Back To You (A Remington Medical Contemporary Romance) Read online

  “He’s gorgeous, Tess. Super strong heartbeat and fantastic breath sounds. And, oh!” Kendrick paused for a laugh as the baby began to kick his tiny legs. “He might be a soccer player when he grows up.”

  “Ninja,” Tess corrected, and Charlie laughed.

  “I told you Natalie would say he’s fine. Just like the nurses told you last night.”

  Kendrick looked up at Parker, one gloved hand placed very carefully on the baby’s chest. “Am I assuming correctly that you have some experience with newborns?”

  Man, his history as a paramedic must be preceding him. “I have some,” he confirmed.

  “Good. Let’s make it more. Go ahead and do the exam yourself, and tell me what you see.”

  Before Parker could process all the holy shit making his pulse trip through his veins, Tess interrupted.

  “You want to use my baby as a guinea pig?” she asked, but if Kendrick was put off by the indignation seeping into her tone, it sure didn’t show.

  “I sure do,” Kendrick replied easily. “This is a teaching hospital. I trust Drake to do a good job while he learns, and Jackson is the perfect benchmark for a healthy infant. Think of it this way”—Kendrick’s smile amped up another couple of watts, and damn, she might not be ironfisted or aggressive, but Parker got the feeling she didn’t take any crap, regardless—“from here on in, whenever Drake examines an infant, your bundle of joy will be the gold standard he’s comparing the other baby to.”

  To Parker’s shock, tears rimmed Tess’s eyes. “Ugh! Low blow, Pixie Stick. I’m totally hormonal over here. Fine, go ahead. If Nat trusts you, I trust her. Just make sure you’re careful,” she told him.

  “I will be. I promise,” he said, sinking as much seriousness into the words as he could so she’d know he meant them before turning to the baby, who had cracked one eye open to squint at Parker in distaste.

  Lord, was he Tess’s kid. “Hey, little man,” he said, hyper-aware of Langston’s eyes on him as he reached out to carefully put a palm over the baby’s abdomen. “I know you’re probably missing your mom, so let’s do this, okay?”

  Kendrick grinned. “Good. Babies respond to voices, even this early in the game. Touch, too, so you always want to have a gentle hand on them during an exam.”

  She guided him through the same exam she’d just done, this time allowing him not just to observe, but to get a firsthand feel for things. Parker adjusted his touch accordingly, memorizing the sounds Jackson’s heart and belly made, the rush of air going into his lungs, the feel of his head in Parker’s comparatively humungous hands. Langston quietly excused himself about halfway through the exam, but Parker barely heard the chief’s murmured goodbye to Tess and Charlie, he was so focused on what he was doing—and more importantly, what he was learning from the tiniest person in the room.

  “Nicely done, Dr. Drake,” Kendrick said as he finished, gesturing for Parker to do the honors of swaddling Jackson back up. She turned her attention to Tess and moved toward her bedside, across from the spot where Charlie still sat. “How about you, Mom? How do you feel?”

  “Like I had a blood transfusion and emergency surgery. But nothing feels wrong, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Kendrick nodded as if it had been exactly what she’d been asking. “How’s your incision site?”

  “Good, I guess.” Tess shrugged, albeit gingerly. “I’m pretty sore, but I’m guessing that’s par for the course. Dr. Booth said he’d be in for rounds later today to check on it.”

  “Ah. Well, he is the best OB in all of Remington,” Kendrick said, and Parker was surprised by Tess’s snort in reply.

  “Yep. Just ask him.”

  Both Charlie and Kendrick pressed their lips into a thin line rather than answer, and Parker’s surprise multiplied as he handed the baby back to Tess.

  “Well, Jackson looks fantastic,” Kendrick said brightly, the subject successfully changed. “Technically, we could clear him to go home tomorrow, but since you’re nursing him—”

  Tess shook her head hard enough to fade Kendrick’s words. “Oh, yeah, no. It doesn’t matter. Alec wouldn’t…”

  She stopped short. Belatedly, Parker realized only Charlie and Tess had been in the room this whole time. He’d heard through the grapevine that Tess had gotten married almost four years ago, and hadn’t heard of a divorce. But since the whereabouts of the baby’s father fell square into the category of totally not his business, he kept his curiosity to himself.

