A Child Under His Tree. Allison Leigh

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СКАЧАТЬ nurse blinked, clearly surprised. Kelly felt an insane urge to laugh hysterically. The practice was still clearly Cobb Pediatrics. The sign on the outside of the building said so. When Kelly had called for an appointment, that was the greeting she’d received.

      “He’s on sabbatical,” Caleb said. “Put your coats down, Kelly. It’s been a long time, but you’re here and your son’s cast needs to be replaced.”

      Your son.

      She let out a careful breath, finally daring to glance his way as he set the medical chart on the counter next to the sink before flipping on the water to wash his hands. He was wearing an unfastened white lab coat over blue jeans and an untucked black shirt. “How’d you break your cast, Tyler?”

      “Sliding down the banister at my mother’s house,” Kelly answered before Tyler could say a word. She knew it was silly not to want her son talking to Caleb, but she couldn’t help it. And she felt sure that Caleb would have already read the information the nurse had recorded in Tyler’s chart. “I would have taken him to the hospital if I’d known the doctor was away,” she said to the nurse.

      “No need for that.” Just as Kelly had spoken to the nurse, Caleb aimed his comment at Tyler. “Banisters are pretty cool. How’d you break your arm in the first place?”

      “Jumping out of a tree,” Kelly answered again. Even though it took her closer to Caleb than she wanted to be, she edged closer to Tyler. Every day that she looked at her boy, she could see his father in him. How could Caleb miss the similarities that were so obvious to her? “Sabbatical where?”

      “Florida,” the nurse provided. “Six more months yet. He’ll miss all of Weaver’s lovely winter.” She widened her eyes comically. “Poor guy.” She draped a blue pad over Tyler’s lap. “You’re lucky today,” she told him. “Dr. C is going to take your cast off himself. He doesn’t do that for just everyone.”

      Kelly’s nerves tightened even more. But she could see Tyler’s alarm growing as he stared at the saw. She dumped the coats on the chair again and rubbed her hand down his back. No matter what she felt inside, her son’s welfare was first and foremost. “It’s a special kind of saw, buddy. Only for cutting through casts. It won’t hurt a lick.”

      His eyes were the size of saucers. “How do you know?”

      “I had a broken wrist once, too. Remember I told you that?”

      “She did,” Caleb concurred. In a motion steeped in familiarity, he reached out his long arm and snagged two gloves from a box next to the sink. “She was fourteen years old.” As he worked his fingers into the blue gloves, she hated the fact that she noticed he wore no wedding ring. Not that the absence of one proved anything.

      Not that she cared, either way.

      The lie was so monumental she felt herself flushing.

      “Flew right over the handlebars of her bicycle,” he was saying. “Saw the whole thing. I’m sure your mom remembers that day very well, too.” His eyes snagged hers for the briefest of moments, and she looked away.

      The nurse handed him the saw. “This’ll be loud, Tyler, but your mom’s right. It won’t hurt,” Caleb said. He turned it on and the loud whine filled the room.

      Kelly didn’t want to, but she moved out of the way so he had more room to maneuver. Only then did she realize she was still clutching the plastic marker. She it inside her purse then moved back to the opposite corner near the door.

      The noise from the saw was short-lived. After only a few minutes, Caleb turned it off and handed it back to the nurse. Then he used the long-handled spreader to separate the gap he’d just cut in the fiberglass cast. “Doing okay there, Tyler?”

      “Mmm-hmm.” Tyler was obviously over his alarm and watched as Caleb worked. “You knew my mom before I was born?”

      The knot in Kelly’s throat doubled in size.

      “Sure did.” He took up a pair of scissors and began snipping through the padding next to Tyler’s skin.

      “That was a long time ago, huh.”

      “Sure was.” Caleb flicked another glance her way. What he was thinking was anybody’s guess. As a young man, she’d been able to read every thought he had.

      Now his expression was completely unreadable.

      Could he recognize his own eyes looking up at him from Tyler’s face and not show any reaction at all?

      Then he focused on Tyler again as he pulled open the fiberglass cast and slid it gently away from Tyler’s forearm. “Still doing okay, buddy?”

      “His name is Tyler,” Kelly said tightly. She was the one who called her son “buddy.”

      “Tyler Cobb Rasmussen,” Tyler piped proudly. “That’s my whole name.”

      “Cobb!” The nurse exclaimed. “What a coincidence.”

      Hardly that. But Kelly had no desire to explain anything to the nurse. As it was, she wondered just how close Caleb and Doc Cobb had gotten over the years. Even though the elder physician had been the one to refer Kelly to a professional associate of his in Idaho Falls, she had never told him why she’d been so anxious to leave Weaver. Aside from her mother, Kelly had never told anyone in Weaver that she’d been pregnant when she’d left.

      She crossed her arms tightly and returned Caleb’s look with a hard-won impassive look of her own. Mentally daring him to make some comment. Some observation.

      But none came.

      Instead, with the nurse’s assistance, he had Tyler’s arm recast in short order. Leaving the young blonde to clean up the small mess that remained, Caleb threw away his gloves, washed his hands again and scribbled in the chart before holding it out for Kelly. She took it, but he didn’t immediately release it, and her nerves ratcheted tight all over again. She tugged a little harder on the chart and he finally released it.

      “I was sorry to hear about your mother.”

      Her jaw felt tight as she flipped open the chart to scan the contents. She wished she could find fault with the notes but couldn’t, so she closed the folder with a snap. She wanted to ask him why he was sorry, but that sounded too much like something her mother would have said. “Thank you.”

      She wondered if she imagined his faint sigh before he went on to explain that the nurse would give them information on cast care.

      “Think I’ve got that covered,” Kelly said.

      One corner of his mouth kicked up in an imitation of a grin. It wasn’t a real one. Despite the intervening years, she could still tell the difference between real and fake with him. He turned back to Tyler and stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Tyler Cobb Rasmussen.”

      She felt vaguely dizzy but her little boy giggled as he manfully shook the offered hand. “Nice to meet you, Dr. C.”

      “No more sliding down banisters, okay? At least for now.”

      Tyler nodded. “I promise.”

      Sure. СКАЧАТЬ