Книга - Small-Town Midwife

Small-Town Midwife
Jean C. Gordon


Unexpected ArrivalAutumn Hazard loves being a midwife. But a tragic loss has her doubting the path she’s chosen. And her new boss isn’t helping. She’s worked with Dr. Jonathan Hanlon before, and he’s just as handsome and seemingly perfect as ever. His presence could mean trouble for the clinic—and her sensible heart. Jon remembers Autumn too. She’s still beautiful, smart, and oblivious to him. Maybe that’s for the best—he’s leaving the small town as soon as his training’s done. Besides, he has secrets of his own, and he can’t risk Autumn getting close enough to uncover them. Yet despite all their reservations, working beside each other doesn’t feel like work at all…it feels like home.







Unexpected Arrival

Autumn Hazard loves being a midwife. But a tragic loss has her doubting the path she’s chosen. And her new boss isn’t helping. She’s worked with Dr. Jonathan Hanlon before, and he’s just as handsome and seemingly perfect as ever. His presence could mean trouble for the clinic—and her sensible heart. Jon remembers Autumn, too. She’s still beautiful, smart and oblivious to him. Maybe that’s for the best—he’s leaving the small town as soon as his training’s done. Besides, he has secrets of his own, and he can’t risk Autumn getting close enough to uncover them. Yet despite all their reservations, working beside each other doesn’t feel like work at all…it feels like home.


Autumn drilled her gaze into Jon’s. If he wanted to observe the visit, admiring the baby would be a good start in getting Megan to agree.

Jon cleared his throat. “He’s a good-sized boy, and his color looks healthy.”

Autumn resisted the inclination to roll her eyes at Megan. “I apologize for not checking ahead to ask about bringing Dr. Hanlon.”

“Jon,” he said, turning his smile on the young mother.

Her expression softened. “That’s okay.” She turned to Jon. “You’re just here to observe, right?”

That was it? One smile from Jon and Megan was fine with him being here? Autumn focused her attention on the infant in her arms, looking into his blue eyes as if he could give her an answer.

What’s wrong with me? she silently asked the baby. Jon wasn’t flirting and, if he was, why should she care? The infant scrunched his face as if he were going to cry. Right. It was Jon’s attitude. The fact that he obviously thought his good looks were a balm to the situation. And that it seemed to be true.


JEAN C. GORDON’s

writing is a natural extension of her love of reading. From that day in first grade when she realized t-h-e was the word the, she’s been reading everything she can put her hands on. A professional financial planner and editor for a financial publisher, Jean is as at home writing retirement- and investment-planning advice as she is writing romance novels, but finds novels a lot more fun.

She and her college-sweetheart husband tried the city life in Los Angeles, but quickly returned home to their native upstate New York. They share a 170-year-old farmhouse just south of Albany, New York, with their daughter and son-in-law, two grandchildren and a menagerie of pets. Their son lives nearby. While Jean creates stories, her family grows organic fruits and vegetables and tends the livestock du jour.

Although her day job, writing and family don’t leave her a lot of spare time, Jean likes to give back when she can. She and her husband team-taught a seventh-and-eighth-grade Sunday school class for several years. Now she shares her love of books with others by volunteering at her church’s Book Nook.

You can keep in touch with her at www.JeanCGordon.com (http://www.JeanCGordon.com), on Facebook or write her at P.O. Box 113, Selkirk, NY 12158.


Small-Town Midwife

Jean C. Gordon




www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


Two people are better than one.

They can help each other in everything they do.

—Ecclesiastes 4:9


To our very own resident midwife, my daughter, Carrie Gordon-Stacey, for all of her help

and insights. I still miss having you

as a regular critiquer.


Contents

Chapter One (#ue4b34667-bebb-5956-8989-48f12d87a8a0)

Chapter Two (#ubd1adefe-3855-5fea-bfa6-eebc524745d1)

Chapter Three (#u5c82c20d-242e-51fa-b605-d188f6f69812)

Chapter Four (#u7117252a-2104-5400-8de5-08412bba831d)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Dear Reader (#litres_trial_promo)

Questions for Discussion (#litres_trial_promo)

Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)


Chapter One

So that’s what he’s up to. Autumn Hazard skimmed through the article on her iPad. JMH Health Care had gobbled up another struggling nonprofit hospital in Upstate New York.

She ground her teeth. If he thinks he’s going to add the Ticonderoga Birthing Center to his family’s collection, he had better think again.

Autumn closed the article and went back to the list of not-yet-billed patients.

“Have you seen him?” Cindy, the birthing center’s evening front desk manager, stood in the doorway to her office. “He’s drop-dead gorgeous.”

Autumn rubbed her forehead. “Seen who?” As if she didn’t know.

The middle-aged woman leaned against the doorjamb as if in a swoon. “The new director.”

Another woman fallen prey to his outward charms.

“Pretty is as pretty does,” Autumn muttered. And nothing she’d seen Jonathan Mitchell Hanlon—or his grandfather, the chairman of the board of directors of JMH—do was pretty.

“What?”

Autumn touched the screen to flip to the next page. “Something Great-Grandma Hazard used to say.”

“I’ve heard the saying. What I was questioning was your meaning. Wait, you know him?”

“Yes, I worked with him briefly at Good Samaritan Hospital, when I was doing my midwife clinicals. He was an OB resident.”

“Oh, then, you—” The sound of the door between the birthing suites and the lobby opening cut Cindy short. “I’d better get back out front.”

“Good idea.” Autumn picked up the printout of the directions for entering the insurance codes into the billing program. Their office assistant had gone and had her baby early, leaving Autumn and Kelly, the owner of the midwifery practice, without anyone lined up to fill in while she was on maternity leave.

Might as well get started. It wasn’t as if she had any other Friday evening plans. Much as she loved living in her Adirondack Mountains hometown, Paradox Lake had a very limited supply of datable men. A supply that had been made even smaller when Rod, the navy recruiter she’d dated for several months, had been reassigned to a post in suburban Boston. She clicked the icon for the billing program. By entering the billing, she’d be making herself useful to the practice. A pang of regret jabbed her in the stomach. While Kelly had been understanding at first, what use was a midwife who couldn’t bring herself to deliver babies?

Footsteps sounded in the hall.

“If your grandparents do come up to Lake George for a vacation, feel free to give them a tour of the center.” The high-pitched voice of Liza Kirkpatrick, an administrator from the Adirondack Medical Center, carried clearly down the hall to Autumn’s office.

Autumn tensed listening for the response. All she heard was a deep rumble of indistinguishable words.

A minute later Liza was at the door to Autumn’s office. “Autumn. Good, you’re still here. I wanted to introduce our new director, Dr. Hanlon.”

Liza and Jon stepped into her office. Cindy was right. Jon was gorgeous. If possible, even more so than when she’d last seen him. His dark hair was clipped a little shorter and neater than when he was a resident. His brilliant blue eyes still had that spark that hinted he knew something you didn’t and invited you to try to find out what. And he’d obviously found time to get in his five-mile run every morning, or regular workouts at the gym. However, his classically symmetrical features had lost the harried look he’d always had back then. A look that had added to his appeal for many of the female staff members. They had wanted to soothe his concerns away.

Autumn rose and stepped away from her desk. Jon gave her a low-key once-over ending with a smile that said he liked what he saw.

He doesn’t remember me.

She certainly remembered him. Anger squelched any pleasure she might have gotten from his silent compliment. She’d seen him use the same look with every female he’d met at Samaritan Hospital.

The administrator introduced them. “Autumn Hazard, Dr. Jonathan Hanlon.”

She took his extended hand, debating whether to let on that she knew him or let it drop. His grip was firm and businesslike.

“Good to see you. It’s been a while.” He released her hand. “Samaritan Hospital,” he prompted as if she might have forgotten him.

“Yes. Good to see you, too.” Autumn shifted her weight from one foot to the other as he studied her face. The seconds seemed to run into minutes.

He tilted his head. “I almost didn’t recognize you. Your hair was different, shorter.”

That was an understatement. When her longtime boyfriend had broken up with her on spring break, Autumn had had her waist-length hair cut in a short, spiky style that she’d since grown back out.

“Well,” the administrator said. “It certainly is a small world. Autumn is one of two certified nurse midwives who deliver at the center and have an office here. We have one other midwife who has an office in Keene and splits her deliveries between the birthing center and the hospital in Saranac Lake.”

“But,” Autumn said, “I’ve taken a sabbatical from catching babies to develop the GYN side of the practice.” At least that’s what her official explanation was. Autumn didn’t feel that anyone at the birthing center, other than Kelly, needed to know that the complications at the last birth she’d attended had shaken her so much that Autumn wasn’t sure when, if ever, she’d resume that part of the practice. It might have been less traumatic if the parents—Jack and Suzy Hill—weren’t longtime friends.

Liza narrowed her eyes. Autumn knew the former birthing center director hadn’t hesitated to make it clear to Liza and the rest of the hospital administrative staff that he wasn’t pleased with Autumn’s decision. It had potentially put him on call more often. Not that he’d actually been called more. There hadn’t been more births than Kelly and the other midwife who had delivery privileges at the birthing center could handle.

“Is Kelly here?” Liza asked. She turned to Jon. “Kelly Philips started Ticonderoga Midwifery, which has had its office here since the center opened.”

