me, too.”

  Her palms went damp, but the apprehension didn’t kill her desire to get started. It was terrifying. But on the other side of this was a future for her and Kylie.

  They went back to the Core. Afton used her badge to officially beep in. The place was bustling with staff coming in and out. Debby showed them how to log into a laptop at the desk. Behind them, a trio of white-coat clad doctors were talking quietly. Afton glanced at them, did a subtle double-take at the doctor in the middle.

  Maddie was looking, too. Her eyebrows raised in a ‘who’s that?’ sort of way.

  His tall form filled out the coat nicely, the gloss of his blonde hair catching in the fluorescent lights. He turned slightly to look at a colleague, showing the strong line of his jaw and a straight, masculine nose. It was the guy from the café.

  A little shiver went through her.

  Turn all the way around, she thought. If he was as hot as his outline suggested, it was no wonder the sexual harassment portion of orientation had been so damn long. Maybe this shithole wasn’t going to be so bad after all. She couldn’t touch—no way—but she could look. She was human, for Christ’s sake.

  “Let me introduce the two of you.” Debby nodded toward the doctors.

  Maddie stepped forward, slightly blocking Afton. She corrected her stance, but not by a lot. Afton waved it off. She wasn’t here to meet a man. She was here to work.

  He turned as they approached. Chills assaulted Afton’s body, razing from her scalp down her spine and dashing to her extremities. She faltered a little, reaching out for something to grab onto. Air met her attempt, and she bumped into Maddie, grabbing a fistful of her scrub top to keep from falling. Debby and Maddie glanced at her, but Afton couldn’t find the strength to get her shit together.

  He was looking right at her.

  He caged her with liquid sapphire eyes she saw in her most wicked dreams. The rugged face was familiar, landscaped with a strong, straight nose between arched and dipped cheekbones, and a mouth made for licking, kissing, biting—lips she’d tasted once, in a forbidden night. Dark golden stubble covered his jaw and chin, hiding the little divot she knew was there.

  His brow fell in the moment their eyes locked. A tumultuous rush of tangled emotions threatened to take Afton all the way to her knees, but she held on. Her fingers dug into the fabric of Maddie’s scrub pants.

  “Dr. Crisler, I’d like to introduce you.”

  Debby glanced at her again, then put on a professional smile and folded her hands in front of her. Afton straightened, pushing down the butterflies in her stomach. He approached, and she lost control, the butterflies turning murderous.

  He extended a hand. The full smile on his beautiful lips turned down by increments. His brow furrowed, his eyes losing the slight crinkles in the corners. Oh Christ, did she look familiar to him, too? Did he know it was her?

  How could he possibly remember?

  The night had been dark, the hotel room, dimly lit. Men didn’t remember the details of one-night stands, not like a woman who’d never done it before did.

  Maddie gently grabbed Afton’s wrist and tugged to release the death grip on her pants.

  Debby looked between them. “Afton, Madeline, I’d like you to meet Dr. Noah Crisler, interim Head of Emergency Medicine.”

  He moved close enough that the scent of his woodsy cologne flooded her senses. Jesus, what was happening?

  His hand was still extended, his gaze bypassing Madeline and Debby and he took another small step in her direction. Swallowing hard, she lightly took his hand in hers. The contemp
lation deepened in his expression as their fingers touched. He searched her face, as if looking for some indication from her but she looked away. She had to!

  His grip on her hand tightened. “Nice to meet you.”

  He paused so she could introduce herself. She couldn’t get her mouth to work.

  Debby stepped closer to them. “Afton and Madeline are new RN’s to the department.”

  “Very good. Glad to have you.”

  From the corner of her eyes, she noticed Noah sweep her with a hard gaze before letting her hand drop and turning back to his colleagues.

  Afton could barely draw in a breath. Her daughter had his eyes. The same shape and color, lined with the same heavy, dark lashes. Jesus, she had his mouth, too. Icy chills made a second round down her body.

  “How?” The word dripped from her mouth in a helpless whisper. How was this happening? She’d resolved that her baby would be father-less; that she’d raise Kylie on her own. After all, how do you contact a man whose name you never knew, to let him know the condom had failed he was about to be a father?

  “How, what?” Debby crossed her arms.

  God, she really had to get her shit together!

  “H-how long has he been head of the ER?”

  “He just stepped into the position a few months ago, until a permanent Director can be hired. Are you ok?”

  No. Oh, fuck no. Her heart was racing, sweat beading along her hairline. Slow nausea was churning in her gut, threatening to lurch forth any second.

  “Can I take a few minutes? The coffee isn’t agreeing with me.”

  Debby nodded. “Of course. I’ll meet you in the Core in twenty.”

  Afton didn’t respond; she hurried from the Core without glancing back as she rushed to the women’s locker room. Kylie’s father wasn’t a ghost anymore. He was an impossible, crazy, incredible coincidence. He’d been a shadow in her past all this time.

  A shadow. Who finally had a name.

  Noah.

  Chapter Two

  “I’ll make sure there’s a place for you at Regions when you’re done at that shit hole.”