To Begin Anew (Blue Jay Romance) (5 page)

“Teach you?” David asked with a face splitting grin as Danny giggled with abandon.

Thinking at ninety times the speed of light was a natural thing for Debra and she replied, “Well, it seems to me that if I’m gonna be your nanny, then I need to know the best way to take care of you. I do know a lot, but every child is different, so I need to know how you say your prayers. Then I’ll be able to say them with you, won’t I?”

She could see the wheels turning in David’s mind just before he answered, “Okay, we’ll start.” Before he could glance over to the other bed, Danny had already turned toward him and was nodding.

In unison and sounding like harmonizing little angels - to Debra’s ears, anyway - they began. “Dear God, thank You for giving us this day and bless all who came our way. When our daddy turns out the light, stay with us all through the night. God bless all our teachers and all the kids in school. And God… bless daddy because he needs You, too.” They paused for less than half a beat and David said, his voice quiet and reverent, “God, hold our mommy near and tell her we wish she was still here.”

Debra could barely hold back the tears building up in her eyes, but what Danny said next made them fall freely down her face. “And God, bless Miss Brown. We want her to stick around.”

~*~*~

When the boys had finished their prayer, had their foreheads lovingly kissed by their daddy and were blissfully sleeping, Dr. Nelson led Debra to the living room. He went into the kitchen and made them each a cup of hot cocoa, for which she was surprisingly grateful.

Debra sighed as she reclined on the doctor’s sofa and as she took a look around, she had to absorb the family history that permeated the room through the dozen or so pictures that littered the living area. Here, there was a picture of his wife, rosy-cheeked and full of health, hugging her twin sons as if they were the air she breathed. There, beside it, was a picture of Dr. Nelson and his wife together, his handsome face full of love. It was sad then, knowing how much he’d lost and how much those pictures probably reminded him of that loss. If it was her in his place and it had been her spouse who had died, she would have taken all the pictures down.

Eric took a seat beside Debra, keeping his distance, looking into his steaming cup thoughtfully. She looked subdued, equally as thoughtful, and as nice as the night had turned out to be, he wasn’t in a hurry to break the silence.

“So, I’ve been thinking.”

Eric blinked. He could only imagine what was running through that brain of hers. “About what?”

Debra looked at Dr. Nelson. “I might regret this later, but I guess if you have no other choice, I’ll take care of David and Danny.”

Eric took a sip of his cocoa to conceal his smile. “You won’t regret it.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Debra glanced at the wall clock that could just barely be seen from Dr. Nelson’s kitchen and standing, she said, “I think it’s time for me to go.”

Eric stood with her and as she walked to the door, he beat her to it and opened it for her. She tried to move by him, and was caught between his body and the frame of the door.

Eric noticed when he’d made the mistake, but then it was too late and he was much too conscious of Debra. Before he had to hear her say something, he squeezed by her. Her face was blushed deeply, her cheeks looking as if they were on fire.

“I’m sorry,” Eric said, hoping that it would be enough to deflect from the faint blush on his face.

Debra swallowed, forcing herself not pay attention to the attraction there seemed to be floating between herself and Dr. Nelson. She straightened and said, hovering between the frame of the door and the outside, “Drop them off by the B and B in the morning, and I’ll have whatever they need ready. We can take a walk to the school, it’s not far.”

As Debra moved off, Eric goofily waved goodbye to her, and she turned once to look back at him before she shook her head.

It took Eric’s brain all of one second before he realized that Debra was walking home on foot in the middle of the night. Shutting the door behind him, he ran out and caught up to her before she was at the end of his driveway.

“Wait!”

Debra turned and waited for Dr. Nelson to catch his breath before she asked him, “What now? Did I leave something behind?”

Eric inhaled, then let his breath out, hands on his knees. Sure, he looked fit as a fiddle and in the nighttime atmosphere he must have looked like a carved statue come to life, but he was sadly out of shape. Finally able to breathe right, he said, “You can’t walk home in the dark.” He straightened. “I won’t let you.”

Debra put her hands on her hips, feeling the spunky side of her personality emerge as if it had been summoned. “And just who do you think you are? I can take care of myself just fine, thank you. I
have
taken care of myself for many years now.”

Eric ran a hand through his hair and wondered if he’d ever be able to avoid a fight with this woman. There were parts of him that loved to argue with her - it was the first time in months he’d felt alive - but there were other parts of him that were just too tired to want to keep up with her. He sighed, “Could you please, for my sanity, just let me take you home?”

Debra shook her head. “You can’t leave those boys alone, even for the few minutes it would take you to drive me back to my place.” Debra eyed the perplexed-looking doctor. “I walk all the time. This town isn’t like a big city and the dangers in walking alone at night aren’t really the same.” She chuckled. “The most I have to worry about is an errant raccoon.”

Eric folded his arms to his chest. He could tell, even by the light of the moon that illuminated his driveway, that Debra wasn’t going to easily bend to his way of thinking. It would have been painless to just let him protect her, even if she did make her own sort of sense. He huffed. “Well, if I can’t see you home, then the only solution is to let you stay the night. I’ll leave the house early and drop you and the boys off at your place.”

Debra lifted an eyebrow. She liked the boys - really, if she was being honest, she sort of adored them - and it would warm her to cook breakfast for them. However, the other things that ran through her mind at the thought of spending the night in the good doctor’s home made her frown. What would people think?

