Nursing in Northlake (At the Altar Book 9) (10 page)

Miss Molly’s frail hand came up and hugged Heidi close. “Thank you.”

“I’ll always be here if you need me.”

As Heidi left, she smiled to herself. She was both happy and sad. Miss Molly really wouldn’t need her anymore, and she’d miss their friendship, but she knew the older lady would be so much happier where she was. She was already blossoming. Heidi hadn’t seen Miss Molly made up with her hair fixed in years, and she’d looked like she’d spent at least an hour grooming herself. She was where she needed to be.

She had just reached her car when she got a text from Slade.
Delivery. Will be home late. Maybe really late, but she usually goes fast. Miss you.

Heidi tapped out a quick response, exhausted enough to be just a tiny bit happy to have the house to herself for a bit.
I’m eating tacos then. I’ll see you when you get there. Miss you more.

When she got home, she ate her tacos then took a long hot bath. She didn’t know when to expect Slade, so she was going to plan for an early night. She wasn’t sure she could keep her eyes open anyway. They’d been going a mile a minute since the wedding, and she needed a couple of weekends to rest.

*****

Slade was home shortly after nine, and he was surprised to see Heidi already asleep. He smiled, tucking the covers around her more securely before showering and climbing into bed with her. He promised himself they would do nothing at all that weekend. If they received invitations, they would just have to ignore them. He and his wife both needed the time to rest.

He pulled her against him, knowing by now he wouldn’t wake her if he did. She was a sound sleeper. He kissed her forehead and curled himself around her. He’d never dreamed married life would be so good to him.

*****

Heidi wanted to throw her phone across the room when it sounded the alarm the next morning. She’d gone to bed much earlier than usual, but it wasn’t early enough, and she was getting downright grumpy from lack of sleep. She stumbled into the kitchen and started the coffee pot, and then jumped in the shower.

When she stepped out of the bathroom ten minutes later, Slade was standing there, holding out a cup of coffee as a peace offering. “Mornings are hard.”

Heidi nodded, sipping on her coffee. “I could use another gallon or two of this stuff today.”

“Me too. I was surprised you were already asleep when I got home.”

“What time did you get here? I was in bed around eight. I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open another minute.”

“Just after nine, and you were out of it. Did you check on Miss Molly?”

Heidi nodded. “She’s fine. She told me to go away and then said I should have told her about that place years ago, so she could be happy.”

“Didn’t you?”

“Oh, I did. You know Miss Molly.”

He grinned. “I do know her, and I’m not disappointed in that.”

“How’d your delivery go last night?”

“Good. It was a boy. Both mother and son are doing well, and he had all ten fingers and all ten toes.”

She smiled. “How much did he weigh?”

“Seven pounds eight ounces.”

“Healthy size.” She finished her coffee and set the mug on the dresser, taking the three steps it took to wrap her arms around him and rest her head against his shoulder. “I don’t want to do anything with anyone else this weekend. Just you and me. And I want to be home ninety-percent of the time.”

“I was thinking that last night,” Slade said with a smile as his arms closed around her. “When I saw how tired you were, I knew that’s what you needed.”

“And what do you need?” she asked.

“I need a weekend at home with my wife. Hopefully, I won’t get called out all weekend. I’m back to having a bunch of patients due all at once.”

“We’ll make it work either way.”

She took her mug into the kitchen and poured another cup of coffee, sitting down at the table to enjoy it. “I’m on call this weekend anyway. I hate making plans for call weekends, because I never know when I’m going to have to start calling around for a replacement for someone.”

“Then we’ll spend as much time as we can at home. I won’t even try to talk you into watching me ride a mechanical bull.”

“I thought my heart was going to come out of my chest last time you did that. Let’s just never do that again.”

“Aw. I like it.”

Heidi sighed. “You’re a grown man now. Imagine the headline. ‘Idiot Doctor Falls Off Mechanical Bull and Breaks Neck.’ What would I tell your mother?”

He shrugged. “My mom’s seen me do it. She reacted about like you did, actually.”