“No,” Autumn said. “One of our home-birth mothers went into labor a couple of hours ago. She and our delivery nurse Jamie Payton are there.”

Jon knit his brows. “The center condones home births?”

“We—”

Autumn interrupted Liza, bristling at the disdain in Jon’s voice. “We’re a private practice, so it’s not up to the center to condone or not condone our mothers’ birth arrangements.”

“Autumn and Kelly and their two delivery nurses aren’t employees of the birthing center,” Liza explained in a placating voice. “The practice has privileges and leases space here.”

Jon drew his lips into a hard line. “I assume the medical center’s attorneys have vetted this arrangement for any liability that could come back on the center.”

Autumn fisted her hands at her sides. Jon’s tone and words irritated her, even though she knew he was simply asking from a business standpoint. But it wasn’t his concern how she and Kelly practiced. The practice’s agreement was with the Adirondack Medical Center, not him.

“Certainly.” Liza’s terse reply was a sharp contrast to her earlier, almost fawning attitude.

Autumn flexed her fingers.

“And what’s my responsibility if complications arise at one of these births and higher-level medical intervention is needed?”

Shades of the former director? Was Jon concerned he’d have to do more than push paper? No. When she’d worked with him at Samaritan, he’d seemed to derive a lot of satisfaction out of delivering babies. But he’d had a technical approach to childbirth, almost as though he was curing the mother of a deadly disease, rather than bringing a new life into the world. She bit her tongue to organize her thoughts so she didn’t blurt out the first response that had come to mind. It didn’t work.

“With a normal birth, medical intervention isn’t necessary.”

Something flickered in his eyes that she would have normally read as pain. But that didn’t make any sense.

“Even a seemingly normal birth can have complications.”

Jon wasn’t saying anything she didn’t already know well. But most of their births didn’t need the type of intervention he was talking about. “We continually screen our mothers and insist on a center delivery when we think one is needed, or refer the mother to an obstetrician if we see anything abnormal that might require medical intervention or a hospital delivery.”

“And when something goes wrong at home?” Jon asked.

“With our screening, that hasn’t been a common experience.” Her only life-threatening complication had occurred here at the center.

“You’re saying that you’ve never had to rush a home-birth mother to the hospital?” he pressed.

Autumn silently counted to three. “We’ve had to transport a couple of laboring home-birth mothers to the birthing center.”

He crossed his arms and nodded, as if her answer had proved some point.

Uneasiness washed over her. As director, Dr. Hanlon could initiate a review of her and Kelly’s privileges here at the birthing center if he had a problem with their practice. The next closest medical facility, where they also had privileges, was an hour away at the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake. Autumn shook the feeling off. She was being paranoid. The center needed Kelly and her. The community needed them.

“We should get back to Saranac.” Liza glanced from Jon to Autumn. “We have a dinner meeting with the board of directors of the hospital.”

“Of course.” Jon turned to Autumn. “I’ll set up a staff meeting for early next week and email you and your partner an invitation.”

“The front office assistant has our patient schedule.” No need to tell him she worked with Kelly under contract. He’d find out soon enough that she wasn’t a partner.

“Good. I’ll check with the office assistant.” He took a step to follow Liza, who was already at the doorway, and stopped. His all-business expression softened. “You wouldn’t by any chance be related to Neal Hazard at the campgrounds over on Paradox Lake?”

“Yes, he’s my father. Why?” Autumn couldn’t imagine any way Jon would know her father.

“I’m renting his duplex.”

“The one on Hazard Cove Road?” He couldn’t mean any other. It was the only duplex Dad owned. She’d assumed he was renting it to one of the usual families who took it for the summer.

“That’s the one. I’ll see you next week.”

“Right.”

Once he was out of sight, Autumn leaned against the edge of her desk. Dr. Hanlon was going to be her next-door neighbor. She could put her feelings about him and the thoughtless way he’d broken her Samaritan Hospital roommate’s heart behind her at work. She and Kelly practiced independently of the birthing center administration. And since she’d taken leave from delivering babies, she was unlikely to have any need to consult with him as the practice’s backup physician. If she made an effort, she could pretty much avoid him here.

But with him living right next door, avoiding him and keeping her dislike in check wouldn’t be so easy. While she hadn’t been bowled over by him like so many of the nurses, she’d liked Jon when she’d first met him and had half expected him to ask her out. But he’d asked out her roommate, Kate, instead. Then, after he’d broken up with Kate, he’d had the audacity to ask her out. And he’d seemed mystified when she’d turned him down. It hadn’t taken him long to move on to another nurse friend, confirming the buzz around Samaritan that he wasn’t the settling-down type. And while it might seem old-fashioned, she was.

Autumn pushed away from the desk, knocking a coffee mug of pens off the edge. Considering his reputation with women, he probably didn’t remember any of it. But she did.

* * *

Jon unlocked the door and stepped into the front hall of the bed-and-breakfast in Crown Point where he was staying. He stretched the kinks out of his back as he climbed the stairs. What had been a pleasant hour’s drive from Ticonderoga to Saranac Lake in the bright summer evening hours had seemed interminable on the drive back in the dark. The distances people here in the Adirondacks had to travel for medical care were unbelievable compared to what he was used to downstate. And Liza had told him that Autumn and her partner’s practice served a large part of the sixty-mile distance between the birthing center and the hospital in Saranac, as well as some of the areas south of Ticonderoga.

He let himself into his room. Liza’s comment had kept Autumn in his mind as he wound his way back to Crown Point. Thoughts of her traveling the steep narrow side roads he’d passed to deliver babies in homes set up on the mountainside alternated with visions of Autumn this afternoon, her delicate-featured face framed by wisps of flaxen hair escaping the silver clip that pinned the rest up.

As he slipped off his suit coat, he noticed the message light flashing on the phone. He was tempted to ignore it. Morning would be here all too soon, and he had to be up to meet the moving van at the duplex at eight. That’s it. It could be the movers. He’d given the number here at the bed-and-breakfast as an alternate number where he could be reached.

Jon lifted the receiver and pressed the message button.

“Jay.” His grandfather used the family nickname he’d dropped in middle school. “It’s your grandfather. I’ll be upstate next week, and your grandmother insists on coming with me and having dinner with you. I’ve made reservations for Wednesday at six-thirty at the Sagamore in Lake George.”

The message clicked off with no goodbye. Typical of Grandfather. Bark an order and leave, fully expecting it to be obeyed without question. Jon dropped the receiver back in place. He should ignore it. Nothing he did pleased his family anyway. But he couldn’t do that to Nana. Not after all she’d done for him. She’d provided the love his career-and stature-driven parents hadn’t. She’d grieved and prayed with him when Angela, his favorite cousin and close friend, had died in childbirth in Haiti, where she’d been serving at a mission.

His parents’ brief acknowledgment of his sorrow had been tinged with an undercurrent that it was punishment for Angie having conceived before she and her fiancé had married. Angie had gone through a wild period at college. But after she and her fiancé had learned of the baby, they’d both reembraced the Christian faith they’d been raised with.

Jon jerked off his loosened tie. Despite what the family might think, Angie and Brad’s Haitian missionary work after they married had been more than enough to atone for their indiscretion. Angie hadn’t had to... His throat clogged. Jon was finding it harder and harder to accept the tenet of a vengeful God that he’d been raised with in his parents’ church. His thoughts went to Brad, now raising their little boy alone, and how Brad’s faith in a loving Savior had given him strength. Jon had had only anger that grew into a need, a calling, to use his medical training and technology to do everything he could to protect other women, families, from the same tragedy.

The directorship of the Ticonderoga Birthing Center was the perfect first step toward doing just that—maybe even more so now that he’d learned about some of the center’s current practices. In his opinion, home births weren’t something to be encouraged. Too many things could go wrong without emergency equipment on hand.

He tossed the tie on the dresser. Tightening up birthing center procedures shouldn’t be too difficult. Part of the reason for the home births might be cost. Essex County had its share of lower-income and uninsured people. That shouldn’t mean mothers and babies received less-than-optimal care. He’d check the center’s financial records and work on Autumn and her partner, showing them his reasoning for technology-oriented treatment.

Back at Samaritan, he and Autumn had been friends of a sort, until Kate had alienated her and half the other staff by making her version of their breakup public—very public. Kate had known all along he wasn’t serious about their relationship and, as far as he knew, she wasn’t, either. The dissension she’d caused among the members of the medical team had been unacceptable.

He’d ignored the fracas as much as possible. And he’d done what he’d always done. Moved on. If he wanted conflict, he could visit his family.


Chapter Two

Autumn woke to the rumble of a truck engine, a truck much larger than her dad’s or grandfather’s pickup trucks. She checked her alarm clock—seven-thirty—and dragged herself out of bed to the front window. A moving van sat running in the driveway. Jon was moving in today? She didn’t even get a few days to acclimate to him at work before she had him here at home, too? She sighed. Jon was nowhere in sight. Better go down and talk to the movers.

As Autumn walked across her living room to the front door, she heard the crunch of another vehicle driving up the recently tarred and stoned road to the house. She waited at the door until she saw her stepmother, Anne, pull up in her SUV.

“Autumn. We’re here.” Her three-year-old twin half brother and sister, Alex and Sophia, stated the obvious as they raced up the shared walkway, followed more sedately by their eight-year-old brother, Ian. The twins were still in their pajamas. Anne waved to her as she went to talk with the movers.

