Deliver Me by Farrah Rochon

to that day, how she’d struggled to get the tube down his
throat. She quickly pushed those memories aside.
    “Just wait until you have a few kids of your own,” Patty smiled. “You’ll
sing a different tune.”
    An incoming emergency stopped their conversation short. Before she knew
it, Monica had seen eight patients and three hours had passed. She left word
with Patty that she was going to lunch, but when she came across the bank of
elevators, Monica decided to face her most dreaded ordeal of the day. Why put it
off?
    After their last confrontation, she did not want to see Eli today. Monica got off on the fourth floor and,
when approached by one of the floor nurses, asked where she could find Dr.
Holmes.
    She was informed that “Super Doc” had just delivered a set of twins and
would probably be in his office in a few minutes.
    Monica walked over to Eli’s office and tried the door. When she found it
unlocked, she pushed it open and entered the office. She was duly impressed
with the massive space and rich décor. For one so young, Elijah Holmes had
certainly made a name for himself in his profession and it showed in the perks
that were lavished upon him. No doubt Methodist Memorial knew he could be
scooped up by a number of hospitals if given the incentive to leave.
    Monica felt a twinge of guilt at looking around his office while he wasn’t
here, but curiosity got the best of her.
    The man could not be over thirty-five, yet he was already a legend, both
in the delivery room and—if what she had heard while sitting around the
nurses’ station had any truth to it—in the bedroom, as well.
    She did not want to think about Eli in the bedroom. The image was too
tantalizing, especially for a woman in the middle of a yearlong drought.
    One of the most interesting things to run past her ears
today was the news that Eli did not date doctors. Hearing it had come as such a
shock Monica had immediately asked the ER nurse to repeat what she had said.
She didn’t think about how it would look to everyone that she had been
eavesdropping, but she couldn’t help it.
    A man with his reputation went out with anything in a skirt, right? But
not Dr. Holmes. He apparently had no qualms with dating nurses, paramedics, or
even the female hospital administration workers, but he drew an imaginary line
when it came to doctors. Monica couldn’t help but wonder why.
    The door opened and she jumped back from the framed picture of a pretty
little girl with two missing front teeth on top of a mahogany filing cabinet.
    “Dr. Gardner? Can I help you?”
    For a moment Monica was taken aback by just how good he looked in scrubs.
Wasn’t it a rule all doctors look goofy when they don lime green hospital wear?
Somebody forgot to tell Eli.
    “Monica?”
    “I’m sorry,” she shook her head and tried to summon a bit of her common
sense. Monica vowed to kick herself as soon as she left his office. “One of the
nurses told me I could wait in here while you finished with your delivery.”
    “Making yourself at home?” he nudged his head toward the pictures she’d
been examining.
    “Oh, no, I was just looking. Is she...is she yours?” She hoped he didn’t
notice her stutter.
    “She’s my niece. Jasmine.”
    “Oh. So, you don’t have any children of your own?”  
    “No, no children. Do you?” he asked.
    Her head jerked back. “Of course not. I’m not married.”
    “Actually, that’s not a requirement,” he said with a grin. There was
something about when he smiled that sent her brain’s pleasure neurons into
overdrive. “It’s not as if you could keep something that big a secret around
here anyway,” Eli said. “Remember the rumor mill?”
    “Well, if it’s not too much to ask, I’d like to keep my personal life as
far away from the rumor mill as possible.”
    “Wouldn’t we all,” he said, still smiling.
    She needed to get this discussion over with and get out of this office.
The more space between herself and this