The Nurse's Pregnancy Miracle
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Ann McIntosh
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Chapter One
WALKING BRISKLY THROUGH the waiting area of the Lauderlakes Family Medical Center, Nychelle Cory scanned the room, once more noting the contrast between the opulent surroundings and the rather squalid interior of the inner-city clinic she’d worked at up until just a couple of years before.
The marble flooring and the crystal chandelier, hung precisely beneath the domed skylight, wouldn’t be out of place in a grand home. Instead of the standard faux leather seating typical of medical clinics, comfortable upholstered chairs and love seats were arranged in small clusters around antique side tables. Every inch of the place was designed to give the illusion of being a luxurious hotel lobby, perhaps in the hope of helping people forget they were waiting to see a doctor.
Few people would understand but, oh, how she missed the hustle and near chaos of working at the low-cost clinic. So rewarding, helping those that others often forgot. But she’d known from the moment she took the job there that, financially, it wouldn’t be enough to advance The Plan.
Funny to realize that was how she always thought of it—not as Plan A, or as a prospective life plan. Just The Plan, with caps and italics, the way she’d written it in her diary when she was just thirteen years old. Below that she’d listed what she wanted, and the list was pretty short.
Children. Three or four.
A job that lets me spend lots of time with them.
A nice husband who wants to spend time with the kids too.
Looking back on it, number three had been tacked on at the end, as if she’d already made up her mind that the husband wasn’t exactly a necessary part of the process.
That thought made her suppress a little snort of laughter. The Plan definitely hadn’t come about the way she’d initially thought it would, but she wasn’t complaining. In fact she’d go so far as to claim she had the best of all worlds.
Getting a plum job at Fort Lauderdale’s premier general care clinic was helping bring her dreams to fruition, yet money alone wouldn’t have lured her to Lauderlakes. Her need to help the less fortunate was strong, and luckily Dr. Hamatty, Lauderlakes’ founder, believed in giving back too, working with local charities to put on free clinics three times a year.
Not the same as being in the trenches all the time, but it helped give her altruistic nature much-needed satisfaction.
There were a handful of people scattered around the waiting area. Sitting close together on a love seat, phones in hand, were a young couple who looked as though they’d just stepped out from between the pages of a high-end travel magazine. In the play area, just visible behind a floor-to-ceiling, glass-paneled waterfall, a toddler laughed, the sound muted by the tinkle of water.
Nodding hello to her next patient—a stylish older lady seated in a club chair—Nychelle paused for a moment in front of the intake desk and transferred her attention to Gina, the receptionist, who gave one of her usual tight-lipped smiles.
“Glad to see you back.” Gina raised one perfectly groomed brow as she spoke quietly, the way they were all instructed to, so as to maintain the atmosphere. “Did you have a good vacation?”
“I wouldn’t call it a vacation.” Nychelle gave a quick shrug, even as her heart did that trip-hammer thing it kept doing every time she thought about her days off and what they could mean. “Just took some time to get some things done.”
Like undergo intrauterine insemination and then keep quiet for a few days to give my body the best chance to make a baby.
Thankfully her complexion was too dark to show the blush as heat rushed up from the neck of her silk shirt and the stylish lab coat covering it into her face. Keeping her expression neutral was so hard, but imperative. Despite Gina’s chic, cool appearance, the receptionist was a Class A gossip, highly effective in ferreting out any and all information others tried to keep from her. With just the slightest hint of anything out of the ordinary going on Gina would be off and running.
“Boring.” Gina drew the softly spoken word out until it was half a mile long, flipping a long curl of black hair over her shoulder for emphasis. “I was at the very least hoping to hear you’d gone to Jamaica.” The smile was a little more relaxed, a little more interrogatory. “The stories I’ve heard about your homeland and the men there...”
Nychelle couldn’t hold back a little gurgle of laughter as she took another look at the information on the tablet in her hand.
Katalina Ivanenko.
Sixty-two years old.
Routine wellness check, including follow-up on previous bone density test.
History of arthritis...
“The rumors of my countrymen’s decadence are highly exaggerated.” Then she couldn’t resist winking and adding a whispered, “Most of the time.”
