“HOUSE CALL.”
Shifting from one foot to the other, Sawyer stood on Olivia’s front porch, a bunch of flowers in his hand and what he imagined must be an ashamed-of-himself look on his face. As soon as she’d opened the door, he’d decided this was a bad idea. An even worse joke. The only other “house call” he’d made was to Fred Miller.
Standing in the doorway, Olivia seemed speechless. Maybe she was remembering their last encounter at the Circle H when he’d told her about losing Khalil. He half turned to walk down the steps, wondering if he was here under false pretenses. Had he come to see Nick at last—or to lay eyes on Olivia again? She looked motherly, sweet, her blond hair pulled into a low ponytail, no makeup except for the faint tinge of pink on her lips—gloss or natural?—her blue eyes wary.
“Who are the flowers for?”
“You. Nick,” he said, waving the bouquet he’d put together with Blossom’s flowers in the backyard. A few asters, a couple of petunias that had already begun to wilt in the heat, several pink and blue dahlias with showy blooms and some daisies. “Whoever wants them—if either of you do.”
He sure couldn’t tell if he was welcome here. He glanced behind himself. The grass needed mowing out front, all the shades had been drawn when he pulled up in the short driveway and only a few lights were on inside. He’d wondered if Olivia was home or if she and Nick had already gone to bed. Caring for her son alone must wipe her out. And in spite of that, Olivia was wearing her mama-tiger expression, which didn’t ease his mind.
She hesitated. “All right. Those need a vase. Come in.”
Sawyer blinked. Was she serious? She certainly looked serious. But then, so was he. He’d been trying for days to think of some way to make amends with Olivia, to take back what he’d said at the ranch.
Nick is better off without me.
Not that he’d changed his mind, but as long as he was staying at the Circle H and she was here in Barren, they’d likely run into each other. Burying the hatchet made sense. But no, he was lying to himself. He’d wanted to see her, to hear her voice, to find out how Nick was mending.
Sawyer followed Olivia into the house, trailing her through the entryway and into the living room. The furnishings were minimal, the walls painted a light tan. In fact, everything he saw was neutral—as if this were indeed a temporary space.
At the dining room table across the way, Nick sat hunched over some Lego pieces. He didn’t look up even when Olivia gave him a pointed glance. She turned back to Sawyer and he handed her the flowers.
She said, “Have a seat. Would you like something to drink?”
Sawyer sat, then clamped his hands between his knees. He needed to steady his nerves before he imploded like some dying star in the galaxy. “A beer if you have one.”
“I don’t,” she said. Olivia glanced again at Nick.
“Then nothing, thanks. I, uh, just came by to see how Nick’s feeling.” As if the Circle H was around the corner from her house when Sawyer hadn’t been to town in days. He was still trying to make himself useful at the ranch.
She arched an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He lowered his voice. “I may not want to treat him—didn’t want to before—but how are the headaches?”
Finally, Nick piped up. “Gone,” he said, moving a plastic piece from one side of the table to the other. Sawyer had no idea what he was building, but he’d clamped his mouth tight in concentration.
“Completely?”
Nick nodded, then stopped for a minute as if his head were spinning. “I’m fine to ride Hero now.”
“Nicholas Hunter,” Olivia said in the chiding tone that Sawyer imagined every mother used. He vaguely remembered his own mom speaking like that when he was late for dinner or had taken another swipe at Logan just because he could.
“I am, Mom.” Nick smiled. “If I finish my Minecraft Lego, that will prove it.”
“He has a point,” Sawyer said.
“Too bad his mother doesn’t agree.” Holding the flowers, Olivia sat on the sofa opposite the chair he’d chosen and ran a hand over her forehead as if she were the one with the headache.
The room was small yet cozy in its oddly bland way. Or not so odd, if she really was planning to move and hadn’t wanted to put down roots. A small plaque on the wall read Family. “Nick, you haven’t thanked Uncle Sawyer,” Olivia said.
“Thank you for the bear,” he muttered, still not looking up.
“You’re welcome. I thought you could use his superpowers to get well.”
Nick grinned. “See, Mom?”
She sent Sawyer a look. “I was hoping you’d be a good influence.” But her tone said otherwise.
“I doubt you hoped that.” He rose from his seat. “Nick, would you show me the bear? After all, this is a home visit. I’d like to make sure he’s being cared for.” The boy’s head snapped up before he froze and simply sat there. Sawyer imagined he was having a bout of vertigo from moving too fast.
To his surprise, Olivia hastened to help. “Nick has a whole collection of stuffed animals that will absolutely knock you out. There must be a hundred.”
“Most of them are in the closet,” Nick said, then shot a sour look at Sawyer. “I’m getting too old for stuffies.”
