Spring felt a pang of guilt but knew that what she was about to do was for the good of a greater cause. She kept telling herself that and hoped that she would believe it...eventually.
She stared at the number David had put on the back of his business card and dialed it before she changed her mind.
It was a good plan. Nothing would go awry. It was actually the ideal way to do what needed to be done.
When David answered, she took a deep breath and plunged into the deep end.
“I’m so glad you called,” he said. “Jeremy has been asking for you.”
Immediately thoughts of subterfuge left her mind. “Is he all right? Where are you? Has he had some sort of setback? Do you need to get him back to the hospital? I can meet you there.”
David’s chuckle rumbled through the line, and Spring liked the sound of it.
“Calm down, Doc,” he said. “He’s fine. He and Beau wanted to see you.”
“Oh.”
Spring’s heart suddenly beat a little faster than it had been mere moments ago. But this was for a different cause. She thought she heard more in what he’d said than the words that came through the wireless receiver.
“And I did, too,” David added a second later.
She placed a hand over her heart, whether to feel it beating or to calm it down she couldn’t determine.
“David...”
“We’re still at the hotel. My mother will take him home tomorrow.”
“I’d like to see...him.”
You.
“We’re in Rooms 148 and 150.”
“I’m on my way.”
Madness, that’s what this is, Spring thought fifteen minutes later as she made her way down the carpeted hall of the hotel toward the rooms inhabited by the Camden family. She could and should turn around and head to a saner locale.
But she was a doctor, and a patient needed a house call.
“Whatever you have to tell yourself,” she muttered as she knocked on the door to Room 148.
She hadn’t even thought to bring her emergency medical bag with her. It was tucked in her trunk with other essentials like galoshes, for stomping around the areas at the farm that had vernal pools, and collapsible crates often needed to haul things from estate sales and historic sites being restored. Also apparently locked in the trunk of her car was her good sense. She’d been born with a lot of it, but she had lost it the moment she met David and Jeremy Camden.
Spring was about to turn and run when the hotel room door opened and Charlotte Camden greeted her.
“Dr. Darling! I’m so glad you could stop by. Jeremy is going to be thrilled to see you again. He’s been asking about you. Come on in.”
Charlotte wore a flowing silk paisley caftan and was a gracious hostess in their temporary home.
“I just put on a pot of coffee,” Charlotte said. “It’s the hotel’s complimentary blend, but it’s not bad. Would you like some?”
“Sure. Yes, thank you,” Spring answered as Charlotte gestured for her to have a seat on the sofa.
“The boys will be right over,” Charlotte said, nodding toward a partially open connecting door.
Spring heard a squeal and then a giggle from the other room. She smiled. The sound of a child’s giggle was a good thing.
A moment later, her little patient let out a whoop and ran toward her. She saw a brown body fall on the floor and then a blur of blue launched itself toward her. Spring caught him up with practiced ease.
“My Spring! You came to see me.”
She nuzzled his nose. “Of course I did. How are you feeling?”
“Daddy keeps asking me that, too.”
“That’s because we want to make sure you’re all better,” she said as she walked to a chair Charlotte had pulled out at the table. “No tummy aches?”
He shook his head.
She sat with him in her lap. “And how’s that bandage?”
He lifted up his pajama top so she could see. “Daddy put on a new one. He said he didn’t want you to...”
“Hi, Spring,” David said from the doorway, where Jeremy had dropped his teddy bear.
Thinking of the conversation with her sisters, Spring smiled. She wondered what bit of information the little boy had been about to blab.
“Hello there,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Jeremy as if to keep him closer for just a bit longer.
“Here you go, Dr. Darling,” Charlotte said, placing a plain white mug of steaming coffee on the table, close enough to reach but far away enough to prevent an accidental spill if Jeremy squirmed. “And here’s some sugar and creamer.”
“Thank you,” Spring murmured, her eyes still on David.
What was it about this man that was so compelling? He was for all intents and purposes the enemy when it came to her interests, and she knew she shouldn’t be consorting with said enemy. But Spring the woman seemed to have little interest in what Spring the historic conservationist and preservationist wanted. It was a frustrating dichotomy when she let herself think about it.
So she decided that for now she wouldn’t think. She would just feel. And this felt right.
She had a sweet little boy in her arms and his gorgeous father was standing there looking like a study in contradictions.
“I got new ’jamas,” Jeremy reported, holding out the top of a multicolor Care Bears pajama top. “I got new Pooh, too.”
“Did you now? And which one is your favorite?”
“Pooh!”
David approached with Beau, and Jeremy let go of Spring long enough to reach a hand out for his bear.
“Beau ate some banana,” the boy reported. The bear just barely missed the coffee, which Spring pushed farther back on the table.
“And did he like it?”
Jeremy nodded. “I had oatmeal with a banana.”
Spring glanced up at David. “Good job.”