When Gina hid a giggle behind her hand, a little spurt of relief at pulling the wool over the other woman’s eyes made Nychelle’s smile widen.
No one, with the exception of her cousin and best friend, Aliya, would know about the IUI before her pregnancy was a fait accompli. Most people wouldn’t get why, at just twenty-eight, she was going this route. They’d expect her to be dating, looking for a long-term relationship, as though she should and would want that. Nope. Not in the cards. The relationship she’d gotten out of two years before had shattered both her faith in her own instincts and her ability to trust any man’s intentions.
Then there were her medical issues, which would only make conception harder the longer she waited to try. This was the optimal time for her to get pregnant, while leaving herself room to try a few more times if she needed to, and she was grabbing the opportunity with both hands. It was what she’d planned and worked toward since Nick had dumped her, and she knew she was extremely lucky to be able, both emotionally and financially, to make this huge step alone.
The reception phone rang, distracting Gina, and Nychelle took the opportunity to turn away toward her patient.
“Oh!”
The sound was so unexpectedly loud in the hushed environment, so rife with pain and surprise, Nychelle instinctively turned toward its source.
The young woman on the love seat was bent over, in obvious distress, her hands pressed to her lower abdomen.
“Call Dr. Leeson.” Nychelle was already moving across the waiting area toward the couple as she threw the demand back over her shoulder to Gina.
“It’s okay, Gina. I’ve got it.”
The deep voice came from near the door leading to the clinic, and by the time Nychelle had stooped down beside the young woman Dr. David Warmington was coming up behind her.
Great.
No time to dwell on how unsettled Dr. Warmington made her, or to wonder if he was the right physician for the situation. The other nurses said his bedside manner was exemplary, in between singing his praises and panting over the man’s incredible good looks.
“He’s not bringing the warm,” Nancy, the nursing coordinator, had said with a laugh before he’d started. “He’s packing heat.”
Among the nurses the name stuck, and to hear them talk you’d think “Dr. Heat” was more enticing than free chocolate and a bottle of Chablis.
Secretly Nychelle agreed, but nothing would get her to admit it. She knew all too well the danger of handsome men—especially those able to somehow charm even the most hardened of nurses. They weren’t to be trusted, and were apt to use their looks to their own advantage and the disadvantage of others.
No doubt if he wanted to he could make a lot of money modeling, showcasing expensive sunglasses on that chiseled face, with the wind blowing through his toffee-colored hair. Or making women run out to buy cologne in the hopes of suddenly transforming their hubbies into a six-foot, two-inch wall of muscle, with linebacker shoulders and a bootie made for nipping.
One glance from his intent blue eyes, reminiscent of the most gorgeous of Florida skies, could make the coldest heart quicken—even hers. But, while Nychelle admired his looks, she viewed him with suspicion—as she now did most, if not all, men.
Pushing all those thoughts aside, she said to the young woman, “Hi, I’m Nychelle. Tell me what’s going on.”
She took the other woman’s wrist firmly between her fingers, finding a strong but rapid pulse, and noting the patient’s pallor and the perspiration dotting her hairline despite the clamminess of her skin.
“I... I’m pregnant. I just realized a day ago. I was going to see my doctor after I got home.”
A visitor to the area, then, with perfect but accented English. Wide brown eyes, gleaming with tears, looked beseechingly into Nychelle’s, as though hoping for an instant end to fear and pain. Then she doubled over with a little shriek, arms crossed protectively over her abdomen.
Hugging her, the man beside her interjected, “She did a home test, but we knew she was not far along. When my wife saw a little blood and was worried, my tio told us to come here—”
The young woman turned toward her husband and unleashed a spate of angry, rapid-fire words. Working in Florida, Nychelle had made sure to keep up with her Spanish, but now she caught only the occasional familiar-sounding word. Something about a boat trip, his uncle, and losing her baby, in what Nychelle assumed was Portuguese.
“No, no. Don’t worry about any of that now.” Sympathetic but firm, the doctor’s voice cut through the young woman’s tirade and drew the couple’s attention. “I’m Dr. Warmington. Come with me and let’s find out what’s happening, okay?”