“Hi, guys.” Autumn gathered the twins in her arms. “What’s up?”

Sophia stood tall with an air of self-importance. “Daddy f’got to tell you. So Mommy and us had to come. Mommy is not happy.”

Ian interpreted. “Saturday is Mom’s day to sleep late ’cause she’s teaching that morning class at the college during the week. It’s my job to watch the twins and make sure they don’t wake her up until eight.” He pitched his voice to sound as if watching his siblings was a big burden, but Ian’s bright-eyed look gave away his pride that Anne trusted him with the responsibility. “Someone called and the phone woke her up, and she had to come to talk with the moving guys.” He pointed at the van.

Autumn smiled over his head at her stepmother, who’d finished talking to the movers and was walking toward them.

“Hi,” Anne said.

“Hi. I hear you’re not happy.”

Anne glanced at Sophia and laughed. “I’m never happy when I get woken up before I’m ready. I don’t suppose your dad told you the new tenant was moving in today.”

“No, Dad didn’t even tell me he’d rented the place. I found that out at work yesterday.”

“News does travel fast here.”

“True, but I found out because the tenant is the new director of the center. Jon Hanlon. He told me.”

“If it makes you feel any better, your dad didn’t find out about the guy’s moving in until late last night. Since he’s had so much out-of-town work this summer, he’s left the rentals up to the Realtor.” Anne tilted her head. “I know he loves doing the solar electric installations, but his being out of town wreaks total havoc on my efforts to have a well-ordered life.” She grinned. “Anyway, when the tenant couldn’t get a hold of the Realtor this morning, he called me and asked if I could let the movers know that he’s on his way. He has to drive from Crown Point.”

“You didn’t have to come over. You could have called me.”

“I know, but the house isn’t your responsibility, and I didn’t want to wake you up if you’d been out last night.”

“I was. I had a hot date with a pile of billing invoices.”

“Still haven’t found a temporary office assistant?”

“No, but Jamie texted me last night that she may have someone. Her cousin is looking for a summer job.” Autumn motioned to the door. “So, do you have time to come in for a while? I’ll put coffee on.”

Anne looked longingly at the door. “No, thanks. I told Drew I’d help with signing out this week’s campers at Sonrise this morning. I need to get these guys home and dressed and down to the lake.”

Autumn nodded. They all helped in the summer with the Christian camp and conference center that her uncle Drew managed on her family’s Paradox Lake property.

“But your aunt Jinx had better have some fresh coffee ready, or I’ll leave this crew with her and be right back up the road to take you up on your offer.”

“You’re welcome anytime. I’m goofing off this morning. I’m on the crew to help with the cleanup and to get the camp ready for the new campers coming tomorrow. So maybe I’ll see you all later.”

Autumn watched Anne fasten the kids in their car seats and drive away. She glanced at the moving van. The stone-faced driver sat in the cab tapping the steering wheel with his finger while the other mover leaned against the side drinking a cup of coffee from the Paradox Lake General Store. She’d recognize the store’s distinctive logo anywhere. It wasn’t her problem that Jon was late. She went back inside and made some coffee for herself.

* * *

Gravel flew as Jon shot up Hazard Cove Road. He’d told the movers that he would meet them at the house at eight. They couldn’t have stopped and had breakfast or something when they got off the interstate at Schroon Lake? He eyed the house as he came to a stop. The New England–style shake shingles were painted a light gray, and the house had white-and-steel-blue trim. Both his unit on the right and his neighbor’s unit had bright red front doors.

The Realtor, who was the town historian, had talked his ear off about how the house dated back to the early 1800s and was built by one of the Hazards who’d settled the area for logging. He’d also regaled Jon with the details of how and when the current Hazard family members had built their homes on or just off Hazard Cove Road.

Jon got out of his car and strode across the yard to the moving van, wondering if those other family members included Autumn. Even though she was a few years younger than him, she might own a home.

The moving van driver and his helper got out and met him in front of the duplex.

“Dr. Hanlon?” the driver asked.

“Yes. Sorry for the delay. I wasn’t expecting you until eight. I’ll unlock the door.”

The man nodded. “We’ll start unloading.”

Jon followed the shale walk up and to the left. He inserted the key the Realtor had given him and swung the door in. A lemony scent mixed with the warm summer air. It and the gleaming, wide-planked pine floors attested to the Realtor’s word that he’d have the house cleaned and ready for him today.

“Hey, Doc.” The helper wheeled Jon’s Sportster down the ramp and over beside the truck. “Sweet bike. Where do you want it?”

“In the back.” The house didn’t have a garage, but the Realtor had assured Jon that there was plenty of room in the shake-sided outbuilding behind the house. A former chicken coop, according to the Realtor.

“Follow me.” Jon led the mover to the shed and inserted the key the Realtor had given him in the lock. It didn’t work. He called the Realtor and got his voice mail again, so he tried the Hazards’ number. No answer there, either. A movement in the window of the other side of the duplex caught his eye.

“I’ll go ask my new neighbor for a key.” Jon crossed the yard to the back door and knocked. He tapped his foot as he waited for someone to answer.

“Hi.”

“Autumn. You live here? I’m surprised the Realtor didn’t tell me. He told me the history and everything else there is to know about the house.” Why was he stammering like the teenage nerd he once was facing the most popular girl at school? He looked into her light blue eyes. She probably had been one of the most popular girls at school—definitely one of the prettiest. “Why didn’t you say something yesterday?”

“I thought I’d surprise you later once you were settled in.”

The light in her eyes said she was teasing him, but years of sarcastic criticism from his family made him unsure whether he was reading her correctly. He cleared his throat. “Do you have a key to the shed? The one the Realtor gave me isn’t working.”

“Yes, sorry about that. Some kids out partying tried to break into it a few weeks ago with a nail file that jammed in the lock. I don’t know what they thought I had in there.” She pushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s a problem here. There’s not a lot to do, and some kids have too much time on their hands. I had to hacksaw the lock off and get a new one.”

She spoke so matter-of-factly. “That didn’t bother you, being out here alone?” He refrained from saying a woman here alone.

Autumn laughed. “Me, alone?”

Jon glanced around and saw nothing but pine forest. “Someone was living in the other unit?”

“No. But I’m surrounded by family. No one can get up the road without passing by Dad’s and my grandparents’ houses, and no one can come up from the lake without passing the lodge where my aunt and uncle live. I wasn’t home, but Grandpa and Uncle Drew were both here in time to block the kids’ car in. They ran off into the woods, but the sheriff’s deputy caught up with them quick enough. They were summer folk. But you’re not here for my life story. Come in and I’ll get you the key.”

Jon stepped in and waited in the kitchen for Autumn to return. He breathed in the aroma of the coffee brewing on the counter, and his stomach growled to remind him he hadn’t had any coffee or breakfast.

“Here you go.” Autumn walked back into the kitchen. She looked from him to the coffeemaker he was eyeing and bit her lip. “Want a cup?” she asked after a moment.

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t keep the movers waiting any longer than I have.”

“I’ll bring one out to you. Cream and sugar?”

“Black is good.” He couldn’t tell if she was being nice or wanted him to leave. “I really appreciate it.”

“I could tell. You were looking at my coffeemaker like a man who’d just crawled his way out of a waterless week in the desert.”

“That bad?”

“That bad.” She handed him the key on a key chain that read I Conquered the High Peaks.

Had she climbed all of the Adirondack High Peaks? he wondered. At Samaritan, she’d always been open to a challenge. His former roommate could attest to that. The roommate had run into Autumn and some of the other women shooting hoops at the Y one evening and, after some back and forth, had challenged them to a three-point competition. It had come down to his roommate and Autumn. She matched him shot for shot until the competition was called because the Y was closing.

So she certainly had the tenacity to conquer the peaks. Her crossed arms and wide-legged stance stopped him from asking, though. He should get back outside, but he couldn’t seem to get his feet moving. They were going to be working together and living next door to each other. He’d like to get past the undercurrent of resentment she exuded.

“I’ll bring the key right back.”

“Keep it. I have another one, and you’ll need a copy anyway.”

He pushed open the screen door and reached behind him to close the main door.

“You can leave it open. It feels warm out already.”

He looked up at the bright sun in the cloudless blue sky. “Yeah, it looks like a scorcher.” As the aluminum door latched shut behind him, he wondered what had made him say that. Scorcher. It sounded like something they’d say on AccuWeather. And why was he so looking forward to Autumn’s bringing him coffee?

* * *

Autumn carried two coffee mugs across the living room and opened the screen door with her elbow. Since the weather had warmed up, she often had her Saturday-morning coffee outside on the patio Grandpa had added to her side of the house. She scanned the front yard. Neither Jon nor the movers were outside. She walked over to Jon’s side and peered in the screen door. The living room was empty of people and furniture. The movers must have started with the upstairs furniture.

“Hello,” she called, taking a sip of her coffee as she waited for a response.

Jon bounded down the stairway, opened the door and took the mug from her. He drank deeply. “Thanks. I really need this.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’d invite you to stay and drink your coffee with me, but I don’t have a seat to offer you.”

“That’s okay. I was going to sit out on the patio. I don’t want to keep you from your work.”

“The movers can handle things. I’ll join you, if you don’t mind.”

