The Proposal (The Proposition #2)(26)
Shaking her head, she slipped back into bed. She felt like she had barely closed her eyes when she felt someone’s breath warming her cheek. “Em, wake-up sweetheart.”
Fluttering her eye-lids, she saw Aidan hovering over her. “What time is it?”
“Six. I wanted to let you know I was going upstairs to be with Pop before his surgery.”
“Okay. Tell him I love him, and I’m praying for him.”
“I will.” He hesitated a moment before leaning over to kiss the crown of her head. “I hate to leave you.”
“No, you need to be with your dad.”
“I’ll be back just as soon as I can.”
Emma nodded. When he turned for the door, she said, “Aidan, wait.”
He whirled around with his eyebrows cocked, waiting for her response. “I just wanted to say thank you for staying with me last night. It really means a lot that you didn’t leave me alone.”
He smiled. “Although you don’t need to say thanks, you’re more than welcome.”
When he closed the door behind him, Emma laid her head back against the pillows. In no time she was asleep again until the morning breakfast trays came rumbling around on their carts. Along with the morning meal came another nurse to check her vital signs. Emma was forcing down some of the hospital’s rubbery bacon and overcooked eggs when her hospital room door swung open. “Morning sunshine!” Casey said, sweeping inside.
“Good morning.”
“I brought you something comfortable to go home in…well, I guess I should have said something to go to the douchenozzle’s place.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “How did it go last night?”
“Fine. I managed not to maim him or draw blood.”
“I’m glad to hear you didn’t cause any more physical harm. Did you spare him emotionally as well?”
Casey grunted as she plopped down in the chair. “I probably said five words to him tops.” Gazing around the room, she asked, “Speaking of, where is the douchecanoe this morning?”
Emma grunted in frustration before replying, “He’s with his sisters waiting to see how Patrick’s surgery goes.”
“Ah, I see.”
She had just opened her mouth to tell Casey about Aidan staying the night when Pesh entered the room. “Morning. I just wanted to check in to see how you were feeling before I started my shift.”
Emma bit down on her lip to keep from laughing at Casey’s expression. Open-mouthed and wide-eyed, Casey drank in Pesh’s appearance from his head down to his toes. When he glanced at her, he thrust out his hand. “I’m Dr. Alpesh Nadeen.”
“C-Casey Turner,” she replied.
“She’s my best friend,” Emma informed him as Casey kept staring.
“It’s very nice to meet you.” Side-stepping Casey, he came to Emma’s side. “I’m hoping you won’t think it was completely inappropriate, but I snuck a little peek at your chart this morning.”
“You’re a total stalker,” she teased.
Pesh grinned, causing dimples to appear in his cheeks. “Well, with that said, everything looks good. I think once you take it easy these next fourteen days, you’ll be fine for the rest of your pregnancy.”
“I hope so.”
“Have faith. It’s all going to be just fine.” Once again his pager interrupted them. He glanced down at it and scowled. “Guess I better get downstairs.”
“Thank you so much for coming by.”
He nodded. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, and we’ll iron out our dinner plans.”
“Dinner?”
He cocked his dark eyebrows at her. “You didn’t think I would just come check your vitals and run out the door, now did you?”
Emma felt her cheeks warming at the insinuation. “Well no, but—”
He held up a hand and smiled. “We’ll talk about it later.” He turned to Casey. “Nice meeting you.”
“Yes, nice meeting you too,” she replied, her gaze honing in on his ass as he walked out the door. Once they were alone, she whirled back to Emma. “Holy shit, Em! You have precisely five seconds to fill me in on who the hell Dr. McDreamy Bollywood is!”
Emma laughed and then she proceeded to tell Casey everything. Once she was finished, Casey shook her head slowly back and forth. “Wow…I mean…just wow.”
With a dreamy sigh, Emma said, “Tell me about it.”
“So are you going to give him a chance?”
Emma shrugged. “Maybe.”
“I think a man like that warrants a little more than a ‘maybe’.” Casey gazed longingly at the door Pesh had only moments ago exited. “I mean, incredibly good looks aside, the man is compassionate and caring…and completely the opposite of the commitment-phobic dirt-bag.”
“I’m already too stressed, Case. I can’t throw in a potential new man to the mix right now.” When Casey started to protest, Emma shook her head. “Besides, I’m still not sure I’m ready to move on from Aidan.”
Casey rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You’re going to let your feelings for the douchenozzle screw up a potentially amazing soul-mate?”
“Aidan is the father of my child. I’ll always love him for that fact alone, but there’s still so much between us.” At Casey’s tight lipped expression, Emma said, “There’s no easy black and white here, Case. It’s all grey. Besides what I still feel about him, his actions in the last twenty-four hours are very endearing. He’s risking his job to take care of me. He came back last night so I wouldn’t be alone. He’s begging and pleading for my forgiveness. I can’t just ignore that.”