by Jeannie Moon
“I’m glad to be back. It was pure hell. Between the storm and being so sick, I feel like I lost two weeks. At one point, I slept twenty-two hours straight.”
“Wow!” Shannon walked with Jordan to her desk. “I did hear you had your handsome doctor to care for you, though.”
Dr. Rinaldi was gaining quite the reputation. More than a few people had heard about the way he’d come to her rescue. No doubt, Lina liked to brag about her grandson. “He was great.”
“Uh huh. How great? Like you’re in love with him and you’re going to marry him?”
“You heard?”
“Yes, but I should have heard it from you.” Suddenly, her friend looked a little hurt. “I’ve known you for eight years, Jordan. You don’t do things on a whim. What’s been going on and why didn’t you tell me?”
“It was very spur of the moment.”
Grabbing her left hand, Shannon held it up. “This ring looks like the real thing, though. It’s gorgeous.”
A diamond ring would give that impression.
As many times as Jordan thought about taking it off, she hesitated, loving how it made her feel connected to something for the first time in her life. She and her dad had always had a strong love for the town, but they lived on the fringes. Not being as involved as some families, and not being as wealthy as others. Her father never thought much about it, but Jordan did.
“This ring is a family heirloom.”
“It’s beautiful.” Shannon was hurt. Jordan could hear it in her voice. This was how lies could hurt people. “I guess we’ll talk later.”
Just then, she heard the sound of little voices and charging footsteps. Squeals coupled with laughter bore down until a sea of small bodies clad in winter coats and boots flooded the room. It was chaos.
But it couldn’t have been timed better.
“You’re back!” “We missed you!” “What’s pumomia?” The questions, the love that gushed out of them, were like medicine. Yeah, she was really glad she was back.
Then she noticed the teddy bears. Every single one of her students had bears tucked under their arms or popping out of their backpacks.
Today was teddy bear clinic and she’d forgotten.
Poking her head through the connecting door between the classrooms, Jordan waved to her first-grade partner, Lisa Marino. A little bit older, and a lot more seasoned, she was one of the best teachers Jordan had ever seen work.
“Teddy bear clinic today? I totally forgot. Is there anything I need to do?”
Lisa shook her head. “No, we got everything pulled together last week when you were out. The two days we had for the storm actually helped with the planning. All the graphics and worksheets you need are on the shelf under the window.”
“You have saved my life.”
With a wink and a grin, Lisa shook her head. “Nah, I think your doctor did that.”
“Cute,” Jordan said. “And he’s not my doctor.”
“Yeah?” Lisa replied. “That ring says otherwise.”
Jordan wasn’t going to get into it with Lisa, but she had to accept the fact she was going to get a lot of questions. Word of the engagement had spread quickly. It didn’t help that for the last six months, Nick had become sort of an enigmatic romantic fantasy in Compass Cove. He was 6’2” of hot, brooding, gorgeousness. No one knew anything about him, and that made him very attractive, and very interesting gossip fodder.
As close as they’d gotten, she still had plenty of questions of her own, but at that moment she thought about his hands and his mouth. His strong arms and his sexy grin.
The heat curled in her belly.
Watching her little munchkins find special spots for their bears at the tables, Jordan’s mind drifted to how much she missed him. He’d been working the past few days, happy to get back to medicine, and he’d only checked in on her once or twice. There was also a lot of activity at the house, with people coming and going. Family, most likely, and she wondered when she was going to be pulled back into the cyclone.
Never in her life had Jordan been so torn. It seemed the right thing to do, to come clean about their lie…wasn’t what she wanted. Everything about him told her to throw her caution out the window. He was sweet, he was sexy, he was smart, and a little bit dangerous. In short, he was perfect, and she was falling for him.
“Ms. Velsor, this is my bear, JoJo. He wants to be your friend.” When Jordan looked down, she was captured by the puckish face and big brown eyes of Rachel Miller. The little girl was Adam Miller’s niece, and she couldn’t have been any sweeter.
“Well, hello JoJo. It’s nice to meet you.” Jordan shook the bear’s fuzzy paw. “Are you ready to have a checkup today?”
“JoJo isn’t so sure,” Rachel said. “She doesn’t like getting shots.”
“I’m sure our guest doctors and nurses will be very careful and will explain everything first. Okay?”
Rachel nodded, albeit skeptically. “You’re sure? I don’t want JoJo to be scared.”
“I’m sure. Now go have a seat so we can get our day started.”
Returning to work was very good for her ego. The kids had cheered, showered her with hugs, and told her she was pretty more times than she could count. Leave it to the innocent face of a six-year-old boy to make a woman feel like a million bucks. Once the kids had all settled, they said the pledge, and got through their morning routine.
They did the weather, talked about people who were born on that day, recognized class birthdays if there were any, and then talked about the subject of the day.
Today’s discussion, however, wasn’t about being healthy; it ended up being about pneumonia. All the kids wanted to know what it was, how they might get it, if they would die, if they would have to get shots, and if their dogs could get it. The problem was, Jordan hadn’t done all her homework about the lungs. She knew they took air in and sent air out. That they kept blood oxygenated, which kept the brain and all the other organs functioning properly, but she didn’t exactly know how the lungs worked. And of course, her kidlets wanted to know. That’s when she had an idea. Going to the phone on the wall that connected to the main office, Jordan called the head secretary.