Nychelle was watching the patient and saw the moment when, even through her pain, the woman registered how handsome the doctor was. The young woman’s eyes widened and her lips parted on a silent Oh.
Under different circumstances it would have made Nychelle want to giggle, but they were already moving, the patient supported by her husband on one side, the doctor on the other, through Reception toward the examination rooms.
Nychelle simultaneously held doors open and pulled up the young woman’s information on her tablet, in preparation for handing it to Dr. Warmington on arrival at their destination.
Not a miscarriage. Please, not a miscarriage.
The thought caught her by surprise, made her stomach clench and roll, and as she began helping Mrs. Cardozo undress, she realized her hands were shaky.
Steady. Steady.
She was projecting. She knew she was. Imagining herself in Mrs. Cardozo’s position, feeling the other woman’s emotions as if they were her own, instead of putting her mind where it needed to be—on the equipment Dr. Warmington would need, the tests he’d want her to run.
It was the first time in her career she’d ever felt this way while in the midst of an emergency. Usually if she fell apart it was afterward, when she was alone and could release her emotions in private.
Taking a deep breath, and then another, she forced back all the fears building in her mind, and by the time she’d helped Mrs. Cardozo onto the examination table she’d gotten herself together.
“We’re ready for you, Dr. Warmington.”
Habitual efficiency took over then, and the well-remembered routine of working with a doctor kicked in—although since qualifying as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse she usually worked alone, or with her own nurse assistant.
Yet her emotions seemed perilously close to the surface, and it was only Dr. Warmington’s soothing presence that kept her on an even keel. On the few occasions she’d witnessed him with patients before she’d been impressed by his professional demeanor, but this was different. Even though his understanding and reassurance were aimed at the patient, Nychelle found herself reacting to it too, letting it wash over her in calming waves.
“I can confirm you’re pregnant.”
Nychelle noted that he spoke to Mrs. Cardozo, rather than to her husband the way some other male physicians would be inclined to—another point in the doctor’s favor.
“But,” he continued, “I can see no apparent reason for the symptoms you’re experiencing.”
He glanced at Mr. Cardozo for a moment, and Nychelle thought his gaze briefly dropped to where the young couple’s fingers were tightly intertwined.
“It could be something as simple as dehydration, or a complication that will only become apparent with further testing, so I recommend you go to Broward Medical and have an obstetrician take a look at you there. While we have our own specialists here, at the hospital they’d be able to deal with any eventuality.”
As he gave them the information for the hospital, Nychelle slipped into the adjoining office to call ahead and make arrangements. The entire situation had taken maybe thirty minutes, but she felt as though it had been an emotionally grueling marathon. She didn’t even realize her eyes were damp until she reached up to swipe at a tear.
Hanging up the phone, she stiffened her spine and turned to find Dr. Warmington watching her from the doorway. Perhaps it was the set of his lips, or the way he seemed to be watching her, with a hint of the gentleness he’d lavished on Mrs. Cardozo, but whatever it was made Nychelle’s heart rate escalate and warmth bloom in her chest.
Once more thankful for the cocoa-toned skin that made her blushes unnoticeable, she said the first thing that came to her mind. “You speak Portuguese?”
He laughed quietly as he stepped into his office and moved toward the desk. “I’m lucky to have an ear for languages. I speak a few and understand a few more.”
“Lucky indeed.”
She should go. Although another nurse practitioner would have seen the patient she’d left waiting in the reception area, the day’s schedule was full. No doubt there was another patient for her to see. And she had details to iron out regarding the free child wellness clinic she was helping coordinate, scheduled for the coming weekend. Yet she lingered, watching as Dr. Warmington sat down and pulled his chair up to the desk.
“I’m pretty good with Spanish,” she said, after a moment, “but never got past that. Out of curiosity, what was Mrs. Cardozo saying to her husband?”
When he looked up, Nychelle’s breath caught in her throat. For an infinitesimal moment she read excruciating hurt in his eyes, but then he blinked and it was gone.