She did mind. This morning was the only quiet time she expected to have all weekend. This afternoon, she was helping Drew at the camp. Gram and Grandpa had invited her for dinner tomorrow after church, and in the evening she was babysitting for her father and Anne so they could go out for their anniversary. She loved her family and everything that came with living close to them. But she’d hoped for a couple of hours to herself this morning.

Oh, well. It was her choice. She wouldn’t trade living here at the lake for living anywhere else. At least not voluntarily. Autumn’s throat constricted. Once her contract with Kelly was up in the fall, she might have to go somewhere else. She had her doubts that Kelly would offer her another contract if she still wasn’t catching babies. And neither the Adirondack Medical Center nor the Ticonderoga Birthing Center had staff midwives.

Jon looked down at her with the smile that had made half the nursing staff at Samaritan go all weak and dreamy and the other half want to mother him like a favored son. Autumn had been an exception. Rather than wowing her like everyone else, Jon’s masculine charms had irritated her. He’d been too smooth, too full of himself professionally and personally, although a few times when she’d seen him outside work, she’d thought she’d glimpsed a different Jon underneath.

He motioned toward the walkway. “After you.”

Autumn felt his eyes on her as she descended the porch steps. She wiped her palm on her denim shorts. She wasn’t about to succumb to his charms now. Not unless he’d changed a lot in the past two years. And from what she’d seen yesterday, he hadn’t. She glanced toward the patio. They could finish their coffee and she’d still have some time before she had to be down at the lake to help Uncle Drew.

In two long strides, Jon was beside her on the walkway in front of her door.

“If you need a refill, I made plenty.” Not exactly the way to discourage him from hanging around. She glanced at Jon out of the corner of her eye. But he was so right there. She’d needed to say something.

“That’d be great.”

“Go ahead and I’ll bring the pot out.” What had gotten into her? Now she was offering to wait on him. Did her unsettled job situation have her so off-kilter that she’d grasp at anything that made her feel useful?

Once Jon rounded the corner of the house to the patio, Autumn yanked her door open and stomped across her living room. She poured a couple of dollops of fat-free half-and-half in her cup, picked up the coffeepot and walked out to the patio as the calm, sane person she usually was.

Jon stood at the far edge of the patio looking up at the roof. “I didn’t notice the solar panels when the Realtor showed me the place. Photovoltaic?”

“Yes. Dad put the system in last summer when he and Grandpa decided to divide the house into a two-family.” Autumn placed the coffeepot and her mug on the round wooden table.

“By himself?” Jon’s voice held a note of awe.

“More or less. It’s what he does.” Autumn sat on the circular bench and topped up her drink. While she knew her father’s limitations, growing up as the only child of a teenage single father, she’d never completely outgrown her feeling that “Daddy could do anything” and was often surprised when people commented on his work.

Jon joined her and refilled his mug. “He owns a solar energy company or a construction company?”

For some reason, Jon’s assumption that her father owned a company rankled. “Neither. He’s a self-employed electrician, but he does hookups for several companies throughout the Northeast. It’s Anne, my stepmother, who’s the corporate tycoon of the family. She’s the chair of the board of directors of GreenSpaces and heads the environmental studies program at the college in Ticonderoga.”

Autumn sipped her coffee while she waited for the name of Anne’s international environmental engineering company to register with Jon and tried to figure out what she was doing. She didn’t have to prove anything to Jon just because he came from a prominent old-money family.

He looked at her blankly over the edge of his coffee mug. “That’s the community college I passed on State Route 74?”

Her coffee tasted bitter in her mouth. She should have brought the honey out. “Yes, North Country Community College. That’s where I got my RN degree.”

“You didn’t go away to school? I couldn’t wait to leave.”

“I had an academic scholarship to Trinity College in Chicago. My other grandfather was a professor there. But I just wasn’t ready to leave home yet then. I never knew my mother, and I’m not that close to him and my grandmother.” She clamped her forefinger over her mouth. He didn’t need—or, probably, want—her family history, particularly since he wasn’t sharing any of his.

Jon ran his gaze over the weathered shake siding of the house behind her, pausing at the drooping gutter knocked loose from the windstorm the week before last.

She glanced from the gutter to Jon and pressed her lips together. With his work getting the cabins ready for Camp Sonrise to open, Grandpa hadn’t had a chance to repair the gutter. “A lot of the kids I went to high school with couldn’t wait to leave, but I like it here at Paradox Lake. And it was a kick going to college with Dad. His electrician business had fallen off while he was serving in Afghanistan with the National Guard, so he took some environmental studies courses at NCCC while I was there. That’s how he met Anne.”

A warm gust of wind from the lake blew the gutter against the house with a thud, drawing Jon’s gaze back to it.

Did he think it was going to fall on them? Or that Dad couldn’t afford to hire someone to repair the gutter, hadn’t had the money for her to go away to a big school? Autumn glanced from her empty mug to his newly refilled one to the drained coffeepot and wished she’d just given him his coffee and gone back inside to have hers.

No. She was being ridiculous, letting Jon push buttons she didn’t even know she had. Maybe she hadn’t had the privileged childhood that Jon must have, but she and Dad had done okay. She’d had as much as her friends.

He broke the silence. “It is beautiful up here. Relaxing. I can see why you came back after you finished your clinicals at Samaritan for your certification.”

“That and family. We’re close. And there’s a need here for midwives, for almost any medical practitioner.”

“True. The area is underserved.”

“So that’s what brought you up here?”

“Partly. But more the opportunity.”

His reply jarred her. She’d thought she’d hit on something they had in common: a professional desire to serve where their skills were needed.

“There aren’t a lot of places where someone my age can get the level of administrative experience that Adirondack Medical Center is offering me at the birthing center.”

Maybe Jon had more in common with their last director than she’d thought yesterday. The center’s former director had leveraged his experience at the birthing center into a cushy administrative position at a big medical center downstate.

Autumn shifted her weight on the bench. Jon could be grooming himself to take over his grandfather’s health-care corporation. The strains of a hit song by the local Christian country band Resurrection Light broke the growing silence.

“Excuse me.” Jon pulled his cell phone from his pocket. His face lit when he saw the caller ID.

She pushed the bench back, ready to give him some privacy.

“Nana.” Jon waved Autumn down as she started to rise. “Yes, we’re on for dinner. I got the message.” He frowned. “You don’t have to apologize. See you then.” He hunkered down over the phone. “Love you, too.”

He shoved the phone back in his pocket. “My grandparents are going to be in Lake George Tuesday.”

“Are they here on vacation?” Autumn remembered Liza, the medical center administrator, saying something yesterday about his grandparents vacationing in Lake George.

“No,” he said brusquely. “Grandfather is coming up for a business meeting near Syracuse.”

“Do you see them often?” After she’d babbled on about her family, it was only fair that he take his turn.

“No.”

“Oh, I thought they might have lived near you. When you said coming up I assumed you meant from the New York City, Westchester area.”

He stared at her.

“That’s where you’re from, right, Westchester County?” From the gossip at Samaritan, she knew his father headed up the cardiology department at one of the medical centers there.

“Yes.” He avoided eye contact. “I’d better get back to the movers.” He stood and motioned toward the table. “Do you need any help carrying the stuff in?”

“No, thanks, I can handle it.” So much for learning anything personal about Dr. Hanlon. Since as neighbors, they’d be seeing a lot of each other, she’d hoped he’d share something that might help her get past what he’d done to Kate and the cold way he’d treated his fellow hospital staff members afterward. She picked up the mugs and coffeepot and walked with him to her door.

“I’ll see you Monday.”

She nodded and watched him cross the yard to the moving van before she went inside. Working with Jon and having him as her next-door neighbor was going to be interesting. The trouble was that, given their past history and the conversation they’d just had, Autumn had a sinking feeling it might not be a good kind of interesting.


Chapter Three

“Hello!” Jamie Payton’s voice rang through the house to the kitchen.

Autumn put the clean coffeepot in the dish drainer and dried her hands with a dish towel. “Hi, come in.”

“I already am,” Jamie said from the doorway. “Who was that I passed on my way in? Tall, dark and handsome, talking with the moving guys.” Autumn’s friend and delivery nurse sighed.

“I thought you were more partial to the tall, fair-haired and handsome type,” Autumn teased.

“Don’t tell the colonel,” Jamie said of her new husband, Eli.

“Your secret’s safe with me. How’d you manage to slip out of the house alone?” Except for work, Autumn rarely saw Jamie without Eli or one of the kids.

“Myles is at the camp.”

“That’s right. He’s a counselor this summer.”

“Rose slept over at a friend’s, and Eli took Opal with him to the hardware store in Ticonderoga to buy new tile for the kitchen floor. But you’re evading my question.”

“The mystery man you saw on your way in is my new neighbor and boss, Dr. Jonathan Hanlon.”

Jamie tilted her head. “Boss?”

“The new director at the birthing center. Technically, not our boss, but something tells me he’s going to be a lot more hands-on with the actual care than Dr. Ostertag was. I worked with Jon at Samaritan when I was doing my master’s degree for my midwife certification.”

“I see.” Jamie’s eyes twinkled.

“You see nothing. Just because I know him doesn’t mean I like him.”

“So you don’t like him?”

Autumn threw up her hands and laughed. “I didn’t say that, exactly. I don’t know him that well.” Nor did it look like he’d be an easy person to get to know.

“It’s been a couple of months since Rod was reassigned.”

