Small-Town Midwife

Anne looked longingly at the door. “No, thanks. I told Drew I’d help with signing out this week’s campers at Sonrise this morning. I need to get these guys home and dressed and down to the lake.”

Autumn nodded. They all helped in the summer with the Christian camp and conference center that her uncle Drew managed on her family’s Paradox Lake property.

“But your aunt Jinx had better have some fresh coffee ready, or I’ll leave this crew with her and be right back up the road to take you up on your offer.”

“You’re welcome anytime. I’m goofing off this morning. I’m on the crew to help with the cleanup and to get the camp ready for the new campers coming tomorrow. So maybe I’ll see you all later.”

Autumn watched Anne fasten the kids in their car seats and drive away. She glanced at the moving van. The stone-faced driver sat in the cab tapping the steering wheel with his finger while the other mover leaned against the side drinking a cup of coffee from the Paradox Lake General Store. She’d recognize the store’s distinctive logo anywhere. It wasn’t her problem that Jon was late. She went back inside and made some coffee for herself.

* * *

Gravel flew as Jon shot up Hazard Cove Road. He’d told the movers that he would meet them at the house at eight. They couldn’t have stopped and had breakfast or something when they got off the interstate at Schroon Lake? He eyed the house as he came to a stop. The New England–style shake shingles were painted a light gray, and the house had white-and-steel-blue trim. Both his unit on the right and his neighbor’s unit had bright red front doors.

The Realtor, who was the town historian, had talked his ear off about how the house dated back to the early 1800s and was built by one of the Hazards who’d settled the area for logging. He’d also regaled Jon with the details of how and when the current Hazard family members had built their homes on or just off Hazard Cove Road.

Jon got out of his car and strode across the yard to the moving van, wondering if those other family members included Autumn. Even though she was a few years younger than him, she might own a home.

The moving van driver and his helper got out and met him in front of the duplex.

“Dr. Hanlon?” the driver asked.

“Yes. Sorry for the delay. I wasn’t expecting you until eight. I’ll unlock the door.”

The man nodded. “We’ll start unloading.”

Jon followed the shale walk up and to the left. He inserted the key the Realtor had given him and swung the door in. A lemony scent mixed with the warm summer air. It and the gleaming, wide-planked pine floors attested to the Realtor’s word that he’d have the house cleaned and ready for him today.

“Hey, Doc.” The helper wheeled Jon’s Sportster down the ramp and over beside the truck. “Sweet bike. Where do you want it?”

“In the back.” The house didn’t have a garage, but the Realtor had assured Jon that there was plenty of room in the shake-sided outbuilding behind the house. A former chicken coop, according to the Realtor.

“Follow me.” Jon led the mover to the shed and inserted the key the Realtor had given him in the lock. It didn’t work. He called the Realtor and got his voice mail again, so he tried the Hazards’ number. No answer there, either. A movement in the window of the other side of the duplex caught his eye.

“I’ll go ask my new neighbor for a key.” Jon crossed the yard to the back door and knocked. He tapped his foot as he waited for someone to answer.

“Hi.”

“Autumn. You live here? I’m surprised the Realtor didn’t tell me. He told me the history and everything else there is to know about the house.” Why was he stammering like the teenage nerd he once was facing the most popular girl at school? He looked into her light blue eyes. She probably had been one of the most popular girls at school—definitely one of the prettiest. “Why didn’t you say something yesterday?”

“I thought I’d surprise you later once you were settled in.”

The light in her eyes said she was teasing him, but years of sarcastic criticism from his family made him unsure whether he was reading her correctly. He cleared his throat. “Do you have a key to the shed? The one the Realtor gave me isn’t working.”

“Yes, sorry about that. Some kids out partying tried to break into it a few weeks ago with a nail file that jammed in the lock. I don’t know what they thought I had in there.” She pushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s a problem here. There’s not a lot to do, and some kids have too much time on their hands. I had to hacksaw the lock off and get a new one.”

She spoke so matter-of-factly. “That didn’t bother you, being out here alone?” He refrained from saying a woman here alone.

Autumn laughed. “Me, alone?”

Jon glanced around and saw nothing but pine forest. “Someone was living in the other unit?”

