SLIGHTLY OUT OF breath from rushing to be on time for her first day back at work, Sadie paused at Sunshine Ward’s reception desk, greeting staff she hadn’t seen for the four months she’d been away on maternity leave.
‘Pictures, please,’ Sister Samuels, or Sammy as she preferred to be called, demanded with a smile, holding out her hand until Sadie obliged by unlocking and then handing over her phone.
While Sammy and a small cluster of other nurses oohed and ahhed at baby photos, Sadie tried to stave off the pangs of heartache and guilt for leaving her two-month-old daughter, Milly, the tiny miracle that had turned her world upside down in the best way imaginable.
Sadie itched to grab her phone back. She’d only been back at work for five minutes, and already she wanted to call her twin sister, Grace, who was a qualified nanny, and check up on the baby. But there was no one she trusted more than her twin. They’d shared a uterus, for goodness’ sake.
‘She’s adorable,’ Sammy said, handing back Sadie’s phone before answering the ward phone, while handing over the keys to the drug cupboard to another of the paediatric nurses, multitasking like a pro.
Praying that Milly would be fine—after all, Grace had more or less moved in with them the minute Milly was born, and Sadie had expressed enough breast milk to feed an army of babies—she turned her mind to work.
It was the usual hectic Monday morning at London Children’s Hospital.
While Sadie waited for Sammy to end her phone call so they could begin a ward round together, she settled at a free computer terminal, logged on and opened her work emails.
Unsurprisingly, her inbox was chock-a-block. Filtering out the staff memos and hospital newsletters, she worked her way through what was left, mentally prioritising the list, and postponing anything non-urgent until later in the day.
One email marked ‘Urgent’ caught her attention. She clicked on it, groaning when the attachment downloaded—a red heart-festooned poster advertising the hospital’s Valentine’s Day Fundraising Auction, which was being held in three weeks’ time.
Distractedly, Sadie scanned the adjoining message:
...welcome back...you have been allocated a role as one of the auctioneers on the night...here’s the list of donations/auctions...
Sadie sighed—clearly, in her absence, she’d been given a job no one else wanted. What with caring for baby Milly and returning to work, the hyped-up hullabaloo of Valentine’s Day wasn’t even on her radar. She was a single mum and a part-time paediatric registrar at the UK’s busiest children’s hospital. The last thing she needed was the added work of this romantic nonsense.
Not to mention the reminder of last Valentine’s...
A hot flush crept up her neck as flashes of erotic memories popped behind her eyes. That man had seriously rocked her world. And talk about fertile...
‘I’m sorry you got lumbered with auctioneer.’ Sammy spoke over Sadie’s shoulder. ‘We drew straws for jobs.’ Sammy winced.
Sadie waved off the older woman’s explanation, relieved to have something else to think about other than a pair of intense blue eyes, voracious lips, a night of unbridled pleasure that had resulted in her precious baby.
‘It’s okay. It’s for a good cause, right?’ Distractedly, Sadie scanned the list of auctions, which among other things boasted a couples skydive and a week’s break in Tuscany.
Impatient to begin her review of the current inpatients on the ward, Sadie logged out of her emails. While she wanted the hospital fundraiser to be a success, she wouldn’t be wasting too much of her precious time on other people’s love lives.
Now, more than ever, she had different priorities: her daughter.
Sammy grabbed one of the ward tablets from the charging station, telling Sadie, to her relief, she was ready to begin the ward round.
Except her reprieve was short-lived; it seemed the Valentine’s fundraiser was the hot topic of conversation.
‘If we can raise enough money,’ Sammy continued as they headed for the far end of the ward, ‘the proceeds will fund a new state-of-the-art sensory playroom and a much-needed makeover of the family room.’
‘That’s great.’ Sadie smiled, torn between wanting to help and justifying anything that took her away from her time with Milly. There was no denying that the fundraiser was very much needed. Play was an important part of a child’s healthy recovery and the family room served multiple purposes from a place for parents to relax to the venue where some families heard the worst news imaginable.
But her precious daughter was a miracle she’d long ago stopped hoping for after she’d been diagnosed with primary ovarian insufficiency in her twenties, a diagnosis Mark had claimed hadn’t mattered. Until it had. Until he’d cheated and conceived with another woman.
But then, just when she’d finally put his betrayal behind her, Sadie had met a mysterious Czech stranger in a Viennese bar.
‘Besides,’ Sammy said, pausing at the whiteboard, which listed the current inpatients by name and designated consultant, the place where all ward rounds began, ‘as an auctioneer, you’ll have the inside details on the auctions before everyone else.’
Sammy winked, knowingly.
‘Oh, I won’t be bidding on any of the prizes.’ Sadie flushed. ‘I’ve just had a baby.’
No one except Grace knew anything about Milly’s paternity and Sadie intended to keep it that way.
‘I have no use for a couple’s massage,’ Sadie scoffed, nervous under Sammy’s keen scrutiny, ‘or a romantic dinner for two, unless there’s baby food on the menu.’
