That was exactly how Henry was all the time.Easy.Like he was exactly where he was supposed to be at all times and he never doubted anything about that. He knew who he was and he didn’t need to fuck around.
That was how he was in bed too. Not that I needed any reminders about the way he moved in between the sheets. That had been on heavy rotation in my head since the minute I escaped that hotel room.
“Seems like an important learning opportunity,” Meri said. “Honestly, how many times in your career do you think you’ll have a chance to attend to a hobbit?”
Henry pressed a fist to his mouth as his lips curled into a glowing smile. He had the best smiles. It was like he actually meant it. “I cannot laugh at that because Dr. Salas will know and I’d really love it if I don’t have to stand in the corner of the OR holding her water bottle this afternoon.”
“Understandable,” she replied. “But she’s a great teacher. You’d probably learn a ton in that corner.”
“Oh, I have.” He laughed and dropped a hand to the back of my chair. Meri’s brow arched all the way up. “It’s the best corner of any rotation so far.”
He rubbed his thumb across the back of my shoulder, and even though she couldn’t see what he was doing, she knew. She blinked like she didn’t know what to do with any of this. Maybe now she understood what I was dealing with here.
“Have you been in Dr. Aldritch’s corner?” Meri asked.
“I, uh—” Henry glanced down at me, a smile crinkling his dark eyes. Between that smile and the thumb on my shoulder, I was turning into a marshmallow. Just sugar, air, and chemistry. There was nothing else holding me together. “I haven’t had that opportunity, no.”
“Maybe the right case will come along.” She crossed her arms over her torso. “Well. Always fun to see you, Hazlette.”
As he started to respond, someone near the counter screamed. We all turned in that direction to find a woman doubled over, her hand slamming down on a table as she cried out again. Henry took a step toward her as the staff rushed forward.
“Please let it be an appendix,” Meri whispered, her palms pressed together in prayer. “Appendix, kidney stone, bleeding ulcer. Anything but?—”
As I pushed to my feet, the woman said, “Oh my god. I think my water broke.”
Meri hung her head for a second, muttering, “Goddammit.” She stood and crossed to the woman in a few steps, gently shoving everyone out of the way as she went. “Hi. My name’s Meri Mercer and I’m a baby doctor. Can you tell me your name and how far along you are?”
“Carina and tomorrow’s my due date,” she wailed. “There’s a lot—I don’t know, like a lot of pressure?”
Meri hooked a glance over her shoulder at me. “Ambulance. Now.” She eased Carina into a chair, asking, “When did the contractions start?”
“I don’t know. Last night, maybe? I thought”—she stopped speaking to scream again—“it was just Braxton Hicks.”
“Hazlette,” Meri called as I waited for emergency services to answer. “You’re here, so you’ll be useful. Get these people away from my laboring mother, please, while I wash my hands. She doesn’t need an audience.”
I stepped toward the kitchen as I relayed the information to the dispatcher. When I was finished with that, I asked the café manager for some clean tablecloths, an apron, and the sharpest knife he had. While he ran the knife under boiling water for a few minutes, I returned to Meri’s side as Carina cried out again.
“Ten minutes,” I said into Meri’s ear.
“Fuck,” she breathed. “Are they coming in from New Hampshire or something? We could bike to the hospital in less than ten minutes.”
“Okay, so you’d like me to put your patient on a bike?”
She rolled her eyes. “You know that I don’t, but thanks for the reminder of how much I love it when you assist me.”
“I feel like I need to—” Carina bent forward and I dug in my pockets for a spare pair of gloves. “I think I need to push,” she sobbed.
“This baby really wants to meet you,” Meri said, rolling up her sleeves and pocketing her jewelry.
“But I’m not ready,” she said, “and my husband isn’t here and this isn’t my birth plan!”
“I know, my friend, I know. This isn’t how I want it to go for you either, but you have me, my friend Dr. Aldritch, and her friend Dr. Hazlette all here to help you.” Meri turned to Henry when another contraction hit, asking, “Have you delivered a baby before?”
“Not really, no,” he replied. “I’ve seen one.”
“That’s perfect because we abide by a policy of see one, do one, teach one around here and I really don’t want to get this sweater dirty,” Meri said. “Glove up, Hazlette.”
He glanced at me with just enough panic in his eyes to make me laugh. I handed him my gloves and hand sanitizer. “Didn’t you learn this as a paramedic?”
