Page 22 of When You Blush

Yet I can’t imagine not at least trying.

If she’s willing, that is. And I’m going to do my fucking best to persuade her.

After being at the clinic all day, I just finished a twelve-hour shift at the ER. I should go home and crash for the next ten hours. I get thirty-six hours off, and then it’s back in the clinic the next day.

However, I refuse to leave until I know if Harper’s in the building.

It’s four in the morning when I take the stairs up to the NICU floor. I’m still in scrubs and my white coat, and I need a shower.

I’ve looked better.

But I don’t fucking care.

It’s quiet, and the lights are low as I walk into the neonatal unit. There’s no one at the nurses' station, and when I skim the area, I see Harper sitting in a rocking chair, feeding a baby.

She’s in blue scrubs today, her hair in that messy bun, and she’s smiling at the newborn as she whispers something to them that I can’t hear.

Christ.

She’s fucking beautiful.

She glances up as I walk toward her, but she doesn’t pause in her rocking, and her face is calm as I approach.

“This is Jamison,” she says, looking down at the infant. He’stiny.Maybe three pounds. “He had a rough day. His mom couldn’t come in for his night feeding, so I’m doing it. It always makes me sad when one of the parents can’t make it for the feedings, but she’s a single parent with two other kids at home, so she’s exhausted and overwhelmed.”

She shrugs a shoulder and presses those plump lips together.

I squat in front of them. Monitors and machines make noises here and there, but for the most part, it’s quiet in here tonight. I know about Jamison and his mom.

She’s my patient.

But I can’t tell Harper that, so I stay quiet.

“Bryce is home,” I tell her softly.

“I know.” She smiles, and it lights up the whole fucking room. “He bounced right back. He was the best-case scenario, and I’msoglad he’s home and doing well. I really like Dani. And Birdie is hilarious. I got to meet her on their last day here.”

I nod, watching her.

“How long have you worked here, Harper?”

Her smile slowly fades away, and I want to say something to bring it back.

But I don’t.

“The day Bryce was born was my first day here. He was my first patient.” She takes the bottle out of Jamison’s mouth and guides him onto her shoulder to lightly pat his back. “I’m the new charge nurse.”

My eyebrows lift. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks.”

“Traveling nurse gig over?”

She rolls her lips inward, then nods slowly. “Yeah. I think so. It was time to come home. My family needed me.”

I frown, and without thinking, I reply, “I thought you said you didn’t have?—”

“Not biological,” she says, but there’s no heat there. “My best friend and her siblings. They’re like siblings to me. Ava needed me. And maybe I needed to come home for me, too.”