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

by Lois Richer

  Jon turned to Josh. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Jon Hanlon.”

  Josh shook Jon’s extended hand and introduced himself.

  “Should we sit down and get started? I think this may be all of us for tonight.” Autumn took the chair at the head of the table and smiled when she saw Josh quickly slip in next to Lexi on the sofa. Jon sat in the chair at Autumn’s right.

  “I’ll open with a prayer,” she said. “Dear Lord, thank You for bringing us together tonight and guiding us with Your infinite knowledge and love to better understand Your word and the direction You have for us. In Your name, amen.”

  * * *

  Jon lifted his gaze to Autumn’s still-bent head. Pastor Joel hadn’t said that Autumn was the group leader. Not that it would have made any difference in his coming. He rather liked the idea. It would let him see another facet of her, a personal side, that could help in their professional relationship. Now that he’d had time to analyze the Kent birth, he realized what a mistake it had been to give in to the urge to kiss Autumn. He wasn’t ready to give the long-term commitment to her or the Paradox Lake area he was sure she would want. Keeping their relationship strictly professional was the only way to go. To fuel his determination, he’d told himself a midwife was almost an obstetrician, and he didn’t date other doctors.

  She lifted her head and caught his gaze. “As some of you know, this is kind of a reorganization meeting. We took a hiatus last month. So I don’t have a Bible study prepared. I wanted us to talk about the direction we want to take. Any suggestions?”

  The group looked around at one another.

  “The couples group is doing ‘Strong Women of the Bible,’ which is kind of interesting,” Becca said.

  Autumn pulled a face.

  “I know.” Becca shrugged. “We started this group to break away from the married group, but the study is interesting, from what I’ve done of it.”

  “That’s a possibility. Anyone else?” Autumn asked.

  People shuffled their feet.

  “I have an idea,” Jon said. “Last year, we did a Bible study at my old church based on the cable miniseries on the Bible. Did you all see it?”

  “I haven’t,” Lexi said with a broad smile. “I didn’t have cable at my apartment in Syracuse.”

  Jon tapped his foot. He wished he could put his finger on what it was about the woman that grated on him so.

  “I don’t think any of us have seen it,” Autumn said. “It wasn’t broadcast here.”

  Lexi twirled a strand of her dark hair. That was it. Lexi looked a lot like Autumn’s former roommate.

  He tuned back in to what Autumn was saying.

  “I remember Pastor Joel mentioning that he was disappointed our local cable provider wasn’t going to show it.” She scanned the group as if looking for more suggestions.

  Now Autumn had hit a nerve, too. He didn’t like being shut down before he was finished. “That’s not a problem. I bought the DVD set.” He leaned forward on his elbows toward Autumn and the others. “What we did was watch the weekly episode and then compare it to the Bible for accuracy and stuff. We had some spirited debates.”

  “How would we work it?” Becca asked. “We’d watch the episode together one week and discuss it the next?”

  “That’s what I was thinking. They’re two hours long each. Does the church have a Blu-ray player?”

  “No, just a regular one,” Autumn said.

  “I could bring mine to the meetings.” Jon couldn’t help feeling that no matter what he said, Autumn would contradict it. Trouble was he couldn’t figure out why. He was trying to help. “Or we could meet at my place on movie nights.”

  “I have another idea,” Becca said.

  Autumn nodded for her to continue.

  Jon pressed his thumbs into his thigh. Autumn was awful quick to move on.

  “Could you show the episodes at the Strand, Tessa?” Becca asked. She turned to Jon. “That’s Tessa’s family’s movie theater. She manages it.”

  He nodded. Tessa had told him how she’d recently inherited the theater in Schroon Lake from her grandfather.

  “Maybe we could do it as a free Sunday matinee for anyone from church to attend, with a donation for missions or something,” Becca continued.

  Jon looked around at the others, most of whom were smiling in agreement, to Autumn, who seemed less pleased, and Tessa, who shook her head.

  “No can do,” Tessa said. “Even if we don’t charge for the viewing, I wouldn’t be able to show the DVDs. Copyright infringement. I’d have to rent the episodes from my distributor, and that could cost us a couple of hundred dollars each.”

  “Oh, well,” Becca said. “I thought it would be great for me if I could bring my kids, so I wouldn’t have to ask my ex-mother-in-law to babysit. Not to mention that seeing the Bible story would be good for them.”

  “If we watch the series at my place, it’s okay with me if you bring Brendon and Ari. They’re good kids.” Or at least they had been the afternoon he’d spent at the lake with Becca and them teaching Brendon how to fish. The boy wanted to go to a fishing derby with Autumn’s brother Ian. Becca had mentioned at church that her ex-husband had canceled on coming from Connecticut to spend the weekend with the kids, and she didn’t know any more about fishing than Brendon did.

  Jon waited for Autumn’s mouth to drop open in surprise at his statement about Becca’s kids. As he’d told her, it wasn’t that he didn’t like kids. He just wasn’t used to them. The hours with Brendon had been easy. Jon liked to fish, and the boy was an avid student, although it had made Jon somewhat uncomfortable that Brendon’s main purpose in learning to fish had been to beat his friend at the derby. A goal that it sounded like Ian shared.