“Well, before you send them off to the toy orphanage, maybe I can give them all a quick exam. See how they’re doing.”
Olivia mouthed a quick thank-you, as if she could trust him when the last time he’d seen her, Sawyer had told her about Kedar. About Khalil. “While you and Nick do that, I’ll find a vase…make some lemonade. Put out a few cookies.”
The simple offer stunned Sawyer. He knew she hadn’t forgiven him for Jasmine’s death, for virtually ignoring Nick at the hospital. Now she was entrusting him with her son, not that Sawyer meant to conduct a full examination of the boy. Probably she knew that, too.
With a heavy sigh, Nick pushed a pile of Lego pieces aside. He led the way down the hall to his bedroom and Sawyer didn’t know where to step.
Like the rest of the house, the room was tiny, but unlike the other rooms it was full of clutter. The bedspread flung on the floor. Several Lego models strewn about. A pile of clothes. At least the room had more color. The rich blue walls made a perfect backdrop for the Star Wars decals and matching Millennium Falcon–patterned comforter.
Nick opened his closet, rooted around inside, then popped out holding at least ten stuffed animals. A battered Curious George, several bears other than the one Sawyer had given him, a white lamb with its stuffing coming out and a yellow character Sawyer didn’t recognize. He took a seat on the bed. “Who’s this?”
“Wubbzy. I had him for a long time.”
“Pretty good friend, is he?”
“They’re all good friends,” Nick said, as if that should be obvious. He frowned. “Are you going to give them shots?”
Sawyer smiled. “No, I’ll just take a look.”
Really, he meant to study Nick from a short distance as he had in the barn and the house at the Circle H. While Sawyer poked and prodded the various stuffed figures, he also checked Nick’s pupils, making sure they remained equal and reactive. Doc was still away and Sawyer owed Nick as well as Olivia. He teased him, as he had often teased children who came into the clinic in Kedar looking fearful—including Khalil, who’d had every right to be scared, as it turned out.
Finally, he said, “Tell me about the headaches.”
“I did.”
“No, you told your mother and me what you wanted us to hear. How are you really, Nick? This is just between us…men. Does your head still hurt sometimes?”
Nick’s mouth turned down into a pout. “Not much,” he said. “But when it does, it…hurts a lot.” He glanced at Sawyer, showing that same fear as the kids at the clinic. “I’m okay now. I want to ride Hero.”
“I know you do, but the adults here need to make certain you’re ready for that. You wouldn’t want to ride and get hurt again, would you? Or hurt Hero?” The image of Olivia’s horse flashed through his mind. “I know you wouldn’t mean to, but when you’re on him you need to be feeling your best. In control.”
Nick’s deep blue eyes looked huge. “I’m not going to die, am I?”
With a start, Sawyer sat back on the bed. A sudden vision of Khalil had run through his mind. “No, of course not. Have you been worried about that?” Nick gave a small nod. “You don’t need to, Nick.” If only he’d been able to reassure Khalil like this. “You’re going to be all right. Just take time to rest, to let yourself heal. I realize that can seem frustrating at times—it’s hard not to be able to do what you want to do—but try to be patient.”
Nick considered that. “How long?”
Sawyer fought a smile. “I can’t tell you. But if you push too hard and ride Hero before your body is all better, you could get into more trouble. Then you’d have to wait even longer to ride again.”
Nick reached for the new bear on his pillows. “I need more superpowers,” he said, burying his face in the animal’s fur.
“Well, that’s what this guy is for. Never doubt Superman.”
Gathering up the rest of the stuffed animals, Nick scrambled off the bed to put them back in the closet. His voice was muffled. “Is there really a toy orphanage?”
“What do you think?” It was the same question that during his training, Sawyer had asked kids who wondered if Santa Claus was real.
“No.” Nick emerged from the closet. “But if there was, I wouldn’t let them go there. I’ll keep them in my room—even when I don’t play with them anymore.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Sawyer said, trying again to suppress his smile.
Nick looked him up and down with a critical eye. Nothing wrong with his vision. He gave Sawyer a thorough once-over before he said, “You’re a good doctor.” Then he took the bear and left the room.
Sawyer sat there, thinking, Out of the mouths of babes. Wondering. Wishing that were true.
He might be a wizard with the toy bears and Curious George.
Beyond that…not so much.
* * *
“SO, UM…” Olivia took another sip of lemonade, the ultimate soother on such a hot summer night, yet she still felt edgy. She set the glass on the end table, wondering what to say to Sawyer.
Much of her conversation these days was with her seven-year-old. She’d put Nick to bed a few minutes ago but didn’t linger to read another story with him as she usually did. Sawyer had been waiting in the other room.
