by Gina Wilkins
But because he was already here, he might as well study today, he figured, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. He would think about the future later. After the next exam, perhaps.
Mia was pacing Thursday evening, stopping every few minutes to check the time on her watch. If Connor didn’t show up soon, it was going to be too late for her to make her meeting at the school. She’d told him she had to leave by six-thirty and it was six-thirty-five now.
“I could go with you,” Alexis suggested, watching Mia check the time again. It wasn’t the first time she’d made the suggestion. She hadn’t been overly enthusiastic from the start about Mia being gone that evening. “I’d be good and I wouldn’t get in your way.”
“I know you wouldn’t, sweetie, but my meeting will probably run late. After your bedtime. And you have school in the morning.” Besides which, Connor had promised to be home in plenty of time for Mia to leave, she thought with a frown.
At six-thirty-nine, the kitchen door burst open and Connor rushed in. “I’m sorry,” he said before Mia could speak. “I let the time get away from me. Can you still make your meeting?”
“If I leave right now…”
“Go. We’ll be fine.”
She already had her purse and keys in hand. She leaned down to kiss Alexis’s cheek. “Go to bed when your dad tells you to, okay? I’ll see you in the morning.”
Alexis clung to the hem of Mia’s jacket. “Will you come in to tell me good night if I’m still awake?”
“I’ll check on you,” she promised. “But try to go to sleep. You don’t want to be too tired for school in the morning.”
“Go on, Mia. And drive carefully,” Connor added.
She nodded and carefully disentangled Alexis’s fingers from her jacket. “Good night,” she said again, rushing out before the child’s sad eyes made her change her mind.
She was only a few minutes late for the meeting. Natalie had saved a seat for her. She slipped into it, grateful that the meeting seemed to be a little late getting started. “Did I miss anything?”
“No, not yet. What kept you?”
Stashing her purse beneath her chair, Mia shrugged. “Connor was a little late getting home. I was beginning to think I’d have to bring Alexis with me.”
“Hmm.”
Mia frowned at the increasingly familiar note of disapproval in her friend’s brief response. “He made it in time.”
“Barely. You’re still breathing hard from running in.”
Deliberately steadying her breathing, Mia shook her head. “I made it. That’s all that counts.”
“Until the next time he puts his own work ahead of yours,” Natalie muttered. “Don’t let him take you for granted, Mia. At least chew him out for almost making you late tonight, so he’ll think twice about being late next time.”
Fortunately the school principal stood then to begin the meeting. Mia made a point of directing her attention that way, putting an end to her conversation with Natalie.
It was after nine when she walked back into the house that evening. Wearily setting her keys on the counter, she immediately put the kettle on the stove. She needed a hot cup of herbal tea to help her relax before bed.
Connor spoke from the kitchen doorway. “How was the meeting?”
“Long-winded. And rather pointless, as they so often are.” But her absence would have been noted with displeasure, so she’d had little choice but to attend. Having spent three years working for the same administration, Connor was well aware of that.
“I’m really sorry I made you rush out like that,” he said, leaning against a counter to watch her take a teacup from a cabinet. “I just—”
“—let the time get away from you. I know. The meeting started a little late, so it worked out okay.”
“I’ll keep a better eye on my watch next time.”
“I’d appreciate that. Do you want some tea?”
“No, I’m good. Thanks.”
“How did everything go here while I was gone? Any problems?”
“No. Alexis played with her dolls most of the time. She barely came out of her room. I asked if she wanted to play the video game, but she said she’d rather wait until another time. So I’ve spent the evening studying in the living room. She went straight to bed when I told her to, and I haven’t heard a peep out of her since.”
She poured boiling water over the tea bag in her cup, then set the kettle on a trivet. “I’ll go look in on her while my tea steeps. I promised her I would.”
“Yeah, okay. Guess I’ll get back to my books.”
She nodded and started to move past him. He caught her arm, detaining her for a moment. “It won’t happen again,” he promised, looking into her eyes.
She moistened her lips, pretty sure that it would happen again despite his best intentions. “I’ll go check on Alexis,” she repeated and drew away from him.
She heard him sigh as she walked out of the kitchen.
“Mia! Mia!”
Abruptly jolted from a sound sleep, Mia nearly fell out of the bed trying to scramble to her feet. She rushed to Alexis’s room, blearily noting on the way that it was almost 3:00 a.m.
“Another bad dream?” she asked, gathering the tearful, shaking child into her arms.
Burrowing tightly, Alexis nodded and sniffled. “I didn’t know if you were here,” she said, her voice muffled.
“I’ve been home for hours. You were sound asleep when I looked in.”
Alexis clung to Mia’s pajama top, her head tucked securely beneath Mia’s chin.
“Do you want to tell me about your dream, sweetie? Maybe it will help you feel better.”
As she always did, Alexis shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. Will you stay a little while?”
“Of course.”
Mia looked toward the doorway when Connor stumbled in. “Everything okay in here?”
“Bad dream,” Mia explained over Alexis’s head.
