Doctor Boss Is My Baby Daddy novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: What I Didn't Say

In a stairwell Valeria tells him herself that she is pregnant, and he says the baby is his, until his ex walks in.

The chief of surgery spoke from the podium, and I heard none of it.

I stood at the back with my arms crossed over my white coat.

Jody found me and whispered, "He's hot. Why do you look like you're about to throw up?"

"Because I am."

I left before the applause finished.

The stairwell behind the auditorium was empty and smelled like floor wax.

I sat on the fourth step and pulled the test out of my pocket and looked at it again.

The door opened above me.

I knew his footsteps before I knew his face, which was a ridiculous thing to know about a man I'd met once.

"Valeria," he said.

I looked up.

"I didn't give you my name," I said.

"It's on your badge."

Of course it was.

He came down three steps and stopped, one hand on the rail.

Up close, in the fluorescent light, he looked like he hadn't slept in a month.

"I looked for you," he said. "I went back to the front desk. I asked the bartender. I called three hospitals on a guess."

"You called three hospitals?"

"You said you were a first-year intern. That was all I had."

"I said I was a lot of things."

"You said you'd start with proving her wrong."

I laughed, and it came out wrong.

Then I held up the test.

I didn't make a speech.

I had been rehearsing one for four days, and every version sounded like a press release.

"I'm five weeks pregnant," I said. "It's yours. I haven't been with anyone else in over a year."

The stairwell went very quiet.

He stared at the two pink lines.

His expression went guarded.

"I'm not asking you for anything," I said quickly. "I'm telling you because you deserve to know, and because you're my boss, and I'd rather you hear it from me than from a hallway."

"Say it again."

"I'm not asking you for anything."

"The other part."

I swallowed.

"It's yours."

He took the last three steps in one stride.

He didn't touch me.

He stood so close I could see the scar through his eyebrow, and he said it.

"Mine."

"Yes."

"You walked out of that room at five o'clock without a note."

"I had a shift."

"I know. I looked at that empty bed for an hour."

"Dr. Gallagher, you're my chief."

"Today I am."

"You can't talk to me like this."

"I'll sign whatever form says I can't supervise you." His voice was rough. "I'll recuse myself in writing before lunch. But I'm not going to stand here and pretend I didn't spend a month trying to find you."

"We don't even know each other."

"I know that you eat bar nuts when you're angry. I know you laugh with your whole face once you forget to be careful. And I know you didn't walk into that stairwell to ask me for money."

I hated how much I wanted to cry.

"I didn't plan this," I said.

"Neither did I."

He lifted his hand and, slowly, laid the back of his fingers against my cheek.

I leaned into it before I could stop myself.

Then I did the thing I'd rehearsed even less.

I grabbed the lapel of his suit and kissed him.

It wasn't polite.

He made a sound against my mouth, and the test dropped out of my fingers and skittered down the steps.

His hands went to my waist and backed me into the cold wall.

I had a baby in me and a career to protect, and I was kissing the man who could end it in a fluorescent stairwell with the door unlocked.

I didn't care.

"Valeria," he said into my mouth.

"Say it later."

"No. Listen." His forehead pressed to mine. "Whatever happens upstairs, I'm not stepping back from this."

"From what?"

"From you. From the baby."

My throat closed.

Somewhere above us, a door opened and heels clicked on the landing.

A woman's voice, warm as honey and exactly as sticky, floated down the stairwell.

"Rhys. There you are. You're early."

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