‘I know,’ said Sammy, briskly wiping the names of those patients discharged overnight from the whiteboard and updating the number of free beds available for the day’s new admissions, ‘but you’re successful, attractive and single.’
Sammy phrased the word as a question, still fishing for a clue about Milly’s father, ever the romantic at heart.
‘You should never say never,’ Sammy concluded, turning away from the whiteboard.
‘Nope.’ Sadie shook her head, adamant. Dating was still the last thing on her mind. That amazing night with her mystery man changed nothing. Abiding by the rules of the Anti-Valentine’s party, they’d shared a few hours of passion and then parted ways without even sharing their names.
It had been perfect.
Now Sadie had moved on from her ex’s betrayal and moved on from that anonymous night, her life taking a wonderful new direction. And if she occasionally, that was daily, wondered about the man who’d donated his blue eyes to her beloved daughter, she quickly set such pointless curiosity aside, too embarrassed to admit to anyone but her sister that she’d had a one-night stand with a man she couldn’t even begin to track down to let him know he was a father.
‘I have everything I need in my baby girl and my job, thank you very much.’ Unlike with a romantic relationship, when it came to motherhood, Sadie didn’t have to worry about trust or rejection. Milly’s love was unconditional. So there was no father on the scene—Sadie could focus on being everything Milly needed.
‘Not even tempted by the main prize,’ Sammy pushed, ‘the one you’ll be auctioning, the one everyone is furiously saving up to win?’
At Sadie’s blank expression, the senior nurse elaborated, making dramatic finger quotes. ‘“A date with an eligible doctor”.’
‘No, thank you. Definitely not.’ Sadie snorted, wheeling the laptop trolley into the first six-bed bay of patients.
She’d take warm baby snuggles and sick stains on her shirt over being let down by a man any day. Not that she in any way blamed her Czech lover for impregnating her, in fact she would always be grateful to the man for the most wondrous of gifts. And at least this way, alone, she didn’t have the distraction of a relationship, the worry that she was being lied to, cheated on or unfavourably compared to another woman.
‘Who on earth did you find to volunteer for that, anyway?’ Sadie asked, smirking. ‘The poor guy will be eaten alive. I hope someone has thought about security on the night, because it’s going to be carnage.’
Paediatrics attracted a certain kind of doctor, and a hot single man who was good with children was sure to set both ovaries and hearts aflutter.
Sammy flashed her ruthlessly persuasive smile. ‘Let’s just say that he was coerced rather than volunteered. But Dr Ježek, our new locum surgeon, was happy to have his arm twisted for a good cause.’
Sadie rolled her eyes at the nurse’s Machiavellian tactics, already feeling a little sorry for the poor, unsuspecting guy, who was clearly a good sport and might not be aware exactly what he’d signed up for.
‘You might change your mind about bidding on that auction when you see him.’ Sammy winked and fanned her face, girlishly.
‘Not interested.’ Sadie drew to a halt at the foot of the first bed, determined to remain the only single woman in a fifty-mile radius of the hospital to stay immune to the kind of man who would volunteer to have women fighting over him, outbidding each other for a date.
‘Right, let’s start the ward round,’ she said, bringing up the notes of the first patient on her list. The sooner she started work, the sooner the day would fly by so she could rush home to Milly.
Sadie and Sammy had reviewed three patients and marked two of them for discharge when the ward alarm sounded. Leaving everything, Sadie rushed to the emergency, adrenaline coursing through her veins, with Sammy hot on her heels.
They entered the bay where the curtains had been drawn around the bed. The nurse caring for the bed’s occupant looked up gratefully, her expression alarmed.
‘This is Abigail Swift—Abby—six years old,’ the nurse said, lowering the head of the bed while she spoke. ‘She’s one day post-op for laparoscopic repair of intestinal intussusception.’
Sadie took Abby’s rapid pulse, noting that she was conscious, but groggy, her colour a worrying shade of grey.
‘Blood pressure has been on the low side overnight,’ Abby’s nurse continued, ‘but it just dropped further while we were mobilising Abby. There was a brief loss of consciousness.’
While Sadie spoke to Abby, introducing herself and reassuring the little girl, noting the sweat on her brow, someone turned up a dial on the wall, adjusting the oxygen supply through Abby’s mask.
While Sadie placed a hand on Abby’s abdomen, Sammy increased the rate of the intravenous infusion. Sadie checked the cardiac monitor, seeing that the girl’s heart was in a normal rhythm but she was tachycardic and hypotensive, an indication that she was in shock and was most likely bleeding internally.
‘Let’s get some more IV fluids.’ Sadie reached for an IV cannula and inserted it into Abby’s free arm. ‘And an urgent cross match for blood transfusion, please.’
She drew a sample of blood for the lab, worried that Abby might have a serious post-operative complication and that she might crash again at any minute. Sammy began infusing the additional intravenous fluids through the new cannula, squeezing the IV bag to speed things along. They needed to get Abby’s blood pressure up. Fast.
