“Well,” she began, glancing toward the computer screen and focusing on a random word, “technically, it was a deal between you and my father, but a deal is a deal, so I really have no choice.”
“There’s always a choice. If you don’t want to go with me, I won’t hold you to it.”
That got her attention. “Is that your way of telling me you don’t really want me to go?”
His expression darkening, he shook his head. “If I didn’t want you to go, would I be here talking to you? I want you to go.”
What was one weekend with Ty in the grand scheme of life? She could do this. She’d prove to herself and to him that she could do this and then they’d go back to being just colleagues. Plus, maybe the awkwardness would disappear. “I’ll go.”
“Hey, Dr. Aston?” With a quick rap on the open door Linda poked her head into the dictation room. “I think you’ll want to see this.” Noticing Ty sitting next to Eleanor, she added, “That you will both want to see.”
Silently, they followed the nurse, pausing just outside the nursery.
“Look who stopped by for a visit,” Linda whispered excitedly. “Apparently whatever you said to him when you called made all the difference.”
Eleanor’s heart quickened at the site of Rochelle’s father standing next to his tiny daughter’s incubator. It was the first time he’d seen her.
Ty grinned. “I always did think you were one smart wo
man, Ellie.”
Her breath caught at the use of the nickname and she found herself wishing she really did take his breath away each and every time he called her that name. Ellie. How crazy that rather than flinching at the nickname, she wanted to grab the moment and hold it close to her heart?
She cleared her throat. “Babies are smarter than we give them credit for. Rochelle needs her father.”
They watched as he gowned, gloved, masked and eyed his baby girl in the incubator. He spoke in a low voice to the little girl. The glistening emotion in his eyes told Eleanor everything he was saying without her being able to hear his actual words.
This was what Rochelle needed. What no tube or medicine or surgical correction could give. She needed her father, the interaction between parent and child.
As if sensing that he was being watched, the man turned, his gaze meeting Eleanor’s. “Can I hold her?”
Yes! was all Eleanor could think. Oh, yes! Rochelle needed her father to bond with her, to hold and love her.
Eleanor joined him at the incubator, aware that Ty stayed just a couple of feet back. She gently went over the proper way for Rochelle’s father to hold her, then she prepared the baby to be removed from the isolette.
“If you want to sit in one of the rocking chairs, I’ll bring her to you.”
Looking uncertain, the man nodded, then did as she’d asked.
“Oh, Rochelle, honey,” she told the sweet baby girl. “Today is the day you’ve been waiting for since you were born. Today you met your daddy and now he’s going to hold you and fall hopelessly in love with you.”
“You want me to get a bottle to let him try to feed her?” Ty asked from beside her, helping to straighten a wire as Eleanor repositioned the baby.
She glanced at him, smiled. “That would be perfect. She’s not been taking much by mouth for the past few days, only by her feeding tube, but maybe, just maybe, today is a day for miracles.”
She unhooked what could be unhooked, bundled the babe up and with Ty’s assistance they brought the baby to the waiting father.
“You won’t go far, will you?” he asked, his eyes full of fear when Eleanor lowered the baby into his arms.
“No, Dr. Donaldson and I will be close. No worries,” she assured him, understanding his anxiety as many parents of preemies experienced those same fears. Rochelle’s dad probably more so than most as he’d waited weeks to see his daughter. No doubt the man was terrified that his coming here might somehow jinx his baby girl’s chances. “If anything changes, we will be right here.”
Ty watched the pleased smile spread across Eleanor’s face and wondered at the pleasure spreading through him. Of course he was happy that Rochelle’s father had finally come to visit his baby girl. But the wonder spreading through him had more to do with the woman he watched.
“Look,” Ellie whispered, grabbing his shoulder, her voice breaking with emotion.
Ty’s attention returned to Rochelle and her father. The man held the little girl awkwardly, but his eyes were filled with awe, with love.
With unshed tears.