by Lois Richer
“So you’re telling me that you don’t know anything about your grandfather staging a takeover?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Did he detect skepticism in her voice? No. From what he knew of Autumn, if she’d doubted his words, she’d say so. “I’ll see what I can find out from Nana.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t even get her to tell me how long she’s staying with me.”
Autumn stood. “I’d better get going or I’ll be late for dinner.”
She had a dinner date? His stomach sank. He shouldn’t be surprised. It was Saturday night.
“Gram hates when anyone is late.”
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. He couldn’t think of any reason she’d tell him that except to break the tension. “And I know how important it is to keep grandmothers happy.” Jon paused waiting for Autumn’s comeback. All he got was a nod and a “Bye.” But Autumn always had been one woman he hadn’t been able to charm. Nana was another.
Jon stood at his door and watched Autumn walk to her side of the duplex. So, Autumn’s Saturday night dinner date was with her grandparents. If that was typical of her social life, it rivaled his. Not that he’d been making any real effort to have a social life since he’d arrived in Paradox Lake, nor did he plan to. So why was he so pleased that Autumn’s dinner date was with her grandparents?
He whistled Resurrection Light’s latest song as he made his way through the kitchen and out the back door to track Nana down. She was right where he expected he’d find her, on the patio reading.
“Are your friends all gone?”
“Yes, Autumn was the last. She just left.”
“You didn’t ask her if she wanted to come over for dinner, did you? I want her to try out the lemon meringue pie. It’s a new recipe.”
“No, she said she had other plans. It is Saturday night and she’s an attractive woman.” Both statements were true and might help discourage Nana from her campaign to push them together. It was getting embarrassing and hard to resist.
“That’s too bad. I really enjoy Autumn’s company, don’t you?”
“Yes, as a colleague and friend.”
His grandmother smiled a knowing smile.
Let her think what she wanted. He had more important things than his nonexistent love life to discuss with her. “Could you come inside? I have something I want to talk to you about.”
“Something unpleasant, from the look on your face.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“That’s cryptic.” As they crossed the yard to the back door, his grandmother gestured toward the pines separating the duplex from the lake. “It really is beautiful here. Have you thought about buying some property, a house or land to build a house on?”
“No, although I hear you’ve been looking.” He opened the door and followed his grandmother in.
“I have,” she said, not elaborating. “Can I start dinner while we talk?”
“I’d rather have your full attention.”
“That serious.” She pulled out a chair and sat at the table.
He sat across from her, leaning on his elbows. “Is Grandfather thinking about buying the Ticonderoga Birthing Center?”
Nana touched a finger to her cheek. “No, not that I’m aware. I haven’t talked with him in weeks, but the facilities he was looking at then were midstate and down near Binghamton. Where did you get the idea he was interested in your center?”
Nana’s reference to the center as his bothered him. His work here was a stepping-stone. He didn’t want to take virtual ownership, as Autumn and many of the hometown staff seemed to. It would be easier to leave when the time came if he didn’t. But he could still care about the center, care about keeping it open for Autumn and the others.
“Autumn asked. She said she’d heard that the Adirondack Medical Center might want to spin off the birthing center and insinuated that I might be part of a takeover plan instigated by Grandfather. Her points—my taking the directorship, your apparently unending stay and the fact that you were shopping real estate here.”
“I take it Autumn didn’t like that idea.”
“What do you think?”
“I wouldn’t if I were her. So I doubt she would, although a JMH takeover could keep the center open if it’s in danger of closing. Autumn seems attached to living here, not that I blame her.”
“Grandfather would destroy the center, as he destroys everything he touches.”
“Jonathan,” she admonished him. “He is your grandfather.”
“And your husband.” Jon crossed his arms across his chest. “Sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” Her eyes went soft. “You didn’t know him before, when he was still practicing surgery. He was different.”
Jon’s chest tightened. He did remember loving to go to Nana and Grandfather’s house when he was small.
She cleared her throat. “You can tell Autumn that I don’t know anything about JMH taking over the birthing center.”
“I will.” Her words should have relieved the knot in his stomach, but they didn’t. Nana wouldn’t lie to him, but he had a niggling feeling she wasn’t telling him something.
His grandmother stood, went to the refrigerator and took a package of meat out of the freezer. “I thought I’d make lamb chops.”
They were one of his favorites.
“With asparagus and baked potatoes.”
“And mint jelly?” he asked.
“You’ve got it.” She unwrapped the chops and put them into the microwave to defrost. “After dinner I’d like you to come with me to see the lake house I looked at yesterday. You can meet my Realtor.”
Jon drummed his fingers on the table. She thought she’d bribe him into coming with her by making his favorite foods. He stopped and laid his hand flat on the table. Grandfather was the schemer, not Nana. She’d probably planned this dinner days ago.
“I’d like to get a second opinion before I buy it,” she said.
