There was a creaking behind me. I turned and spotted Dr. Green stretched out on top of the hospital bed. His legs were crossed and he was on his side, his head propped up on his arm. He smiled at me and patted the spot beside him. “Come lay here for a moment.”
My heart started to rattle in my chest. “Um ...”
“Just for a minute.”
I crossed the room, and knelt partially onto the bed. It was wide, like my own bed that Victor had bought for me. I’d meant to only sit next to him, but Dr. Green clutched at my arm and drew me down against the bed until I was beside him.
“What are we doing?” I asked in a voice barely a whisper. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering, but I felt like we shouldn’t be doing this.
“Just close your eyes for a minute,” he said.
My eyes widened instead. “What?”
“Go ahead,” he said. His fingers drifted out, catching my eyelashes. He hovered his fingers over me until my eyes naturally closed.
I couldn’t stop grinning, feeling ridiculous. Within seconds, I was opening my eyes again.
“Not long enough,” he said. His green eyes smiled at me. “And no giggling. You girls and your incessant giggling. If it wasn’t so cute, I’d give you all detention for it.”
“I ...”
“And you’re the worst. Your giggling’s infectious and it sets everyone else off. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. First Luke breaks out, and then the rest of them start.”
“But ...”
“Nope, stop. You’re going to get me in trouble. Close your eyes.”
I sighed, laying back and closing my eyes. I half expected another tease, a water gun squirt to the face, or something surprising. The worst part was not knowing Dr. Green well enough. He was playful, but did that make him like Luke with his antics? Or was he more like Kota or Nathan, who could tease but in a more relaxed way?
When a couple of minutes passed, I whispered. “How long?”
“Shhh,” he whispered back.
???
At first, I was really still and feeling peaceful. I thought it was only a couple of minutes from when I first closed my eyes. When my eyes fluttered open again, I knew it had taken a lot longer than that. There was the way my throat felt closed off as if I’d been asleep for a while. I sensed time had passed in the way the sunlight had shifted in the window nearby. I felt the creak of my muscles after having spent too much time in the same spot.
When I looked over, Dr. Green was awake, the shadows under his eyes had lessened a little. His smile was sleepy, but just as broad.
I made a slight noise as I sighed. I shifted from my back to my side, rubbing at my eyes. “I fell asleep.”
“Just what the doctor ordered.”
I breathed out a giggle, but the moment it slipped from my lips, his fingers covered my mouth.
“What did I tell you about that giggle? If you start now, you’ll go all evening and get all my patients started and it’ll take me forever to calm them down.”
I breathed in, noticing the citrus, ginger and cedar blend mix of his cologne. “Did you sleep, too?” I asked against his fingers.
“Of course not. I’m a doctor on duty,” he said. “But if one of my visitors wanders off into a room by herself, I can’t simply just leave her alone and unsupervised.” He dropped his fingers from my mouth. “If anyone asks you, I was awake the entire time.”
“Mr. Blackbourne said I’m a terrible liar.”
“Not good at lying. Not good at eating.” He grinned. “We’ll have to work a little harder to figure out what you are good at.”
I scoffed at him. Such a tease!
“Except sleeping. You’re a fine sleeper.” He sat up on the bed, swinging his legs over. Part of his hair in the back was sticking up. He spun around, winking at me. “I’ve got to go make another round. Will you join me or would you like to nap a little longer?”
Instead of answering him, I got up off the bed. I hadn’t noticed before, but maybe I was really tired, too. The nap made me feel a lot better. I didn’t want to stay still any more.
Dr. Green beamed. “A girl after my own heart. Give her five minutes and she’s ready to go.”
“How long do you have to work tonight?”
He led the way out of the room and down the corridor again toward the elevator. “I should be here until about eleven, maybe midnight, if anything interesting happens.”
I choked back a sound of surprise. “That’s not how late you normally work, is it?”
“Of course not. That’s just the weekdays. On the weekends without teaching class, I’m usually here until well after two in the morning.”
“But you can’t do that.”
“What can’t I do?” he asked. He smacked the button for the elevator. “I’m a doctor. Last I checked, they allowed doctors to work at the hospital.”
“But you have to sleep. No wonder you take naps in the—”
“Shhh,” he said. His eyes widened, but his smile lingered like he wasn’t worried about it. “I swear, tell a girl a secret, and she tells everyone.”
“I mean,” I said in a quieter voice. The elevator doors opened. I followed him inside. “You can’t keep going like that. Don’t you get a day off?”
“On occasion.”
“When?”
“The last one I had, I believe it was when you had us all over to your house and we told that mother and father of yours to give you to us or face the consequences.” He beamed. “I think we won.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dr. Green...”
“Sean.”
I stopped, blinking after him. “Hm?”
“My name is Sean. You can call me Sean, if you want.”
“Sean,” I said slowly, feeling awkward. “Oh, sorry. It’s just the boys call you...”
“I know they call me Doc, but they work for me. You don’t, so you don’t have to deal with that formality.” His eyes lit up. “Say it again.”
I tilted my head at him. “Say?”
“Will you say my name again?”
My eyebrow lifted. “Sean?”
“I like how you say it. When Owen talks to me, he’s so sharp. You give it that cute spin at the end, like you’re asking my name instead of saying it.”
“Owen?”
He laughed. “He makes you call him Mr. Blackbourne. I keep telling him he needs to let girls call him by his first name. He’ll never get a girlfriend being so formal all the time.”
My lips were still parted, my mouth hung slightly open when the elevator doors slid apart, letting us out onto the first floor.
“Come on,” he said. “There’s a couple of new babies I haven’t played with yet.”
Down through a maze of corridors, Dr. Green stopped short in front of a wide window that overlooked the nursery. Inside there were only five little babies, with pink or blue knit hats, and monitors attached to each one. All five were sleeping.
“Ah, I was hoping one of them was awake,” he said, looking in on the group.
I stood beside him, looking at the tiny little things.
He pointed to two, a boy and a girl, beside each other. “Those two were born earlier today. Twins.”
“You take care of babies, too?”
“I look after everyone in this hospital.”
“That’s a lot to look after.”
He smiled in at the babies. “And why I’m here so late at night.”
I turned to him. “What about at home?”
“Home?”
“Your family.”
“Owen and the others are my family. You are, too, I should say.” He turned back to me, his eyes softening. “Can’t forget our newest little member.”
I could feel heat at my cheeks. “You work a lot.”
“You don’t eat enough,” he said. “So we’ve both got something to work on. And listen to you. Take you out on one lunch-nap-baby-ogle date and you’re already trying to change me.”
“I’m not trying to.
”
“Yes you are. Don’t get cute with your whole worried about me attitude and bat those pretty lashes like you don’t know what you’re doing. First you tell me to stop working so much, the next thing I know we’re redesigning half the house.”
I sighed. I couldn’t talk to him seriously. “That depends.”
“On what?”