“Hey Betty!”
“Jordan, good to have you back. What can I do for you?”
“If any of the doctors or nurses arrive early for the clinic, can you send one of them down here? The kids all want to know about the lungs and pneumonia. Having not gone to medical school or nursing school, I’m at a disadvantage.”
Betty chuckled. She’d been the principal’s secretary at Cove Elementary for almost thirty years; she knew everyone, and pretty much everything about the town.
“Teachable moment?”
“The best kind,” Jordan responded.
It was good to feel like she was back in control of something. For a week, she’d been dependent on others for everything. Granted, if one of those people in particular hadn’t stepped up, she could’ve died. Jordan thought about that for a second. Sure, it was unlikely. But there was no denying how sick she could have gotten.
Saturday, she’d spent the day by herself. The solitude gave Jordan a chance to get used to her cottage again. It wasn’t that she was gone long, but the week prior to the power loss, and the broken pipe, had been chaotic. She was happy to have a relatively nice spring day, when the sun shone, and she could get some chores done.
She was still getting used to her new car that Mr. and Mrs. Rinaldi had dropped off to her Friday night. It was the same make and model as her old little SUV, but it was equipped with some very high-end options. They really were lovely people to take care of it for her, and she’d been very lucky.
The weekend was also when she found out visitors had arrived at the Rinaldis’. Nick’s parents. According to Lilly, the gossip reached his mother in California and sent the woman into a tizzy. If it was her, Jordan knew that if she found out one of her offspring had gotten engaged without a word, she would have flown into more than just
a tizzy.
She’d spent the better part of two days with her father and was waiting for him to question her engagement to Nick, to ask her why she was lying. It didn’t happen. No, he was content and didn’t suspect anything. He did talk about the two friends who had recently passed and filled her in on what he had for breakfast.
Bringing her attention back to her class, Jordan decided she had to stop thinking about Nick, their fake engagement, the fake wedding they were planning, pretty much everything. Because none of it was going to happen. Attraction or not, they weren’t going to be together forever.
Just as she was about to start her math lesson, there was a gentle rap at the classroom door. Miranda, who was the helper of the day, rose from her seat, and opened the door.
Jordan’s heart stopped. It was just her luck that the doctor who arrived early for the teddy bear clinic was the very gorgeous Dr. Rinaldi. Dammit.
And based on the self-assured grin he had on his face, the man was quite pleased with himself.
“Ms. Velsor,” Miranda yelled. “There’s a man here.”
“I see that, Miranda, please have a seat.”
Jordan went to where Nick was standing with his shoulder pressed into the doorframe. He had his white coat slung over his shoulder in a pose that would rival any male model. It was sinful how attractive he was in a pair of simple khakis and a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. And delicious.
“You’re the first one here?”
Nick narrowed his eyes. “Is that a problem?”
“No,” Jordan replied sharply. “I just didn’t know you were going to be here.”
When he leaned in, his whispered words caressed her skin like a breeze, and Jordan’s knees nearly buckled. “Maybe if you talked to me, Jordan, you’d know what was going on.” Holding a black medical pack, he stepped into the room. “Nice ring.”
Nice ring. She should have been annoyed with him for the sarcasm, but she had to smile. His comment was a little reminder that the rest of town believed they were engaged.
There was nothing she wanted more than for this man to make love to her. And she was probably going to hell for thinking about this in a room full of six-year-olds, but he affected her that much. If it was only physical, it wouldn’t be a problem. But already she knew that with Nick, it wouldn’t be how her body responded to his, it would be how their souls connected, how his words would touch her heart, how she would never want anyone else.
Jordan went to the front of the room, clapped her hands three times, and waited for the students to mimic in response. In seconds, the entire room was quiet, and waiting for her to speak. People who didn’t understand education, or classroom management, saw the way she controlled first graders as some kind of magic.
She could see Dr. Rinaldi was impressed. He stood to the side of the room, watching every move she made. Based on the look on his face, she was pretty sure he was going to hell with her.
Once everyone was silent, their hands folded on the desks, Jordan proceeded. “Boys and girls, this is Dr. Rinaldi. He’s here to help with the teddy bear clinic, and since he arrived early, he volunteered to teach you about the lungs.”
“Hey, guys. You can call me Dr. Nick,” he said as he left his perch on the wall. “So why do you want to learn about the lungs?”
“Because Ms. Velsor had pumomia, and we want to know what it is.”
“Right. She did have pneumonia. That’s an infection in the lungs.”
Miranda expanded on his answer. “It’s very bad, right? What do the lungs do? And don’t leave anything out.”
Looking straight at him, Jordan could see he was out of his depth. And it had nothing to do with his knowledge. Nick was coming to realize he was facing a really tough room. Charm was not going to cut it.
“Well, let me tell you about the lungs.” He picked up a marker that was on the whiteboard ledge and drew two big ovals on the board. He put one horizontal line through one oval, and two lines through the other. He’d made the lungs.