“You’re that serious.”
“I am. I might as well use the money my parents left me for something. I let your grandfather invest it and he tied it up in long-term investments to discourage me from spending it. He could take care of me just fine, thank you, is his way. My inheritance is where the money I sent you when you were in medical school came from.”
Nana had money from her parents? He’d had no idea. Even if it hadn’t been a lot to begin with, if it had been invested all of those years, it could be a nice amount now.
“If, and that’s a big if, your grandfather ever comes to his senses, it would make a great vacation home. And if he doesn’t, it’s completely winterized. I can’t go on living here with you forever, not that I’m not enjoying myself.”
“Sure, I’ll go with you.”
“I think you’ll like it, and I know I’ll like living near you, even if it turns out to be only during the summer. The house not only has a beautiful view, but it has an elaborate wooden jungle gym for kids to play on. Autumn said Paradox Lake was a great place to grow up.”
Only he wouldn’t be here past next year, and he certainly didn’t have any immediate plans to provide Nana with any kids to play on the jungle gym.
* * *
Jon couldn’t keep his mind focused on the sermon the minister filling in for Pastor Joel was preaching. His gaze kept darting to Autumn sitting a pew behind him and Nana on the other side of the church with her parents and grandparents. He wanted to make sure he caught her this morning to reassure her about the birthing center, to tell her that as far as Nana knew, Grandfather did not have his eye on acquiring it.
After service, Autumn and her family filed out ahead of him and Nana
. When he got over to the fellowship hall for coffee hour, he saw her parents and grandparents, but not her.
* * *
“She’s helping in the kitchen,” Nana said.
“What?”
“Autumn. The tenth time you looked over at her during service, I almost told you to go and sit with them.”
He hadn’t thought he’d been that obvious. “Thanks. I’ll come find you after I talk with her. I want to tell her what you said about the birthing center.”
Jon found her refilling a plate with cookies. “Hi, do you have a minute?”
“Put the plate back out and go ahead with your friend, dear,” the infamous Mrs. Stowe said. “We have plenty of help.”
Was that a blush he saw brush Autumn’s cheeks? He followed her out into the hall, where she placed the plate with the others on the serving table. “I want to tell you what Nana said. But let’s go outside where it’s less noisy.”
Autumn’s cheeks definitely pinked when several parishioners smiled at them when he placed his hand at the small of her back to guide her through the rush of Sunday school students who had just been released into the hall.
The bright midday sun glinted off the cars in the parking lot. Autumn stopped a couple feet down the sidewalk where they could talk without being in the way.
“What did she say?”
“As far as Nana knows, Grandfather has no intention of buying the birthing center. But she did say they haven’t talked in several weeks.”
Autumn frowned.
He hadn’t needed to add that, and he wasn’t going to share his unfounded feeling that Nana had held back something.
“Hey, you two, I thought I heard ‘birthing center.’ Sneaking out of fellowship to talk shop?” Kelly and her family walked up to them on their way to their car. “And you accuse me of being a workaholic.”
“Not really,” he answered. “Autumn asked me something at the singles group meeting yesterday, and I told her I’d find out and let her know. It’s quieter out here.”
“Ah, slipping out for a private talk,” Kelly said.
Autumn’s lips thinned. Kelly certainly had a knack for casting a pall on a conversation.
“I’ll see you both at work tomorrow,” she said.
Autumn’s gaze followed her as she rushed off to catch up with her family. “Before we go back in, I have something else to ask you. From what I heard the other day, Adirondack Medical Center is shopping the birthing center as a complete women’s health center, based partly on my branching out more into gynecology.”
He wasn’t following Autumn’s train of thought. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“Okay, but if it turns out to be right and there’s an opening on staff for an OB-GYN nurse practitioner, I might be interested. My contract with Kelly is up soon.”
Autumn wanted to join him on staff. The sun’s rays broke out from behind the cloud that had passed in front of it while they were talking with Kelly. So far, they’d worked well together, and he’d like having another practitioner on staff. “The minute I hear anything, I’ll let you know. Or are you asking me to request the position? I’m willing to research the need and propose it if the numbers indicate a gap in service.”
“Whoa, slow down. I’m just starting to consider alternatives to entering another contract with Kelly.”
He gritted his teeth. He had rather irrationally jumped right on that. But a staff position would mean Autumn could stay in Paradox Lake, something he was sure she wanted to do. And he’d like to help her. She was a definite asset to the center and the community.
“Let’s see how it goes working together with Jamie. She said she scheduled her appointment with you.”
“Yes, I’m seeing her this week.” He didn’t want to tell her the appointment was this Tuesday at three-thirty, because she wouldn’t believe he routinely remembered the dates and times of all his patients’ appointments. He didn’t. “I can let you know tomorrow when it is if you want to sit in.”
