I didn’t want to box him in with something we hadn’t discussed ourselves yet. “No,” I swiftly said. I didn’t want Adam to think—well, anything. Namely, that I was expecting him to parent Rosie.
“Yes,” he said at the same time.
I felt my cheeks heat up, unclear if I’d heard correctly. I finally recovered enough to start to protest, to explain, when Pen cut me off.
“Excellent.” She smiled at both of us. “Because I have suggestions.”
“We’ll take any suggestions,” Adam said. “Anything to make these nights easier.”
“Great. Decide what shift you want—8 pm to 2 a.m. or 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. The person not on duty gets earplugs and a bed far away from everywhere else. That way, you can potentially sleep five or six hours uninterrupted every night. That would help everyone in the household, including Rosie.”
Adam considered that. Nodded his head, he mumbled, “Earplugs, great idea.” Then he turned to me. “We could fix a cot up in the laundry room. That’s far enough away that one of us might actually get some rest.”
I pictured Arnold immediately finding my new bed and making himself at home—by sleeping right on top of me on a narrow cot.That made me smile. But what really made me smile was that Adam was taking all of this to heart. He was…involved. Present. In our lives. That meant more than any amount of sleep.
Well, okay, maybenotmore than sleep, which I craved more than food. But it meant a lot.
Pen did a thorough exam, narrating to us the entire time. I was really impressed with the way she handled everything. “Theother thing is,” Pen said, after she’d pronounced Rosie healthy, happy, and thriving, “we’ve found that physician parents tend to over-analyze everything. I mean, we know the worst, right? And emotions get clouded when it’s your own kid. So no treating, okay? And call us. In this practice, you’re just a mom and a dad.”
After that wise advice sank in, we thanked her for everything. “I have one other recommendation for you,” she said.
We both looked up. “You both need time together without the baby.”
I immediately went into rational mode. “It’s really hard because?—”
“You two are smart,” she said, cutting me off. Then she waved us away. “Just make it happen.”
“Pen,” I said as she was about to open the door. “Thank you. That was an amazing visit.”
She smiled broadly. “You’re welcome.” After she left us to get the baby back together, I said to Adam, “She did a stellar job. She was informative, kind, patient, and thorough. She was more confident than I’d never seen her.”
Adam snapped up Rosie’s onesie while I got her jacket ready. “I thought so too. Except I thought of a few more questions that I can email her through the chart.”
I couldn’t help smiling at his earnestness.
Pen was right, of course—about us needing time alone. I didn’t think it was possible to fall in love in the middle of such chaos, but somehow, I’d done it. We were both riding the wave of emotion, of adrenaline, of banding together with all hands on deck with little time to spare. We hadn’t talked about our relationship, about us, about the future. Terrifying stuff.
As soon as Adam left to pull up the car for us, Dylan appeared at the open door. “Hey,” he said. “Can I ask you a question about a patient?”
“Sure. Of course.”
“Do you mind if I switch Jimmy Oswald’s asthma meds around a little bit?” He explained his plan, and I agreed.
I braced myself, for what, I wasn’t exactly sure. To be hit on? To be given Zen advice? I didn’t know.
“Penelope’s really something,” he said. He waved at Rosie, who flashed him a big smile.
“Yes, she is,” I agreed.
“I mean, she really cares about her patients. She’s an amazing teacher too.”
This was interesting. “How’s she doing otherwise?” I asked. “She sometimes has difficulty making the tough decisions.”
“I’m helping her work through that,” was all he said. “Listen, I—I’m all about honesty. I might have campaigned hard for this job because I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.”
Oh. I might’ve suspected it, but hearing it still threw me. I’d always thought of him as someone who lived in the moment, but got bored easily and then moved on to the next adventure. For awhile, I’d gotten swept up in that moment.
He gave a little shrug as he leaned against the exam table. “I guess I came back here because I’ve always thought of you as the one who got away.”
