To Begin Anew (Blue Jay Romance) (12 page)

Eric watched as Nikki took a minute to contemplate what he’d said to her, and then blink for another minute or so before she down and out laughed, staring at Debra in disbelief. “You’re a nanny? Oh, man, that’s so rich! Ha, ha! I thought that would be the last thing on Earth you’d want to do!”

Debra felt her face redden and not so much because she was embarrassed, but because she wanted to smack her sister silly. She knew she’d taught Nikki as many manners as she knew to teach and still she grew up into being a nearly classless human being who didn’t put much effort into stopping short of stomping on other people’s feelings.

She looked to Dr. Nelson and, for a minute, thought back to the moments they shared this morning that were almost too perfect to consider having actually happened, and she said, “Would you excuse me please? I should go shower and get dressed.” She looked at the disaster area that used to be her kitchen and sighed again. “Don’t worry about the kitchen, I’ll get it.”

Eric let his eyes follow Debra as she moved down her hall after basically dismissing him, and he resolved that she was not going to get her way and be the martyr. He lifted himself from the kitchen counter and, ignoring Nikki’s eyes at his back, set to cleaning the kitchen himself. He was like that, a multitasker of a man. That, and if someone said that he couldn’t do something, it made him want to do it all the more. Besides, he wasn’t sure he liked Debra’s younger sister and the way she treated Debra. It ate at him for some reason and keeping busy kept his mind from pondering on it.

“You know, I never thought I’d come back here to find her with anyone. I thought after Robert, she’d be alone forever,” Nikki said, not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Eric scraped what was left of his breakfast and what was congealed in the frying pan into the trash can as he listened to Debra’s sister. He said, not bothering to look at her, “Why would you think she’d be alone? No one wants to be alone.” He would know that better than anyone - as bad as his heart hurt, as completely as it had shattered, the thought of being alone was that much worse.

“She was engaged to be married, but well, things happened and it didn’t go well. She hasn’t really dated since then, so I just figured she didn’t want to be
involved
with anyone.”

It was hard for Eric to understand a person like Nikki. While her words didn’t sound as if they were malicious, she seemed to be totally unaware that what she was saying could hurt a person’s feelings. Was it that she didn’t know what she was doing, or that she didn’t care? He turned to look at her when her daughter started crying. He looked to Nikki and then to little Annie, and when she didn’t move to do anything, he asked, “Aren’t you going to see why she’s crying?”

Nikki shrugged. “She’s probably just tired from the four hour drive here. If I coddle her now, she’ll cry for all eternity.” Her voice sounded tired, bored and uninterested.

Eric hissed underneath his breath and, forgetting that he had a job to do in the kitchen, moved to where Annie was in her carrier, picked her up and held her to his chest until she stopped crying. Gently, he felt her bottom and realized that the girl had soaked through her diaper. It was suddenly clear that whatever talent Debra possessed as far as mothering went, her sister hadn’t been gifted nearly as well.

~*~*~

Debra felt alive when she stepped from her shower, and after she was dressed, she felt better equipped to deal with Nikki and her daughter and hoped to Whoever listened to the mantra in her head that Dr. Nelson had the good sense to leave and just give up on whatever he had planned. With her sister here and the attention she would demand be given to her, Debra couldn’t see how she and the good doctor would have any ‘friend time’ to spend together.

As she walked down the hall to the living area of her home, she realized she rarely got that lucky. Dr. Nelson was sitting on her sofa, talking to her sister and holding her niece in his arms as if it was completely natural for him to be there. Dear Lord, he was even making nonsense sounds and funny faces to get laughs and giggles from Annie.

Eric looked up from the baby he held in his arms and smiled as Debra took a seat in a chair across from him. He handed little Annie to her mother and as Debra’s eyes settled on him, he smiled. “Took you long enough.”

“”What are you still doing here?”

Eric looked at his watch, shrugged and replied, “I don’t have anything better going. Normally, when I have time like this, I catch up on paperwork or head up to the hospital to see if I can make myself useful. But today I just want to have a day off like most normal people.”

Nikki scoffed as she set Annie on the cushion next to her. The baby was old enough to sit up on her own and occupy herself, in her opinion. She said, “That’s what you call fun? You know what they say about a person who works all the time.” She winked at Eric for emphasis.

Debra glared at her sister, pulled her shoes from underneath the coffee table that sat between the chair she was in and the sofa they were on and as she pulled at the laces, she said, “I don’t care what either of you do.” A spike of a strange emotion trilled through her and Debra decided that she didn’t like it at all. She didn’t like the way her sister looked at Dr. Nelson or the fact that no longer than she’d been in the shower, Nikki had managed to turn the man into her servant.
Like all the men my sister ever met
, Debra thought.

With her shoes laced up and tied, Debra lifted herself from her chair and was through the front door and stepping beyond the porch before Dr. Nelson was coming out of the house and following behind her.

“Wait for me! I’m coming with you!”

Debra did as he asked, only because she knew that if she didn’t, he’d just follow behind her like some lost puppy. Or at least she thought that was what he would do - maybe it was just in her imagination. Somewhere deep inside her heart, she hoped she
wasn’t
imagining it.

Eric smiled as he sidled up to Debra, glad that he’d thought to grab his keys from the kitchen counter before he ran after her, and as she stared at him patiently, he said, “You’re going to leave me all alone?” He pouted, sticking his bottom lip out as if he were a child.

Debra folded her arms to her chest. “Looked like you were having a good time in there acting like an idiot and playing with my niece.”

Eric rolled his eyes and sighed. “Oh come on, that baby needed to be changed. I asked Nikki to do it and she looked at me as if I’d asked her to align the planets.” He thumbed his chest, “Doctor, remember?”