“No, why don’t you see her alone this time and we can talk afterward. Having both of us there might make Jamie nervous that we’re more concerned about her pregnancy than we, or at least I, am.”
“True. I wouldn’t want to alarm her.” Insights like that were one of the reasons he thought they’d work well together overall, not only with Jamie.
“I’d better get back in,” Autumn said. “My family will be looking for me.”
Jon’s gaze traced the delicate lines of her profile as they returned to the church hall in companionable silence. Autumn might have some reservations, but right now he couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do than work with Autumn for as long as he was at the center.
Chapter Twelve
Autumn stopped at the bottom of the Community Church steps when she heard a familiar vroom behind her. She waited while Jon drove across the lot and parked his Harley next to her car.
He swung off the bike and removed his helmet. His hair stuck up straight in front, giving him a tousled, boyish look. He immediately smoothed it down.
“Hey.”
“Hi. Where’s your grandmother?”
“Nana isn’t feeling well. A summer cold is all. I made sure.”
It was so Jon to have examined and diagnosed his grandmother before leaving.
“So I’m a free agent this morning.”
Autumn laughed at his free agent reference. She didn’t picture him as a sports fan. Then again, when she thought about him, which seemed to be all too frequently lately, she usually pictured him in a work setting.
He grinned back, and she warmed more than the morning sun warranted.
“Now that Pastor Joel is back from his vacation, I’d like to try to catch him to talk about the mission project competition.”
Jon’s smile hardened.
There it was again. That damper whenever she mentioned the mission project, his mission project. “If you don’t want to, or need to get right home to your grandmother after service, I can talk with him by myself.”
“No, I’ll talk to Pastor Joel with you. I want to get the project going.”
“Good. Me, too.” She felt the eyes of the congregation on her as Jon walked her to a pew halfway down the aisle and waited for her to enter ahead of him.
Autumn sat and reached for the hymnal, very aware of Jon sitting next to her. She busied herself reading the bulletin and marking the scheduled songs in the hymnal with the ribbon bookmarks.
“Good morning.” The lay leader greeted everyone and ran through the church events for the week. “And now for the week’s celebrations. Harry and Edna Stowe are celebrating their second anniversary on the twenty-fifth, Ted and Mary Hazard, their forty-second on the twenty-eighth, and one of our newest members, Jon Hanlon, has a birthday on the thirtieth.”
The leader and everyone else looked at Jon. He ducked his head and muttered, “Nana.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Autumn whispered. “We celebrate everything.”
As if in response to Autumn’s comment, the leader asked, “Does anyone else have something to celebrate?” Another member announced her daughter’s engagement, taking the spotlight off Jon and her. Then a child stood to share that he’d lost his first tooth that week.
“See,” Autumn said, “we celebrate everything.”
Jon gave her a lopsided smile that blazed through her. She flipped the hymnal open to the first song, glad for the organ chord that signaled the choir’s entrance. When she stood to sing, she inched to the left away from Jon and avoided looking at him for the rest of the service. Despite her effort to put her full attention on Pastor Joel, at the end of the service, Autumn was hard-pressed to recall a word he’d said.
Jon took his time exiting the pew, letting others go ahead of them so they were am
ong the last to leave. He stood aside and let Autumn go first.
“Good morning.” Pastor Joel shook her hand. “It’s good to see both of you today.”
“Good morning,” Autumn answered. “Do you have a few minutes? Jon and I have something we want to discuss with you.”
Pastor Joel looked over her shoulder at Jon and smiled.
“It’s about a project the singles group wants to do,” she said quickly. Pastor Joel fancied himself something of a seer when it came to couples headed to the marriage altar.
“Certainly. Why don’t you two go ahead to my office and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Autumn and Jon moved out of the sanctuary and paused in front of the pastor’s office door. She looked from the people passing by them on their way to the fellowship hall for coffee hour into the empty unlit office and up at Jon. Autumn swallowed. “I could really use a cup of coffee. I’m going to run into the hall and get one. I can bring you one, too. That’s black, right?”
“Right.”
She slipped off before Jon could equate her rambling with her nervousness about being alone in the pastor’s office with him. Why she was nervous was beyond her. But she couldn’t help it. She’d been uncomfortably aware of him since he’d walked her into church.
Autumn had her equilibrium back when she returned with the coffees.
“There you are,” Pastor Joel said. “Jon’s been filling me in on the details about Help for Haiti. I knew of them, but not about them.”
Autumn handed Jon his coffee and sat next to him. “What do you think? Is it something you’d want to take church-wide? We could make more of an impact.”
“I’ll have to take it up with the church council, but I don’t see why not. Have you thought about doing it as a male-female challenge like we did the UNICEF drive last fall? We made a record donation.”
“The group did talk about that. But we haven’t made any decision.” Autumn glanced at Jon. His expression was neutral.
