The Runaway Nurse. Dianne Drake

her a little more.

      In a sense, Summer did feel guilty sheltering her daughter the way she did. When they’d lived with Grace she’d had Molly to play with. Still did, whenever she took Alyssa up to Gracie House for either Edie or Mrs. Murdock, the housekeeper, to watch. And now Chris Navarro was in her life. So Alyssa’s world was definitely expanding. But was that enough for her? Summer did worry about that. Worried about Alyssa picking up her anxieties, too.

      “So maybe taking that job at the hospital and giving Alyssa the chance to interact with all the children in the day-care center would be a good thing,” she said to Clancy. He was the huge orange tomcat that had adopted them when they’d moved into the cottage. Apparently, he’d called it home for quite a while before she and Alyssa had arrived, and had no problem at all sharing it, especially with people who fed him on a regular basis. A gentle soul, really, he snuggled into Summer’s side when she plopped down on the sofa and picked up a medical journal to read. “She just lights up around other children,” she continued to the cat. “Loved playing with Molly and Chris this evening. So tell me, Clancy. Am I being too over-protective? I mean, this is Lilly Lake, New York. It’s safe here. Out of the way. Who’s going to come here looking for me?”

      Who, indeed. Maybe an ex-husband? A thought that chilled her to the bone. Only thing was, thinking about the job Rick had offered warmed her. So did the image of Rick that popped into her mind.

      “Besides, I’d really love to work again. Have a permanent position. And Rick’s offer …” She scratched Clancy behind the ears, eliciting his purr. “Sure, life is easy for you. You have someone to take care of you. Don’t have to worry about anything because it’s all being provided for you, you lucky cat.”

      In a sense, though, Grace had done the same for her. And it was Grace on her mind when she picked up the phone quite a while later and dialed Rick Navarro’s cellphone.

      “Hello,” he said, his voice thick.

      “Hi, Rick. It’s Summer. Did I wake you?” She glanced at the clock, surprised to see that it was well after eleven.

      He cleared his throat before he answered. “You’re not craving more blue goo, are you?”

      He always did that, always made her smile. “What I’m craving is a meeting in the morning. One where we discuss the terms of my new job.”

      “Well, that was definitely worth waking up for,” he said, suddenly sounding alert.

      The thing was, she was having quite the opposite reaction. Now that she’d committed herself, all she wanted to do was go curl up for a nice, cozy sleep. Something she hadn’t done since she couldn’t remember when. Normally, her sleep was rigid, interrupted, unrestful. But something about her decision, something about hearing Rick’s voice the last thing in her day … definitely a good night’s sleep ahead.

      CHAPTER TWO

      “IT’s a pretty straightforward idea, Summer. We want to expand the pediatric department, integrate more kinds of medical services, especially rehabilitation.” Rick pushed a rough-up of the floor plan across the desk to Summer. “We’ve got the space allotted, and the architects are working on some ideas to maximize the space we already have so they can integrate that into the new space we’re going to build. In total, we’re going to double the square footage and bring in an additional five services we haven’t offered before. In size, this expansion equals what we’re doing in trauma, and it’s going to give us the largest pediatric service in the region.”

      She studied the plan for a moment, liked what she saw. Lilly Lake Hospital, as it operated now, had a tidy little pediatric department that offered the basics. It was good already, but what Rick had in mind was going to make it great. Being part of it excited her. More than that, it revived the passion she’d once felt for medicine, passion she’d lost during her marriage and had never recovered. Now she could feel the tingle. But she had to keep it reined in until she was actually hired, and Rick did still have to go over her credentials. That made her nervous. They were solid, no faking her background, but would they be enough for him now that she was under the microscope, so to speak? “I’ve never run an entire department. Just an intensive care unit. Is that good enough for you?”

      “Grace found you and hired you, so that’s good enough for me.”

      “And the day-care unit?”

      “Maybe not a top priority, but we can get it launched in a small capacity almost immediately.”

      It was sounding more and more appealing.

      “So, what aren’t you telling me?” There was always a catch, wasn’t there? That little hidden bit of information that didn’t come out until after the fact. Like a husband who enjoyed beating his wife but hadn’t shown the proclivity until after they were married.

      “Nothing that I can think of.”

      She looked hard into Rick’s eyes, studied them for a moment, then nodded. “OK, then …” She saw no guile there. Saw no mean spirit. “With the provision that there will be a day-care program, I’ll take the job.” And just like that, she was committed. Also excited.

      “Done deal, then.”

      “That’s too easy,” she quipped.

      “It was meant to be. I realized somewhere between your second and third refusal that we had to figure your daughter into the equation. I have a great housekeeper and nanny looking after Chris, but if I didn’t, I’d want him here, with me. So I put myself in your position and saw that someone to care for Alyssa was probably the only thing stopping you from accepting.”

      “That’s being overly optimistic, don’t you think?” Or extremely observant.

      “Maybe. But the gamble paid off, didn’t it? I’ve done the preliminary work toward getting the day-care center off the ground, and you’ve accepted the job.”

      “I’m not really that easy,” she said, feeling flattered, and a little awkward about how well he could anticipate her.

      “Not easy at all. You’ve caused me to lose sleep, Summer.”

      “Let me guess. You lay awake at night, trying to figure out what it would take to persuade me to accept the position. Right?”

      He grinned. “Something like that.”

      “Well, then …” She stood, not sure what else to do at this point. “I’ll start tomorrow.”

      “Tomorrow. Oh, and day care will be open. I hired someone to watch the children until we’re fully functional and have a real staff in place.”

      “Qualified?”

      “Eminently. She was my third-grade teacher. Retired now. I’ve put her in charge, temporarily, with the option of staying on to head the program, if she’s as good as I think she’ll be.”

      A new job, a place where Alyssa would be safe … Just like that, her life had changed yet again. But it was a good change. This time. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself all the way home.

      Jess Corbett plopped down in the chair across the desk from Rick. “You look like you just opened a whole bunch of Christmas presents,” he said, smiling. “All of them good.”

      “In a way, I did,” Rick said. “Summer’s finally consented to being head nurse in Pediatrics.”

      “Well. I’ll be damned. It only took you, what? Three months? Julie said she wasn’t sure Summer would ever do it, but I figured if you wanted her bad enough, you’d figure out a way to get her. So, what did it take?” Jess stretched out his long legs and leaned back in the chair, cupping his hands behind his head. “And is this going to be a long story? Because I’ve got to go see a patient on my way out, go home and have breakfast with my lovely wife, then teach a class on CPR.”

      Rick was beginning to like Jess. Not completely there yet, but working on it and trying hard