Autumn shook her head. “I know you’d like everyone to be as happy and in love as you and Eli are, but my time hasn’t come yet. Now, you must have had a reason for stopping by, other than trying to fix me up with Jon—especially since you didn’t even know about him until you got here.”

“You’re not going to go for it, then?”

“I’m not going to go for it.”

Jamie released an exaggerated sigh. “I know you’re helping out at the camp today, too. So I stopped in to see if you want to walk to the lake with me.” She patted her slightly rounded belly. “My midwife says that I need to get some more exercise. Apparently, chasing the other three kids around isn’t enough.”

“Using my words against me?” Even though Autumn wasn’t taking on any obstetric patients, when Jamie had found out she was pregnant, she’d insisted on seeing Autumn for her prenatal care. Their friendship went back a long time to when Autumn was a high school student and used to babysit Jamie’s older kids.

“Come on, you weren’t planning on driving down. You walk everywhere.”

“You’re right. I was going to walk.” But she’d planned on having the morning to herself. Autumn kicked off her sandals and picked up her sneakers from the rug by the door. “Let me change my shoes and we can go.”

“Sure, and while I’m thinking of it, my cousin who I texted you about would be happy to fill in at the office for the summer. She’s still working on getting a teaching position for the fall and has to be out of her apartment in Syracuse by the end of the week. She really doesn’t want to go back to her father’s in Buffalo.”

Autumn looked up from tying her shoes.

“They get along great. But Uncle Steve recently remarried, and Lexi, short for Alexandra, thinks her father and stepmother have enough with her new teenage stepbrothers there.”

“I can relate to that.” Autumn stood.

“I thought you could.” Jamie grinned.

“Do you think Lexi would be interested in the singles group at church? Our ranks have thinned since all of you newlyweds morphed the singles-plus group into a couples group and we remaining singles split off into our own group.”

While the larger singles-plus group had been fun, Autumn had found it kind of weird belonging to the group with her father and Anne. She swallowed hard. And with her friends Jack and Suzy Hill after the problems delivering their daughter.

“Maybe. I’ll ask her. Is that a prerequisite for the job?”

“Of course not. I was just thinking we need to get the group pumped up. We don’t have nearly as many members as the couples group.”

“It’s not a competition,” Jamie said. “And you all are welcome to join us again.”

“Your guys are all taken, and I need some kind of social life again. One that doesn’t include my father.”

“I can understand that.” Jamie cocked her head to the side. “So, does Lexi have the job?”

Autumn thought about the hours she’d spent yesterday evening entering all of the billing into the computer. “I’ll have to talk with Kelly, but I think she’ll trust your recommendation.”

“She’d better be able to. Seriously, I think you’ll like Lexi a lot. And back to the singles group. What about your new neighbor?”

“What about him?” Autumn asked, even though she knew exactly what Jamie was asking.

“Would he be interested in joining your group? You’re down one on the male members since Rod left.”

Autumn shrugged. “As I said, I don’t know him that well.” Besides, when had it become her group? And, even if the singles group did need members, particularly male members, she had enough qualms about her and Jon getting along working together and as neighbors without adding him to the only regular social life she had.

* * *

Jon shook his head and put his helmet back on. No one had been home at either of the Hazard family houses. He’d even swallowed his pride and tried Autumn’s. How could he have locked his house key in the duplex? He didn’t do things like that. But the movers had been trying right from the start, getting there early. And his grandmother’s call and Autumn’s questions about his family had unsettled him. He understood that she was only making conversation. But he didn’t talk about his family. Didn’t think about them if he could avoid it, except for Nana.

He settled himself on his Sportster and revved it up to drive down to the lake. Hopefully, he could search out Autumn’s grandfather or stepmother for a key and not have to share his stupidity with her. Although why should it matter? It wasn’t like he was out to impress her or anything. Jon gunned the engine and gravel flew out from the rear tire, causing the bike to fishtail. He slowed down and reached the camp at a more sedate pace.

As he drove under the sign welcoming him to Camp Sonrise, a group of high-school and college-age kids crossing the parking lot with mops, buckets and other cleaning items stopped and stared. He rolled to a stop and kicked down the stand. By the time he’d pulled off his helmet, a couple of the boys were beside him.

“Nice ride,” the dark-haired one said.

“Yeah,” his companion echoed.

“I’m Myles Glasser, one of the camp counselors. You need directions or something?”

“I’m looking for Anne Hazard or her father-in-law.”

“Mr. Hazard just left for the store. He probably passed you on the road.”

Jon nodded. A pickup had gone by him.

“I’m not sure where Anne is, but I’ll get Autumn, her stepdaughter. She can probably help you.”

“That’s okay.” He lifted his helmet to put it back on. He didn’t have Mr. Hazard’s phone number, but he could leave Anne a message at the number he’d called this morning. Then he could kill some time at his office in the birthing center preparing for the staff meeting next week. “I’ll catch up with Mr. or Mrs. Hazard later.”

“It’s no problem. Autumn’s right over there on the lodge porch.”

He followed Myles’s outstretched arm to the large log building next to the parking lot, where Autumn was walking down the stairs. Jon weighed which was more asinine, his insisting on not talking to Autumn or his reluctance to tell her he’d locked himself out.

Myles relieved him of the decision. “Hey, Autumn, this guy needs to talk to you.”

Autumn turned quickly, causing her almost-waist-length ponytail to swing over her shoulder. She waved an acknowledgment.

A feeling of protectiveness waved over him as she walked over. He turned to the boys. “I know you’re trying to help, but you don’t know who I am.”

They looked at him blankly. “Should we?” Myles’s friend asked.

Was he that clueless when he was a teen? Probably. “I could be anyone. You don’t know that Autumn knows me.”

“Hi, Jon.”

The teen looked from him to Autumn. “But she does.”

“Never mind, and thanks for the help.”

“What was that about?” Autumn asked.

“I was looking for your grandfather or stepmother, and the dark-haired one, Myles, immediately volunteered to get you, without asking who I was or what I wanted.”

“They’re fifteen. They were probably too interested in your bike to remember their elementary school stranger-danger training.”

Jon didn’t know why her blithely dismissing his concern irritated him. What did it matter?

“You were looking for Grandpa or Anne. Is there a problem at the house?”

“Kind of.” He dropped his gaze and tapped his helmet against his thigh. “I seem to have locked myself out.”

Autumn made a soft choking sound and he looked up to see her lips twitch as she tried to contain her smile.

“I don’t suppose you have a key to my side of the house.”

Her smile broke through. “No, I don’t. Anne probably does at the house. Come on, I’ll take you to her. You can leave your helmet. It’ll be fine. I’ll tell Myles to keep an eye on it and your bike. They’re done cleaning the campers’ cabins.”

He surveyed the forest surrounding the parking lot and the kids milling around the camp and held on to the helmet.

A towheaded boy of about three charged at them when they entered the lodge. “Aunt Autumn. You came back.”

She scooped him up before he collided with Jon. “Silly Sam.” She rubbed noses with the toddler. “Of course I came back. I said I would.”

“Your nephew?” He didn’t know Autumn had any brothers or sisters. Then, why should he?

“No, Sam is my cousin. He belongs to my aunt Jinx and uncle Drew. Drew is the camp director. But Sam decided that, if Anne is Aunt Anne, I should be Aunt Autumn.”

The little boy nodded and pointed to a group of women talking on the other side of the room. “Aunt Anne.”

One of them looked like a slightly older, taller version of Autumn, right down to the long blond ponytail, or in her case, braid. Another was an attractive woman with light brown hair who looked about his age, thirtyish. The third woman was older, probably Anne, Autumn’s stepmother. Numerous children, all too young to be campers, surrounded the women.

“Who are you?” Sam asked.

Jon shoved his free hand into the front pocket of his jeans. Aside from the babies he delivered, children were alien creatures to him. “I’m Doc...Jon.”

“Uncle DocJon?” Sam faced Autumn, waiting for her answer.

A blush spread across her face and Jon noticed a light spattering of freckles on her patrician nose that he hadn’t noticed before.

“No,” she said, “just Jon or Dr. Jon.” She looked at him for confirmation.

He nodded. He’d been taught to address adults by Mr. or Mrs. or Dr. So-and-So, in the case of his parents’ associates. But it wasn’t like he was going to be seeing the kid on a regular basis.

“Sam has also decided that adults should come in pairs—mommies and daddies and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles.”

“Oh.” That sounded brilliant, but he didn’t know what else to say. He looked pointedly at the group of women across the room, who were now moving toward them with a stream of kids behind. He should have just gone to his office at the birthing center.

Autumn waved them on. “Everyone, this is Dr. Jonathan Hanlon, the new director at the birthing center.” She went around the circle introducing the women as her aunt, grandmother—not stepmother—and Anne, and identifying the various children, ending with, “These are my brothers, Ian and Alex, and my sister, Sophia.”

“Call me Jon, please.” He felt a tug on his pant leg.

The little girl Autumn had introduced as her sister stood beside him, hands on hips. “Are you Autumn’s new boyfriend?”

“Sophia,” Anne cautioned.

Autumn seemed to be studying the laces of her sneakers.

“What? I was just asking.” Sophia raised her big blue eyes to him. “Autumn’s old boyfriend had to move somewhere else and she was sad. She needs a new boyfriend.”

