Dr. Grump’s Surprise Baby (Bossy Bachelors #2)

11. Emily

CHAPTER 11

EMILY

“ W hat do you mean, you’re not coming?” Emily said.

Sara’s voice was staticky through the cell phone — it seemed as if her reception was beginning to fail her. “I’m sorry,” she said. “My mom and my sister came into town and surprised me, and I have to spend the day with them. I know I told you I would go to the conference with you, but…”

“It’s all right.” Emily sighed. She couldn’t exactly ask her friend to blow off her family for a work conference. That wouldn’t have been fair, as much as she did wish it was possible. She couldn’t help wondering, though, whether Sara might have summoned her family to town on purpose to get out of going to the conference. She hadn’t made any particular secret of the fact that she didn’t really want to go, and that she was only doing so as a favor to Emily.

Well, there was nothing to be done about it now. Emily was either going to have to opt out of the conference herself or else she would have to go on her own, something she’d wanted to avoid. Unfortunately, she didn’t really think she could opt out now. It wouldn’t look good to have put her name on the list only to no-show at the last minute. It would lose her all the goodwill she’d managed to accrue with Dominic — no, with Dr. Berger. That first-name business had only been an option while they were out of the hospital. Almost a week had gone by since the night at the diner, and she was still struggling to revert to calling him by his title in her head. When she thought of him now, he was Dominic to her.

And that was a problem. Because when she thought of him now, he was also those warm eyes that had explored hers so carefully, that reassuring voice that hat told her she would be a good doctor, those sure and steady hands that had been in the operating room with her and had left her wondering what those hands might be capable of in other rooms. That wasn’t something she should be thinking about her boss, and she knew it. She needed to get those thoughts out of her head.

She had been looking forward to spending the day with Sara, thinking that it might be a good distraction. But now Sara wasn’t coming to the conference.

Emily dressed in the outfit she’d picked out for the day — a suit she had purchased when she’d moved to Chicago. She examined her reflection in the mirror. She looked professional enough, there was no doubt, but she found herself considering her appearance from another angle now. Dr. Berger would be at the conference today. This would be the first time he would be seeing her out of scrubs. Was this what she wanted to show him?

She closed her eyes. She had to stop thinking like this. It didn’t matter what Dr. Berger thought of her appearance. He probably wouldn’t notice her anyway. It was possible that he wouldn’t even register the fact that she had shown up. This whole business might turn out to be a waste of time.

She went down to her car, thinking that if she didn’t have the chance to spend time with Sara, at least she might get an opportunity to spend time with the other interns in her group. Maybe she would make a new friend today, and that would make it all worth it.

That hope lasted until Emily arrived at the hotel where the conference was taking place and picked up her name tag.

She went into the room where breakfast was being served, scanning hopefully for a familiar face. She saw Dominic — no, Dr. Berger — almost at once, but he was surrounded by a group of doctors she had never met, and she knew there was no way she could go up to him, as much as she wanted to.

There had to be someone else here that she would recognize — some other familiar face. She would even have been happy to see Chad at this point.

She recalled that another one of the interns, Cassidy Cook, had put her name on the signup sheet, but Cassidy was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she had also decided to pull out at the last minute.

Maybe Emily really was the only one here — the only intern among a group of professionals.

She felt heat rush to her face. This was so humiliating! She felt presumptuous for having come here in the first place. She should have realized when there were so few names on the signup sheet that this wasn’t really intended for her. The interns must have been invited as a formality, nothing more. Nobody really wanted to see her here.

Well, it wasn’t too late. She could slip out and go back home. No one had seen her yet, so all she had to do was turn around…

As the thought occurred to her, Dr. Berger’s gaze shifted, and his eyes locked on her.

Emily cursed inwardly. Now she couldn’t leave. He would lose all respect for her if she did. And besides, if she was able to make it through hours of surgery, surely she could handle a professional conference? She didn’t have to bail out just because she didn’t know anyone here.

She squared her shoulders, went up to the buffet table, and took a plate.

She moved down the line slowly, loading herself up with food — more than she knew she would eat. The moment she stopped putting food on her plate was the moment she would have to go find a place to sit down, and that thought made her nervous. How was she going to approach any of these tables full of strangers?

Eventually, though, she came to the end of the buffet. She stood looking around, trying to spot an empty table that she could go to without feeling like she was encroaching on anyone else.

“Are you looking for a place to sit?”

Emily turned. A woman about five years older than herself was standing at her shoulder, a smile on her face.

“Oh,” Emily said, slightly embarrassed that her predicament had been that obvious. “Yes, I was.”

“Do you want to come and join our table? Me and the ladies from my office, I mean? We’d be more than happy to have you sit with us if you’re on your own.”

“I… that would be great,” Emily admitted. “Thank you.”

