Small-Town Midwife. Jean Gordon C.

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 СКАЧАТЬ