Realizing he had to break this down into the simplest terms, Jordan watched him work. “The lungs are squishy organs, they are a lot like sponges. But instead of soaking up water, they soak up air to send to the rest of the body.”
Miranda’s hand was up before he was three sentences into his presentation. Jordan was fighting back her laughter.
“Don’t you mean oxygen? The body doesn’t need air, it needs oxygen.”
“That is true, Miranda, but the air we breathe isn’t pure oxygen. It’s made up of several gases.”
“Gas!” Spencer, a little redheaded boy who enjoyed eating the classroom crayons, was notably alarmed. “My daddy says if there’s gas we have to leave.”
Nick laughed. “It’s not that kind of gas. I’ll try to explain it to you later. To answer your question, Miranda, the oxygen is what feeds the blood, but the other gases have jobs too. Now, the pneumonia that Ms. Velsor had is an infection in the lungs. The infection causes fluid to build up, and people cough a lot and have a hard time breathing. If it’s not treated, it can be very dangerous.”
“Ms. Velsor, it sounds like you were very sick.”
“I was, Aaron. I was very lucky Dr. Nick was around to take care of me.”
Rachel Miller stood up from her seat, and walked straight up to Nick. Instinctively, he squatted down so he could be at her level. Jordan’s heart did a little skip as she watched him.
“Did you save our teacher? Did you help her when she was sick during the storm?”
“Ms. Velsor was very sick. I’m glad I was there to help.”
The man was a natural with kids, even if he was out of his element. Deciding that he could talk to them better if he was at their level, he moved to the story carpet, and the whole class followed. Now it wasn’t just her heart twitching; her biological clock was screaming. It was said that in nature, women would gravitate to the man who would provide them the strongest DNA. The man who would give her children and be a good provider.
Jordan knew she could take care of herself, but her heart melted watching the war hero talk biology with a bunch of six-year-olds. She couldn’t let this moment pass, so grabbing her phone, she took a picture. And then she took another. And finally, Nick noticed and gathered the kids around him, so they could all mug for a photo. Then they made silly faces and she took a few more.
His smile was wide and his joy working with kids was so complete, it gave Jordan the chance to see the part of Nick that she guessed few people had ever seen. His whole heart was on display, and as a result, Jordan lost hers.
*
Between the two classes, Nick and his nurse practitioner partner, Jimmy, examined about fifty teddy bears. It was all worth it, because the kids left with the feeling that going to the doctor didn’t have to be scary. The other team focused on healthy habits, like brushing your teeth and eating good food. Overall, a good day.
That he got to spend hours near Jordan was a bonus. The woman was tough and focused, but she also brought a gentleness to her class that any parent would want. She was going to make a great mother someday.
His father had asked him a straight-forward question the night he arrived from California: was Nick in love with Jordan? He still wasn’t sure, but he knew given the time, he could.
As they packed the cases they brought from the office, Nick watched her chatting with several other teachers in the far corner of the gym. Happy and completely at ease, she was in her element. She probably had no idea how much he respected her. She loved her students, of that there was no doubt. And Nick could only imagine how much she would love her own children when she had them.
Jimmy stood next to him, loading the blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes they let the kids try into a big blue tote. Still, Nick’s eyes never left Jordan.
“Are you going to go talk to her?” Jimmy wondered. “Because you’re looking at her like you’re starving, man, and she’s your last meal.”
“I don’t remember you being so n
osy.” Nick shoved a pack of rubber gloves at Jimmy to put in the tote. “I am going to go talk to her, but she’s busy. And I don’t want to be rude. You do understand the concept of rude?”
“Excuse me, Miss Manners. What crawled up your ass?”
Nick didn’t respond, he just growled. Seeing the group of teachers starting to break up, he didn’t want to lose the chance to talk to her, so he dropped what he was doing and took a walk across the gym. Jordan was still standing with the principal, Emily Rogers, and one other teacher.
This was living dangerously.
When she saw him coming, Jordan’s eyes flashed and he saw the pink tip of her tongue touch her lower lip. Yeah, Nick wasn’t the only one affected. He’d take it. He’d take whatever advantage he could get.
“Hello, ladies, would it be all right if I stole Jordan for a second?”
The principal smiled broadly. A tall slender woman with dark hair, and large gray eyes, extended her hand to Nick. “Of course, you can! Congratulations on your engagement. We’re very happy for Jordan, and you are a lucky man.”
“Thank you. I am.” Jordan was right about feeling awkward. Lying wasn’t in his nature either.
“And thank you so much for coming in to talk to the children. They really got a lot out of the program.”
“Glad to do it, ma’am.”
“We’ll get out of your way,” the principal said, gently directing the other teacher away to give Nick and Jordan a little privacy. Well, as much as you could have in a busy elementary school gym.
“How are you feeling?” he asked. “I’ve been worried about you, especially knowing you were coming back to work.”
“I feel okay, but I am tired. I wanted to believe you were exaggerating about that.”
“I wish I had been. But no, I didn’t lie about it.” He meant that as sure as he was breathing.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been around. I needed some time to myself. I hear your parents are in town?”