“I’m sorry, Alexis. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Without emerging from Mia’s embrace, Alexis replied unsteadily, “No, thank you. Mia’s going to stay with me for a little while.”
“Oh. Well…let me know if you need anything, okay?”
“Okay.”
Meeting Mia’s eyes for a moment in the darkened room, Connor then turned and disappeared without another word.
“She’s adorable.”
Mia smiled and nodded in response to her mother’s comment. “She is, isn’t she?”
Mia sat with her mother and sister-in-law, Carla, at the dining room table in her parents’ home in Hot Springs. From where they sat, they could see Alexis playing a board game on the living room floor with Mia’s niece and nephew. Nicklaus and Caroline were a little older than Alexis, but they’d been very welcoming to her on this Sunday afternoon, and all three seemed to be having a good time together.
“Is she always so quiet and well behaved?” Carla asked, also watching the children.
“Always. She’s never even argued with me about brushing her teeth or picking up her toys or turning off the television.”
“Wow. What are you feeding her? Maybe I should try it with my two.”
Andrea Doyle pulled her attention away from the children to look at Mia. “You’re all still getting to know each other. It’s been only a couple of weeks. I’m sure you’ll see normal childhood rebellion in time.”
“Maybe.” Although Mia couldn’t imagine Alexis actually throwing a tantrum or engaging in outright rebellion. Such behavior just seemed completely foreign to the child’s serene nature.
“She has obviously bonded with you. She checks every few minutes to make sure you haven’t wandered too far out of her sight.”
Sipping her coffee, Mia nodded, having noticed that herself.
“How’s she getting along with her dad? Has she connected to him, too?” Carla asked.
Mia took another swallow of the coffee to give herself a moment to frame her reply. “T
hey get along very well.”
Both women studied her expression, and she realized that her tone must have revealed a bit more than she had intended. “Connor is so busy with medical school,” she added as rationale. “His schedule is absolutely grueling. He’s doing the best he can with the little spare time he has.”
Her mother looked worried, but she’d been wearing that same expression since Mia had told her of her plan to move in with Connor and take care of his newly discovered daughter. She’d admitted that she worried the situation wouldn’t work out and that Mia would be hurt. There just seemed to be so many potential pitfalls in the hastily concocted arrangements, she’d warned. For all three of them.
As for Mia’s father, well, he’d made no effort to hide his disapproval of Mia’s decision. He didn’t like her moving in with a single man, worried that her graduate-school plans would be derailed by Connor’s quandary and openly suspected that Connor would take Mia for granted and abuse her overly generous nature. Mia had gently reminded him that she was an independent adult and that she was capable of looking out for her own best interests, but her dad was still firmly in protective-parent mode.
Yet even he had seemed taken with little Alexis today when Mia had brought the child to join them for a big Sunday lunch. Jim Doyle was a big softie when it came to children. His grandkids had him firmly wrapped around their little fingers, and Mia suspected it wouldn’t be long before Alexis had him in the same position.
Still, it was just as well that he and Mia’s brother were outside repairing a step on the back deck during this conversation, she thought gratefully.
“So you’re almost entirely responsible for Alexis,” Carla murmured, making sure the children couldn’t hear the conversation. “That must be a little unnerving for you.”
“At times,” Mia admitted. “It certainly helps that she’s so little trouble.”
Andrea and Carla shared a glance that Mia couldn’t quite interpret. Were they really so certain that Alexis’s cooperative behavior would be short-lived?
“How long do you expect this situation to continue?” her mother asked.
Mia shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve just gotten settled in. It’s working out very well so far, saving me quite a bit of money on monthly expenses. I could probably start grad school next fall with this same arrangement. I don’t think I’d have any trouble studying while Alexis entertains herself. I’ve had no problem grading papers or preparing for classes so far. And maybe the second year of medical school isn’t quite as time-consuming as the first, so Connor would probably have more time to relieve me in the evenings.”
“There’s no year of medical school that’s less time-consuming,” Carla said flatly. “Have you forgotten that my older sister’s an obstetrician? Her first marriage completely fell apart during her second year of medical school because she just didn’t have any extra time to give to it. Besides which, her husband was a jerk.”
Mia actually had forgotten that. She had met Carla’s sister, who lived in New York, only two or three times, and Carla rarely talked about her. Carla and her sister weren’t particularly close, though Mia didn’t know whether it was simply because of personality conflict, their ten-year age difference or something more specific.
“Anyway,” Carla continued, “I know you and Connor have been friends for a long time, but just make sure he doesn’t start expecting too much from you now that you’re doing so much for him. Men get spoiled very quickly, you know. You deserve a life of your own. What are you going to do if you meet some special guy and want to start a relationship? For that matter, how are you going to meet a special guy if you’re stuck at his house babysitting every night?”
“Carla’s right about that, Mia,” her mom agreed, looking a bit apologetic. “You’ll want a family of your own someday. Don’t let Connor’s responsibilities to his daughter prevent you from having that.”
“What’s Connor going to do if you move out to start your own life?” Carla continued. “And how is Alexis going to handle that if she becomes even more attached to you?”
