He Left Me at a Rest Stop on Halloween, So He Came Home to No Wife novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Eli's Hour

Eli's POV

On the third night after the baby was born, I came to the hospital off a twelve-hour shift and took the elevator to the fourth floor.

The gold card that said Baby Girl Dunning was still in my jacket pocket.

Cassidy had handed it to me on Thursday night without a word, and I had not found a bin that felt right.

She had been in the special care nursery since Thursday, under a warm light with a small clear tube at her nose.

Cassidy had been discharged and then readmitted for a day with a fever, and then discharged again.

She'd refused to go home to her friend's house until the nurses said the baby could leave with her.

So she slept in a recliner in the family room, and I stopped by when I was done working.

That was the whole arrangement.

I told myself so on the stairs.

At eleven-thirty I found her in the little family kitchenette at the end of the hall, in a hospital robe and wool socks, standing at the microwave with a paper cup of tea.

Her hair was twisted up with a pencil.

She had pumping supplies in a plastic bag hooked on her wrist.

She looked tired, and I wanted to stand next to her.

"You're not supposed to be here after visiting hours," she said, without turning around.

"I know a nurse."

"You know all the nurses."

"I know four."

"That's all of them." She finally turned. "How was work?"

"A guy tried to refuse a ride because he'd parked his own van in the ER bay. Then he fainted on it."

She laughed.

It was the real one, the one from the delivery room, and it went through me.

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