Love Inspired March 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: North Country FamilySmall-Town MidwifeProtecting the Widow's Heart

by Lois Richer

Autumn placed the baby in the sling of the scale Jon was holding ready. A frown marred his handsome face.

  “I know what you mean,” Autumn said. “Gram saved all of Aunt Jinx’s clothes. She’s only eight years older than I am. Dad didn’t have to buy me anything new himself until I was ready for kindergarten.”

  “My sister gave me some things, too. But my nephew’s hard on clothes, hard on everything.”

  “Do you want to record the weight?” Jon asked. “Seven pounds, fifteen ounces.”

  Autumn reached in the messenger bag slung over her shoulder for her iPad and came up empty. “I left my iPad at the office.”

  “I have some paper in the kitchen,” Megan said.

  “No need,” Jon said. “My notepad is in my back pocket.”

  Autumn knew she had no reason to be irritated with Jon being prepared, but she was, probably because she was unprepared.

  He held the scale with one hand and reached around for the pad. “Here you go. Do you need a pen?”

  “No, I have one.”

  “That’s seven pounds, fifteen ounces,” Jon repeated.

  Autumn pressed the pen to the pad and wrote the baby’s weight.

  “You can check his birth weight when you get back to the office,” Jon added.

  Autumn wanted nothing better than to tell Jon the baby’s birth weight, but she couldn’t remember whether it was seven pounds, thirteen ounces or seven pounds, fourteen ounces. She was Megan’s health-care provider, not Jon. Well, Kelly was, actually, since she’d done the delivery. Autumn had assisted as the delivery nurse. A moment of darkness pressed on her. She could have done the delivery. Kelly had offered.

  “He’s gained two ounces since Saturday.”

  Megan’s words put her back on task. She finished her notation and picked up the baby. “Sounds like the nursing is going well.” Autumn placed the baby on the changing table and examined him, noting his length and other vitals.

  “No problems. He’s eating about every three hours.”

  “Good. And the belly button is healing well.” Autumn checked the baby’s reflexes and redressed him. “You’ve made an appointment with your pediatrician?”

  “With our family practitioner, Dr. Aikens, for a week from this coming Friday.”

  Jon’s eyes narrowed. “Not a pediatrician?” he asked.

  That was true to form. One thing Autumn had learned about him at Samaritan was that he favored using specialists, even if they weren’t called for.

  “Dr. Aikens is great with kids,” Autumn said. “My stepmother and aunt both take their kids to her.”

  Jon was going to have to learn that practicing at the Ticonderoga center was going to be different from the suburban downstate practice he’d been with before coming here.

  Autumn picked up the baby. “Let’s go into the other room to talk. I want to go over a few things with you.”

  Autumn and Megan sat on the couch and Jon took the recliner across from them, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees. The baby started fussing, rubbing his face back and forth on Autumn’s shoulder. She patted his back.

  “He may be hungry.” Megan reached over and took him. “I guess not,” she said when he showed no interest in eating but continued to fuss. “Maybe if I walk him. That’s what Dave’s been doing when he’s fussy and doesn’t want to eat or need a diaper change.”

  “I have a better idea,” Autumn said. “Dr. Hanlon, would you do the honors?” She took the baby back from Megan, stood and walked him over to Jon. His eyes widened as she handed the infant to him.

  “You could walk him outside. He really likes that. Here’s his sun hat.” Megan picked up a little blue hat from the table next to the couch and handed it to Autumn, who put it on the baby.

  “All set,” she said.

  Jon rose from the chair slowly and walked gingerly to the door, as if he were afraid he was going to break the baby.

  At the sound of the door closing behind him, Megan took her hand from her mouth and laughed. “I’m sorry, but it looks like he doesn’t have much experience with babies.”

  “At least not after they’re born,” Autumn agreed. She went over the information she needed to cover with the new mother, conscious of Jon’s frequent passes by the front door to check on their progress. “That covers everything. Walk out with me to relieve Dr. Hanlon.”