Jon coughed. He didn’t think that was a position he was going to step into. When he’d asked Autumn out at Samaritan, she’d shot him down with a terse, “No, thank you.”

“No, Sophia, he’s not my new boyfriend. He works at the birthing center with me. I told you that when I have a new boyfriend, you’ll be the first to know.”

“’Cause we’re sisters.”

“Yep, because we’re sisters.”

“Sorry about that,” Anne said.

Obviously, the Hazard family didn’t subscribe to the tenet of “children should be seen and not heard”—or better yet, not seen and not heard—that he’d been raised with.

“Did you get all moved in?” Close up, Anne looked a little older than he had originally thought, but not old enough to be Autumn’s mother.

Like many of his father’s colleagues, Autumn’s father apparently had gone with a younger wife the second time around and a second family. He attributed his parents’ adherence to their marriage vows to the fact that they rarely saw each other. That and their passion to out-accomplish each other. His father couldn’t be happy sharing his mother’s research breakthroughs. He had to offset them with a new surgical procedure—and vice versa. To avoid anything resembling his parents’ relationship, Jon had made a pact with himself never to date other doctors.

He shook off the memories and answered Anne’s question. “Yes. Thanks for alerting the movers that I was on my way.”

“But he has another problem,” Autumn said. “He’s locked himself out. Dad must have another key at the house.”

He glared at Autumn. She couldn’t have pulled Anne aside and asked?

“We did,” Anne said. “But Alex flushed it down the toilet.”

“Sophie dared me do it,” Alex said as if that explained the matter.

“You tried the realty office?” Anne asked.

“Yes, I left a message there and on the Realtor’s cell phone. I’m surprised I haven’t heard back.”

“He’s probably out showing a property. If you haven’t noticed yet, cell phone coverage can be very spotty here. My father-in-law should have a key. Mary?” She turned to her mother-in-law.

“He does,” Autumn’s grandmother said. “It’s on his key chain. He’ll be back anytime. He went to the hardware store and is going to stop and pick up pizza for everyone. You’re more than welcome to stay and have some with us.”

After spending the day helping the movers, he’d thought he’d take a bike ride, which he had, get some takeout and relax in front of the TV. He glanced around the noisy room. Relax alone.

Autumn locked his gaze with hers. “We may be a little much for Jon.” She motioned around the room. “The kids and all.”

He tensed. She didn’t think he could handle them. Jon imagined eating with the kids. Tomato sauce, spilled drinks, grubby fingers. He pasted a smile on his face. “Sounds good, thanks. While I wait, I think I’ll go check out the lake.” He wasn’t going to let a few kids intimidate him. If his father had taught him anything, it was that a Hanlon never showed weakness.

* * *

Autumn watched Jon stride across the room and out the door. The speed at which he left confirmed her feeling that he’d been uncomfortable with her large, noisy family. She’d been certain he’d go off in a corner to wait for Grandpa, get his key and go back to the duplex. She had no idea why he’d agreed to stay.

A minute later, the screen door to the lodge pushed back open. “Was that who I think it was heading down to the beach?” Jamie’s voice carried across the room. “You had a change of heart?”

Autumn felt her family members’ eyes on her.

“Go ahead down to the lake if you want, honey,” Grandma said. “We really are done.”

Just what she didn’t need. The other women in her family joining in with Sophie and Jamie to try to fix her up with Jon.

“Eli,” Autumn said to the tall man who’d followed Jamie in with her daughters beside him, “can’t you do something with her?”

“No, not a thing. Why, what’s she up to?”

“Matchmaking.”

Jamie shook her head. “I’m encouraging her to get to know the new director of the birthing center better. We passed him on our way in.”

Autumn’s aunt Jinx caught her attention and rolled her eyes. At least someone was on her side. Maybe she should head home and catch the alone time she’d planned on this morning.

“Pizza delivery,” Grandpa’s voice boomed from the lodge porch, taking care of that decision.

“I’ll open the door,” Ian said, racing across the room.

She smiled. Anne was strict about what she let the kids eat, so pizza was a real treat for Ian. That had to have been a change for Dad, who’d pretty much figured in pizza as one of the three major food groups when Autumn was growing up.

“Go let your friend know food is here,” Gram said.

Her friend. As if she was Ian’s age. No, she was being too sensitive. As she passed by Grandpa, the spicy smells of the pizzas made her stomach growl, reminding her that all she’d had to eat today was the coffee with Jon and a granola bar she’d grabbed from the camp kitchen midafternoon. That would explain a lot of her crankiness.

“I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder as the door swung closed behind her. “Save some of the veggie pizza for me.”

“You can have it all,” Ian said, and everyone laughed.

Autumn paused on the porch. Jon could be anywhere along the lakeshore, so she headed to the most obvious spot—the camp swimming dock. The evening sun filtering through the trees made an interesting shadow pattern on the wide gravel path to the lake. When the dock came into view, she raised her hand over her eyes to block the sun and scanned its length for Jon. He wasn’t there. Fabulous. Her stomach growled again.

“Jon, pizza’s here.” Her voice echoed over the still water. She looked up and down the length of the camp’s waterfront as she listened for a response. She didn’t see or hear anything. Maybe he’d gotten tired of waiting and left. Except his bike helmet was up at the lodge, and she didn’t think he’d be that rude. More likely, he’d decided to take a run along the beach. He could be halfway around the lake. And she wasn’t about to hike the circumference looking for him.

Walking toward the dock, she spotted one of the megaphones the camp lifeguards used. She flicked the battery switch. “Jon, pizza.” This time her voice boomed over the lake, and she caught a motion to her right.

Jon jogged over to her. “That’s some voice you’ve got.”

She lifted the megaphone. “Me and AmpliVox. You didn’t hear me the first time?”

He shook his head and gazed out at the water. “It’s so quiet here. I’m surprised I didn’t. But I was a ways up the beach.”

“Quiet for now. Wait until tomorrow when the new campers arrive. That will make the family crew up at the lodge look like nothing.”

He frowned.

“So you admit it. You found the family a little intimidating.”

“I admit to nothing.” A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “You didn’t happen to bring the pizza with you, did you?”

“No, I did not. But my brother Ian is saving some of the veggie one.”

“I’m more of a meat lover’s fan myself.”

Of course he was.

“Autumn, Autumn.” Ian raced up to them. “You have a phone call.”

“Do you know who it is, sweetie?”

“Your friend Kelly. She talked to Opal’s mother, but she wants to talk to you.”

Autumn turned to Jon. “It might be one of our mothers, although we don’t have anyone due for a couple of weeks.” She hurried ahead to the lodge.

Jamie handed her the lodge phone. “Kelly said to call her back on her cell phone.”

Autumn dialed the number and listened while Kelly explained the situation. “Okay, I’ll need to stop by my house. See you in a bit. Bye.”

She placed the phone on the table. “Sorry, Gram, Aunt Jinx. I have to go. Oh, Jon, did you get your key?”

“Yes. Is there a problem with one of your mothers?”

“No, come outside.”

They stepped out onto the porch. “Kelly got a call from one of her friends. The woman’s daughter is in labor and she’s afraid something isn’t right. The couple is free-birth. They were determined to have their baby with no interference from anyone. But the woman has talked them into letting Kelly come.”

“Free-birthers. The mother-to-be hasn’t had any prenatal care?”

“Not that I know of.”

“I’ll go ahead to the birthing center and make sure one of the rooms is ready.”

“Jon, we’re not sure the couple will even let us help with the birth. I doubt we can talk them into coming to the center.”

“Insist. You said the mother thought something was wrong.” Jon crossed his arms.

Autumn mirrored his stance. “We can’t make them go to the center.” She dropped her arms. There was no need to turn this into a standoff. Besides, this wasn’t her birth. It was Kelly’s. Kelly was in charge. Autumn swallowed the guilt that waved over her and didn’t try to distinguish whether it came from her not holding up her end of the practice work or the relief she’d felt because Kelly was in charge. How long would Kelly agree to go on managing all of the deliveries?

He placed his hand on her forearm. “You have to try to get them to the center.”

Kelly’s van rolled into the camp parking lot. Autumn gently pulled away. “No, I have to go help catch a baby.”

“I’ll expect a report on Monday.”

Autumn strode to the vehicle.

“And I’ll pray for an uncomplicated delivery,” Jon said in a less strident voice.

She nodded and climbed into the van.

“Who is that?” Kelly asked.

“Jon Hanlon, the new director of the birthing center.”

“Oh. What does he want you to report?”

“Our business.”

Kelly creased her forehead in question.

“I don’t know why, either. But whatever his reason, I don’t think I’m going to like it.”

Like she didn’t like the way he’d said they had to get the mother to the birthing center, didn’t like him expecting her to report in to him on Monday and didn’t like the way he seemed to think all he had to do was smile and he’d get his way.


Chapter Four

Jon tested the doorknob to the midwifery practice. It had been locked when he’d tried it on his way to his office earlier. This time the knob turned. He hesitated. He’d exercised great restraint yesterday morning by not going over to Autumn’s place to ask about her unexpected delivery on Saturday. Her car hadn’t been in the driveway when he’d left for church, but it had been when he’d returned. After giving her a few hours to catch up on her sleep, he’d glanced out and she’d been gone again.