“No. But I’m surrounded by family. No one can get up the road without passing by Dad’s and my grandparents’ houses, and no one can come up from the lake without passing the lodge where my aunt and uncle live. I wasn’t home, but Grandpa and Uncle Drew were both here in time to block the kids’ car in. They ran off into the woods, but the sheriff’s deputy caught up with them quick enough. They were summer folk. But you’re not here for my life story. Come in and I’ll get you the key.”

Jon stepped in and waited in the kitchen for Autumn to return. He breathed in the aroma of the coffee brewing on the counter, and his stomach growled to remind him he hadn’t had any coffee or breakfast.

“Here you go.” Autumn walked back into the kitchen. She looked from him to the coffeemaker he was eyeing and bit her lip. “Want a cup?” she asked after a moment.

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t keep the movers waiting any longer than I have.”

“I’ll bring one out to you. Cream and sugar?”

“Black is good.” He couldn’t tell if she was being nice or wanted him to leave. “I really appreciate it.”

“I could tell. You were looking at my coffeemaker like a man who’d just crawled his way out of a waterless week in the desert.”

“That bad?”

“That bad.” She handed him the key on a key chain that read I Conquered the High Peaks.

Had she climbed all of the Adirondack High Peaks? he wondered. At Samaritan, she’d always been open to a challenge. His former roommate could attest to that. The roommate had run into Autumn and some of the other women shooting hoops at the Y one evening and, after some back and forth, had challenged them to a three-point competition. It had come down to his roommate and Autumn. She matched him shot for shot until the competition was called because the Y was closing.

So she certainly had the tenacity to conquer the peaks. Her crossed arms and wide-legged stance stopped him from asking, though. He should get back outside, but he couldn’t seem to get his feet moving. They were going to be working together and living next door to each other. He’d like to get past the undercurrent of resentment she exuded.

“I’ll bring the key right back.”

“Keep it. I have another one, and you’ll need a copy anyway.”

He pushed open the screen door and reached behind him to close the main door.

“You can leave it open. It feels warm out already.”

He looked up at the bright sun in the cloudless blue sky. “Yeah, it looks like a scorcher.” As the aluminum door latched shut behind him, he wondered what had made him say that. Scorcher. It sounded like something they’d say on AccuWeather. And why was he so looking forward to Autumn’s bringing him coffee?

* * *

Autumn carried two coffee mugs across the living room and opened the screen door with her elbow. Since the weather had warmed up, she often had her Saturday-morning coffee outside on the patio Grandpa had added to her side of the house. She scanned the front yard. Neither Jon nor the movers were outside. She walked over to Jon’s side and peered in the screen door. The living room was empty of people and furniture. The movers must have started with the upstairs furniture.

“Hello,” she called, taking a sip of her coffee as she waited for a response.

Jon bounded down the stairway, opened the door and took the mug from her. He drank deeply. “Thanks. I really need this.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’d invite you to stay and drink your coffee with me, but I don’t have a seat to offer you.”

“That’s okay. I was going to sit out on the patio. I don’t want to keep you from your work.”

“The movers can handle things. I’ll join you, if you don’t mind.”

She did mind. This morning was the only quiet time she expected to have all weekend. This afternoon, she was helping Drew at the camp. Gram and Grandpa had invited her for dinner tomorrow after church, and in the evening she was babysitting for her father and Anne so they could go out for their anniversary. She loved her family and everything that came with living close to them. But she’d hoped for a couple of hours to herself this morning.

Oh, well. It was her choice. She wouldn’t trade living here at the lake for living anywhere else. At least not voluntarily. Autumn’s throat constricted. Once her contract with Kelly was up in the fall, she might have to go somewhere else. She had her doubts that Kelly would offer her another contract if she still wasn’t catching babies. And neither the Adirondack Medical Center nor the Ticonderoga Birthing Center had staff midwives.

Jon looked down at her with the smile that had made half the nursing staff at Samaritan go all weak and dreamy and the other half want to mother him like a favored son. Autumn had been an exception. Rather than wowing her like everyone else, Jon’s masculine charms had irritated her. He’d been too smooth, too full of himself professionally and personally, although a few times when she’d seen him outside work, she’d thought she’d glimpsed a different Jon underneath.