  “Yes,” Tess said quietly. “I’d like to keep Jackson here with me until I’m released, please.”

  An awkward silence stretched out to fill the room, but only for a minute before Kendrick worked her magic.

  “We can do that, no problem. With your surgery, I’m guessing Booth will want to keep you another couple of days. I’ll make all the arrangements for this handsome devil”—she paused to grin at the baby, further smoothing the tension rolling off of Tess in waves—“to stay right here with you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No sweat. I’ll pop back in later to say hi and make sure everything’s okay. But if you need anything…”

  “I’ll make sure she calls you,” Charlie promised.

  “Good. Oh! I almost forgot,” Kendrick said, looking at Charlie with that can’t-say-no-to-this-face grin Parker was quickly discovering should probably be weaponized for all the power it freakishly held. “The Crooked Angel has amazing happy hour specials. Jonah and I were thinking of heading over there with Emmett—Dr. Mallory from ortho?—on Friday if you want to come with us.”

  Parker’s heart beat out a rapid and totally irrational rhythm of yes, yes, yes, motherfucking yes. Although he hadn’t been able to hang out there much as of late (the time suck of studying was real), The Crooked Angel had been his hangout ever since his first day at Station Seventeen. Quinn had made him swear he’d…how had she phrased it? Ah, right. Bring his doctorly ass out for a few hours or she’d have the rescue squad come kick in his door and drag him out of his apartment with ropes and cables.

  Ever the voice of reason, Charlie looked dubious. “Oh. Thanks for asking, but I can’t. You guys have fun, though.”

  It was probably for the best, Parker reasoned swiftly. His impulse to start over with her as more than just friends had burned all too hot when he’d first walked through the door this morning. Seeing her outside of the hospital would only add fuel to the fire.

  And that fire might be tempting as hell, but it also might destroy his last shot at the career he’d always wanted.

  Kendrick paused, but only for a beat before saying, “If I didn’t know any better, Dr. Becker, I’d think you were avoiding social gatherings. But I’m sure you’re a busy woman. If your plans change, the invite’s always open. We’ll be there after shift. First drink’s on me.”

  She turned toward Parker, who should feel relieved, but didn’t. “You ready to go check out the rest of the peds wing and help some sick kiddos feel better?”

  “Absolutely,” he said, stuffing his disappointment way down deep in his chest as he smiled and followed her to the door.

  14

  It took nine minutes after Natalie and Parker had left for Charleston’s heart to stop impersonating a five o’clock commuter train. She knew, because she’d been counting each one as she’d over-smiled and babbled relentlessly about the most inane subjects on the planet, including the weather, the breakfast specials that had been posted on the cafeteria’s menu board, and sports teams that neither she nor Tess followed. But she’d already exhausted every form of “good Lord, this baby is ridiculously cute” (of note: he really freaking was), and if she veered into work territory, she’d have to talk about Parker being on her service yesterday. Which would mean she’d then end up spilling about the conversation they’d had last night.

  And the way she’d woken up three-quarters of the way to a screaming orgasm because her sleep-fogged primal instinct had let her go places her logic had kept boarded up for six and a half years.

  Hot places. Hard places. Don’t-stop-until-you-make-me-come places.

  “So!” Charleston chirped, her smile so big it felt wrapped around her face. “I heard traffic on the freeway was terrible this—”

  “Oh, honey, stop before you hurt yourself,” Tess said, aiming an all-too-knowing look over the C-shaped pillow where she’d propped Jackson to nurse.

  “Stop what?” Charleston asked by default. Or maybe it was in defense. Either way, Tess called her poorly-designed bluff.

  “We have been friends for far too long for you to be legitimately asking me that. So, do you want to tell me why you’ve been temporarily insane for the last ten minutes, which—oh, by the way—just so happens to be the exact amount of time that has passed since your ex walked out of this room?”

  Shit. “No?”

