Evie's Bombshell - By Amy Andrews Page 0,57

she plastered a smile on her face.

‘Morning,’ she murmured. ‘How’s our little warrior?’

Finn smiled back, hopping out of his chair for her to sit in. ‘He’s doing well. They’ve reduced his oxygen. He’s coping.’

‘Did you sleep?’ she asked.

‘No,’ the nurse piped up.

‘I dozed on and off,’ Finn corrected her.

Evie looked up at him standing beside her. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a hundred years—his lines had lines. ‘You look exhausted,’ she said.

‘I’m fine.’ Finn brushed his tiredness aside. ‘You, on the other hand, look much, much better.’

‘I feel a hundred per cent better,’ she admitted.

Finn squeezed her shoulder. He’d been worried about her yesterday but she looked like the old Evie and he felt one of his worries lift. ‘Good.’

‘In fact …’ Evie stood, gently reaching out and stroking Isaac’s closest arm, the warm fuzz covering it tickling her finger ‘… I’m going to go and express then I’m going to come back here and stay until Marco’s round at eleven for my discharge and then I’m coming straight back. So I want you to go and catch up on some sleep.’

Finn looked at the determined set to Evie’s chin and felt that protective part of him that had refused to let him leave Isaac’s side relax as it recognised the strength of Evie’s protective instinct. ‘Okay. I’ll go to my office and have a couple of hours.’

Evie shook her head. ‘Finn, you need a shower, a decent meal and a proper bed. Go home. Rest properly.’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t leave you sitting here all day. Not so soon after your discharge. You need the rest more than I do.’

Yeah, yeah. The milk. But she let it go, refusing to dwell on something that was fact anyway.

‘It’s okay. Bella and Lexi will be in and out fussing around all day, making me go for walks and feeding me well. And seeing as your theatre cases have been reassigned this week, I’ll let you take the night shift again.’

Finn laughed. ‘Why, thank you.’

He hesitated. The offer was tempting. He’d been in the same clothes for almost thirty-six hours. And they hadn’t been clean to begin with. If it hadn’t been for Ava persuading Gladys to let her into his apartment, he probably still wouldn’t have shoes. He’d used the toothpaste and toothbrush from the care pack he’d been given by one of the NICU nurses.

A shower and his own bed did sound mighty tempting.

He looked down at Isaac and felt torn. What if something went wrong while he was away? He’d been rock-steady stable but Isaac was in NICU for a reason.

‘I promise I’ll call immediately if anything happens,’ Evie murmured, sensing his conflict and knowing it intimately. How much had she fretted during the hours she’d spent away from him?

‘Okay,’ he said, giving in to the dictates of his utterly drained body. ‘Thanks.’

Finn was back at three o’clock. He’d eaten, showered, slept like a log for two hours longer than he’d planned and zipped quickly into town to do something he should have done weeks ago. Then he’d left his car back at Kirribilli Views and walked to the hospital. It was a nice day and it gave him a chance to think things through, to plan. He stopped in at the canteen on his way to the unit and bought two coffees and some snack supplies for later tonight.

‘Hi, there,’ he said, striding into Evie’s room.

She looked up from changing Isaac’s nappy. It was the first time she’d touched him properly and even though it was a thick, black, meconium bowel motion, she was vibrating with excitement. Perfectly functioning bowels were another cause for celebration.

‘Poo!’ she announced to Finn. ‘Who’d have ever thought you could be so happy about a dirty nappy!’

Finn caught his breath. Her eyes were sparkling and she looked deliriously happy. He didn’t understand why it had taken him so long to figure out he loved her when just thinking about her now made his heart grow bigger in his chest.

He laughed, understanding an excitement that might seem bizarre to others. ‘That’s our boy,’ he said.

Lexi, who was also in the room, shook her head and pronounced them nuts.

Evie finished up and Finn hovered nearby, talking to his son, whose eyes fluttered open from time to time indignantly as his sleep was disturbed. When she was done he passed her the coffee, gave his to Lexi and they filled him in on the day, including the news that the oxygen had been