He motioned toward the walkway. “After you.”

Autumn felt his eyes on her as she descended the porch steps. She wiped her palm on her denim shorts. She wasn’t about to succumb to his charms now. Not unless he’d changed a lot in the past two years. And from what she’d seen yesterday, he hadn’t. She glanced toward the patio. They could finish their coffee and she’d still have some time before she had to be down at the lake to help Uncle Drew.

In two long strides, Jon was beside her on the walkway in front of her door.

“If you need a refill, I made plenty.” Not exactly the way to discourage him from hanging around. She glanced at Jon out of the corner of her eye. But he was so right there. She’d needed to say something.

“That’d be great.”

“Go ahead and I’ll bring the pot out.” What had gotten into her? Now she was offering to wait on him. Did her unsettled job situation have her so off-kilter that she’d grasp at anything that made her feel useful?

Once Jon rounded the corner of the house to the patio, Autumn yanked her door open and stomped across her living room. She poured a couple of dollops of fat-free half-and-half in her cup, picked up the coffeepot and walked out to the patio as the calm, sane person she usually was.

Jon stood at the far edge of the patio looking up at the roof. “I didn’t notice the solar panels when the Realtor showed me the place. Photovoltaic?”

“Yes. Dad put the system in last summer when he and Grandpa decided to divide the house into a two-family.” Autumn placed the coffeepot and her mug on the round wooden table.

“By himself?” Jon’s voice held a note of awe.

“More or less. It’s what he does.” Autumn sat on the circular bench and topped up her drink. While she knew her father’s limitations, growing up as the only child of a teenage single father, she’d never completely outgrown her feeling that “Daddy could do anything” and was often surprised when people commented on his work.

Jon joined her and refilled his mug. “He owns a solar energy company or a construction company?”

For some reason, Jon’s assumption that her father owned a company rankled. “Neither. He’s a self-employed electrician, but he does hookups for several companies throughout the Northeast. It’s Anne, my stepmother, who’s the corporate tycoon of the family. She’s the chair of the board of directors of GreenSpaces and heads the environmental studies program at the college in Ticonderoga.”

Autumn sipped her coffee while she waited for the name of Anne’s international environmental engineering company to register with Jon and tried to figure out what she was doing. She didn’t have to prove anything to Jon just because he came from a prominent old-money family.

He looked at her blankly over the edge of his coffee mug. “That’s the community college I passed on State Route 74?”

Her coffee tasted bitter in her mouth. She should have brought the honey out. “Yes, North Country Community College. That’s where I got my RN degree.”

“You didn’t go away to school? I couldn’t wait to leave.”

“I had an academic scholarship to Trinity College in Chicago. My other grandfather was a professor there. But I just wasn’t ready to leave home yet then. I never knew my mother, and I’m not that close to him and my grandmother.” She clamped her forefinger over her mouth. He didn’t need—or, probably, want—her family history, particularly since he wasn’t sharing any of his.

Jon ran his gaze over the weathered shake siding of the house behind her, pausing at the drooping gutter knocked loose from the windstorm the week before last.

She glanced from the gutter to Jon and pressed her lips together. With his work getting the cabins ready for Camp Sonrise to open, Grandpa hadn’t had a chance to repair the gutter. “A lot of the kids I went to high school with couldn’t wait to leave, but I like it here at Paradox Lake. And it was a kick going to college with Dad. His electrician business had fallen off while he was serving in Afghanistan with the National Guard, so he took some environmental studies courses at NCCC while I was there. That’s how he met Anne.”

A warm gust of wind from the lake blew the gutter against the house with a thud, drawing Jon’s gaze back to it.

Did he think it was going to fall on them? Or that Dad couldn’t afford to hire someone to repair the gutter, hadn’t had the money for her to go away to a big school? Autumn glanced from her empty mug to his newly refilled one to the drained coffeepot and wished she’d just given him his coffee and gone back inside to have hers.

No. She was being ridiculous, letting Jon push buttons she didn’t even know she had. Maybe she hadn’t had the privileged childhood that Jon must have, but she and Dad had done okay. She’d had as much as her friends.

