Until Autumn

CHAPTER 11

THORNE

Guilt surges through me as I finish delivering the second baby and hand her over to her mother, her real mother, not the woman who lays on the bed before me.

“She’s beautiful,” the woman murmurs, holding her beautiful little girl with tears of joy in her eyes as her husband hovers over them protectively.

“She really is,” her husband says, quickly glancing across the room to where their other newborn baby busily gets cleaned and measured. “They both are.”

“You’re damn right,” I tell them, a proud grin stretching across my face. I’ve delivered all of their children, and to see their family continue to grow has been astonishing. “Their brothers and sisters are going to love them. You guys are certainly going to have your hands full.”

He shakes his head, unable to resist the urge to tease me. “Thanks, Doc. I knew we could count on you.”

I nod before looking back to watch over my intern as he stitches Rebecca with perfection, just as I taught him to. This kid is going to go far in his career, assuming he keeps his head screwed on correctly.

I glance back at the new parents. “Have they got names yet?”

They look at each other before a wide smile spreads across the father’s face. He gently rests his hand around the back of his daughter’s head. “This precious little girl is Grace, and her twin brother,” he says, glancing over at his son, who’s in the middle of being weighed. “Is Braxton.”

I nod, looking over the two new babies who just made their family that much bigger. “They’re perfect,” I tell them, but as my intern grumbles something about being done, I glance back at him to make sure he followed every instruction to the T.

Once I’ve finished checking over Rebecca’s wounds and making sure that she’s stable and safe to go to recovery, I cross the room and remove my gloves before washing up. I know I was wearing a protective gown, but sometimes you just can’t help getting bodily fluid all over you. It comes with the territory.

I go to make my way out of the room. A part of me wants to hang around and celebrate the birth of their new twins, but they need this time as a family. Once the birth mother is cleaned up, she’ll be moved to the recovery ward, where a whole heap of paperwork is going to be shoved in everyone’s faces to finalize the adoption.

As for me, I have a student that needs talking to.

I get three steps out of the room before I feel a hand at my elbow. I turn back to find the new mother standing in the middle of the hallway with her lips pulled into a tight line. She cringes. “Sorry,” she says. “I know you must be busy, but I just wanted to say that there was no harm with that nurse,” she explains. “I was going to allow Rebecca to hold the babies anyway.”

“No, I apologize. That was extremely unprofessional, and I should have caught it before it happened. You should have been handed your baby first. It’s protocol and Autumn should have been made aware of that. It’s her third day working as a midwife, so that’s on me. I should have prepared her better.”

She gives me a warm smile. “You really don’t need to apologize,” she insists. “It’s fine. These babies are number five and six for me. I’ve experienced every first there is to have, and after the gift we’ve received from Rebecca, she deserved the chance to hold the baby she created.”

I give her a tight smile and nod. “Thanks, but I still need to have a chat with my student.”

“Just …” she says, putting her hand on my arm and giving me a knowing stare. “Don’t be too hard on the girl. I saw the way you looked at her. She’s special, isn’t she?”

“I …” I shake my head, unsure how to respond.

“That’s what I thought,” she chuckles, not giving me a chance to explain myself, but what am I supposed to say? She’s right and she knows it. We hear soft cries from inside the room and she takes a step back. “I better go. Thanks again.”

I nod, and not a second later, she’s gone, leaving me a complete mess of thoughts. I try to shake them off. Autumn is just a student. I’m just her teacher. That’s all there is to it.

Ha. I don’t even believe my own goddamn thoughts. Autumn is so much more than just a student, and the more time I spend with her, the clearer that becomes. It’s obvious she feels something for me, but at this stage, it’s safe to say that it’s just a crush. She couldn’t possibly know that she’s quickly becoming my world.