“She’s a very smart woman. Neither of us want to see you break yourself for the entertainment of others.”

“You have no idea how many hours I’ve practiced to get to where I could do that.”

“I don’t think I even want to know.”

Slade frowned. “Maybe it’s something you should know. It shows something important about me.”

Heidi looked at him curiously. “What’s that?”

“That if I see something I want, I make sure I get it, and it doesn’t matter what kind of personal sacrifice is required of me.” He drained his mug and set it on the table beside him. “And Heidi? I want your love for the rest of my life.” He got up and quietly left the house, leaving her staring after him, her heart pounding in her ears.

She did love him, and she’d have told him. Probably. She loved him, but she just didn’t know if she could trust him completely with her heart yet. She needed to figure that out. Soon. Because she had a feeling if she didn’t trust him soon, it would break his heart.

Chapter Ten

Heidi and Slade were both home early on Friday. Heidi sank onto the couch and rubbed the back of her neck. “Have you thought about dinner yet?” she asked, yawning. The week had just gotten more and more tiring. Miss Molly was fine, which thrilled her, but she really needed the weekend to just chill.

He shook his head. “Why don’t we go get something to eat, and then we won’t leave the house again all weekend unless we just have to.”

“You mean like for groceries?”

He shrugged. “We’ll get them on our way home. We’re going to lock ourselves in, and unless someone has the audacity to go into labor, you and I are hiding from the whole wide world.”

“You have no idea how good that sounds.” She walked toward her bedroom. “I’ll go change.”

He shook his head. “Nope. We’re going to go eat in our scrubs.”

“Why?”

“Because we are too tired to care about doing anything else. We’ll go somewhere casual.”

She considered for a moment and finally nodded. If he didn’t care that she was wearing her pink scrubs and had her hair in a ponytail, then she refused to care either. “Okay, let’s do it.”

She took the hand he held out for her and they walked out to the car together. She didn’t even try to offer to drive, not because she’d given up on the idea, but because she was much too tired.

They went to a chain restaurant and had just finished their meal when his phone rang. He sighed. “It’s the hospital.” Swiping his finger across the screen, he answered. “Dr. Henderson.”

Heidi watched as he responded, wondering how long this delivery would take him. He quickly used the kiosk to pay while he was still talking. “On my way.” He frowned at Heidi. “We have two choices.”

“Which are?”

“You can come with me and drive my car home, coming back to pick me up when I’m finished, or you can wait for me there.”

“I’ll wait.” She knew how he felt about his car, and really, she just didn’t want to try and drive as tired as she was.

“Let’s go.”

“You’re moving faster than usual. Something I don’t know?”

“Yeah, you remember the woman you met in the waiting room at my office?”

“The one who said this was her third baby you were going to deliver?” Heidi asked.

“Yes, her. Well, she likes to go into labor and have babies fast. Most women take fifteen or more hours. She takes two. And she waited for her husband to get home from work to go to the hospital. We have barely enough time to get there. I hope we have time to get there!”

Heidi grinned at that. “I’m glad we didn’t change out of our scrubs then.”

Slade looked over at her, seeing the tired lines on her face. “I’m sorry about this.”

“I really don’t mind. I’ll wait with the other nurses. It’s always fun to sit at a hospital nurses’ station.” She really wanted to see him in action. She knew it was crazy, but seeing him and how he was with the nurses under him could break through a barrier for her. It would either tell her that he wasn’t to be trusted or that he was as wonderful as she thought he was.

When they got to the hospital, he went to the physicians’ lot and parked in a place reserved for someone else. “You can’t do that!” Heidi protested.

“He’s out of the country at a conference. Won’t be back ‘til next week, and his spot is closer than mine.” He got out and started jogging toward the entrance to the hospital, Heidi racing to keep up.

They were both breathing heavily on the elevator, and as soon as they got to the right floor, he hurried straight to the nurses’ station. One of the nurses had a mask and gloves waiting for him, and he quickly pulled them on. “This is my wife, Heidi. Who’s with me tonight?”

“I drew the short straw,” said a young nurse with a grin. She hurried after Slade, telling him what room to go into.

