Surgeon Boss, Surprise Dad

However was she going to survive financially, being out of work that long?

She couldn’t afford to be laid up. Between the hospital stay and the follow-up, she’d be digging a hole much deeper than the one she’d been buried in.

Since burdening Adam with her debts was no longer an issue, she shouldn’t stress so much, but now there was a baby to consider. A baby she’d need to take time off work to have and to recover from having, a baby she wanted time to bond with. There would be lots of new expenses like more medical bills, diapers, and childcare.

Her heart squeezed at the thought she’d have to leave her baby in someone else’s care so she could return to work as soon as physically possible.

Once he learned of their baby, Adam would insist on helping financially regardless of how he felt about her and the baby. But she balked at the idea of accepting money from him.

She missed him, wanted to talk with him to tell him about their baby, but it wasn’t as if she could chase him down, not with her ankle, and he hadn’t been to see her.

If he’d really wanted to see her he would have come regardless of Dr Graviss’s warning not to. She supposed Dr Graviss ordering him to stay away had seemed like a godsend to Adam. Perhaps the doctor had done so as a favor to his friend.

Single, pregnant, and ignored by the man she cared most for. Perhaps she should hate him.

No matter what was going on in their relationship, Dr Graviss was right. Adam was a good man. She’d spent too much time with him to believe otherwise. Even if things truly were over between them, she’d never regret the time they’d shared.

He’d given her the strength to face each day with a smile during the hardest days of Gramps’s illness. Given her hope that tomorrow would be a better day.

Of course, she’d always believed her tomorrows would hold Adam.

“You sure are lost in thought, dearie.” Nannie Robbins’s sweet grandmotherly voice interrupted from the other side of the hospital room. Due to the hospital being full up, Liz had lost her private room and was now in the company of an elderly lady who’d fallen and broken her hip.

“I was thinking about life,” Liz admitted, wondering how Nannie’s cheery disposition never seemed to fade. She had to be in intense pain, yet she’d not voiced a single complaint.

The older woman nodded as if she knew exactly what Liz’s thoughts had been. “Yes, life’s the most precious gift we have.”

Liz wouldn’t argue. Her body contained that precious gift, a tiny new person she and Adam had created. For that she wo

uld always be grateful.

“When all is said and done, life and love is really all that matters,” Nannie continued with the wisdom of her eighty-plus years of life experience.

“Yes.” Life and love. It sounded simple. “Yet it’s so easy to get caught up in the everyday things that pull us down. To forget just how blessed we are.”

With Gramps’s illness and death, then the problems with Adam, she’d forgotten. Forgotten all the wonderful things in her life, like her friends, the job she loved, her health. She’d had much to be thankful for even before she’d learned about her pregnancy.

“True,” Nannie said, and Liz got the feeling that if the woman could have reached her, she’d have patted her hand. “Nothing should pull you down, dearie, not so long as you have life and love. Love is your shield, life your sword. Use them to guide you through this world and to protect you from sorrows.”

Liz blinked, thinking she’d somehow missed out on part of the conversation. Or that Nannie really was a mind reader.

“Is Adam who you’re in love with?”

Liz’s gaze shot to the crinkly-faced, smiling woman. Not once since Nannie had been moved into her room had Liz mentioned Adam. Not once. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because you cried for him last night in your sleep. You must love him a great deal to miss him so.”

Liz winced. She’d dreamed about Adam last night, dreamed about how he’d been able to make her laugh no matter how down she’d been, how he’d known just what to say to bring a smile to her face, how she’d felt safe, content when he’d held her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“No disturbance, dearie,” Nannie assured her.

“I’ll try not to bother you tonight.”

“No bother,” the woman said brightly. So brightly Liz wondered what kind of meds Nannie’s IV was delivering. “As I said, love is a beautiful thing. Especially true love.”

True love. Her heart twisted in her chest.

“Love can also be cruel when it’s unrequited,” she said so softly she was surprised when Nannie’s white brows rose.