  Tess threw her head back and laughed, then winced at the effort. “It’s cute that you think that’s an option. Seriously, Charlie. Did something go down between you and Parker? Because if I have to kill him—”

  “You don’t have to kill him,” Charleston quickly assured her, then added, “although I do appreciate the sentiment.” It occurred to her to ask whether or not Tess needed the favor returned, since she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Alec since he’d been standing outside of the OR a few minutes after Tess had delivered yesterday, his cell phone glued to his ear as he’d had an extended conversation with a colleague at his law firm about a case.

  But since she knew Tess would call her out for changing the subject if she did, Charleston gave up the ghost and said, “Parker and I had a long talk last night. About what happened six and a half years ago.”

  Tess’s eyes widened in surprise. “Details,” she said, waving the hand not wrapped around Jackson impatientl
y, and Charleston had to laugh, because it was either that or cry from all the back and forth that had gone down in her head over the last twelve hours.

  “I do have an intern to check in with, you know.” Of course, Charleston had already done a rundown of the board and worked with the night shift attending and the residents to triage the few patients who had been waiting when she’d arrived an hour ago, which was also, coincidentally, an hour earlier than the start of her shift.

  “Please. The residents can put your intern to work for a while. It’s good for them to delegate, and you’ll get paged if there’s a trauma. Plus, Tanaka was last night’s graveyard attending, right?”

  Charleston nodded, and Tess made a gimme motion at her cell phone, which sat on the rolling nightstand at her bedside. Charleston handed it over, a not-small amount of shock dominating her veins before Tess had thumb-typed a message, one-handed.

  “She owes me a favor or ten,” Tess said, her phone beeping a second later. “Annnnd done. She’ll stay and boss your intern around until you get downstairs. You. Parker. Talking about all the things. Go.”

  Charleston fiddled with the edge of the ID badge clipped to her coat pocket. Part of her wanted to take the path of nonchalance. Yes, she and Parker had talked, and double-yes, it had been emotional, but they’d agreed to move forward. No harm, no foul. No big deal.

  Except the rest of her knew that was a bona-fide load of crap, and when she opened her mouth, the whole story came careening out.

  “Whoa,” Tess said ten minutes later, when Charleston finally wound down. “So that’s why he left? He thought you were shutting him out and you didn’t want to be with him anymore?”

  “Yeah. And in hindsight, I don’t blame him.” Now that she’d heard his side of things, Parker feeling pushed out of their marriage made perfect, painful sense.

  Which must’ve shown on Charleston’s face, because Tess said, “Don’t blame yourself, either. You were trying to cope with a huge loss the best way you knew how. Work made you feel normal. It was your way of keeping yourself together.”

  “I know,” Charleston said, her pulse conspiring against what little calm she had left. Work had been what had gotten her through those first, awful days, but… “I just wish…I don’t know. Things had been different.”

  “Of course you do. I do, too.” Tess’s voice, which had gone uncharacteristically soft, firmed right back up again. “But they weren’t, and you can’t change that now. The only thing you can do is adjust and move forward. Without beating yourself up.”

  “And without being mad at Parker anymore,” Charleston said. “We were both wrong, and both right.”

  Tess hedged, exactly as Charleston had expected her to. She’d been so squarely in Charleston’s corner, before, during, and after everything had gone south that year. “I guess. But what happens now? Are you guys just going to pretend like you were never married, nothing to see here, move along?”

  Charleston bit back the laugh that wanted to come barking out of her. She’d have better luck trying to slingshot herself to the moon. “I don’t think that’s realistic. We have too much history to just forget it, and anyway, it’s silly to pretend we were never married, because we were.”

  “So, what? You’ll be friends?”

  “I don’t know,” Charleston admitted. “We have to work together for the next two months, so there’s that. We agreed that Langston still can’t know we were married,” she added, wanting to quell any worry Tess might have before it even nudged at her blood pressure. “Parker promised to still keep quiet about it. He doesn’t want to get on Langston’s bad side any more than I do. I’m just not sure where all of this leaves us otherwise. When we’re here at the hospital, working, it’s one thing. There are easy parameters. Intern. Attending.” They’d always been able to keep things professional at work, even when they’d both been interns. Patients were patients. Work was work. “But when I think about it outside of those boxes…”

  Tess pulled back against her bed pillows. “Is that the reason you told Natalie you don’t want to go to The Crooked Angel? So you won’t have to see Parker outside of the hospital?”