‘Has the surgeon been called?’ Sadie asked, relieved to see Sammy’s brisk nod of confirmation. ‘Great. Phone X-ray, warn them we might need an urgent scan. And find Abby’s parents.’
‘They just went to the canteen,’ the nurse said, soothing a now tearful Abby.
Bleeding was a post-op complication in any operation. Abby would most likely need to return to Theatre to stop the haemorrhage, which might have been slowly grumbling along overnight.
While Sadie labelled the blood tube for the lab, the curtains around the bed parted to admit a newcomer.
Noting that Abby’s blood pressure had improved slightly, Sadie turned to face the surgeon, ready to bring him up to speed.
Instead the floor dropped from under her feet.
It was him. Gorgeous guy from Vienna. The man she’d spent the night with eleven months ago.
Dressed in navy scrubs, his handsome face and the blue eyes he’d passed on to their daughter shrouded in concern, he skidded to a halt across the bed from Sadie.
Their eyes locked for a split second. Awareness she might have imagined zapping across the space, as if their bodies recognised each other, even as their minds played catch-up.
‘What’s the situation?’ he asked, already focussed on their patient, as if Sadie was just any other paediatrician.
Herself jolted into action—there would be time later to discover what he was doing in her hospital—Sadie briefly outlined Abby’s immediate medical history and the current state of the emergency. In equal parts stunned and elated to see him again, Sadie had no idea how she managed to sound so normal when her own pulse raced dangerously high.
In contrast, the surgeon took charge of the situation in that same calm, confident manner she’d found so attractive that night in Vienna.
As the frantic activity around Abby’s bed continued while they all tried to stabilise the girl, Sadie wondered if she’d imagined the moment of shock in his eyes. But focussing on their patient helped Sadie’s brain to compute his surreal presence.
He was a doctor. It made sense. She’d met him at a bar close to the hospital.
‘Call the lab and get cross-matched blood sent around to Theatre,’ he said to Sammy, while he quickly examined Abby’s abdomen. ‘Now, please.’
‘Do you want an urgent scan?’ Sadie asked, pulling her phone from her pocket to call the X-ray department.
‘No time,’ he said, glancing at Sadie’s name badge, before unlocking the wheels on his side of Abby’s bed. ‘I’ll scan in Theatre.’
Still acting as if he had no recollection of Sadie at all, no recollection that they’d shared what had been, for Sadie, a life-changing night, he manoeuvred the bed from the bay. ‘I’ll take her there myself.’
He turned to Sammy. ‘Send her parents down to Theatre.’ Without a backward glance, he steered Abby’s bed from the ward, towards the lifts, leaving as quickly as he’d arrived.
Sadie stood frozen in the centre of the ward, trying to catch her breath as she watched his retreat. Her adrenaline faded, leaving only confusion in its wake. The man she’d thought she would never see again, the man who’d unknowingly fathered their beautiful little girl and literally turned Sadie’s world upside down, was here, in London.
Why?
Had he followed her here having somehow discovered her identity?
No, he didn’t seem to recognise her at all. He’d probably wiped Sadie and that night from his memory. He clearly hadn’t obsessed about her in the same way she’d endlessly wondered about him during the nine months of her pregnancy. And since Milly had arrived, she saw his face every time she looked at their baby daughter.
Sadie’s blood ran cold on that last thought. Was he here to confront Sadie because he somehow knew about Milly?
No—those were thoughts of a mind in panic. There would be a perfectly logical explanation for his appearance. As soon as Abby’s emergency surgery was over, Sadie would find him and tell him that he’d fathered a daughter.
His words from that night in Vienna returned.
‘All that love and relationship stuff is for people hoping to find the one and start a family. That’s not me...’
What would he say when she told him about their baby? Would he be angry? Blame Sadie for getting pregnant? Would he want nothing to do with his beautiful infant daughter?
Until she could confront him, Sadie was left to ruminate on her questions with only a sick feeling of dread for company.
Aware of someone joining her, she swallowed down the paranoia gripping her throat. She glanced at Sister Samuels, who had returned to her usual efficient and unflappable self after the emergency, where Sadie felt as if she’d entered a bizarre parallel universe.
‘So,’ Sammy said with sly grin as the regular ward activity resumed around them, ‘now that you’ve met Dr Ježek, our “eligible doctor”, do you think you might change your mind, bid on that auction to date him after all? I told you he was gorgeous.’
Sadie’s stomach, already in a tight knot after that frustratingly brief and surreal reunion, took another painful twist.
‘I don’t think so,’ she mumbled, trailing after a chuckling Sammy to resume their ward round, cold realisation dawning.
Her baby daddy was not only here in London, a paediatric surgeon working in Sadie’s hospital, he was also about to discover that he’d fathered a little girl during their one passionate night together. And to top everything off, the man who’d assured her that he was unerringly single and couldn’t be swayed was the newest hospital hottie, and it was Sadie’s job to auction him off for a date with the highest bidder.
She massaged her temples, a headache brewing.
Surely her first day back couldn’t get any worse.