Today, he had the good excuse of wanting to introduce himself to Kelly, along with finding out how the delivery had gone. He pushed the door open and looked around the empty waiting area. Two warm brown leather couches in the corner framed an oval coffee table, forming an inviting sitting area. Matching leather chairs were positioned a couple of feet away along the wall, one on each side of a combination table-magazine rack. A desk sat on the opposite side of the room, and paintings of a mountain scene and the monthly stages of pregnancy hung on the wall in between. He walked over and checked them out. They were both done by the same artist, probably a local.

“Can I help you?”

Jon turned.

“Dr. Hanlon?”

He nodded.

“It’s good to finally meet you,” the attractive, middle-aged woman with auburn hair said. “I saw you briefly at the lake on Saturday.”

He glanced behind her down the short hall. “You must be Kelly.”

“Yes.” She extended her hand. “Kelly Philips. Good to meet you. I would have introduced myself when I picked up Autumn, but I was kind of in a hurry.”

“Understandable.” He shook her hand. “And call me Jon.”

The office door opened, and Autumn’s voice rang out. “I’ve got coffee.”

Jon tightened his grip on Kelly’s hand, prompting a raised eyebrow from her. He quickly released it.

Autumn backed into the room. “I have your latte, a large regular for Jamie and my mocha.” She turned around, and the cardboard tray dipped dangerously to one side. “Jon.”

“Good morning.”

“Hi.” She righted the tray and handed Kelly her coffee.

“I stopped in to introduce myself to Kelly and see how your delivery went on Saturday.”

“It was really Kelly’s delivery.” Autumn looked to the other midwife. “Is Jamie getting the exam room ready? I’ll take her coffee to her.”

“I’ll take it, although I don’t know if either of us will be able to enjoy the coffee. Our nine-thirty appointment called and asked if she could come at nine.” Kelly checked her watch. “I heard the door open and close and came out to see if she was here and found Jon.”

Autumn lifted her mocha and handed the tray with Jamie’s coffee to Kelly.

“Why don’t you take Jon to your office and fill him in on the birth while I get ready for my appointment?” Kelly said.

Autumn pressed her lips into a pink-tinged slash.

Jon set his jaw. Evidently, talking with him was that distasteful.

“Maybe he’d like to go with you on your home visit with the new mother this morning,” Kelly said.

“Was there a problem?” he asked. Autumn had said Saturday that she didn’t know whether the mother had had any prenatal care.

“No.” Autumn drew out the O. “Why?”

“The home visit. Or do you do that with all of your home births?”

The office door opened, and a visibly pregnant young woman in a calf-length navy blue skirt and three-quarter-length-sleeved white cotton maternity T-shirt walked in, followed by two little girls. Jon guessed they were about two and three. The little girls wore matching sundresses with white T-shirts underneath.

“Hi,” the woman said. “Am I seeing you, Kelly or Autumn today?” She dropped her gaze as soon as she noticed him.

He’d have to ask Autumn if this was a family from the traditional religious sect his delivery nurse had told him about. Apparently, Dr. Ostertag had experienced problems with a couple of the families because they insisted on using only female midwives or doctors. He’d had concerns about an emergency arising when he was the only doctor available. Fortunately for Dr. Ostertag, none had.

“You’ll be seeing me,” Kelly said. “Let’s make sure your information is up to date.” She and the mother-to-be stepped over to the desk.

“Getting back to your question,” Autumn said as she turned on her heel and led Jon down the short hall to her office, “we make a home visit after all of our births, even the ones here at the center.” She halted at the door.

He didn’t know what he’d said to prompt the irritation in her voice. He was interested in the extra degree of care. “That must involve a lot of time. Have you found it cost-effective in the long run?”

She pushed the door open and motioned him to a couch that matched the ones in the waiting room. A coffee table was positioned in front of it. He sat at the far side. She placed her mocha on the table, opened the messenger bag slung over her shoulder to remove her iPad and sat at the opposite end.

“I haven’t done a cost analysis. Kelly may have. It’s her practice.”

Autumn worked for Kelly? That surprised him. He’d assumed she was a partner since Autumn had always said she wanted to practice near her hometown.

“I’m sure she’d be happy to share with you if she has.” Autumn touched the iPad screen to open her notes.

Jon pulled a paper pad and pen from his pocket. He knew digital medical records and notes were the way, but he still preferred pen and paper for his personal notes.

She rattled off the details of the birth while he scribbled on the paper.

He looked up. “The Apgar scores assessing the baby’s physical condition?”

“Seven at birth, eight at five minutes and nine at ten minutes.” Autumn read the results of the test.

* * *

As he recorded the Apgar scores, Autumn couldn’t help feeling he was scoring her, too. On what, she wasn’t sure. She tried to read the rest of his notes, but the combination of reading upside down and his handwriting made them indecipherable.

“I like that you did the third test. Seven isn’t a bad score, but you can’t be too careful with a new life.”

Or a mother’s life, Autumn thought, a flashback to her friend Suzy’s delivery filling her mind.

“You don’t agree?” he asked.

“No.” She cleared her throat. “I mean yes, I agree.” For the first time since he’d arrived in Ticonderoga.

“You frowned.” He shook his head. “Never mind.”

Autumn closed her notes. “That’s it.” She waited for him to stand and leave.

“About that home visit Kelly mentioned—”

“I understand if you have other things to do.”

“Nothing I can’t do later. What time are you leaving?”

She checked her watch. “In about twenty minutes. They live a half hour away, and the visit will take a couple of hours.”

“That long?”

Autumn’s mood lightened. The visit would take up the whole morning. This was his first official day on the job. Surely he couldn’t give up that much time. “More or less.”

Jon pressed his lips together as if trying to come up with a response.

She suppressed a smile waiting to hear how he’d work his way out of going on the home visit with her.

“You’ll have to drive,” he said. “I rode my bike.”

Her thoughts jumped to her clutter-strewn car. As if it mattered. She didn’t need to impress him. But he would need to sit somewhere. “I know. I heard you take off.”

His eyes sparked and the corner of his mouth tugged up.

A tingle started in her stomach and bubbled through her, giving Autumn an inkling of why all of the female staff at Samaritan Hospital had fawned over him. No! She mentally doused the feeling. She was not about to become the newest member of the Jonathan Hanlon fan club.

“I was up getting ready for work. I couldn’t help but hear.” It wasn’t as if she was keeping track of his comings and goings, if that’s what he thought.

Jon stood. “I’ll see you in twenty minutes.”

“Meet me in the parking lot.” That would give her a chance to move the towels and swim gear she’d stashed in the front seat to the trunk and toss out the remnants of her fast-food breakfast and miscellaneous trash. She had the twins’ car seats in the back, since she was picking them up at day care today for Anne on her way back from the home visit and taking them to the lake. “The blue Outback.”

“I know.”

She warmed before it struck her. Of course he knew. Her car had been parked in front of the duplex for most of the weekend. “Right.”

He let himself out of the office and Autumn went in search of a plastic trash bag—ditching the brief thought she’d had of ducking into the ladies’ room to touch up her makeup and check her hair.

* * *

Jon pushed the back door to the birthing center open to see Autumn standing by her car stuffing things into a canvas bag with a mountain logo on it. The morning sun brought out silvery highlights in her pale blond hair. She set the bag on the pavement next to a white plastic bag and leaned into the open door. When she stood, she had two swim noodles in one arm and an inner tube in the other. She tossed the noodles over the seat into the back of the car and pressed her key tag to open the trunk.

“Need a hand?”

Autumn dropped the tube and it rolled toward Jon. He caught it and walked it back to her.

“You want it in the trunk?”

“Yeah, but I’ll have to rearrange a few things first.” She brushed by him and lifted the back hatch door, standing to one side as if she wanted to block his view of the storage area.

His curiosity got the best of him and he stepped behind her and peered over her shoulder. “Interesting collection of equipment,” he said, taking in the jumble of toys, a beach bag, her oxygen tank, an orange EMT bag with a stethoscope looped over the top of one pocket and an inflatable birthing pool mostly folded into its “Birth-in-a-Bag” canvas container.

Pink tinged her cheeks as she made room for the inner tube, reminding him of the wholesome touch of innocence that had first attracted him to her when they’d met at Samaritan Hospital. It was that quality that had prompted him to ask her roommate, Kate, out, rather than Autumn. Kate was more of a party girl. He knew she wouldn’t expect anything long-term, and that observation proved true. Contrary to the scuttlebutt that had spread through the Labor and Delivery wing, his breakup with Kate bruised her ego far more than her heart.

Autumn had struck him as a longtime kind of woman, and he’d known they both were at Samaritan temporarily. That thought had made it easier on him when she’d turned him down when he asked her out. He’d known that his timing wasn’t right, but there was something about Autumn that had compelled him to ask anyway.

“There.” She stepped back, causing him to jump out of the way.

He hadn’t realized how close together they were standing.

She waved over the cleared-out spot next to the beach bag. “I have to pick the twins up from day care on my way home and take them to their swim lesson at the lake. Anne has a web conference after her class this morning.”

Jon bit back a smile, getting a bittersweet kick out of the easy way Autumn went on about her family without knowing she was doing it. He lifted the tube into the car, and she closed the hatch.

Autumn got in and started the vehicle. “The visit is up in Schroon Falls. If you’ve driven Route 9 from the medical center in Saranac Lake, you’ve gone through it.”