  He didn’t know why people had to turn everything into a competition. The adult Sunday school class had been talking about that, how Paul and Timothy had preached to the Philippians, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Those were words Jon could hold close, even if the rest of his family couldn’t—wouldn’t.

  “That’s nice of you,” Becca said.

  “Becca, if you don’t want to ask your ex-mother-in-law, you probably could leave the kids with Dad and Anne,” Autumn said. “Brendon could hang out with Ian and the twins could entertain Ari. Or, I’m sure Gram wouldn’t mind watching them.”

  Send the kids somewhere else. There was the contradiction Jon had expected earlier. While, truth be told, he was all for keeping the series viewing adult, Autumn was presumptuous to offer her family’s services without asking them first. He’d learned his lesson young not to ask for or expect anything from his family unless he was prepared to give twice as much back in return.

  “I’d hate to impose on them,” Becca said. “If we decide to watch the series on Sundays and meet for discussion on Wednesdays as usual, I’m sure I can work out some arrangement. Sunday evenings might be better for me, though. That is, if we’ve decided to do the Bible miniseries.”

  Everyone looked at Autumn. She bit her bottom lip and released it. She couldn’t possibly disagree when the rest of the group was all on board.

  “Sounds like a go to me,” she said. “I just wish we could have arranged that mission tie-in Becca mentioned. This week, why don’t you all think about some kind of mission project we could do in addition to the Bible study, and we’ll take a few minutes to talk about it next meeting.”

  “I like it,” Jon said with an enthusiasm that made a couple of the group members look at him with questioning expressions. He didn’t care. He did like the suggestion and already had a mission in mind.

  “Okay. Let’s have refreshments. I brought iced tea and cookies. And we can work out the logistics f
or watching the first episode of the Bible series.”

  As they finished up, Lexi checked her phone and announced, “I need to catch a ride back to Jamie’s with someone, if I can.” She looked directly at Jon and smiled. “Eli was going to pick me up, but his American Legion meeting in Ticonderoga is running late. My car’s in the garage.”

  A clap of thunder rattled the church windows before anyone could offer, and the ping of raindrops sounded on the slate roof.

  “That leaves me out,” Jon said, ignoring the relief he felt at having a good reason for not offering. “I rode my bike tonight.”

  “I’ll give you a lift, Lexi,” Josh said.

  “Thanks,” she said, her smile for Josh a little less bright. Or so it seemed to Jon.

  “You, too, Jon, if you need one.”

  “I’m good. I’m just up Hazard Cove Road.”

  “He’s renting the other half of Dad’s duplex, where I live,” Autumn added, placing her hand on her hip with a satisfied smile he couldn’t decipher. It was almost as if she were staking a claim on him. Right, Hanlon, only in your dreams. He stilled. All of the women were attractive, but Autumn was the only one he was attracted to.

  “All right,” Josh said, smiling at Lexi and bringing Jon out of his thought. “Then it’s just you and me, Lexi.”

  Jon caught the definite gleam of interest in the other man’s eyes and silently wished him well.

  Everyone else but Autumn left. She picked up her plate and cup. “Do you want a ride home? Your bike will be fine here for the night.”

  “No, thanks. It’s not that far. I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re sure?”

  He silently preened at her casual concern. “I’m sure.”

  “I’ll follow you home. Give me a minute to turn off the lights.” She pulled the drapes closed and crossed the room to the door.

  He didn’t need anyone to follow him but liked the idea of Autumn wanting to.

  She flicked the light switch off. “You coming?”

  “Yeah.” He’d probably like the idea even more if he could figure out how they’d gotten from her taking issue with everything he said to her being concerned about him riding his bike home in the storm.

  * * *

  The rain pelted Autumn as she raced for her car. “Still sure you don’t want to leave your bike here and ride with me?” she called over her shoulder.

  “I’ll be fine. The house is five minutes away.” A crack of thunder drowned out anything else Jon might have said.

  “Suit yourself,” she said to herself as she climbed into her dry car.

  His bike roared to life, and he drove across the parking lot to the exit onto Hazard Cove Road. She pulled behind him. His light cotton shirt was already plastered to his broad back. A spray of water splashed up at her car as he took off, fishtailing onto the road. Her breath caught. He brought the vehicle under control and headed toward the house with Autumn following at a reasonable distance.

  She probably shouldn’t have shot down his Bible study suggestion so quickly. It was a good idea. There was just something about the way everyone else got in behind him that made her feel as though she was losing control of the meeting, the way she seemed to be losing control of her career as a midwife. And she wasn’t even really the group leader. The group members took turns leading the studies.

  Despite her car’s all-wheel drive, it hydroplaned on the slick pavement. She lifted up a quick “thanks” as the traction control righted the vehicle. Maybe that was her problem. Maybe she was holding on too tightly to self-control when it came to her fear of delivering babies and to other uncertainties in her life. Her fears and feeling that life was veering out of control might also explain her unreasonable pettiness toward Lexi and the way her stomach had dropped when Tessa had mentioned having supper with Jon. It was a cliché, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to “let go and let God.” That is, if she could.