Heidi took her empty seat. “You guys draw straws to see who has to work with him?” she asked, wondering what kind of gossip she’d learn about Slade while he delivered the baby. Nurses always had the best gossip, and they were never afraid to say anything.

The nurses all looked at each other and laughed. “You’re kidding, right? Whoever ends up with the short straw
gets
to work with Dr. Henderson. He’s our favorite. We don’t have a lot of rude doctors delivering here, but Dr. Henderson is the best.” The nurse grinned at Heidi, who noticed her name was Bailey by the tag on her shirt.

“Really?” Heidi asked. “Y’all can tell me the truth.”

“That is the truth,” another nurse responded. “I was with him late one night, and the baby just didn’t want to come. The patient asked if she could get up and walk around, and he took her arm and walked with her, singing the whole time. He danced with a woman in labor. It was amazing.”

Heidi blinked a couple of times. “How did the patient react to that?”

“She started laughing, and the labor moved much faster after that. He thinks that if you can get the laboring woman to relax and forget her pain, even for a minute, that you’ve made her delivery special, and made it go quicker.”

“How often does he yell?”

Bailey shook her head. “He’s never yelled at me. I’ve seen nurses do really stupid things, and he’s never yelled at anyone. I’ve never even seen him angry.”

“How much did he pay you to tell me this?”

The second nurse raised an eyebrow. “I would be the first to give you dirt on any other doctor here, but Dr. Henderson really is special. He did his residency here, and there are even good stories from those days. He’s just always been a nurse’s dream. His mom is a nurse, and she’s instilled a true love and respect for nurses in him.”

Heidi grinned. It was what she’d started to suspect but couldn’t really let herself believe. He really was a good doctor as well as a good man. Now she was going to have to eat crow and tell him how wonderful he was. And how much she loved him.

She yawned. Probably not tonight. Maybe tomorrow night. “Thanks for the information, ladies.”

“Any of us would die for Dr. Henderson. We fight over who gets to call him to tell him to come in, and then we draw straws for who gets to help him during delivery.”

“Does he know?” Heidi asked.

Bailey shook her head. “He knows we draw straws, but I don’t think he knows that we’re all hoping to get to be the one to work with him.”

Heidi leaned back in the chair she’d taken, smiling.

A phone rang then, and Heidi realized it was her on call phone. She pulled out the schedule and on-call list along with it. “This is Heidi.”

“Heidi, this is Jessica. I just got home from the ER with my son. He broke his arm during football practice today.”

“Well, why’d he go and do that?” Jessica was one of their nurses, so it would be a bit harder to find a replacement.

“He was watching the cheerleaders, and he tripped over the bleachers. Can you believe?”

Heidi laughed. “I can believe. I was in high school once too. I’ll get your shift covered. Can you work tomorrow night? Or do you think you’ll be off then too?”

“I think I can handle tomorrow. I just want to make sure he’s comfortable and can do for himself tonight.”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know.”

Heidi looked at the nurses, who had resumed their own jobs. “Sorry, my on-call weekend.”

Bailey turned to her, shaking her head. “We all get it. Deal with your people.”

She looked down the list and found the nurse who was most likely to be willing to work and dialed her number. “Susan, this is Heidi. Jessica’s kid fell and broke his arm. Can you take her shift tonight? It’s a graveyard.”

“Absolutely. I’ll be there at midnight.”

“Thank you! I’ll call and let Amy know.” She hung up and then called the line for the charge nurse for the night. “Amy, this is Heidi. Jessica has a kid with a broken arm. Susan will take her shift.”

“Sounds good. Thanks for letting me know.”

Heidi hung up and dropped the phone back into her bag. Bailey turned around to look at her. “That was easy.”

Heidi nodded. “It was. It helps that all my people are healthy, and I’m not trying to cover four shifts at a time.”

“I know how frustrating that is. Where do you work?”

Heidi named her nursing home. “It’s up in Northlake.”

“I see. So how long have you and Dr. Henderson been married? We need the gossip on that.”