Mia groaned and held up her hands. “Okay, you two, enough fretting. I promise you, I am looking out for my own interests here, as well as helping out a friend. Connor has promised that he’ll make arrangements for Alexis whenever I have other plans. I’m not going to bury myself in his house and give up my social life, such as it has been for the past year or so. I know what I’m doing.”
Or so she kept telling everyone, she thought with a hard swallow. Her mother and sister-in-law had raised some valid issues. Things Mia hadn’t really had time to consider before she’d jumped impulsively into this agreement with Connor. Most troubling of all was how any change in the situation would affect Alexis. Mia could only hope that if or when that time came, she and Connor would be able to handle it deftly enough for Alexis’s best interests. Mia wanted to reassure the child that whatever their living arrangements in the future, they would always be a part of each other’s lives now.
“There’s one other question I have to ask,” Carla murmured. “What if Connor meets someone? Another medical student, a nurse, someone in a coffee shop? After all, you keep insisting that you and he are nothing more than friends. What if he’s the one who brings in a new mom for Alexis? Are you prepared for that?”
The sudden hollowness that filled her made Mia reach out quickly for her coffee cup, her smile feeling patently false as she replied brightly, “I’m prepared for anything, Carla. That’s what keeps my life interesting. Are there any more of those cheesecake tarts you served for dessert, Mom? I wasn’t hungry then, but I wouldn’t mind having one now.”
“Yes, there are plenty of those left. Would you like another, Carla?”
“No, thanks,” Carla declined with a fleeting look of regret. “I already had two for dessert. But I will take another cup of coffee.”
Relieved that she’d successfully managed to change the subject and determined to enjoy the rest of this visit with her family, Mia pushed her doubts and worries to the back of her mind. Or at least, she tried.
Connor dragged himself into his house on the last Tuesday in October, so tired he could almost feel his joints grind with his movements. He was overstressed, under-rested and so discouraged that he was beginning to wonder what on earth had made him enter medical school. He’d had a pretty good life before, teaching and coaching and spending free time with his friends. Back when he’d remembered what free time was. What on earth could be worth this grind?
He could usually count on someone in his study group to cheer him up, but they’d been as glum as he was today. Ron’s joking had been forced and he and Haley had snapped at each other a couple of times. Haley hadn’t been able to rally her own spirits, much less everyone else’s. Anne had been even more stressed and intense than usual, and James…well, it was always hard to tell what James was thinking, but even he had seemed a bit more distant than he usually was.
The high-pitched, musical sound of a child’s laughter made him pause in mid-step. He tilted his head, hearing the laughter come again from the living room. Alexis certainly seemed tickled by something.
Feeling his gloomy mood lighten just a little, he went to see what was so funny. He could certainly use a laugh himself.
He found Mia sitting cross-legged in the living room floor, smiling while Alexis danced around her on tiptoes, her little arms arched in the air above her. Connor cocked an eyebrow as he noted his daughter’s outfit. She wore a pink leotard and tights with a fluffy pink tutu, a sparkly tiara and shimmery lavender wings studded with rhinestones. She clasped a glimmering plastic scepter in one hand and wore an ostentatious faux-jeweled necklace that jingled rather loudly with her movements.
“What’s going on?” he asked, feeling a grin tug at the corners of his mouth.
Alexis paused in mid-pirouette. “It’s my Halloween costume,” she said, spreading her arms to give him a better look. “Mia helped me.”
“You’re a…ballerina?” he
hazarded.
“I’m a ballerina fairy princess,” she corrected him.
“Ah. I see.”
“She couldn’t decide between them, so we combined them,” Mia explained, a smile reflected in her eyes. “We’ll add some glittery makeup on Halloween because Alexis wants to sparkle all over.”
“I think you make a beautiful ballerina fairy princess,” he assured her.
Alexis looked pleased.
“Why don’t you go get ready for bed now,” Mia suggested. “You don’t want to mess up your wings before Halloween.”
“Okay.” Alexis headed for the doorway, then paused there to look back at Connor. “Are you going trick-or-treating with us?”
He was a little startled by her question because he hadn’t even given it a thought. He’d even lost track of what day it was. “Uh—when is Halloween again?”
“Friday.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Alexis nodded timidly. “If you want to,” she added.
“I’d like to,” he assured her. “I’ll try to make time, okay?”
“Okay.” She turned and hurried out of the room, her glittering wings fluttering behind her.
Mia turned to Connor with a bright smile. “Did she look adorable or what?”
“Yeah, she was cute. Where’d you find all the stuff?”
“We stopped on the way home from school and did a little shopping. The tiara and scepter were mine. A group of my students gave them to me during homecoming week last year as a joke.”
“Yes, I remember that. They named you the Teacher Queen.” Despite being a challenging teacher, Mia was popular with most of her advanced placement students. She walked the fine line between being friendly and firm and her students benefited from her skills.
He missed his students. Without conceit, he could admit that he, too, had been a well-liked teacher. He hoped he would be a well-respected physician—if he survived medical school.