The woman smiled warmly. “I’m Kayla Schumacher,” she said. “I work at a private practice in the city. We’re staffed by all women, and we serve patients of all genders, but we focus on women’s health.”

“That sounds amazing,” Emily said, following Kayla over to her table. “My name is Emily Swinton. I’m an intern at Chicago Grace.”

“Ooh, are you one of Dominic Berger’s interns?”

“I am.”

“That internship is legendary,” Kayla said. “Now you really have to come and sit with us. You’ve got to tell us all about it.”

She led Emily to a table where three other women were sitting. “All right, ladies, this is Emily,” Kayla said. “Emily, this is Tana, Izzy, and Laura.”

Everyone smiled and offered greetings. Emily pulled out a chair and sat down.

“She’s one of Dr. Berger’s interns,” Kayla explained.

Izzy let out a whistle. “Damn. I’ve always wished I had done that internship.”

“You only say that because you have a crush on Dominic Berger,” Kayla said, laughing.

Emily looked from one of them to the other. “Is that true?”

“She’s exaggerating,” Izzy said. “I mean, I do think he’s good-looking. Who wouldn’t? But that’s not the reason I wanted to do his internship. He’s the best in the business. I would have done it If he had accepted me.”

“You applied?”

“We all applied,” Laura said.

“I didn’t,” Tana put in.

“Okay, but only because you did your internship on the West Coast. Everyone who interned anywhere near Chicago wanted to work with Dominic Berger,” Kayla said. “I would have taken it in a heartbeat if it had been offered to me — even though we all know how insane that internship can be.”

“Yeah, I’ll say,” Izzy said. “How have you been holding up, Emily?” Do you think you’re going to make the three-month cut?”

“I think so,” Emily said. “I feel like I’ve been doing all right so far.”

“That’s good,” Kayla said, smiling. “I bet you’d have gotten a feeling about it if you weren’t going to survive. Do you know who’s going to be cut?”

“I could definitely name some people who I would cut,” Emily admitted, laughing. “Of course, it’s not up to me.”

“But it’s good to know who the best in your group are,” Kayla said. “With luck, those are the ones who will make it through. Of course, things get really difficult after that.”

“They do?”

“Not everyone who finishes interning under Dr. Berger is guaranteed a job at the hospital,” Laura said. “Is that what you want? To work at Chicago Grace?”

“You know, I hadn’t really thought about it before I started my internship,” Emily admitted. “But now that I’ve spent some time there, I’d have to say that it is what I want. I’ve gotten used to it, and… to the people there.”

“She means she’s gotten used to Dominic Berger,” Izzy laughed.

“Knock it off, Izzy,” Kayla said. “Not everyone is as thirsty as you are.”

“Maybe not, but he is handsome.” Izzy turned to Emily. “That’s got to be at least a part of why you want to stay at Chicago Grace, right?”

“That isn’t why,” Emily protested. “I wouldn’t even consider dating my boss, for one thing.”

“Who said anything about dating ?” Izzy asked with a laugh.

“Oh my God,” Kayla said. “You’re a terrible influence, do you know that? I’m sorry, Emily. I brought you over here because I thought you might want to meet some other women in medicine, and now Izzy’s acting like a sorority pledge.”

“It’s okay,” Emily said, laughing. “We can’t turn off our personalities just because we have serious jobs, right?”

“Right!” Izzy agreed. “That’s what I always say.”

“That’s something Dr. Berger and I disagree on, actually,” Emily said. “He seems to think that it’s important to be as cold as possible when you’re practicing medicine.”

“I’d take it as a personal challenge to warm him up,” Izzy giggled.

“All right,” Kayla said. “Don’t make me regret introducing you to people, Izzy. This is a professional conference.”

“Do you four all work together?” Emily asked.

“That’s right,” Kayla said. “We went into private practice together a few months back, and part of the reason we’re here today is to help get the word out. How about you — are you here by yourself?”

Emily nodded. “Yeah. One of my friends from the hospital was going to come with me, but she bailed out at the last minute.”

“I think it’s cool that you came anyway,” Kayla said. “I’ll tell you what. If you don’t have any other plans when it comes to who you want to spend the next couple of days with, you’re welcome to group up with us.”

“Really?” Emily felt warm all over at the acceptance. “That would be amazing.”

“I just know I wish I’d had a group of experienced women to step in and take me under their wing when I was your age,” Kayla said. “I’d love to help you out, if that’s something I can do.”

“That means the world to me,” Emily said. “And you’re right, I’d love to get to know some women who have found success in this field.”

She just hoped that they would stop talking about how attractive they found Dr. Berger.

Not because she didn’t agree with them — there was no doubt that they were right on the money. But she was doing everything she could to avoid thinking about her attraction to her boss, and hearing that it was a commonly held opinion was just about the farthest thing from helpful that she could imagine.