“Jeremy, darling. I think it’s time for you to say good-night to Dr. Darling,” Charlotte said.
The boy’s lower lip trembled as if he might start crying.
Spring pressed a kiss to his head. “My patients have to get a good night’s sleep. Doctor’s orders.”
He nodded, as if hearing the go-to-bed request from Spring carried more weight than the words of his grandmother.
“It was good seeing you again, Jeremy,” Spring told him.
“Will you and Daddy tuck us in?”
Spring’s heart skipped a beat. She looked at Charlotte for an explanation for the inexplicable request.
“Beau,” Charlotte said.
Spring’s gaze darted up to David. He unsuccessfully tried to conceal a grin behind his hand.
“If it’s all right with your father,” Spring finally answered him.
“Of course,” David said, pushing off the door frame and heading to the pot of coffee to pour himself a cup.
Jeremy gave Spring the big sloppy kiss that only a four-year-old could bestow. She hugged him close for a moment and then set him on the floor. The boy yawned and placed his hand in his grandmother’s.
The two headed back through the open door, and David pulled out the chair opposite of Spring’s and took a seat. He doctored his coffee and took a sip.
“Thank you for coming to see him. It means a lot. You’ve made quite an impression on him.”
At a loss for words, Spring nodded and reached for her own cooling cup of joe.
“And on me,” he added. “I’m sorry about the way things happened yesterday.”
“You were doing your job,” she said.
“And you yours. Or at least your other job.”
She smiled. “I wear many hats.”
“And which one are you wearing now?”
Spring wondered the same thing and thought about her response before answering. “When I called you, I was the preservationist. When I got to the door over there, I was a physician.”
“And now?”
She caught her breath.
Was she ready to jump off this cliff? She was pretty sure there was no net below, just jagged rocks on one side of the crevasse and possibly feathers for a soft landing on the other.
“Would you like to go to dinner with me?” she asked.
“Dinner?”
She flushed. “Well, not dinner for two,” she clarified. “I’m in a supper club, the Magnolia Supper Club. We meet once a month to try out new recipes, have some good food and good conversation. It’s a small group of what my sister Winter, who is definitely not a member, calls ‘hoity-toity foodies.’ My mother more graciously says the supper club members have discerning palates. We were supposed to meet the other night, but there was a burglary at one of the member’s business.”
She snapped her mouth shut as if suddenly realizing that she was babbling.
“I’d love to,” he said. “When is your next meeting?”
“Tomorrow night,” she said. “If that’s okay. I know it’s short notice. I—”
“What time should I pick you up?”
She smiled. “I can drive.”
“I won’t hear of it,” he said. “If you’re supplying dinner, the least I can do is provide the transportation.”
“All right,” she said. “How about I swing by here at six and I’ll give you the directions. Canapés are at six forty-five. It gives everyone time to arrive and for us to have our business meeting, such as it is. That lasts about five minutes as we pick the next theme.”
“What’s tomorrow night’s theme?”
“It’s a surprise,” she said.
Charlotte’s head poked through the door. “He’s all ready for you,” she told them.
As Spring and David rose, Spring confided, “I’ve never tucked anyone in before. Exactly what is involved here?”
“Sometimes a song, sometimes a story.” He held his hand out to her. Spring slipped hers into his. “Just follow my lead.”
Despite his earlier yawn, Jeremy was sitting on his knees in the middle of the double bed when David and Spring entered the room. Beau was right next to him.
When he saw them, he scrambled under the covers and came back out with a picture book. “This one!”
“Story night,” David whispered to Spring. “We’ve read that one so many times, I think Jeremy can recite it word for word.”
The boy got himself and his teddy bear under the light blanket and held the book up for them. Spring watched as David tucked first Beau and then Jeremy in, smoothing the sheet and the blanket over them both.
“Face washed?”
“Check,” Jeremy said.
“Teeth brushed?”
“Check.”
“Toes tickled?” David said, easily finding the boy’s little feet under the covers.
Jeremy giggled and wiggled. “Daaaddy.”
David grinned and sat on the edge of the bed. He patted the space beside him for Spring to join him. She did, and a moment later she found herself entranced in the interaction between father and son as David read a short story about a slow train, a fast turtle and a little boy.
By the time he finished, she could see Jeremy was about to nod off. He held on to Beau, though. She heard a little voice say, “Now I lay me down to sleep.”
When the prayer was completed, Jeremy turned onto his side, facing them. “I love you, Daddy. I love you, Dr. Spring.”
Tears welled in her eyes. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. “Good night, Jeremy.”
“G’night.”
Spring rose, and wiped at her eyes, hoping David hadn’t seen her sudden sentimentality.
“I’ll be on the other side,” she said in a low voice, then headed toward the relative emotional safety of the next room.
David reached up and turned out the light over Jeremy’s bed.
“Daddy?”
He glanced down at Jeremy. “What’s up, buddy?”
“I want Dr. Spring to be my mommy.”