He broke the silence. “It is beautiful up here. Relaxing. I can see why you came back after you finished your clinicals at Samaritan for your certification.”

“That and family. We’re close. And there’s a need here for midwives, for almost any medical practitioner.”

“True. The area is underserved.”

“So that’s what brought you up here?”

“Partly. But more the opportunity.”

His reply jarred her. She’d thought she’d hit on something they had in common: a professional desire to serve where their skills were needed.

“There aren’t a lot of places where someone my age can get the level of administrative experience that Adirondack Medical Center is offering me at the birthing center.”

Maybe Jon had more in common with their last director than she’d thought yesterday. The center’s former director had leveraged his experience at the birthing center into a cushy administrative position at a big medical center downstate.

Autumn shifted her weight on the bench. Jon could be grooming himself to take over his grandfather’s health-care corporation. The strains of a hit song by the local Christian country band Resurrection Light broke the growing silence.

“Excuse me.” Jon pulled his cell phone from his pocket. His face lit when he saw the caller ID.

She pushed the bench back, ready to give him some privacy.

“Nana.” Jon waved Autumn down as she started to rise. “Yes, we’re on for dinner. I got the message.” He frowned. “You don’t have to apologize. See you then.” He hunkered down over the phone. “Love you, too.”

He shoved the phone back in his pocket. “My grandparents are going to be in Lake George Tuesday.”

“Are they here on vacation?” Autumn remembered Liza, the medical center administrator, saying something yesterday about his grandparents vacationing in Lake George.

“No,” he said brusquely. “Grandfather is coming up for a business meeting near Syracuse.”

“Do you see them often?” After she’d babbled on about her family, it was only fair that he take his turn.

“No.”

“Oh, I thought they might have lived near you. When you said coming up I assumed you meant from the New York City, Westchester area.”

He stared at her.

“That’s where you’re from, right, Westchester County?” From the gossip at Samaritan, she knew his father headed up the cardiology department at one of the medical centers there.

“Yes.” He avoided eye contact. “I’d better get back to the movers.” He stood and motioned toward the table. “Do you need any help carrying the stuff in?”

“No, thanks, I can handle it.” So much for learning anything personal about Dr. Hanlon. Since as neighbors, they’d be seeing a lot of each other, she’d hoped he’d share something that might help her get past what he’d done to Kate and the cold way he’d treated his fellow hospital staff members afterward. She picked up the mugs and coffeepot and walked with him to her door.

“I’ll see you Monday.”

She nodded and watched him cross the yard to the moving van before she went inside. Working with Jon and having him as her next-door neighbor was going to be interesting. The trouble was that, given their past history and the conversation they’d just had, Autumn had a sinking feeling it might not be a good kind of interesting.

Chapter Three

“Hello!” Jamie Payton’s voice rang through the house to the kitchen.

Autumn put the clean coffeepot in the dish drainer and dried her hands with a dish towel. “Hi, come in.”

“I already am,” Jamie said from the doorway. “Who was that I passed on my way in? Tall, dark and handsome, talking with the moving guys.” Autumn’s friend and delivery nurse sighed.

“I thought you were more partial to the tall, fair-haired and handsome type,” Autumn teased.

“Don’t tell the colonel,” Jamie said of her new husband, Eli.

“Your secret’s safe with me. How’d you manage to slip out of the house alone?” Except for work, Autumn rarely saw Jamie without Eli or one of the kids.

“Myles is at the camp.”

“That’s right. He’s a counselor this summer.”

“Rose slept over at a friend’s, and Eli took Opal with him to the hardware store in Ticonderoga to buy new tile for the kitchen floor. But you’re evading my question.”

“The mystery man you saw on your way in is my new neighbor and boss, Dr. Jonathan Hanlon.”

Jamie tilted her head. “Boss?”

“The new director at the birthing center. Technically, not our boss, but something tells me he’s going to be a lot more hands-on with the actual care than Dr. Ostertag was. I worked with Jon at Samaritan when I was doing my master’s degree for my midwife certification.”

“I see.” Jamie’s eyes twinkled.

“You see nothing. Just because I know him doesn’t mean I like him.”

“So you don’t like him?”

