It's Complicated by Julia Kent Read Free Book Online Page B

look on the woman’s face pinched off instantly, shifting from a conspirator’s countenance to one of officiousness.
    “Both of these men say that they’re the father.” The nurse was in her mid-sixties, no nonsense, about as wide as she was tall. She had extremely short gray hair, thick bifocals, and the body language of someone who didn’t take crap, ever. And Josie could respect that. If she worked here for forty years she’d be an impenetrable fortress of rules too.
    “Haven’t you heard of a kid having two dads?” They were quite a crowd in the hallway now— Mike, Dylan, Josie, and the nurse clustered together, Alex and Sherri just behind them. The OB and midwife, whispering, backed up a few paces.
    “Is this a surrogacy case?” the nurse asked, arms crossing over her chest tighter. A loud scream poured into the hallway from a nearby room, followed by the muted sound of a man’s soothing voice.
    Dylan and Mike exchanged a glance, and Dylan said, “If it was, could we both be in there?”
    “Well, that depends. Is it?” The nurse was so cynical and challenging that Josie wondered if there was something personal going on here. Maybe she was homophobic and assumed Dylan and Mike were gay? Overt discrimination was very rare in the Boston area, but it did happen.
    Honesty prevailed, Dylan’s instinct to lie not strong enough, Josie noticed. Ironic considering he had no problem lying when it came to other things. Maybe he really has reformed , she thought. “No, it’s not,” he admitted reluctantly, shoulders slumping in defeat.
    The nurse pointed to Josie. “So, you’re the support person.”
    “Yes.”
    “Who is the dad?”
    “I am,” both men said in unison.
    Out of the corner of her eye Josie saw Alex do a double-take and then whisper something to Sherri, who whispered something back. Alex’s jaw dropped. Oh, boy , she thought, this is getting interesting . Who was she kidding? This had been interesting about ten minutes ago—no, make that nine and a half months ago.
    “Don’t make me do eenie-meenie-minie-moe on you,” the nurse said, pointing her finger at Dylan, and then at Mike.
    “They’re not exactly a binary-oriented crowd here,” Josie tried to explain.
    The nurse shot her a what the fuck? look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “It’s complicated,” Dylan muttered.
    Understatement of the year , Josie thought as she tried to check out the gorgeous doctor’s reaction, all of her senses on fire as she realized how turned on she was by his mere presence. A keen sense of familiarity made her think she knew him from somewhere. But where?
    Sherri and Alex wandered back. “Have we decided the whole ‘who’s allowed in the room’ thing yet?” Sherri said, clearly exasperated.
    “There is a written hospital policy about how many people can be in the room,” the nurse said, clearly not for the first time. A quick glare at the nurse showed exactly how Sherri felt about that. “It is rarely enforced, but it is on the books.”
    “What’s the policy?” Alex looked at the nurse, then added, “I’ve been here for nearly a year and the only support person policy I know of is that only one person can be in the OR for a C-section.”
    “One support person, one father.” The nurse clamped her lips together in disapproval, not touching Alex’s leading comment. “And she”—the nurse pointed at Josie—“is the support person.”
    “Who’s the father?” he asked.
    Silence. Josie, Mike, and Dylan sighed.
    Sherri said, “I’m going to go and be with the actual patient and do patient care here.” She gave the nurse a withering look. “Meanwhile, let’s make the decision that’s best for the patient . If she wants all these people in there, why can’t they be in there?”
    “If we need to get a crash cart in there it’s too many people.”
    Josie had a thought. “So, wait a minute—”
    Alex interrupted her, which caught her off guard—she wasn’t used to being