Laura was waving a hand in the air. “Everyone should be here.”
“I’m going to excuse myself for this part and let the parents-to-be have their moment,” Billy said softly, her eyes glossed over. She bent over to kiss Jamie’s cheek and winked at her brother before stepping out.
I wanted to follow but reminded myself I was in charge of what was happening in the room.
With Billy gone, I relaxed a bit, giving some instructions on the gown and the ultrasound wand before excusing myself to grab Shelly, my ultrasound tech.
She assured me she would be thorough and call me in when she was done. With ten or fifteen free minutes, I should have done some charting. Instead, I walked toward the waiting room, almost plowing straight into Billy. My pulse ratcheted as soon as I was within a few inches of her.
“Sorry.” I quickly added some space between the two of us and asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Of course. I wanted to give my brother and Jamie some space. I’ve been a bit overinvolved in this pregnancy already. It’s just so exciting.” She said Jamie’s full name, James, with such elegance, the softsrolling off her tongue as if she had rehearsed it that way.
Losing myself in her voice was easy. It was so much better in person. Soft and throaty, tinged with her excitement. Her smile even grew bigger and better in real time—genuine, bright, and touching her eyes.
“I meant…did you want to sit down?”
“Oh,” she said, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. “The waiting room is pretty full, and sadly, I’m pretty recognizable. It would only take a few minutes for the rumors to spread. I’d be pregnant with triplet aliens or wolves by the end of the day. I’d have ten potential baby daddies, and there would be a bump watch. So I’m just standing here, out of the way.”
I swallowed my naïveté—I hadn’t thought about Billy’s notoriety. Ford was a behind-the-scenes guy, but not his sister.
“Ford arranged for us to come in the rear entrance, and I assume we’ll go out that way. I didn’t bring Frank, mostly because this is about Jamie, but I can’t sit out there alone. He’d have a fit of epic proportions.”
“Frank?” Jealousy surged in my veins over a Hollywood actress I’d been talking to for all of two and a half minutes. A woman who was as likely to be mine as I was to be elected president.
“My bodyguard.”
“Oh,” slipped from my mouth as I exhaled. A sense of relief washed over me because of a bodyguard—what was happening to me? “Do you want to sit in my office? It’s private. No one will bother you in there,” I said, willing my errant thoughts away.
“That would be lovely.” She seemed to breathe the statement on a sigh of relief, and it took all of my self-restraint not to bang my fists into my chest. As she swished her hair behind her neck I caught sight of the tiniest beauty mark in the shape of a pear, under her earlobe.
Having no idea why I banked this information, I mentally shook myself back to the present. “Come,” was all I said instead, and started walking toward the back, making a mental note to instruct the office staff to keep today’s visit quiet. Not sure when my obstetrics practice felt like it had become a set for reality TV, I swung open the door to my office and said, “Have a seat. Make yourself at home. Can I have some tea or coffee sent back?”
“No thanks, but this is better than standing. Thank you, Dr. Rand.”
Her gaze slid to mine, and if men could blush, I was doing it. “Cal, please,” I requested in a hurry, wishing I had hours with this woman.
She nodded, sitting in the club chair in the corner.
“I’m going to check on Jamie and Laura, but just in case you were wondering, alien triplets with ten baby daddies are not really a possibility. Maybe quadruplets…with a wolf…but I’d need to investigate it further.”
She laughed, her eyes becoming tiny slivers as a giggle erupted from her chest. “Thanks for the seat and the discretion.”
Her words floated through the laugh, and my fist actually formed, ready to pound on my chest. I really needed to get my caveman under control. Then Billy looked straight at me, and I felt her presence deep in my core. The woman was spellbinding.
“Do you mind if I say—I’m a fan.” I didn’t mean for it to come out… “Shit,” I corrected.
“It’s fine,” she said. “Thank you for helping my brother, Dr. Rand. He deserves this. A chance at love and a life.”
With my formal name still lingering on her lips, she went to pull an iPad out of her tote, and I took it as a sign to let it be. I couldn’t help but wonder about her—did she have love? Or a life?
“I’ll leave you to it,” was all I said, and then I escaped, shutting the door behind me.
Callum
June
It was a Saturday and I wasn’t on call, but I found myself in the office. The Conways’ surrogate, Laura, had passed the three-month mark and the anxious parents-to-be wanted to be at her twelve-week checkup. Except Ford was on the set of his new movie and asked if I would come in tomorrow. He offered to make it worth my while, but I didn’t need the money. Nor was that how I conducted medicine. I wasn’t some reality TV Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.