Autumn threw up her hands and laughed. “I didn’t say that, exactly. I don’t know him that well.” Nor did it look like he’d be an easy person to get to know.

“It’s been a couple of months since Rod was reassigned.”

Autumn shook her head. “I know you’d like everyone to be as happy and in love as you and Eli are, but my time hasn’t come yet. Now, you must have had a reason for stopping by, other than trying to fix me up with Jon—especially since you didn’t even know about him until you got here.”

“You’re not going to go for it, then?”

“I’m not going to go for it.”

Jamie released an exaggerated sigh. “I know you’re helping out at the camp today, too. So I stopped in to see if you want to walk to the lake with me.” She patted her slightly rounded belly. “My midwife says that I need to get some more exercise. Apparently, chasing the other three kids around isn’t enough.”

“Using my words against me?” Even though Autumn wasn’t taking on any obstetric patients, when Jamie had found out she was pregnant, she’d insisted on seeing Autumn for her prenatal care. Their friendship went back a long time to when Autumn was a high school student and used to babysit Jamie’s older kids.

“Come on, you weren’t planning on driving down. You walk everywhere.”

“You’re right. I was going to walk.” But she’d planned on having the morning to herself. Autumn kicked off her sandals and picked up her sneakers from the rug by the door. “Let me change my shoes and we can go.”

“Sure, and while I’m thinking of it, my cousin who I texted you about would be happy to fill in at the office for the summer. She’s still working on getting a teaching position for the fall and has to be out of her apartment in Syracuse by the end of the week. She really doesn’t want to go back to her father’s in Buffalo.”

Autumn looked up from tying her shoes.

“They get along great. But Uncle Steve recently remarried, and Lexi, short for Alexandra, thinks her father and stepmother have enough with her new teenage stepbrothers there.”

“I can relate to that.” Autumn stood.

“I thought you could.” Jamie grinned.

“Do you think Lexi would be interested in the singles group at church? Our ranks have thinned since all of you newlyweds morphed the singles-plus group into a couples group and we remaining singles split off into our own group.”

While the larger singles-plus group had been fun, Autumn had found it kind of weird belonging to the group with her father and Anne. She swallowed hard. And with her friends Jack and Suzy Hill after the problems delivering their daughter.

“Maybe. I’ll ask her. Is that a prerequisite for the job?”

“Of course not. I was just thinking we need to get the group pumped up. We don’t have nearly as many members as the couples group.”

“It’s not a competition,” Jamie said. “And you all are welcome to join us again.”

“Your guys are all taken, and I need some kind of social life again. One that doesn’t include my father.”

“I can understand that.” Jamie cocked her head to the side. “So, does Lexi have the job?”

Autumn thought about the hours she’d spent yesterday evening entering all of the billing into the computer. “I’ll have to talk with Kelly, but I think she’ll trust your recommendation.”

“She’d better be able to. Seriously, I think you’ll like Lexi a lot. And back to the singles group. What about your new neighbor?”

“What about him?” Autumn asked, even though she knew exactly what Jamie was asking.

“Would he be interested in joining your group? You’re down one on the male members since Rod left.”

Autumn shrugged. “As I said, I don’t know him that well.” Besides, when had it become her group? And, even if the singles group did need members, particularly male members, she had enough qualms about her and Jon getting along working together and as neighbors without adding him to the only regular social life she had.

* * *

Jon shook his head and put his helmet back on. No one had been home at either of the Hazard family houses. He’d even swallowed his pride and tried Autumn’s. How could he have locked his house key in the duplex? He didn’t do things like that. But the movers had been trying right from the start, getting there early. And his grandmother’s call and Autumn’s questions about his family had unsettled him. He understood that she was only making conversation. But he didn’t talk about his family. Didn’t think about them if he could avoid it, except for Nana.

He settled himself on his Sportster and revved it up to drive down to the lake. Hopefully, he could search out Autumn’s grandfather or stepmother for a key and not have to share his stupidity with her. Although why should it matter? It wasn’t like he was out to impress her or anything. Jon gunned the engine and gravel flew out from the rear tire, causing the bike to fishtail. He slowed down and reached the camp at a more sedate pace.