  Jon met them at the bottom of the porch steps. “I think he’s asleep,” he said, his voice low and gruff.

  Megan reached up and took the baby from his shoulder.

  “Either Kelly or I will be back on Wednesday about the same time,” Autumn said.

  “See you then.” Megan went inside.

  Jon helped her carry the equipment to the car and stash it in the back before opening her door for her. He climbed in the passenger side and turned to her.

  She braced herself for his critique of the visit.

  His blue eyes glowed. “I’m really impressed.”

  Chapter Five

  Autumn sucked in a quick breath. She hadn’t expected that.

  “But I have a few questions,” he said.

  She released the breath and pasted a smile on her face. “Go ahead.”

  “Can I have my pad back?”

  He was going to take notes? Her momentary euphoria evaporated. She pulled the pad from her bag, tore off the page she’d written the baby’s vitals on and handed it to him.

  Jon had his pen all ready. “Doesn’t it bother you that she’s not taking the baby to a doctor for almost two weeks?”

  “No. Kelly and I take responsibility for mother and baby for the first two weeks. The whole family, actually.”

  “I see.” His tone was quiet without the air of superiority that sometimes crept in.

  Autumn turned the key in the ignition to collect herself before she responded. The engine purred to life. “Yes, it’s part of what I trained to do.” She swallowed. The only thing she no longer felt confident about was the main event—the birth—the core of what made her a midwife.

  “I don’t have much experience with children, once they’ve been born, that is,” Jon admitted.

  She pressed the brake for the stop sign at the corner of Route 9. “I noticed.”

  “It was that obvious?”

  Autumn laughed, remembering the look on his face when she’d handed him the baby. “I’m afraid so. And you didn’t seem all that comfortable with the kids at the camp lodge on Saturday. By the way, Anne apologizes for the way Sophie and Alex kept pestering you with questions until she laid down the law to them.”

  “It was okay, just different. My family isn’t very close, and only one of us in my generation has had a child.”

  A shadow clouded his eyes, making him look vulnerable and less full of himself than he often did. She’d seen the same look of pain in his eyes last week when he was touring the center and she’d told him medical intervention wasn’t needed with a normal birth.

  “Kelly and I like to involve the whole family, including any siblings, in the pregnancy.”

  He dropped his gaze to the notepad and kept it there while he made a notation. He was hiding something. Something that Autumn suspected might make him a little less mechanical and more likable.

  “At the birth, too?”

  “Yes.” She waited for him to ask about keeping the birth area sanitary with all the family members there and was surprised when he didn’t. “I can lend you some of my reference books if you want to read up on the protocol we follow.” She and Kelly didn’t call their routine a protocol, but Autumn figured it was a term Jon would relate to.

  “Definitely. I’d like that.”

  The eager note in his voice warmed Autumn. After the way he’d seemed to be judging the situation at Megan’s, she hadn’
t expected this interest in how she and Kelly worked.

  He made another note on the pad and looked up. “Your holistic approach, does it include general education for the family?”

  Autumn slowed for the left turn onto State Route 74. “I’m not sure I follow you.”

  “What to expect. The responsibilities and economics of being parents.”

  “I guess. Although I wouldn’t have framed it in those words.” As Hazard Cove Road and the Hazardtown Community Church came into sight on the left, Autumn checked the car clock. There was no way she’d make it to Ticonderoga to drop Jon off and back to pick up the twins by noon.

  “Megan seems very young.”

  “She looks younger than she is. Megan is twenty-two and Dave’s a little older. Not so young to be parents. Dad was seventeen when I was born. A senior in high school.”

  Jon’s surprised expression was exactly what she expected.

  “Your mother?”

  Autumn ignored the dull pain she always felt at any mention of the woman who’d abandoned her and Dad when Autumn was a few months old. “She was a sophomore in college.”