Heidi laughed. “Three wonderful weeks.”

“How’d you meet him?”

Heidi wasn’t sure how much Slade would want them to know, so she answered as honestly as she could without giving away too much information. “We met at church.”

Bailey smiled. “That’s so sweet.”

“It was magical from the first moment I met him.”

Slade came out a minute later, covered in blood. “I’m going to go to my locker and change, and then I’m ready to go.”

“Mom and baby?”

“Both fine, and I made it before she started pushing. We’re going to call this a win! Eight pounds three ounces and that little girl is as perfect as perfect can be.” He wandered off to change, and Heidi waited with the other nurse.

Bailey smiled at Heidi. “You want kids?”

Heidi nodded. “I do. I really, really do.”

“He’ll be a great father.”

“Honestly, I can’t figure out anything that man doesn’t excel at. He’s pretty great.”

“He’s a Dr. Dreamy that’s for sure.”

Heidi laughed. “Dr. Dreamy?”

“That’s what we all call him and have for years. So many of the nurses have thrown themselves at him, but I don’t think he even noticed.”

“That’s funny.” Heidi wondered why he hadn’t dated one of the nurses at the hospital instead of calling Dr. Lachele. She’d have to ask him. Eventually.

On the drive home, Heidi was quiet for a bit, before she figured out what it was she wanted to ask him. “Did you know the nurses draw straws to see who gets to work with you? Not who
has
to work with you?”

Slade laughed. “They do not! They draw straws with all the doctors.”

“Yeah, but it’s different with you. They all love working with you because you’re so good to them and the patients.”

“Really? They told you that?” His voice was filled with skepticism.

“They sure did. And they have a nickname for you.”

“Oh, I don’t even think I want to know what that is.”

“Dr. Dreamy. They said just about every single nurse has been throwing herself at you for years. Why didn’t you date one of them?”

He shrugged. “I guess I knew there were some nurses interested, but honestly, I had no desire to date someone that I worked with. I like the separation of church and state as well. If you’re looking at vaginas with me, then I really don’t need to be looking at yours for fun.”

She laughed. “I can see that. I’m glad I went with you.”

He looked over at her. “You are?”

Heidi nodded. “Yeah, all the best gossip comes from the nurses’ stations.”

“I don’t even want to know.”

It was late when they got home, and Heidi was exhausted. She curled into a little ball on the bed, and Slade pulled her to him, shutting off the light. “Sorry we didn’t get the grocery shopping done.”

She yawned. “We can do it tomorrow.”

*****

Heidi woke before Slade did the next morning, and she immediately started planning. She wanted to tell him she was in love with him, but she wanted to do it in a big way. She knew he had feelings for her, even though he hadn’t said anything, but he was waiting for her to tell him she felt the same.

She slipped out of bed, and went into the kitchen to start the coffee, realizing it was already after ten. She drank a cup, put her hair in a ponytail, and went to the store in shorts and a T-shirt after writing a quick note to Slade, letting him know she was going to let him sleep, so she was doing the shopping alone.

Heidi had always been a good cook, even though she wasn’t fond of it. She called his mother on her way to the store. “What’s Slade’s favorite meal?”

Judy had to think about it. “He loves spaghetti with meat sauce. And garlic bread. He could eat a whole loaf of garlic bread on his own.”

“Then that’s what he’s getting for supper tonight. You raised a pretty incredible son, you know?”

“I know. But thanks for reaffirming. I’m glad he’s making you happy, Heidi. Are you pregnant yet?”

Heidi laughed. “Not yet, but we’ve only been married for three weeks. Give me a few months.”

“As long as you’re trying, I’m happy.”

“Oh, we’re trying.”

“Glad to hear it!”

Heidi laughed as she put the phone down, tucking it into her purse. A nice dinner for her husband and a good conversation was just what she needed.

When she got home, she carried the first two bags of groceries inside and Slade, who was awake, dressed and sitting on the couch watching TV, jumped up to take them from her. “You shopped. Let me carry the groceries in.”

Heidi nodded. “I’ll put them away while you bring them in.”