Thorne’s lips linger a moment longer than necessary, showing just how much he wishes he could stay. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“I don’t doubt that,” I tell him before he pulls away and walks out of the restaurant, leaving me sitting alone, and for only tonight, wishing that things could have been different.
CHAPTER 15
THORNE
After confirming that my domestic abuse patient, Ashleigh, isn’t actually in labor and just experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions, I walk out of the examination room and instantly fall back against the wall.
Fury tears through me. I cut my first date with Autumn short for that. Heads are about to roll. Whichever nurse or midwife decided it was a good idea to page me for a case of Braxton Hicks is about to take a long trip up shit creek without a paddle.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful that Ashleigh was brave enough to come in and allow me to examine her. It’s only been two weeks, but I can already see how much better she’s doing. The baby has been putting on weight and is looking good, but damn. Those mother fucking Braxton Hicks.
I can’t understand why the nurse on duty wasn’t able to determine that it was false labor and happily send her on her way, just as she would have been trained to do.
Poor Autumn. I left her at that fucking restaurant all by herself. I walked out, and as I looked back in through the window, her bottom lip was slightly pouted and the devastation in her eyes nearly killed me. I couldn’t have been more thankful to the waiter who came by with the dessert menu. Given he was probably trying to get in her pants and take advantage of the sad woman whose date just bailed. Nonetheless, I’m happy she took that menu and I hope to God that she ordered something good.
I hope she got home okay. She insisted that she could handle herself and I don’t doubt that, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since the moment I drove away.
I should go and check on her.
I glance down at my watch and let out a sigh. It’s coming up to midnight and she’s on shift tomorrow. It would be a dick move to show up at her place right now, but what if something had happened. I grab my phone out of my pocket and light up the screen. There are no messages from her checking in, though why would there be? It’s not like I had a second to ask her to text me. Fuck, I don’t think I’ve even given her my number.
This whole situation is screwed up. I just spent an hour over dinner explaining to her that I want to be with her and that I’m serious about us moving forward as a couple, yet I didn’t give her my goddamn phone number. What the fuck is wrong with me? She probably thinks I was just fucking with her. I don’t even have her number, so I can’t check-in and make sure that she’s alright. I could probably steal it from the hospital employee records, but I’d feel as though that was crossing a line.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I push off the wall and start making my way out of the hospital. My job is done here. There’s no point hanging around. I have three inductions tomorrow, and I need to get some sleep before I put three separate women and their newborns’ lives into my hands. It doesn’t pay to be sleep deprived.
I get out to the underground parking lot and find my cherry-red Ferrari staring back at me. It's practically a ghost town down here, but it always is at this time of night. After dropping down into the driver’s seat and feeling the engine rumble through the car, I hit the gas and get the fuck out of here.
I get ten minutes down the road, and just when I need to turn left to head toward my place, I feel the steering wheel beneath my hands shifting to the right and leading me downtown toward Autumn’s place.
What the hell am I doing? She’s bound to think I’m a fucking stalker, yet I can’t find it in me to turn around.
After seven minutes of arguing with myself, I bring my Ferrari to a stop outside Autumn’s apartment complex and look across the road at the rundown bar. I can either go in there and fuck myself up, or I can man up and go and check on my woman.
Yeah, it’s not a hard fucking choice.
I scan the empty streets in suspicion before climbing out of the car and locking the doors. There's a good chance a car like mine could disappear in this part of town, but I have more important things to worry about than an insurance claim. After hashing in the code I’d watched her put in after the drunken night at the bar, I walk through the doors of Autumn's building, pausing outside her door.