  That silenced him for a moment. “Because Megan is young, I wonder if she understands the priorities of being a parent, if that’s part of your family education.”

  She couched her answer. “We talk about all kinds of things with our prospective parents. Remember, neither Kelly nor I had seen her before Saturday.”

  “It’s just that those solar collectors on the house had to have been expensive. The money they spent on them might have been better spent on house repairs, like painting. Those peeling paint chips will be a danger when the baby is older. They may contain lead. And the steps need replacing, badly.”

  What made him think he was qualified to judge Megan and Dave? Autumn wanted to believe that his experience outside of his social stratum was so limited that he didn’t know better. But that was a stretch.

  He cleared his throat. She went on before he could interrupt. “The solar water heater will save them money in the long run. And as Megan said, we’ve had a lot of rain. When the weather is good, Dave has to work long hours and doesn’t have time to help her with home repairs like replacing the steps and painting the house. Believe me, they can’t afford to pay someone to take care of things they could do themselves.”

  Jon folded his arms across his chest. “You can’t argue that the changing table and cradle in the bedroom aren’t an extravagance Megan and Dave apparently are ill able to afford, that the money spent on handcrafted furniture couldn’t have been used for better family purposes. I know what custom pieces like that go for downstate. I don’t imagine they fetch much less up here, given the tourist trade.”

  As she came upon the church, Autumn made a split-second decision. She flicked the directional and turned into the church parking lot. Hitting the brake harder than necessary, she brought the car to a halt.

  Jon raised an eyebrow.

  She’d explain the stop after she answered his question. “Yes, I can argue with that. Megan’s mother is a friend of Kelly’s. She told me all about the pieces while Megan was in labor. The cradle is a family heirloom that Dave’s grandfather made for Dave’s father and his siblings. So that didn’t cost them a dime. Dave’s grandfather helped him make the changing table, so all that cost them was the wood.” She paused and took a breath.

  He opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it.

  “Can I give you a bit of advice? If you want to successfully direct the birthing center, which I assume is your goal, you need to realize that people here are different than you may be used to. The Adirondacks are not an affluent area by any stretch of the imagination. People here depend on family, and we make do with what we have. To answer your earlier question, yes. If I had a family that appeared to have its priorities, financial or otherwise, skewed away from the baby’s best interests, I’d talk with the parents. That description doesn’t fit Megan and Dave from what I know of their families and what I’ve seen of them.”

  “I see.”

  She hoped against the skepticism in his voice. Autumn fervently wanted the center to be successful to prevent the Adirondack Medical Center from having to close it or, maybe worse, sell it to JMH. Her gaze traced the rigid set of Jon’s jaw. Of course, the plan could be for Jon to rescue the center for his grandfather to buy. But now wasn’t the time to be thinking about that or her precarious work situation, her soon-to-be-expired contract with Kelly or the possibility the center might close.

  The sound of a car pulling up beside them drew her attention. Her aunt Jinx waved as she got out and Autumn rolled down her window.

  “Hi, Autumn, Jon,” Jinx said. “You here to pick up Sophie and Alex for swim lessons?” She tilted her head to the side so Autumn would block Jon’s view of her and raised an eyebrow toward him.

  “Sort of.” Autumn glanced sidewise at Jon. “Jon came on a home visit with me, and I was on my way to take him back when I realized it’s almost time for their swim lesson.”

  “Do you want me to take the twins to swim lessons with Izzy and Sam? I can bring them to you afterward since I need to go into Ticonderoga and pick up some supplies for work this afternoon.”

  Autumn bit her lip. “That would work, but you might have two unhappy children on your hands. I don’t have any appointments today and told the twins we’d spend the whole afternoon together.”

  Jinx waved her off. “It’s only an hour or so. They’ll get over it. Or, I have another idea. If you don’t mind taking my kids down to Sonrise for swim lessons, I’ll drive Jon to Ticonderoga, pick up my supplies and be back not too long after lessons are done.” She looked at Jon.

