“It’s barely nineteen-hundred.” His face was caught somewhere between a wry smile and a scowl, and she gave in. Halfway.
“Fair enough. But you’ve had a long day, with all those tests and scans and baselines. Plus the placement of the continuous-read sensor, which I’m sure didn’t tickle.”
“What, this?” Declan flipped his left arm over, the white disc of the sensor that had been surgically implanted flashing amid all the ink on his triceps. “It’s not so bad. And I feel fine.”
Tess murmured her doubt, but didn’t voice it. His appointment at Remington Mem had lasted six hours, with a breather only for lunch. By the time they’d picked up his things from his old place, grabbed a quick bite for dinner, then fought traffic back uptown…Christ, even she was tired, and she hadn’t been poked at and prodded all day.
Tess turned toward Jackson’s Pack n’ Play. He’d gotten slowly used to Declan over the course of the last couple of hours they’d been together as a trio, and she ruffled his hair as she passed over King Henry and a handful of toys that made far too much noise, but would keep him happily occupied for a few minutes while she showed Declan around.
Declan, who she’d had an undeniable and moderately ridiculous crush on for months. Declan, who was now living in her condo.
Declan, who would be naked in her guest shower every morning. Maybe even at the same time she was naked in her own shower, just a dozen feet away…
Oh, this was just stupid! So she and Declan were roommates. It wasn’t that big a deal—for God’s sake, they were legally married. His staying here was a matter of convenience. The fact that it would make his wellness an easier row to hoe was an added bonus.
You can’t fix me.
Straightening from the playpen and blowing one last kiss at Jackson’s sweet face, she moved back toward the couch, where Declan sat—shit!—thumbing through one of the six romance novels she’d left stacked on the end table, two of which—double shit!—had him on the cover.
“You’ve read these?”
Well, hell. She could hardly tell him they were paperweights, and anyway, her embarrassment was entirely rooted in the fact that she’d had multiple filthy fantasies about his image, not the books themselves.
“Yep.” She lifted her chin and looked him right in his gorgeous green eyes. “Haven’t you?”
“No.”
“Well, you’re welcome to borrow them for some bedtime reading, if you like.”
To her surprise, Declan tucked the book under his arm. “Thanks.”
They did a basic walk-through of the kitchen and the main living space before she led the way down the hall, stopping at the first door on the right.
“And here’s your room,” Tess said, grateful as hell that she kept the place relatively tidy on the off-chance that she needed to work a double shift and Charlie or Parker or one of her other close friends needed to crash with Jackson. “The sheets are clean, and there are spare towels in the linen cabinet in the bathroom. The washer and dryer are across the hall, and Jackson and I have the rooms at the end. You’ll have the place to yourself, for the most part, though. I’ll be gone by eight every weekday and at least two weekend days a month. For those shifts, I either hire a sitter through a babysitting service or take him to Charlie and Parker’s.”
“But not his da’s.”
Tess laughed at the idea, then laughed some more for good measure. “No. I have sole custody of Jackson, which is the way both my ex and I like it.”
“He sounds like a proper idiot,” Declan said. The word came out as eejit, which somehow made Tess like it more.
“We both came out with what was important to us in the end.”
They lapsed into silence, which Tess was on the verge of filling by giving Declan some privacy, but her cell phone decided to steal the spotlight.
“Damn it.” She frowned at the caller ID. Remington Memorial Hospital, Emergency Department. “Hello?”
“Oh, thank God!” Charlie’s voice came out in a rush, followed by a muffled order for someone to call the blood bank and order all the extra O-neg they could get their hands on. “There was a gas main explosion at a factory in North Point and we have mass casualties incoming. Over three dozen injured, seven…no, eight critical, six DOA. And that’s just the preliminary report. How fast can you get here?”
Tess’s adrenaline didn’t even have time to spike before she answered. “Fifteen minutes, but…” She glanced at her watch and swore. “It’s after seven. Daycare’s closed. Are Connor and Harlow running triage?”
“Yeah,” Charlie said, even though Tess already knew the answer. Their clinic was across the street from the hospital, and it was the perfect place for non-emergent patients in a critical situation like this one. Of course they’d be handling the overflow. “We’re all hands on deck, both here and at the clinic. Jonah, Nat, Mallory, all the interns and residents. It’s really bad, Tess. I wouldn’t have called you otherwise, I swear.”
“Okay, no, I know. Just let me think.” Ten seconds later, she’d come up with exactly zero brilliant solutions. Shit. “I can call the babysitting service, but it’ll take ages for them to find someone available on the fly and send them out here. Jackson’s bedtime is in less than an hour, so it’s not like he’d need much, but…”
“I can do it.”
Declan, who had obviously been able to hear Charlie on the other end of the line, stepped into Tess’s line of vision. “I’ll be here anyway. No reason for me not to keep an eye on the lad.”
“You want to babysit?” Tess asked, her jaw dropping open.
“I can,” Declan said. “It’s an emergency, right? And you’ve just said he won’t be a bother. It’s just a matter of goin’ ta bed in a bit.”
“Wait,” Charlie murmured. “Is that…Declan?”
Lord, Tess could only deal with one of them at a time. “Yes,” she said to Charlie. “Hang on a sec.” To Declan, she said, “Are you sure you can do this?”
He lifted one shoulder. “I promised you I’d help. I’ve got a truckload of first aid training from the Air Force. And you saw my glucose levels all day, not to mention sittin’ across from me at dinner. The new monitor would go wild with noise if my blood sugar dips, anyway, which it won’t. You know I’m not in any danger of a crash.”
He was, on all counts, right. His glucose levels were being constantly monitored now that he had the continuous-read sensor in place, courtesy of Dr. Gupta. All he’d have to manage was a diaper change, a bottle, and a crib transfer, and Jackson had barely napped today. Chances were high he’d crash fast and hard.
“And you’ll call me if you run into any problems? Any,” she re-emphasized.
Declan nodded. “Of course.”
Tess closed her eyes. There were dozens of people flooding into her ED, all of whom needed treatment, some of whose lives depended on having strong, capable hands on them. Her hands.
And she could help them, just as she was helping Declan.
Now, she had to trust him to help her in return.
So she opened her eyes and said, “That baby is the most important thing in my entire universe. If you need anything—”