  “Yes. No.” Ugh, she was a great, big indecision casserole! “I mean, I passed on going to happy hour with Jonah and Natalie last week, too, and that was before all of this went down. But I don’t think it would be the best idea for me and Parker to be in the same place socially.”

  If she saw Parker outside of work, those lines keeping them separate would blur, taking her composure along with them. Better to just play it safe and not tempt fate, no matter how badly part of her wanted to.

  “Are you still attracted to him?” Tess asked, diving headfirst into the point.

  Bending the truth with Tess was a useless endeavor, so Charleston didn’t even bother giving it a shot. “I married the guy, Tess. It might’ve been impulsive then, and it’s terribly inconvenient now, but yes, I’m still attracted to him.” At least she had the dignity to keep the a lot part to herself.

  “Yeah, well, if the way he was just looking at you when he thought no one was looking at him is any indication, the feeling is mutual.”

  “What are you talking about?” Charleston asked, but Tess just shook her head.

  “When Parker walked in with Nat and saw you sitting here? Jesus, I’d have been able to knock him over with one finger if I’d been close enough. He hid it pretty well after that, especially when Langston stopped in, but I know what I saw. That man is definitely still into you.”

  The breathy yes that had kicked through her like a reflex at Tess’s words fell prey to her common sense. “Okay, but just because we’re still attracted to each other and we aired out some things about how our marriage ended doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for me and Parker to spend any more time together than is necessary.”

  “You might be right.” Tess shrugged, and damn it, why was Charleston’s knee-jerk reaction one of disappointment? “Then again, you might not.”

  “Oh, that’s helpful,” Charleston said wryly, but not without a tiny smile.

  “Please,” Tess replied, rolling her eyes even as she smiled, too. “I’m not going to tell you what to do, Charlie. You’re a big girl, and I know you have the panties to prove it. If you decide to get some horizontal refreshment with your ex on your own time, I won’t judge. But if you really think it’s a bad idea, then I’ll support that, too. Either way, I get it. You and Parker have a lot of history.”

  Charleston pulled in a deep breath. “I just don’t want to make the same mistake twice.”

  “Then don’t,” Tess said. “But don’t confuse the mistake with the man.”

  It took Charleston a beat to get over the surprise at both the distinction and the fact that it had been Tess who pointed it out. “You do remember that this is the same Parker Drake who you once threatened to—what was it? Castrate with a rusty spoon?”

  “And if he hurts you again, I won’t hesitate to hit the utensil drawer,” Tess confirmed. “I’m just looking at the facts. You guys were good together once. You went through a terrible thing, and you both hurt each other without realizing it. It could be that you two hooking up again is a spectacular fail of an idea. Or maybe things will work now. All I’m saying is, if he’s still into you”—her expression added a nonverbal and he so is—“and you’re still attracted to him, seeing where that goes might not be galactically stupid.”

  “Unless it is.” Charleston’s exhale left her in a slow leak. “I get why he left now. I mean, as much as I’m going to. That still doesn’t mean I can trust him.”

  Tess laughed, shifting a blissfully sleeping Jackson into the crook of her arm. “It’s just like you to overthink this. For Chrissake, girl. You don’t have to trust him to have casual sex with him. You know you’re both compatible. You’re only here for two months. As long as you’re upfront about it not being serious, why not sleep with him if you want to?”

  She held up her free hand before Charleston could respond with the obvious. “I get the Langston thing, because yeah, he really can’t find out,” Tess said. “But I know you better than to think you’d bang Parker here at the hospital, or let some casual sex affect the way you do your job, and you can believe me when I tell you, you wouldn’t be the first attending to sleep with a resident in this place. Jonah has played doctor with a second-year from ortho and two ICU nurses, and that’s just in the past couple of months.”