He pressed another kiss on her forehead. “You handled it beautifully.”
“Thank you. But as I’ve already said, it’s my job. I simply did what I’m trained to do. Even though I have to confess that I don’t want to have to work under those circumstances again anytime soon. A dirty theater floor—no antiseptics or hot water or even a pair of gloves….”
She shuddered. No, she didn’t want to go through that again. She was grateful that the paramedics had arrived before the baby, being on hand with medical supplies and IVs to take charge of Katie’s care while Cecilia had wrapped the screaming, apparently healthy baby boy in a sterile blanket. Somehow Rusty had survived the ordeal without passing out, a feat for which Geoff had praised him generously.
Rather than being annoyed by the delay of their movie, the crowd in the lobby had broken into applause when Katie and the baby had been wheeled to the waiting ambulance. So much for making a discreet exit, Cecilia had thought as she and Geoff had made their way to his car through a barrage of questions and congratulations.
They’d only arrived at her house a short while earlier, collapsing onto the couch as soon as they’d walked in. Their simple movie date had turned into an exhausting and emotionally draining event, Cecilia mused, and they both needed a little time to recharge.
Geoff seemed to still be preoccupied with their adventure. “Do all newborn babies look like that? All gooey and wrinkled and sort of purple?”
“Pretty much.”
“Oh. I thought maybe their kid was just…homely.”
Amused, Cecilia tilted her head back to smile at him. “Actually, he was a rather pretty baby.”
“If you say so.”
“He looked like his mother, I think.”
“Fortunate, considering that his father was pretty goofy looking.”
She felt almost guilty for laughing. “You’re terrible.”
“Maybe I wasn’t seeing him at his best.”
“Obviously you weren’t.”
Settling more comfortably into the cushions, Geoff tightened his arm around Cecilia’s shoulders. “That baby’s got a tough road ahead of him. His parents are just kids themselves. Chances are slim they’ll stay together—or that his mother will even finish high school.”
“Children born to teenage mothers are much more likely to live in poverty, less likely to have health insurance, less likely to get an adequate education, and mor
e likely to become teenage parents themselves. But…well, maybe things will work out for Rusty and Katie and their son. I hope so, anyway.”
Geoff seemed to think about that for a while. And then he sighed and said, “It’s been a long day.”
“Did you work today?”
“Worse. I had lunch with my dad and my sister.”
Raising her eyebrows, she kicked off her shoes and tucked her feet on the couch behind her. “I thought you got along well with your family.”
“Oh, we get along. Everyone was just sort of grumpy today.”
“Grumpy?”
“Yeah. Mari couldn’t get her mind away from work. All she could talk about was the lawsuit—”
“That is worrisome,” Cecilia murmured. “Poor Milla doesn’t deserve that hassle.”
“It’s hardly good for the clinic, either. It’s bad enough that all the rumors about the biomed center are threatening our endowments from local investors. Just talking about fertility research—not to mention such controversial subjects as stem-cell research—makes some people so skittish they’re afraid to even be mentioned in the same context. This lawsuit couldn’t have come at a worse time.”
“There’s always a frivolous lawsuit of some sort against a hospital, especially when obstetrics are involved. It’s why so many doctors and hospitals have gotten out of the delivery business. Not that I have to explain the daunting rise in malpractice insurance to you.”
“Hardly. That’s the sort of business discussion that’s been taking place in my family since I was old enough to join them at the dinner table.”
“Mari’s under a great deal of pressure in her job. She’s allowed an occasional grumpy day.” As for herself, Cecilia was perfectly content being a valued employee of the corporation rather than trying to fill an executive position, as her brother dreamed about doing. Her passion was delivering babies, not crunching numbers or studying spreadsheets or developing long-term business plans.