Eric sensed where her thoughts were leading. He’d seen that look on another woman’s face once upon a time. “I have a guest bedroom. It has a lock on the inside of the door. For your sake, I’d use it because when the boys wake up in the morning, they’ll bounce all over you.”

Debra’s frown deepened. Was that him deciding for her? She looked around her, noted how dark it was, and even though she was quite right about it being perfectly safe to walk home on her own, there was a certain creepiness inherent in the surrounding blackness.

Debra sighed. “Alright, but this is the first and last time I’m gonna go along with this.”

Eric let a breath out. This was worse than trying to corral a patient that didn’t want a shot in the rear. Sometimes it was necessary to take the choice out of the situation. He was being honest about his sanity. He would have worried all night about her, and then half the day, wondering if she’d made it home.

~*~*~

Eric set blankets out for her in the spare bedroom, apologizing for the fact the room hardly looked fit for human habitation. It had been the idea to have a place for the nanny when it was necessary for her to spend time at the house, but with the way things had gone with Julia, he was glad it never came up.

“What in the world am I supposed to do with these?” Debra frowned, yet again, and wondered if pulling an upside-down smile was going to be the start of another trend with this man. “That bed was made for a dwarf. My feet are going to stick off the end.”

Eric ran a hand through his hair and briefly debated whether or not he was going to pull it out in large chunks. “It can’t be helped.” The sigh that followed was exasperation leaking out of him in the best way it could.

Debra shrugged. “You have a nice looking couch. Let’s go with that.”

Eric rolled his eyes, in a way that he hoped Debra didn’t see, and he walked out with her to the living room, the tail-end of the blankets he’d grabbed for her trailing the carpet. When he was standing next to the couch, he set the blankets at one corner. He took a second to look at his watch.

“If that’s all you need, I’m going to bed. Morning comes early around here.” Eric headed towards the hall that led off to his room and just before he reached it, he said over his shoulder, “Thank you.”

Debra smirked at the sentiment, but nodded her head. When Dr. Nelson was gone, disappeared behind a door, she sank into the sofa, put her feet up on one of the arms like a country gal with no manners and pulled the blanket he offered around her.

What in the world was she thinking? In one day that doctor had managed to obliterate her perfectly earned freedom - she just hoped she didn’t regret her decision. She didn’t know how she knew, but she felt in her heart that all three of them needed her. It was just dandy to be needed, wasn’t it?

Before she drifted off completely, she sent up a prayer to the Big Guy. “God, bless the choices I’ve made today.”

~*~*~

Something was wrong, she just knew it. She wasn’t awake, but Debra could feel a tug at her senses that threatened to pull her right out of the blissful slumber that she’d fought so hard for. She’d greatly underestimated how hard it was to sleep on a couch, and it had been in the last three hours that she’d finally been able to wrangle enough sheep over the fence to nod off.

“Miss Brown! Miss Brown!”

What was that? Had a bird learned to say her name? It sounded - in her realm of unconsciousness - like a parrot chirping. In the most annoying way possible. Debra felt a sharp tug to her shoulder, felt pain as some of her hair was unintentionally pulled and as she peeked one eye open, she discovered a pair of blue eyes looking down at her. The eyes were full and round and bright with happiness - very awake eyes that she was sure didn’t match her own.

Silently, Debra prayed that she wasn’t about to throw a child across the room. Even God, in His infinite wisdom, wouldn’t forgive that kind of lapse in sanity. Of course, she recognized it was David, straddling her middle like an eager puppy. As she rolled her eyes to the side, she noticed Danny was next to the sofa doing a little jump-squat dance and not as exuberant as his brother, but equally as interested to get their nanny awake.

Debra sighed and opened her other eye. She started to open her mouth, to ask in the nicest way possible for the child in her lap to get off of her, when she heard Dr. Nelson call out, “Want some coffee?”

She pulled herself from the couch, David falling off to the side as he giggled like an alarm clock that had been programmed to laugh when it was set, and as she eyed both of the boys, she felt like growling until Dr. Nelson set a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.

Without saying a word of thanks, she picked up the mug and sighed as the first taste of the hot caffeine hit her tongue. After she took a few tentative swallows, she mumbled, “Thanks.”

Eric smiled at Debra, thinking absently that there couldn’t be a cuter person alive that looked like her first thing in the morning. And he wasn’t going to say anything about David and Danny - after all, he
had
warned her. The boys had meandered out of their rooms at the crack of dawn and before they’d even come into his room to rip him from his slumber, they’d seen Debra on the couch and then pandemonium ensued. It was all he could do to keep them from bouncing all over her and he’d just barely managed to do that long enough so he could brew some coffee.

He sat across from Debra, his own cup of coffee hot in his hands and he risked looking her in the eyes. The woman, even though calm, looked as if she could eat a small infant for breakfast. Apparently, she didn’t enjoy waking up with twin children for alarm bells.

“I’m sorry.” His tone implied the unnecessary I-told-you-so that he really wanted to say.

Debra shrugged. Sure she wasn’t the happiest person ever to walk the Earth at the moment, but she wasn’t going to go postal on account of it. After a fashion, she was happy that the children had taken to her so fast. She couldn’t explain it, but the pair of them warmed her in a way that nothing else could. She said, “No worries.” Surprisingly, she felt that she actually meant it.

Debra turned to David, who had moved to sit next to her, his eyes looking up at her expectantly. “Good morning, David.” She then scruffled his hair as she’d seen their father do, and so that he wasn’t left out, she scruffled Danny as well. “Good morning to you too, Danny.”