“They’re here from Sao Paulo, visiting his uncle, and when she realized she was pregnant she didn’t want to go on the boat trip they’d planned. But her husband talked her into it. She was saying if she lost the baby she’d never forgive him.”
He was still looking at her, seemingly waiting for her to reply, and suddenly—desperately—she wanted to say the right thing; wished she knew what the right response was. Wished she could smile and soothe the hurt she was sure she’d seen in his eyes.
“Well,” she said slowly. “That was patently unfair, but pregnant women—especially those expecting their first child—aren’t always known for their rationality.”
She risked a little smile, and was relieved and unreasonably happy when those stern lips relaxed into an answering tilt: not quite a smile, but enough.
“Hormones running rampant, as you men are quick to point out.”
That brought a wider smile, and Nychelle laughed quietly, before turning away from the magnetic pull of his grin.
“I won’t tell anyone you said something so blatantly sexist, Nurse Cory. It’ll be our secret.”
The laughter in his voice lightened her mood more, even as the rich baritone trickled like liquid sin down her spine. Suddenly she was glad she didn’t have to work with him too often. Now she understood what the other nurses were talking about, why they gazed at him like lost puppies whenever he passed by.
“I appreciate your tact, Dr. Warmington.”
She said it briskly and, her face still warmer than she’d like, she beat a hasty retreat before her own hormones went from simply gadding happily about in her system to having an actual full-on dance party.
He was too sexy for his own good—and hers.
* * *
Still smiling, David swiped a hand through his hair as the door closed behind Nychelle Cory. If anyone had told him he would smile after attending to a patient who might be losing her first child to miscarriage—especially one who seemed determined to blame her husband if it happened—he’d have said they were demented. It cut too close to home, brought the pain and regret that still haunted him after all these years into sharp focus.
If he closed his eyes he knew he’d instantly be able to bring Kitty’s face to mind, see the anger and near hatred glittering in her eyes, hear the blame she’d spewed at him before walking out of their home and his life.
That wasn’t something he dwelled on often; he knew she’d been devastated by the loss of their child, had lashed out at him as the only available target. But to have a patient come in at this time of the year, when the memories were so close to the surface anyway... Usually he’d be hard-pressed not to be overwhelmed by them, but now, instead, he clung to Nychelle’s warmth and kept smiling.
Just seeing the nurse practitioner buzzing around the clinic, dispensing that wide, sunny grin like instant relief medication, always gave him pleasure. This was one of the few times they’d interacted directly, but that was his own fault. When they’d first met, looking into those dark, gleaming eyes, seeing her gorgeous smile, had sent a sensation like an electric shock through his body, and he’d known immediately she was a woman to stay away from.
Agonizing memories were overshadowed by more enjoyable ones, and he closed his eyes, pictured Nychelle as he’d first seen her. Her hair had been pulled back into a simple bun, which had only emphasized the beauty of her oval face, her wide-set eyes and sweet, full mouth. Her smooth dark skin had been set off to perfection by a silky sunshine-yellow top that had done nothing to camouflage the high, rounded breasts beneath it, and her smart linen pants had showcased the rest of her glorious curves.
As far as he’d come from his rural roots, and as many lovely women as he’d met, something about Nychelle Cory had regressed him to the stuttering idiot he’d been in junior high school. She was intelligent and beautiful: the kind of woman men fantasized about finding and cherishing forever.
Making a family with.
But going down that road again wasn’t an option he wanted even to contemplate. Having children was a dream that had died for him, and he didn’t dare reawaken it. So, even if he was feeling that instinctive pull toward her, the smartest thing to do was to stay far away.
Painful memories threatened once more, the agony almost as sharp as it had been all those years ago. With a curse, David pulled his thoughts back from that precipice and reached for the tablet on his desk. He had notes to finish and an appointment due to begin any moment.
Yet his eyes strayed one more time to the door, and he remembered seeing Nychelle wiping away a tear as he came into the office. Apparently he wasn’t the only one affected by their shared patient, and the knowledge of her tenderheartedness tugged at something deep in his chest.
Cursing again, he turned his attention to the digital device in his hand, determinedly putting all thoughts of the delectable nurse practitioner out of his head.
