The Child Who Changed Them (Parent Portal 5)

By Friday after their morning meeting, Greg was fully convinced that she truly believed he was the father of her child.

And while he wished wholeheartedly that the possibility existed for him to be a father, he knew that them having a child together wasn’t the reality.

He knew he was in the clear. For her...he ached a bit. The fact that she so badly needed him to be the father that she couldn’t even entertain another option told him that whoever had fathered her child wasn’t someone she could fathom, or allow, as the father.

And also strictly for her, he worried a bit, too. What would the ramifications be for her when she realized that what she’d apparently mentally denied as impossible had become reality?

It was none of his business. He was perfectly clear on that point.

They were work associates, members of the charting committee, past lovers—only. They’d never been intimate friends, the kind you told your problems to, or turned to when you were at one of life’s low points. He’d never really had—or been—one of those. He knew a lot of people. Hung with various groups of people—his golf buddies who were mostly financiers and lived in Nevada. He’d lived and practiced there before accepting the temporary position at Marie Cove as he made the move from internist to full-time ER doctor. And he was still in touch with a group of doctors he’d known since med school—male and female—who usually got together in Vegas at least once a year. And in Marie Cove, there was a newer group of younger guys who were teaching him to surf.

For emotional intimacies, there’d been Heather, the summer after he’d graduated high school. At least he’d been emotionally intimate in that one.

And his ex-wife, Wendy...for a time it had felt as though they’d merged two sets of wants and needs, goals, and hearts and souls into one life. It wasn’t until after the relationship ended, and he saw how little of his private self he left behind with her, that he realized how much of an emotional loner he’d become.

And then there was Elaina. Had been Elaina...though he’d never really been emotionally intimate with her.

He’d been ready to make a life with her, though. Wow, had he been off on that one. Thankfully, she’d said her piece first, breaking up with him before he’d suggested furthering their intimacy. Saved him a load of embarrassment.

Not that it mattered in his current world at all. He’d already given up the lease on his apartment. Had turned down the full-time ER appointment at Marie Cove and sent his letter of acceptance for the position in LA—all that morning.

While he was in his office that afternoon after his shift, waiting for Elaina to arrive, he did an internet search on Dr. Cheryl Miller, the doctor Elaina had mentioned. Dr. Miller would know that he’d been involved with Elaina, that she was claiming him as the father of her child. And he wanted to know a bit more about the woman who’d have that information.

The medical world, while huge, was also small when it came to people who knew people.

And what he found—that Dr. Miller worked full-time at The Parent Portal, a renowned fertility clinic right there in Marie Cove—gave him pause for concern. Why would Elaina be seeing a fertility specialist?

Was it actually possible that she’d been accidentally fertilized by mistake, thinking she’d only been undergoing a preliminary exam?

The idea was ludicrous. Something for a TV show.

But stranger things had happened, too.

Medical mistakes happened.

He knew that firsthand. Had almost lost his license to practice medicine because of one. Not his own, but in the moment, that hadn’t mattered. He’d been suspected at first, had even doubted himself. Could have even been looking at jail. At the time, though, when his patient—a woman close to his own age—had died, a prison sentence had been the least of his concerns.

Now his concern was in ensuring that if something had gone awry with Brooklyn’s medication on Monday, they found out what and who was responsible. He was not going to lose another patient due to a medical mistake.

And he wasn’t leaving Marie Cove until the mystery was solved. He’d given a month’s notice to both hospitals. That gave him thirty days to wrap up the threads of the brief life he’d led in the quaint, upscale beach town.

The knock at that precise moment seemed purposeful to him. As though someone was trying to tell him that Elaina was one of those threads that needed wrapping.

She entered, looking as exquisitely beautiful as always, carrying her tablet with her. Anytime he’d ever been out with her, he’d noticed other men’s heads turn as she passed. She didn’t ask for it, didn’t seem to even be aware, it just happened. The ponytail she always wore at work was as pristine as it had been that morning, and incurred visions of that long dark luxurious hair spread over him, and under him, too, splayed across the pillow. Her features, cheekbones that were unique and yet softly rounded, eyes that seemed to entice him into their pool-like depths and lips that were full and sweet and could do the most incredibly seductive things to a man’s body...

“I’ve been over admissions from Monday and have a listing of all personnel who charted in the ED...” They were privy to these records as part of their commission on the charting committee. He wasn’t surprised she’d done work ahead of their meeting. Elaina always came prepared. And carried more than her share of the load.

Taking her cue—and appreciative of it—he resolved to get right to work. He sat beside her with his own tablet as they designed a plan for divvying up patients and charts based on types of procedures, figured out the easiest way to seek out the data and designed a shareable spreadsheet for the two of them to use for documentation.

And in less than an hour they’d completed their work.

“Can you have your part done by tomorrow afternoon?” he asked as they both stood, pushing their chairs back underneath the table simultaneously.

Whether on the dance floor, in bed or at a worktable, they’d always been perfectly in sync. The thought crossed his mind and he batted it out of the ballpark.

“I can.” Holding her tablet to the chest of her blue scrubs, she headed to the door before glancing over her shoulder to ask, “You want to meet here again then? Same time?”

He wanted to take her in his arms. Hold her while her life was imploding.