LITMIR.BIZ

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for me and when I called the house, someone named Beth told me you’d brought Tad here.” His gaze flicked over the infuriated admitting nurse and the bored security guard. “So what’s the deal?”

      “Otitis—” she broke off at the sharpened look he gave her. “Ear infection,” she finished. “I suspect. But they won’t examine him without your permission.”

      “So I’m giving my permission now.” Garrett raised his eyebrow at the nurse. “Well? Some reason why you’re still sitting on your thumbs?”

      The nurse rose, shoving a blank form toward them. “Give him to me.”

      Darby shook her head. Tad was clinging to her with a grip that was nearly painful, but even if he hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have surrendered the precious boy to this cranky woman. “I’ll come with you.”

      They went into the same examining room. Two minutes later, the doctor arrived and confirmed what Darby already knew. He wrote out a prescription and disappeared with a flap of his lab coat. Darby and Tad rejoined Garrett before he’d even finished completing the lengthy medical form.

      “Ear infection,” she said, handing the square of white paper to Garrett. “We need that filled right away.” She carried Tad over to a molded plastic chair in the waiting room and sat down, holding him in her lap.

      After several minutes Garrett walked their way, folding a pink sheet of paper and tucking it in the pocket of his jeans. “That nurse isn’t real happy with you,” he murmured as they left.

      Darby sniffed. “That woman shouldn’t even call herself a nurse. She didn’t have one iota of compassion for Tad here. I’d be ashamed if I were her.”

      Thunder banged overhead, seeming to agree with her. Tad cringed. Darby shuddered. And Garrett grinned. “Don’t like the percussion?”

      “Not much.” She tried to reach her purse, but couldn’t. Not with the way Tad had his arms and legs wrapped around her. She gently detached him and handed him toward Garrett.

      His grin faltered, then he took the tot, holding him awkwardly.

      Tad howled.

      Darby frowned at them both. “For heaven’s sake, Garrett. Hold him next to you. He’s probably afraid you’re going to drop him like that.” She rooted through her purse, found her keys, then dropped them again when another clap of thunder exploded around them.

      “I think I’ll drive to the pharmacy,” Garrett suggested. He pushed Tad back into her arms and tugged her over to his truck. “We’ll get your rust bucket later.”

      She knew she should be insulted, but she was too glad to climb into the safety of his big truck where the thunder overhead didn’t seem to be quite so near. She fastened Tad into one of the built-in car seats the shiny new vehicle possessed, then Garrett drove out of the hospital’s parking lot, heading to the drugstore that was just down the block.

      He went inside and came out a short time later with a small white sack that he tossed into her lap. Darby didn’t waste any time. She climbed into the backseat and gave Tad a dose of the sticky pink liquid right then and there.

      Garrett watched her in the rearview mirror. Saw the way she tenderly smoothed Tad’s wispy blond hair and tucked his soft little blanket against his cheek, murmuring sweet nothings under her breath as she tended to him.

      Then she climbed back into the front seat and sighed deeply. Her fingertips drummed against her thigh, just below the hem of her toast-colored shorts. “I should’ve known he was getting sick. Garrett, I didn’t even know who their pediatrician is. It wasn’t even on record at Smiling Faces. You’ve got to get that information so this doesn’t happen again.”

      He nodded. “I’ll get whatever you need.”

      Her blue gaze settled on him. “It’s not what I need. It’s stuff that you need. As their guardian.”

      “Fine. I’ll make sure I get it.” He glanced in the mirror again at his nephew. “Is he going to be okay?”

      “Sure. He’ll be fine, as long as the antibiotic does its work. He’ll probably be feeling better within a few hours, actually.”

      “That fast?”

      “Children are pretty resilient.” She looked out the window.

      “Good. I wouldn’t want Caldwell to go around saying tomorrow at the hearing that they were receiving inadequate care. He doesn’t need any additional ammunition against me.”

      “Not even the mayor could prevent ear infections,” she murmured. “Children just get them. Some more often than others.”

      “You’re good with them.” He forced his attention away from the vulnerable curve of her neck, exposed by the scoop-necked shirt she wore and her feathery hair, and concentrated on negotiating the surprisingly busy rush-hour traffic. “It’s a wonder you don’t have a passel of kids yourself already. You’ll be a good mother.”

      “No husband,” she reminded him.

      “Lack of a husband didn’t stop my mother.” He wished he’d kept his mouth shut as soon as the words were out.

      “Yes, well, having parents who are married isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, either.”

      She looked as enthusiastic about her statement as he felt about his. Then another explosion of thunder rocked through the air and she leaned forward, looking up through the windshield at the sky. “I can’t believe it’s not raining. Does it do this a lot?”

      “Every year. You haven’t been here that long?”

      “Just a few months,” she admitted.

      “Where from?”

      Her shoulder lifted. “Everywhere. Nowhere.”

      “And Georgina Vansant took you in.”

      “She’s my…friend. I’ve known her a long time.”

      Garrett was certain that wasn’t what Darby had been going to say. “She’s a good woman. Fair. She offered me a job once. Way back when.”

      Her lips curved. “Really. Doing what?”

      “Yard work.” He smiled faintly, remembering. “She probably thought if I was busy enough trimming the hedges around her property I couldn’t get into trouble elsewhere.”

      “Did you work for her, then?”

      He shook his head, his smile dying. “Nope. Never even saw her house up close. My mother sent me to New Mexico to live with her cousin, instead.”

      “How did you like it there?”

      He pulled into the driveway and parked. “I lived. Obviously. He was an ex-cop turned finish carpenter. He put me to work with him, mostly because he didn’t trust me out of his sight at first.”

      “So that’s how you got into construction?”

      “Yeah.”

      “Well, it seems that has worked out fairly well for you.”

      He nodded and watched as she climbed into the back to release Tad’s restraints, then carry him into the house. Garrett pocketed his keys and followed.

      As soon as he entered the living room, Regan popped up and ran headlong into him, wrapping her arms around his leg as if he were her absolute favorite treat. He was so surprised he nearly jerked back. She smiled up at him, her brown eyes twinkling and her blond curls bouncing. “I drew you a picture,” she announced.

      Garrett gingerly unlatched her hands. “Uh, that’s nice.”

      She skipped back to the coffee table and waved a piece of paper in the air. “See?”

      Darby came down the steps just then. “That’s beautiful, Regan. Why don’t we put it on the refrigerator

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