Jess tried different positions, but no matter how she held Ella, the crying persisted. From the corner of her eye, she looked at Diana to see if she was annoyed.
To Jess’s surprise, she grinned. “She sounds just like her mother.”
Was that a dig at her temper? Jess stiffened but then thought about it for a second. Okay, maybe Diana had a point. Jess was known for being unafraid to voice her opinions. She had zero tolerance for stupidity, and the hospital was mainly staffed by idiots. Diana had proven to be the exception—plus she had a good sense of humor.
Jess tried to relax, mostly for Ella’s sake. Not that it worked. “Unlike her mother, she doesn’t have a valid reason to complain right now. The day is sunny with perfect temperature, she has a cozy mobile bed to sleep in, and someone who waits on her every second of the day.”
Diana chuckled. “Is that your definition of happiness? A bed and someone to wait on you?”
“Hell, no.” Jess had to laugh herself. “I’m currently living at my mom’s. We are still negotiating the line between helpful support and smothering spoiling.”
A spark of interest shone in Diana’s eyes, but Ella intervened with another bout of crying before she could ask for details.
Jess switched Ella around again so she rested with her head on Jess’s shoulder, looking backward.
“Hey, Ella. What are you complaining about? Didn’t get any cake?” The soothing voice came from behind her.
Surprisingly, Ella quieted for a moment.
Lena? Wasn’t this supposed to be her day off? Jess swiveled around. “What are you doing here, Lena?”
She arched her eyebrows and the corner of her mouth twitched. “I work here, Jess. I could ask you the same.”
Embarrassment mixed with anger at herself was a volatile combination. Ella’s cries started again and shortened her fuse. Jess didn’t know how to explain her visit, and she wasn’t about to defend herself. This woman had no right to judge where she was going, no right to laugh at her, no right to…
“But I won’t.” Her shoulder-length brown curls bounced as she shook her head, and her hazel eyes twinkled with delight. “If I had the time, I would prefer to sit here and drink coffee too.”
Lena’s smile disarmed her, and Jess didn’t know how to answer. She couldn’t insist on being called Dr. Riley if she called Lena by her first name. For the first time in ages, she didn’t feel the need to have the last word. A weird feeling. But not exactly unwelcome.
Lena walked around to Jess’s side and addressed her daughter. “Ella, I know life is hard and unfair. Something is always wrong, and you don’t even know what or why.” She didn’t talk in the usual baby speak everyone, Jess included, tended to fall into automatically.
For a few hiccups, Ella paused her cries, and Jess stroked her back.
Lena started singing in a low, warm voice. Her words didn’t make any sense, like a fantasy language she had made up, almost magical.
Jess listened, spellbound. That voice, that melody wrapped her in a cozy blanket and hugged her until her unrest dissolved into a warm pool of honey and milk.
The moment Ella succumbed to the song’s lure, her little body softened, and she molded herself onto Jess shoulder as if she belonged there.
And she did. A powerful wave of belonging and love ran through Jess’s veins, and she clutched Ella tighter.
She should lay her back into the stroller so Ella could get more rest, but she was reluctant to let go, to stretch the band that connected them for even those few inches.
Lena’s song came to an end, and Jess blinked as if waking from a dream.
“Oh, it worked. That song was beautiful. What language was that?” Diana whispered.
Jess appreciated her consideration in trying not to wake Ella again.
“My grandma always sang it to me,” Lena whispered back. It was oddly intimate to hear her voice from behind, so close to Jess’s head. “It’s Croatian, but I have no idea what it’s about. She had learned it from her grandma but knew nothing else of the language.”
Jess knew she should say something, thank Lena, but words eluded her. She bowed her head down to Ella’s, closing her eyes. The clean baby scent mixed with lotion filled her with elation. She wanted to stay like this forever but was unable to ignore her surroundings for too long.
Diana and Lena were talking as if they had known each other for ages, smiling and nodding at each other. Being friendly seemed to be a default setting for both of them.
Unlike Jess, who had always feared friendliness would be confused with weakness, especially as a woman in a male-dominated specialty. Since when had that spilled over in her private life? Jess’s emotions shifted in yet another direction as if she was blindfolded on a rollercoaster; the queasiness made her stomach roll.
She quickly laid Ella in her stroller before she sensed her tension and woke up again.
Lena glanced at her with a smile. “Do you need anything for her? I can heat formula in the kitchen.”
Jess didn’t want to admit she hadn’t brought anything. “No, thanks. We should go home.” Oh great, now she had turned into one of those mothers who talked in plural form.
“Sure. I’ll send my colleague over with your bill. I need to start my shift anyway.” Lena waved goodbye to Diana. “It was nice talking to you. Maybe we’ll see each other at Jess’s place someday.”
She walked away, weaving between the tables with an elegant swing of her hips.
Jess tore her gaze away. You can’t stand the woman, and now you’re ogling her? Just because she has a nice singing voice. You’re pathetic, Jess.
“So that was Lena.” Diana watched her with a knowing grin.
Jess ignored her.
That evening, Jess pushed the stroller up the steep slope to