Debra looked toward Dr. Nelson’s car, then the street and then to Dr. Nelson himself. There wasn’t a whole lot to Blue Jay and certainly there wasn’t a lot to find around town to occupy yourself, but there was always an adventure to be had. “Put your keys in your pocket and come on. Hope you ain’t allergic to walking.”

“Where are we going?” Eric hoped he remembered to make sure to keep the whine out of his voice.

Debra smirked. “Nowhere in particular. Beats sitting on the couch, doesn’t it?” Debra liked to think that enjoying the scenery, feeling the ground beneath your shoes and feeling rooted and connected to everything in the universe was fun enough. Who cared about the destination? She took a look at the doctor’s face and sighed. “There’s a greenhouse down the street where you can pick strawberries out of season. Ever eaten a fresh-picked strawberry?”

Eric shook his head, a wide grin on his face. Most anything he’d ever eaten came from a grocery store or was delivered to his house. It wasn’t until he’d come to Blue Jay that getting the usual staples of a home became a little bit more of a process. Home cooked meals had a different taste to them, neighbors came by at all times during the week to offer him and the boys their homemade jams and jellies, some even carrying cartons of eggs. It became clear to him after a month or two that people in small towns took care of each other and thrived in a way that no other lifestyle in the world could claim. People were healthier, hardier and lived longer. It was a life he knew he’d done well in choosing for his children - that and the experience of true country living wasn’t something you could buy or watch in a movie.

Debra came to a stop, and she thumbed her chin as Dr. Nelson stood next to her. “Emma is the one who runs the greenhouse, but I don’t see her truck out front, so I’m guessing we’ll just have to pester her son, Billy.”

Eric took a look around, spotted the trees along the road and the small farm house that was obscured by most of them, and then beyond the house he could see what looked like the makings of a glass greenhouse - the kind that you might see speckled along a long stretch of highway going into the Breadbasket. Debra turned her body to start heading up to the house when Eric tugged on her sleeve and pointed. Debra had missed the truck because it was parked away from the street.

“Oh, there she is. Come on, I know Emma and she’ll let us eat strawberries until we throw up.” There was a slight tone of excitement in her voice and she knew it made her sound like a little kid, but she didn’t care. She was out in the fresh air, visiting with her friends and neighbors, having fun on an otherwise sleepy Sunday morning.

Debra pulled away from him and Eric watched her as she made her way towards the back of the farm. He’d not gotten a good look at her back at the house and while they walked on the street, his thoughts had been focused on what he thought he’d picked up as she’d stormed out of her own home. It was only now, in the full light of day, that he could get a good look at her and as he did, he had to stop walking. Her hair glowed in the light, highlighted with strands of reflective colors making her look as if she had a halo. Her shirt was loose, but her jeans were those new-fashioned hip huggers and as they came down to her calves, he could see she’d cuffed them around her tennis shoes. It was as if the music of the countryside ebbed and flowed and centered around Debra. In that moment, with the wind kicking up her hair and the sun making her glow, she was one of the most beautiful women Eric had ever seen.

Coming back to himself, realizing that he was standing in the middle of the road like the goofball he was, he shook his head and caught up to Debra just as she was giving Emma a hug against her will.

“You should come by more often! Look at you! I bet you’ve grown since the last time I saw you!” the older woman said, obviously excited to see Debra as if she’d been away for an extended period of time.

Eric wondered at the sentiment, since Debra was obviously finished with her growing. The woman talked to her as if she were still a girl and then it hit him that this lady must have known Debra as a child. For a reason he couldn’t explain even to himself, he was jealous of that.

As she disentangled herself from Emma, Debra smiled brightly at her and then took a step back so that the woman wouldn’t be tempted to give her another one of her famous bear hugs. As long as she’d known Emma, the woman had too much inside of her to give to contain all in one body, and anyone within a five foot radius of her was sucked into a hug whether they wanted one or not.

Debra looked over her shoulder, noticed that Dr. Nelson was hanging back and looking as if he was unsure if he should step forward or not, and she said, “Emma, this is Dr. Eric Nelson, Our Lady’s newest employee.”

Emma grinned, a few wisps of her peppered hair moving in the slight breeze where the tendrils had gotten loose from the severe bun at the back of her head. She nodded to herself. “I heard about you, boy. I don’t think the girls around town have done you justice enough. You sure are a handsome man.” There was a gleam of recognition in her eyes.

Eric rubbed the back of his head, not sure that was a compliment directed at him or not. He said, “Thank you, ma’am.” He looked past Emma and Debra to the greenhouse, and said, “Debra tells me that you grow strawberries?”

Emma nodded again. “Sure do, but I was just telling Debra here that the berries ain’t ripe yet. It’s a shame you came all this way.”

Eric shrugged and gave Emma one of his smiles. The woman, even though she was older than him by perhaps more than ten years, smiled back, her eyes not missing the fact that a man who smiled as brightly as he did could probably melt the polar ice caps all by his lonesome.

Emma said, “I do have some blueberries ready, if ya’ll want to have some fun with them. Debra here likes to put my blueberries in those famous muffins of hers.” A smile full of pride burst out on her face.

With that, Emma was leading them back through her greenhouse, which was larger than Eric thought just by judging it from the outside. Once the door was shut behind them, Emma waved them a little farewell and left them alone to do what they wanted.

“She sure trusts you with a lot. I’ll bet she doesn’t let just anyone wander inside here.”

Debra smirked at Dr. Nelson. “Yeah, well, Emma was a friend of my mother’s and I grew up with blueberries in my milk bottle.”