He sat across from her, making the space feel even smaller, looking as uncomfortable as Olivia felt. She didn’t date much—not that this was a date!—and she hadn’t seen Clint in weeks, but here she was with another very handsome man in her house, which Olivia rarely allowed. She always met Clint for dinner or a movie in town, or occasionally in Kansas City. But since Nick’s fall, Clint still hadn’t so much as phoned to ask about her son. She guessed their relationship was over. She should miss that more, but she didn’t and she had Nick to consider.
Maybe now Sawyer wished he’d left before Nick went to bed. Whatever they’d spoken about in his room was between them, but by leaving sooner he could have avoided this awkward time with Olivia. She would have been spared, too.
But Sawyer had taken the time to come by. He’d been surprisingly gentle, even humorous, with Nick, so he probably didn’t dislike children in general, as she’d first thought. And his coolness before had more to do with what had happened in Kedar.
“Thank you for being so good with Nick tonight.”
He frowned. “Meaning I wasn’t good with him before.”
Olivia couldn’t argue with that. Still. Instead of resenting Sawyer or wondering what else he held so deep inside, maybe she should focus on how much he appealed to her: his dark hair and deep blue eyes and the way he fit his body and how he almost seemed to read her mind at times. As if that could be any safer.
“I talked to Logan last night,” Sawyer said at last. “And from what he said and you told me the night Nick fell, you’re thinking of moving away from Barren.”
Olivia silently groaned. “That idea didn’t thrill Nick—or Logan.” Then, before she could stop herself, she explained about Ted Anderson’s shop and her meeting with Barney Caldwell. “I don’t know what else to do,” she finished. “I’ll explore other avenues for financing, but Barney had a point. I did value my business too highly. I’ll have to get more creative, adjust my numbers…because I don’t want to give up.”
“The next county, Logan says. Would you sell your store here, then?”
“No, but going back and forth between Main Street and Ted’s shop could get old pretty fast. If I let Nick stay in school here, let’s say he gets sick, which happens every term, or there’s a snow day—I’d have to drive all the way back here to get him. I could cut my commute in half by living between the two shops.”
Sawyer gazed at her over his lemonade. “But if Nick doesn’t want to relocate, why do it? He’s been through a lot lately…” His eyes darkened. “Oh, wait. Does the move have something to do with your feelings about the Circle H? Getting stuck there in that flood with a sick child must have been difficult—”
“I don’t blame Logan for that—now—but I don’t like to stir up those memories,” she admitted. Or another of Jasmine, years ago, that still made her sad…and made her blame Sawyer.
He must have known what she meant. “I guess Nick having his horse there makes that tougher. For you.”
Olivia couldn’t disagree. Though she welcomed Sawyer’s input about her business in theory, he’d made her feel selfish about Nick. She leaned forward. “I would do anything to make Nick happy. I know how he feels about Hero, about Ava, about all his other friends here but—”
To her surprise, Sawyer half smiled. “You forgot to mention his stuffed toys.”
Olivia couldn’t manage to smile back.
She stiffened. “So you’re taking Nick’s side—and Logan’s—when the move is my decision to make. Just as you made your choice years ago.”
Now this conversation wasn’t only awkward, it was coming close to a more personal issue for her with Sawyer. She didn’t need to think about his attractiveness.
Sawyer glanced toward the hallway. “You mean because I didn’t stay here? I couldn’t. I had to finish med school—”
“Then move more than halfway around the world?”
“The clinic is my job, Olivia. It’s my business just as Wilson Antiques is yours. It’s what I do. The difference is that I don’t have a kid to think about.”
But he did have a family. People who cared about him. Missed him. Pointing that out would only reveal how she’d felt about him leaving, though.
Instead, she said, “That was your job, until your patient didn’t survive.” He paled and she regretted having been so abrupt just to protect herself. “Sorry, that was…unfair, Sawyer.”
He was on his feet before she said his name. He carried his glass to the kitchen, where she heard him rinse it at the sink, then put it in the dishwasher. He came back to the living room and stopped in the doorway. His eyes looked indigo blue.
“Olivia. I’d hoped you understood why I kept my distance with Nick.”
“But I still don’t know what really happened over there. Sawyer, please. Tell me more. I do want to understand.” She let out a breath of frustration. “What exactly was so bad that you don’t think you deserve to be a doctor now? I mean, I understand that people die, even kids sometimes.” Olivia fought back a shudder. “That can be inevitable.” As it might have been when Nick fell.
Sawyer only shook his head. “It wasn’t inevitable, and that’s on me. Good night, Olivia. Tell Nick I’ll keep an eye on Hero for him.”
“Sawyer,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bring it up like that—”
“Good luck with your business.”
He was out the door before she could say anything more. Sawyer carried a huge burden, and she’d made it worse.
“Thanks for the house call,” she murmured to the empty room.