Free The Baby Jackpot by Jacqueline Diamond

Jennifer,” Cole told the PR director as he unlocked
his private office. “You’ve been great.”
    “You sure you’re all right?” She seemed uncertain about their
guest.
    “Go home to your family.” Speaking those words gave Cole a
twinge. Until recently, families had belonged to other people, not to him. Now
his thoughts flew to Stacy and the baby she carried.
    She’d told him to mind his own business. Yet wasn’t it his
business, too?
    To the teacher, Jennifer said, “I’m Jennifer Martin, by the
way, and you did a great job of running interference.”
    “Peter Gladstone. My motives were purely self-serving.” They
shook hands. After she departed, he accepted a seat. “I appreciate your sparing
me a few minutes, Dr. Rattigan.”
    Behind his desk, Cole shifted into doctor mode. “What can I do
for you?”
    “I’m trying to find out if there’s any point in my even making
an appointment. My case might be hopeless.”
    “What seems to be the problem?” Normally, Cole would have
insisted they continue this discussion during an office visit, since he couldn’t
assess the situation without a medical history or an examination. However, in
view of Peter’s help earlier, he felt the guy deserved more than a quick
dismissal.
    The man folded his muscular arms. “I have a low sperm count. My
previous doctor ruled out a number of factors, but he couldn’t find a
cause.”
    Mentally, Cole struck off the man’s age—early thirties—and
apparently good health as possible causes. “He didn’t give you a referral?”
    “He never got the chance. My wife...” The teacher’s voice
broke.
    Cole refrained from offering sympathy. In his experience, guys
who got emotional preferred to pretend you hadn’t noticed.
    Peter swallowed and went on. “During the fertility workup, we
discovered my wife had ovarian cancer. She died a year and a half ago.”
    “I’m sorry.” He was confused. “Why are you concerned about your
sperm count now?”
    “Having children has always been my dream,” the teacher said.
“I can’t believe I’ll ever find anyone I could love as much as Angela, but even
if I do, how could I ask her to marry me if I can’t father children?”
    He could find someone who loved him enough to adopt or to use
artificial insemination, but this wasn’t a counseling session, and Peter was
smart enough to have considered those ideas on his own. Obviously, he wanted his
own flesh-and-blood children. “Do you remember what tests have been run?”
    Peter’s expression cleared at the straightforward question.
“Yes, I do.” He read off a list of tests and results from his cell phone. The
previous physician, a local urologist, had done a thorough job.
    Although they’d exhausted the obvious possibilities, that
wasn’t the end of the story. “I’d like to review your case in more depth,” Cole
told Peter. “If you have any trouble getting an appointment, ask for my nurse,
Luke Mendez.” Cole typed on the computer as he spoke. “I’m sending him an email
right now. We’ll schedule you in.”
    Gratitude suffused the man’s face. “I can’t tell you how much
this means to me.”
    “I’m glad to help.”
    After his visitor left, Cole made a few notes while the
discussion was fresh in his mind. Peter’s determination to have children
underscored the irony of Cole’s own impending fatherhood.
    What was he going to do about it? The prospect of standing
aside, preserving his anonymity and watching Stacy take the heat as she grew
ever larger struck him as unacceptable. And what about their baby?
    Working in a hospital, he saw babies all the time. Their
presence barely registered, though. Taking a closer look might help guide his
reaction.
    After locking his office, Cole climbed to the third floor.
While most of the hospital lay quiet on a Saturday afternoon, there was plenty
of activity around Labor and Delivery. During his internship, that hadn’t been
one of his favorite rotations. Too much