  Chapter Eight

  “Good morning. Pull up a chair,” Lexi said the moment Autumn entered the office. “I have the program running already so we can get right down to business.”

  “Hi.” Autumn blinked at the bright sunlight streaming through the window where Lexi had pulled the drapes to the side. Yesterday, coming in early Saturday morning to give their assistant a crash course in medical coding had seemed like a good idea. No one would be here to interrupt. She covered her mouth to stifle a yawn. Today, after staying up late to watch a movie and tossing and turning in the heat trying to stay asleep, Autumn wasn’t sure she was up to one-on-one time with their ebullient assistant.

  “I’m really looking forward to the movie at Jon’s house tomorrow,” Lexi said. “I think it’s going to be one of the most interesting Bible studies I’ve done.”

  Autumn wasn’t going to ask whether she meant interesting subject matter or interesting because they were going to watch the series at Jon’s.

  She pointed to the information Lexi needed to enter into the computer. “I have to admit that I wasn’t sure about the miniseries at first, but now I’m looking forward to it, too.” Since she was going to be working with Lexi all summer, she needed to get past the competitiveness that Lexi evoked in her whenever the office assistant mentioned Jon. Autumn could understand it if she had any intention of acknowledging her attraction to Jon. She didn’t. She planned to keep their relationship just as it was, friends and colleagues.

  The door to the office swung open, and Jon strode in. “Good. You’re here.”

  Autumn froze, her first thought being that he was going to invite her—or Lexi—to lunch. She quickly corrected that to the more likely assumption that Jon had two mothers in labor and needed her for one of the births, which was even more unsettling.

  “I need a favor.”

  She relaxed. Neither. A birth was business. For Jon business was always all business. He’d never refer to covering a birth as a favor. “What’s up?”

  “I need someone to pick my grandmother up at the Amtrak station. Her train gets in at about one-fifteen, and I have a mother who might be in late-stage labor by then. She’s another one of Maureen’s patients who wasn’t due until after Maureen was supposed to be back from vacation.”

  The way Jon spoke sounded like the woman was being inconsiderate to inconvenience him by giving birth early.

  “That didn’t come out quite right.” He motioned Autumn to the hallway off the reception area. “Excuse us,” he said to Lexi. When he and Autumn were in the hall, he ran his hand over his hair. “I’m going to admit that I feel at a disadvantage delivering a woman I haven’t been following throughout the pregnancy, who I don’t have my own notes on.”

  Jon was nervous? That was a side she’d never seen before. “You were fine with Lisa,” she assured him. “At the follow-up visits, both she and Greg said the birth went well.”

  “But you were there. You had personal knowledge of any potential complications. All I have are the medical records. At my other practice, we met weekly to discuss our patients in case we had to cover for one another.”

  He was worried about complications. She’d expected him to say he felt at a disadvantage because he didn’t know the mother, didn’t have an established relationship with her. But that was the way she thought, not necessarily the way he did.

  “Do you want me to assist at the birth?”

  Indecision clouded his eyes. “No, I’d rather you meet Nana’s train, if you can.”

  “I can.” She smiled inside at what must be his childhood name for his grandmother. “I’m almost done showing Lexi the medical coding and don’t have any big plans for the afternoon.”

  “That would be great.” Relief softened his features. “I invited Nana for a visit earlier this week, and she decided to take me up on the offer immediately.”

  “July is prime vacation time in
the Adirondacks.”

  “I’ll give you my key so you can let her in.” He pulled his keys from his lab coat pocket, removed the house key and handed it to her. “Thanks, I appreciate this. I’ll call Nana and tell her to look for you.”

  He took a step back toward the reception area.

  “Wait. There won’t be a lot of people getting off the train at Ticonderoga, but it would help if I had some idea of what your grandmother looks like.”

  He blinked. “Right.” He reached into his other coat pocket.

  She took the photo he removed from his wallet, a little surprised that he had one. Word at Samaritan had been that he was estranged from his family. The picture was of him as a young teen next to a stunning woman who looked to be in her sixties. Exceptional good looks must run in the family.

  “You can photocopy it. She still looks like that, only fifteen years older.”

  He didn’t want her to take the photo with her. Was he afraid she’d lose it? She handed it back. “I don’t need to. I should be able to recognize her. Go on back to your mother-to-be. Your grandmother and I’ll be fine.”

  The way Lexi glanced from Jon to Autumn as they entered the waiting room from the hallway made Autumn wonder if she’d been eavesdropping.

  “Thanks again,” Jon said as he left.

  Autumn closed the office door and turned to Lexi, who was looking up at her with her head tilted to one side. Autumn readied herself for a question or comment about Jon.

  “How well do you know Josh?”

  That wasn’t something Autumn had expected. “I know him and his family. I went to school with his brother. Josh was a couple of years ahead of us, so we didn’t really hang out together. He served in the National Guard in Afghanistan with Dad and works for my stepmother’s environmental engineering company.”

  Lexi laughed. “I’m still getting used to how small Paradox Lake is and how the families all know each other.”

  “If I think a moment, I can probably come up with more. Why do you ask?”