“No, I’ve always taken the interstate.”

“Yeah, the Northway is a lot faster.”

His mind went back to Friday, when the drive to Crown Point had seemed interminable on the interstate Autumn called the Northway. “I take it your visit this morning isn’t off the interstate.”

“Right, but unless time is a real factor, I tend to avoid the Northway. I get that from my dad. He never takes a highway if he can take a byway. It drives Anne crazy sometimes.”

He could see that. In the case of these home visits, unnecessary time on the road would mean less time with that patient or another patient or in the office. “But you take the interstate when you’re called for a delivery.” He figured that was a given.

She shrugged. “It depends. We usually have time.”

Jon shifted in his seat. She seemed so nonchalant about it. As he was all too aware, a birth could be a life-and-death situation. Of course, rural Upstate New York wasn’t rural Haiti. He looked out the window at the mountain rising to his right. But it wouldn’t be unusual for a home-delivery patient’s house to be an hour from lifesaving equipment at the birthing center or the medical center in Saranac Lake.

The natural break in their conversation drew out into a lull that made the drive time drag. Might as well check in with the office. He pulled out his smartphone and touched the mail app, tapping the side of the phone while he waited for it to open. It took a moment for him to notice the no-signal icon in the right-hand corner.

“Do you often have trouble getting reception around here?”

“All the time,” Autumn said. “It doesn’t matter which service you use.”

“That could be a problem.”

“If you need to make a call, I’m sure Megan would let you use her house phone. We’ll be there in five minutes.”

“It’s not important. I was trying to check my office email. What I meant was for being on call.”

“It can be challenging. No one around here depends solely on a cell phone. Kelly and I give our expectant parents our home landline numbers and our cell numbers, in addition to the office number. If I’m at Dad’s or Aunt Jinx’s or an activity at church, I’ll often set my cell phone to forward my calls there to make sure I get them. Of course, the birthing center’s off-hours answering service has all of our numbers.”

Jon couldn’t imagine giving his former practice’s service his church’s phone number or any of his family members’ numbers, even if he were close to them. It seemed unprofessional. “I guess that’s the best you can do. A pager service wouldn’t work any better.”

Autumn’s expression hardened. “It isn’t that big of a deal. People get a hold of us. Neither Kelly nor I have missed a birth yet.”

He couldn’t shake the thought that they could, or he could, and the possible consequences. His cousin had died because she didn’t have a doctor at her birth to manage the complications. “I’d better call the phone company and have the landline connected.”

“Good idea. The house we’re going to is right up here.” Autumn turned left on Peaks Hill Road and followed it to the end, stopping in front of a small, boxy house.

He looked at the solar collectors on the roof. “Your dad’s work?”

She wrinkled her forehead in puzzlement. “Oh, the collectors. No. Dave, the new father, said he’d bought the system online and installed it himself. He’s interested in talking with Dad.”

Jon’s gaze went from the gleaming collectors to the blistered, peeling paint on the cottage and the dip in the wooden step to the front door.

“Ready?” she asked, swinging her door open.

He followed suit and stepped out of the car, walking around to meet her at the trunk.

She clicked the hatch open and grabbed her stethoscope from the EMT bag and a black-and-white pull-behind suitcase with pink hearts and a cartoon cat on it.

He tried to keep a straight face.

“Hello Kitty.” Autumn nodded at the bag. “My sister, Sophie, picked it for my last birthday. She thought my brown one was too dull.”

“That one isn’t dull.” He let the smile spread across his face and received a matching one from Autumn. His heartbeat ticked up a notch. He pulled his gaze from her and perused the trunk. “Need anything else?”

“Yes, can you grab the scale? It’s there under the inner tube.”

He reached under the tube for the scale, glad to have something to occupy his attention. Seriously. Undone by a smile. He’d thought himself too jaded for that.

Autumn walked ahead of him to the house. He placed his foot on the step gingerly, feeling it give a bit from his weight. She knocked on the screen door.

“Hi.” A teenager in a baggy T-shirt and cut-off sweatpants swung the door open for them. She pushed a strand of hair from her forehead. “Sorry about how I look. I don’t have anything else that fits comfortably. And I am not going to wear maternity clothes.”

This was the new mother?

Autumn laughed. “Someone should have told you that you wouldn’t fit into your regular clothes right away.”

“They did.” She grimaced. “But I didn’t believe them. I exercised and watched what I ate the whole pregnancy.”

At second glance, the girl didn’t look quite as young. He was just used to the thirty-and forty-something professional women he tended to see at his last practice.

“So, who’s your friend?” The girl motioned to Jon.

Evidently, Autumn hadn’t called ahead to tell her he was coming along.

“I’m sorry,” Autumn said. “Megan, this is Dr. Hanlon from the Ticonderoga Birthing Center. He’s interested in learning more about Kelly’s and my home-birth practice.”

The grin left Megan’s face. Autumn should have cleared his coming with the mother. And he should have thought first before he’d decided to come. A free-birther wouldn’t welcome an obstetrician tagging along. And he couldn’t stay without the mother’s agreement.

“I don’t have to stay if it makes you uncomfortable.” Of course, he had no idea what he’d do for the two hours Autumn had said the visit would take.

A gusty wail sent Megan rushing from the room before she could respond, leaving Jon and Autumn in the middle of the room facing each other.

* * *

Autumn spoke first. “I should have called and cleared your coming with Megan.” But she’d been too peeved at Kelly for suggesting she take Jon along and with him for wanting to come to think of it.

“Yes, you should have.”

Autumn tensed. Even if she was in the wrong, he didn’t have to agree so readily. She waited for him to lecture her on medical protocol as she’d heard him do more than once during their time at Samaritan.

“You can unclench your hands.” He smiled the killer smile that she’d insisted to the other nurses at Samaritan had no effect on her. “What do you propose we do?” he asked.

Autumn relaxed her hands, warming at his acknowledgment that she was the person in control here. Except she wasn’t in control, nor was her reaction to Kelly’s suggestion that Jon come on the visit very professional. “Let’s leave it up to Megan. We should respect her wishes.”

“Definitely,” he agreed.

“There you go. All nice and dry,” Megan crooned as she returned, patting her son on the bottom.

Autumn held out her hands and took the baby from his mother’s arms. “Looking good,” she said, holding the little boy so that Jon could see him.

Jon rocked back on his heels and nodded slightly in the direction of the baby.

She wasn’t sure what that was about.

“Isn’t he perfect?” the new mother asked, looking from Autumn to Jon and back to her son.

Autumn drilled her gaze into Jon’s. If he wanted to observe the visit, admiring the baby would be a good start in getting Megan to agree.

Jon cleared his throat. “He’s a good-size boy, and his color looks healthy.”

Autumn resisted the inclination to roll her eyes at Megan. “I apologize for not checking ahead to ask about bringing Dr. Hanlon.”

“Jon,” he said, turning his smile on the young mother.

Her expression softened. “That’s okay.” She turned to Jon. “You’re just here to observe, right?”

That was it? One smile from Jon and Megan was fine with him being here? Autumn focused her attention on the infant in her arms, looking into his blue eyes as if he could give her an answer.

“That was the idea,” Jon said, his tone light and, to Autumn’s ears, flirtatious.

What’s wrong with me? she silently asked the baby. Jon wasn’t flirting and, if he was, why should she care? The infant scrunched his face as if he were going to cry. Right. It was Jon’s attitude. She continued her unspoken conversation. The fact that he obviously thought his good looks were a balm to the situation. And that it seemed to be true.

“Is Dave going to join us?” Autumn asked.

“No, he got a call for work last night, framing a new camp on the lake.” Megan hesitated. “We figured it was okay for him to go, since you’d be here this morning and I’m sure Mom will stop by this afternoon on her way home from work.”

Autumn caught Jon’s thin-lipped expression before Megan did. He must not approve of Dave’s not being here. While it was nice to have someone to help with a newborn, from what she’d seen, Autumn was sure Megan would be fine by herself for the day.

“Dave does construction and lawn care during the summer,” Megan said as if she had to explain. “We’ve had so much rain this year that he hasn’t had a lot of work.”

Autumn glared at Jon before turning to the new mother with a cheery, “Let’s take a look at this guy. Can I use the changing table in the bedroom?” Autumn had used the beautiful maple table to examine the baby following his birth.

Megan gazed sideways at Jon. “Ah, the bed isn’t made. We went back to sleep for a while after Dave left for work.”

Autumn forced a laugh. “We’re here to see you and the baby, not to check on your housekeeping. I’ll wash up in your bathroom and meet you in the bedroom.”

“Okay.” Megan stepped toward the bedroom.

“Jon, can you bring the scale?” Autumn pointed to where they’d left it by the door when they’d come in.

“Yeah, sure.”

Megan already had the baby on the changing table when Autumn joined her and Jon. She started undressing him. “This is a really cute onesie.”

Megan beamed. “Yes, don’t you love the little blue-and-yellow elephants? I bought it at the Hazardtown Community Church bargain shed. Mom said newborns outgrow things so fast, we should get as many things as we could there.”

Autumn placed the baby in the sling of the scale Jon was holding ready. A frown marred his handsome face.

“I know what you mean,” Autumn said. “Gram saved all of Aunt Jinx’s clothes. She’s only eight years older than I am. Dad didn’t have to buy me anything new himself until I was ready for kindergarten.”





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