  “Works for me,” he said.

  Autumn hesitated. Jinx’s offer was a good solution. But it left Jon with the last word in their conversation, which didn’t sit well with her natural competitiveness. Not that she and Jon were in a competition. She didn’t work for him, so it didn’t matter if they had different ways of pursuing their mutual profession. “Your kids won’t mind?” she asked.

  “Not at all. I’ve been told more than once that you’re much more fun than I am.”

  “All right. I’ll stick around the camp until you get back. That’s what the kids and I were going to do anyway.”

  “Sounds good. Ready, Jon?”

  He kept his gaze on Autumn as he answered Jinx. “Ready. As much as I might enjoy an afternoon at the lake with Autumn and the kids, I should get back to my office.”

  She searched his words for a double meaning but didn’t come up with one.

  “I appreciate your taking me on the home visit,” he said as he reached for the door handle. “I’ll send you my notes in an email.”

  “O-kay.”

  He was going to write a report on this morning? She didn’t know how else to respond to his statement. Or if it needed a response. Autumn climbed out of the car and watched Jinx pull away. As much as she tried to use his promise of his own home-visit report to refuel the irritation she’d felt toward him earlier, her thoughts kept coming back to his saying he would have liked to spend the afternoon at the beach with her and the kids. She stomped to the church hall where the day care center was. What was with her? He’d only been making conversation with Jinx. Who wouldn’t want to spend a beautiful day like today at the beach?

  * * *

  Jon closed the file on his computer. He was all caught up on the patient records for the center and ready to start his expectant-mother appointments tomorrow. Not that it looked like a very busy schedule. Nothing like the downstate practice he’d been with prior to coming here. Some days, he’d felt like he was on an assembly line. He’d had so little time on each case. Autumn and Kelly’s approach to patient time struck him as a good safety net to help pinpoint potential problems with a pregnancy and address them before delive
ry. His thoughts went to how he could integrate their approach in his practice. Coupling it with technology could improve outcomes.

  Jon opened his report on the home visit and added that observation. Leaning back in his chair, he skimmed what he’d written and contemplated whether to add a comment about Autumn’s baby scale. To him, it had looked a lot like a high-end digital sportfishing scale. He leaned his elbow into the padded arm of his chair and rested his head against his thumb and forefinger. He wondered how the accuracy compared to the digital scale he had in his office. He straightened. Rather than say anything in the report, he’d do some research and share the results with her. Surely she’d be interested. The thought warmed him. He’d benefited from their time together this morning. Why not reciprocate?

  The sharp ring of his desk phone jerked him from his thoughts. He spun the chair around and picked up the receiver. “Dr. Hanlon.”

  “Jay, it’s Grandfather.”

  As if he wouldn’t recognize his voice.

  “I can’t make our dinner at the Sagamore. There’s a facility in Broome County that I want to check out. Acquisitions sent me a report yesterday.”

  On Sunday? He didn’t know why he was surprised.

  “The facility is still struggling to recover from the flooding there last year. We’d be able to pick it up for much less than it’s worth.”

  Jon bit his tongue and offered a silent prayer for help to stop himself from telling Grandfather what he thought of his business practices. He knew his words would fall on deaf ears. Grandfather didn’t care.

  “JMH has to strike while the iron is hot if we’re going to best Unified Health Care,” his grandfather said. “Did you read their last quarterly report? They’re gaining on us in acquisitions in the Northeast.”

  Jon couldn’t stop the longing triggered by his grandfather’s use of “us” as if Jon were part of the family business, as if they shared more than a set of familial genes. “No, I haven’t.”

  “You should. I’ll email you a copy.”

  Jon ignored his grandfather’s offer. “Will Nana still be coming?” He’d been looking forward to seeing her. They could have a nice dinner together without Grandfather.