A Child Under His Tree. Allison Leigh

Caleb blithely folded his napkin over the carrots. He hated them, too.

      “Who’s Kelly?” Shelby was only nine, but she’d already developed the art of distraction.

      “Uncle Caleb’s old girlfriend,” Lucy said. She smiled devilishly at him. “One of them, anyway.”

      “I don’t rub in your old mistakes,” he argued in a mild tone.

      She blinked innocently. “Well, I wasn’t the one going around breaking girls’ hearts.”

      Not all that long ago, before an injury had sidelined her career, his sister had been a prima ballerina with a dance company in New York. Now she ran a dance school in Weaver, and despite her blessedly relaxed rules over her personal diet, she still drew admiring looks everywhere she went. “Pretty sure you broke a few hearts along the way, Luce.”

      “Then she met Daddy and I got to wear a beautiful dress.” Shelby’s expression turned dreamy. “When you get married can I be in your wedding, too, Uncle Caleb?”

      He nearly choked on his food, and Lucy laughed merrily. “Sounds like a reasonable question, Uncle Caleb.”

      He ignored his sister and answered his far more agreeable niece. “Maybe I’ll just wait until you’re grown-up and marry you.”

      That elicited peals of laughter. “You’re my uncle. I can’t marry you!”

      Far be it for him to explain the finer aspects of blood relations. “Then I’ll just have to stay single,” he drawled.

      Lucy rolled her eyes. “Sure. Blame your loneliness on an innocent child.”

      Shelby’s brow knit with sudden concern. “Are you lonely, Uncle Caleb?”

      “No,” he assured her calmly. “Your mom’s just teasing. How could I be lonely when I have all of you around?”

      To his satisfaction, everyone seemed happy to let the matter go at that.

      He was wrong to think the reprieve would last, though.

      Two hours later, after he’d told Sunny two bedtime stories and played two games of checkers with Shelby, Caleb was ready to leave. But Lucy trailed after him as he headed to his truck. “You never answered the question.”

      He set the container of leftovers she’d packed for him inside the cab before climbing behind the wheel. “What question?”

      Coatless, she hugged her arms around herself, dancing a little in the cold. “What it was like seeing Kelly again.”

      “It wasn’t like anything,” he lied. “We broke up nearly ten years ago. She even married someone else, remember?”

      “One of my students’ moms works for Tom Hook, and she says there doesn’t seem to be a husband in the picture. If Kelly’s little boy were a few years older, he could’ve been yours.”

      “For God’s sake, Luce!” If he hadn’t known better, he’d have wondered himself about that boy. But even as impetuous as that night had been, they hadn’t been irresponsible. He’d used a condom. They’d always used condoms. From the first time until the last.

      “Hey!” His sister had lifted her hands innocently. “Don’t blame me for what other people find interesting topics of conversation. So...no sparks between old flames?”

      “It was just another appointment, Luce,” he said smoothly. “Thanks for supper. Tell Beck I’ll be in touch about the house plans.”

      “Have you decided where you want to build?”

      “Not yet.” He nudged her out of the way so he could grab the truck door. “It’s freezing. You’ll catch a cold.”

      “You’re a doctor. You’re supposed to know that being cold and catching a cold aren’t related.”

      “Tell that to Mom. She still thinks wearing a scarf during winter keeps a cold away.”

      Lucy smiled and lifted her hand, heading back to the house while he drove away.

      Lucy and Beck lived on the outskirts of Weaver, on the opposite side of town from the condo he’d been renting since he’d moved back home. Since he had nothing and no one waiting for him at home once he got there, he pulled into the hospital parking lot on his way. He didn’t have to be there, but he also didn’t have to be anywhere else. Might as well look in on the newborn he’d examined first thing that morning.

      His presence didn’t raise many eyebrows as he made his way to the nursery. The staff there were pretty used to him by now, ever since he’d joined Howard Cobb’s practice. When Caleb entered the nursery, he washed up and pulled on gloves.

      “Come to rock the babies, Dr. C?” Lisa Pope, one of the swing nurses, gave him a friendly smile over the minuscule diaper she was changing.

      “Any who need it?” He glanced at the clear-sided bassinets. The majority of them were empty. It was a slow night in the nursery.

      “Babies always need rocking.” As if to prove her point, she cradled her freshly diapered charge and sat in one of the wooden rocking chairs lined up against one of the walls. “But none of them tonight are missing a mommy or a daddy.”

      “So a slow night and a good night.”

      Lisa smiled over the tiny head cradled against her pink-and-blue scrubs. “Pretty much.”

      He took his time looking over his newest patient—an eight-pound little guy who sported a head full of brown hair and a serenely sleeping face. Caleb didn’t mind the nurses knowing that he came in sometimes just to rock the babies. Some didn’t have mothers in good enough condition to rock their restless infants. Some didn’t have any parents at all. Others had been born to perfectly normal moms and dads but were feeling outraged at finding themselves abruptly in a cold, bright world and didn’t like it one bit.

      He’d never particularly felt a need to let the nursery staff in on the real secret—that rocking those babies soothed something inside him, too. Truth was, most of the nursery staff probably felt that way themselves.

      But he wasn’t going to disturb the little guy’s slumber just because he was feeling restless. He wasn’t that selfish.

      He said good-night to Lisa, disposed of the gloves and headed back out of the hospital.

      What had it been like for Kelly when she’d given birth to Tyler?

      Had she been alone? Or had the man she’d found—the husband Georgette had told Caleb about all those years ago—been by her side?

      He walked briskly toward his truck, shaking off the pointless wondering. Whatever had happened between Kelly and Tyler’s father—was still happening, for all he knew—it was none of his business. Just because she wasn’t wearing a ring and she and her boy went by the name of Rasmussen didn’t mean she was single again.

      Available.

      And even if she were, chances were she still wanted nothing to do with him.

      Why would she?

      They’d been high school sweethearts. They’d been each other’s first. Even though they’d been just kids, it was a history. A history that had ended badly.

      His doing entirely, and one he took full responsibility for.

      But the last time they’d seen each other? When she’d told him flat out that she’d wanted to rock his world once more, simply for the pleasure of walking away from him afterward?

      That had been all her.

      He’d broken her heart once, and she’d proven just how well she’d recovered.

      He could even understand it. Some. After Melissa had dumped him, he’d gone out of his way proving to her that he was over her, too. Last he’d heard, she’d married a thoracic surgeon out in California. Caleb