I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to assure him. “It doesn’t matter, you know.”
He huffs a humorless laugh. “Oh, it matters, Angel. Because they’re going to pay for what they did to you.”
“Grizz—”
“Don’t fight me on this,” he says sternly but not aggressively.
I move in front of him, cupping his cheeks. “I don’t want this to take over your life. If I can move past this, then you can too.”
He looks like he wants to say something but thinks better of it.
I sigh, unsure of what he’s thinking or how he’s taken when I said.
“Just be careful,” I whisper, leaning in to kiss his lips. My stomach does a little flip, my blood heating. “Let’s go to bed.”
I help him put Dorothea into the bassinet because he looks like he’s going to pass out at the thought of standing. I sleep for only an hour before she wakes and needs to feed. But then she sleeps for a solid two hours before waking again. We do this all through the night, and I think my luck with her sleeping is finally over.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Grizz
Dr. Langston is too young to be a doctor. I’m not sure what he’s doing here, because I was told we were seeing the town doctor, which is Dr. Dalton. He’s been the doctor in this town since I was a boy. I trust him, just like all the other guys do, because he’s been doing this shit for years. This guy looks like a fucking toddler in a white coat.
“Where is Dr. Dalton?” I ask as he does something on his laptop.
“He’s off today.”
“I was told we would see Dr. Dalton.”
“I’m sure it’s fine, Grizz,” Anastacia says.
“This guy doesn’t even look old enough to be in college,” I say under my breath.
“I’m thirty-one,” he says simply as he turns to us. “Also, Dr. Dalton is my uncle, and he wouldn’t have hired me here if he didn’t trust me.”
“That don’t mean shit,” I say. “You’re just a baby. What kind of cases have you seen? You don’t have experience.”
“Okay,” he says calmly. “I understand your worry. This is your child, and you want someone you trust to look after them.” Neither one of us corrects him over saying it’s my child. “But I can assure you, I have plenty of training. More training than Dr. Dalton, even if he has experience on me. Besides, pediatrics is my specialty, whereas Dr. Dalton is just a family doctor.”
“What the fuck is the difference?”
He gets up from his rolling chair, pulling his stethoscope from around his neck. “It means, my training has been focused on pediatrics specifically, while he has general knowledge on all ages.” He crouches down in front of Anastacia, who is holding Dorothea and sitting in the chair beside the patient table. “May I listen?”
Anastacia unbuttons a few buttons on Dorothea’s onesie, allowing him to listen to her lungs and heart. He feels around a few places while asking questions.
How is she eating? How often? For how long? Is she peeing and pooping okay? Crying? Sleeping?
He asks so many questions it makes my head spin, but he’s thorough, so I’ll give him that.
“I was told you didn’t have an exact weight on her after she was born, so because of that, I’d like to see you again in three days, just for a weight check. It’s normal for babies to lose a little after birth, but since we don’t know what that was, I want to monitor it more closely for a week or two.”
“Thank you,” Anastacia says as she fixes Dorothea’s clothing.
“I have these for you,” he says, picking up a folder that he brought in with him but left on the counter by his laptop. Hehands it to me. “Birth certificate, and other documents you may need for her. They’ve all been taken care of, and we have made copies already for her chart.”
“These are legit?” I ask, holding onto the folder that he doesn’t let go of.
“They certainly are.” He gives me a smug smile.
