Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,7

him a couple of minutes to get the car seat all strapped in safely, but thankfully, Vivianne didn’t put up a fuss.

Once he got to Michael’s, he carried Vivianne and the food into the house. He wasn’t surprised to see that Michael was asleep in the recliner. No doubt he hadn’t gotten much rest in the hospital.

As Ryker set everything on the table, Michael stirred and opened his eyes. Ryker picked the car seat back up and carried it closer to the recliner.

“Look who’s home, Vivianne.” He tilted the car seat a bit so Michael could see her. “Do you want to hold her?”

“Yes,” Michael replied quickly.

Setting the car seat on the floor, Ryker crouched down and made quick work of the straps. He hesitated a moment before sliding his hands under her head and her bum. With easy movements, he lifted her out and straightened back up to hand her to Michael.

“Sophia said she might be hungry soon. Do you want to eat first or feed her first?”

“Let me feed her first.”

“Sounds good,” Ryker said as he headed to get the bottle stuff in the kitchen. “I’ll heat your food up when you’re ready for it.”

Once he had the bottle warmed, he gave it to Michael and watched as the man started to feed the baby. For all that he was a brand-new dad—and an unexpected one at that—he was doing really well with Vivianne. Though Ryker was glad he could help his friend and boss out, the situation presented a set of circumstances he’d rather not have had to deal with.

At one point in his life, the future he’d planned for himself had included lots and lots of children. Not all his, of course. But as a pediatrician, he’d anticipated spending a large portion of each day interacting with children.

Unfortunately, his trip to as part of a medical mission to Syria had changed the trajectory of his life. What was supposed to have been the bridge between finishing his residency and starting his own pediatric practice had, instead, become a nightmare.

The first week the team had spent at the camp had been eye-opening and heartbreaking. Though Ryker was glad that he had the opportunity to give medical care to the children in the camp, the experience had also left him feeling hopeless at times. There was only so much he could do with the limited resources they had in the camp, and it had felt like it wasn’t nearly enough.

The hopelessness…the helplessness…had already settled deep in his soul before the day that had changed everything for him. In the years since, he’d done his best to avoid children—especially younger ones—since interacting with them evoked emotions and memories that were hard to deal with.

Being able to help Michael with Vivianne had been difficult at first, but the routine was getting a bit easier. He just had to remind himself that the baby was safe in a place where she could get medical help if she needed it. She had a doctor of her own, which meant that Ryker was able to separate his care for her from the care he would have provided had she been one of his patients.

Still, he preferred to keep his interactions with her to a minimum, which was why he didn’t offer to do more in helping Michael with her. As long as Michael could safely care for her, there was no reason Ryker had to step in.

Once Vivianne was done with her bottle, Ryker took it from Michael then started heating up the food he’d picked up from Norma’s. Though he usually just went home to his apartment to eat by himself once he was done work for the day, that wouldn’t be the case for the next little while.

Michael’s broken leg had meant that the inexperienced father needed someone around to help him with other parts of the baby’s care. And in addition to that, Ryker had needed to step up and take care of the business side of things for Michael as well.

To that end, as they ate, he and Michael talked about the week ahead, discussing the various jobs that were now Ryker’s responsibility. Usually, he only oversaw a few of the jobs, but with Michael out of commission for the foreseeable future, he was picking up the slack. He just hoped he didn’t let Michael down.

Around eight, Lani—an employee and friend of Michael’s—arrived to take over the care of the baby. She would be taking Vivianne back to her