LITMIR.BIZ

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a painting on the wall without even seeing it. He hated to admit it, but Bill was right. He didn’t have the right to warn Bill away from Rebecca. Not when he was engaged to Chelsea.

      And he was committed to Chelsea, of course. But when faced with Rebecca, living and breathing right there in front of him when he’d thought she was gone from him forever, he was growing more and more confused by the minute. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling.

      Still, Jeff tried to put aside his emotions and get to work. But he made sure Rebecca was kept busy. Too busy to be available for any flirting with Bill.

      EVERYTHING WAS GOING SMOOTHLY. Rebecca was working diligently at the sudden increase of duties she’d received since Jeff returned to work.

      He’d offered to take them to the zoo on Saturday. Again Rebecca had tried to convince her son that her presence wasn’t necessary, but Joey had disagreed with her and so had Jeff.

      Rebecca worried that she wasn’t fighting hard enough. She knew she wanted to be with Jeff, but she had to realize he was engaged to Chelsea. Her son had a role in Jeff’s life, but Rebecca didn’t, and she tried to remind herself of that fact at every turn.

      Then Thursday afternoon came and all hell broke loose….

      “Rebecca, you have a call…and the woman sounds upset,” Harriet warned as she held out the phone for Rebecca.

      “Hello?”

      “Hi, it’s Betty. Peter was playing ball with Joey and—and it was an accident, but the ball hit him in the mouth. Oh, Rebecca, it knocked his tooth out! We didn’t know what to do. I wrapped the tooth in a cold wet cloth, but who do we take him to?”

      “I don’t know, but I’ll be right there,” she promised, and hung up the phone. “Sorry, Harriet, but Joey’s been hurt. I have to leave.”

      “Jeff will drive you.”

      “No, that’s not necessary,” she protested, grabbing her purse and hurrying to the door.

      Jeff came out of his office. “Did you call me, Harriet? Where’s Rebecca going?”

      “Joey’s been hurt. She’s going home.”

      “Does she have her car here?”

      “No, she walked, as usual. I said you would drive her but she said it wasn’t necessary.”

      “Take care of things,” Jeff ordered over his shoulder as he hurried after Rebecca.

      AN HOUR LATER, CHELSEA arrived at the office. Jeff had said he would take her to the French restaurant they’d skipped Monday evening.

      She was not happy to discover that her fiancé had left with Rebecca because Joey had gotten hurt. When she expressed her displeasure, Harriet asked, “Shall I call Rebecca’s house and see if they can tell me when Jeff will return?”

      “Of course I want you to do that!” Chelsea snapped. She paced the office as Harriet made the call.

      “I see,” Harriet said into the phone. “Will you have him call the office as soon as you hear from him? Yes, thank you.”

      Chelsea stared at her. “Well?”

      “He and Rebecca took Joey to Jeff’s dentist, but they have to wait until he’s dealt with his other patients. They’re not sure when he’ll be back.”

      “And I’m supposed to hang around waiting for him?”

      Bill stepped out of his office. “What’s wrong?”

      Harriet explained the problem while Chelsea frowned at him.

      “That’s too bad. How about I take you to the coffee shop until Jeff can get back? Give your cell phone number to Harriet and she’ll call as soon as she gets some news. Isn’t that right, Harriet?”

      “Yes, of course,” Harriet agreed readily.

      “Good. Come along, Chelsea, my girl. We could both use a cup of coffee today.”

      And with that, Chelsea found herself swept out the door, much to Harriet’s relief.

      JEFF AND REBECCA SAT with Joey between them. He leaned against his mother most of the time, but Jeff kept a hand on his shoulder. “Are you hanging in there, Joey?” he asked.

      As Betty had said, Joey’s tooth was wrapped in ice, and Joey held a bag of ice on his mouth, too. He lowered the ice. “Sure. It doesn’t hurt much.”

      “Keep the ice on your mouth, sweetie,” Rebecca said, squeezing Joey’s hand. “It shouldn’t be much longer.”

      “No, it shouldn’t since Dr. John’s last patient went in half an hour ago. Then we’ll find out what can be done for your tooth, Joey.”

      “I’m sure it was a baby tooth,” Rebecca said again, as she had several times earlier. “His adult teeth won’t come in for a couple of years.”

      “We’ll wait and let Dr. John decide that.” Jeff stretched out his legs, trying to ease the tension he felt. He’d found it more difficult to withstand Joey’s pain than anything he’d ever suffered himself, including a broken bone when he was playing football in high school.

      The nurse returned to the waiting room to call Joey in. Both Rebecca and Jeff got up and accompanied him to the door.

      “Hello, Jeff,” the man in a white coat said in greeting. “Why don’t you introduce us?”

      “Sure. This is my son, Joey, and his mother, Rebecca Barlow.”

      “Hello. I’m Dr. John Ballard. Now, let’s see what happened, Joey. Can you smile for me?”

      Joey took down the ice pack and bravely tried to smile.

      The dentist patted Joey’s back. “Good try. Now I’m going to lift your lip, okay?”

      Joey nodded.

      The doctor looked at Joey’s gums. Then he asked if the tooth had been saved.

      Rebecca handed him the tooth wrapped in a clean cloth and buried in a bag of ice.

      Dr. Ballard set the bag of ice down on a nearby table, withdrew the cloth and unwrapped the tooth. “This is a baby tooth. There doesn’t appear to be any damage to his gums or any future teeth. His replacement tooth might not come as soon as we’d like, but it will come in.”

      “Is there anything we should do?” Rebecca asked anxiously.

      “You might give him some children’s Tylenol to ease the pain, and use ice until the swelling of his lips goes down. If he continues to have pain, call me.”

      “Thank you for seeing us today,” Rebecca said with a genuine smile.

      “Yeah, John, we appreciate it,” Jeff added.

      “You might want to get his teeth cleaned in six months or so. Give my nurse a call.”

      After they left the dentist’s office, Rebecca said, “I like him. I may start going to see him, too.”

      “He’s married.” Jeff was trying to eliminate the dentist from any potential flirting with Rebecca, just as he had Bill.

      Rebecca gasped. “Should that make a difference?”

      “I just wanted you to know,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, hoping she wouldn’t guess his reasoning.

      “All right.”

      They got into Jeff’s car and rode silently back to Vivian’s home. Jeff got out of the car with them and came in. As soon as everyone knew they were back, they crowded around Joey as if he were returning from war.

      Betty offered Joey a bowl of ice cream. Peter offered to do anything Joey wanted. Vivian was sure he needed to go to bed at once. Will promised to teach him how to avoid such pain in the future, and Vanessa

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