Seaside Romance

by Mia Ross

  “Oh, I understand. I’ll be crazy then, I’m sure, working out the kinks with this place and running Playtime over at Toyland. It’ll be fine— We’ll just have to make time to see each other when we can.”

  “Yeah...” He dragged out his comment in a doubtful tone. “That’s really not gonna work for me.”

  Taken aback by his reaction, she quickly came up with a suggestion. “Then I can help you with your studying. I didn’t learn much useful stuff in college, but I did really well in my classes, and I even worked at the campus tutoring center. I can help you come up with lesson plans and go over material with you. If you want, I’ll quiz you to make sure you’ve got it all straight.”

  As her voice rose in pitch and speed, Lauren was well aware that she was beginning to sound desperate. Which made sense, because she was heading in that general direction. To have Ben stay in town, only to lose him to a demanding job ten miles away, would be worse than him being in Boston. At least then she wouldn’t expect to see him, so missing him would eventually become something she learned to live with.

  “It’s nice of you to offer, but that’s not quite what I had in mind.” A frown lined his mouth, but the corner of it suddenly twitched with something less somber, and she couldn’t imagine what was going on in his head. She didn’t have to wait long for an explanation.

  While she watched in disbelief, he went down on one knee and stared up at her with raw, unabashed emotion shining in his eyes. She was so astonished, it took her a few moments to notice the diamond ring sparkling in the late-afternoon sun.

  It was a good thing he began to talk, because she couldn’t have spoken properly if she tried.

  “Lauren, we’ve been through a lot these past few months, on our own and together. Not long ago I realized that sharing things with you—good or bad—is a lot better than being stubborn and trying to handle them by myself. I love you more than I can ever say, and I’m really hoping you’ll marry me.”

  She’d recovered enough to come up with a response, and she couldn’t help teasing this incredible man who’d brought the light back into her life. “That’s not a question.”

  Chuckling, he stood and took her left hand. Meeting her gaze, he asked, “Lauren, will you be my wife and come build a future with me?”

  “Yes and yes.” As she watched him slide the ring onto her finger, she marveled at how perfect the modest setting he’d chosen looked on her hand. In the past, she’d had much more glamorous jewelry, but all those pieces paled in comparison to this one. Because it had come from Ben, she’d treasure it forever.

  “One more question.” Looking up, she nodded and he went on. “I know it’s really sudden, but how would you feel about a September wedding?”

  At first, she didn’t understand the rush, but she quickly caught on. “You mean, before the restoration starts?”

  “There’s a lot to do, and it’s gonna be one of those 24/7 kinda jobs for a while. If you’re good with it, I’d really like for us to be married before the on-site work starts.”

  “Oh, I’m good with it,” she assured him with a delighted kiss. “I’m very good with it.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from SMALL-TOWN MIDWIFE by Jean C. Gordon

  Dear Reader

  As the opening verse says, this story is about finding light in the darkness. It’s about accepting what happened to us in the past and moving on to create a better future. Sometimes that means literally running away, as Lauren did, or staying put and molding things into a better shape, as Ben chose to do. Either way, the key is to choose a new path and follow where it leads. Easier said than done, to be sure.

  We all have things in our personal histories we’re not crazy about. As Lauren and Ben learned, those things may have helped form us, but they don’t define us. Because we’re human, we’re always evolving and nothing is set in stone until we stop trying to change our circumstances. With determination, we can overcome painful memories and use them as a foundation to build a better, more positive life for ourselves and the people we love.

  If you’d like to stop by for a visit, you’ll find me online at www.miaross.com, Facebook and Twitter. While you’re there, send me a message in your favorite format. I’d love to hear from you!

  Mia Ross

  Questions for Discussion

  When the story opens, all Lauren wants is to feel safe again. Have you or someone you know experienced something like this?

  Because of her wariness around him, Ben quickly realizes Lauren was in an abusive relationship. Rather than pulling back, he encourages her to trust him and helps her regain her confidence. If you met someone like Lauren, how would you handle the situation?

  Lauren’s mother is a social worker, and her father’s a police detective. Because of that, she’s worried about their reaction and doesn’t tell them about Jeremy’s abusive behavior. Do you think she did the right thing?

  Ben’s parents had a tumultuous marriage that shapes his views on relationships. Do you or someone you know feel the same way? How have you handled it?

  Even Ben’s strong faith couldn’t prepare him for the disintegration of his family, but it did help him soldier on when things got tough. Has anything like this ever happened to you? How did your faith help you through it?

  The close-knit, caring community in Holiday Harbor appeals to Lauren, and she gradually comes out of her shell. Do you know someone who seems closed-off this way? If so, what could you do to help draw them out?

  For Lauren, regular worship is a distant memory. At the Safe Harbor Church, she finds a warm, vibrant group of people who make her feel welcome, and she enjoys attending services with them. What is it about your church that you like the most?

  Different as they seem to be, Ben and Lauren share a reverence for history that brings them together. Can opposites really attract, or do you think a successful relationship requires people to have many things in common?

  In her new job at Toyland, Lauren discovers that despite studying business in college, she loves working with kids. Have you had the opportunity to make a similar change in your own life? If so, what was the result?

  The Easter egg hunt is a long-standing town event, but this year the kids involved color the eggs for hiding. Can you think of new ways to celebrate traditional holidays in your town?

  For years, Ben has longed to leave his hometown and work on challenging historical preservation sites. When he’s forced to choose between his dream job and remaining in Holiday Harbor with Lauren, he follows his heart and stays to be with her. Have you ever faced a similar choice? If so, what did you decide?

  When Ben turns down a plum job in Boston, a landmark project opens up in a nearby town, and he signs onto the crew. He takes this to be God’s way of rewarding him for making the right choice. Have you ever been in a similar situation? If so, what happened?

  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 birth
ing 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.