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“That’s okay.” He lifted his helmet to put it back on. He didn’t have Mr. Hazard’s phone number, but he could leave Anne a message at the number he’d called this morning. Then he could kill some time at his office in the birthing center preparing for the staff meeting next week. “I’ll catch up with Mr. or Mrs. Hazard later.”
“It’s no problem. Autumn’s right over there on the lodge porch.”
He followed Myles’s outstretched arm to the large log building next to the parking lot, where Autumn was walking down the stairs. Jon weighed which was more asinine, his insisting on not talking to Autumn or his reluctance to tell her he’d locked himself out.
Myles relieved him of the decision. “Hey, Autumn, this guy needs to talk to you.”
Autumn turned quickly, causing her almost-waist-length ponytail to swing over her shoulder. She waved an acknowledgment.
A feeling of protectiveness waved over him as she walked over. He turned to the boys. “I know you’re trying to help, but you don’t know who I am.”
They looked at him blankly. “Should we?” Myles’s friend asked.
Was he that clueless when he was a teen? Probably. “I could be anyone. You don’t know that Autumn knows me.”
“Hi, Jon.”
The teen looked from him to Autumn. “But she does.”
“Never mind, and thanks for the help.”
“What was that about?” Autumn asked.
“I was looking for your grandfather or stepmother, and the dark-haired one, Myles, immediately volunteered to get you, without asking who I was or what I wanted.”
“They’re fifteen. They were probably too interested in your bike to remember their elementary school stranger-danger training.”
Jon didn’t know why her blithely dismissing his concern irritated him. What did it matter?
“You were looking for Grandpa or Anne. Is there a problem at the house?”
“Kind of.” He dropped his gaze and tapped his helmet against his thigh. “I seem to have locked myself out.”
Autumn made a soft choking sound and he looked up to see her lips twitch as she tried to contain her smile.
“I don’t suppose you have a key to my side of the house.”
Her smile broke through. “No, I don’t. Anne probably does at the house. Come on, I’ll take you to her. You can leave your helmet. It’ll be fine. I’ll tell Myles to keep an eye on it and your bike. They’re done cleaning the campers’ cabins.”
He surveyed the forest surrounding the parking lot and the kids milling around the camp and held on to the helmet.
A towheaded boy of about three charged at them when they entered the lodge. “Aunt Autumn. You came back.”
She scooped him up before he collided with Jon. “Silly Sam.” She rubbed noses with the toddler. “Of course I came back. I said I would.”
“Your nephew?” He didn’t know Autumn had any brothers or sisters. Then, why should he?
“No, Sam is my cousin. He belongs to my aunt Jinx and uncle Drew. Drew is the camp director. But Sam decided that, if Anne is Aunt Anne, I should be Aunt Autumn.”
The little boy nodded and pointed to a group of women talking on the other side of the room. “Aunt Anne.”
One of them looked like a slightly older, taller version of Autumn, right down to the long blond ponytail, or in her case, braid. Another was an attractive woman with light brown hair who looked about his age, thirtyish. The third woman was older, probably Anne, Autumn’s stepmother. Numerous children, all too young to be campers, surrounded the women.
“Who are you?” Sam asked.
Jon shoved his free hand into the front pocket of his jeans. Aside from the babies he delivered, children were alien creatures to him. “I’m Doc...Jon.”
“Uncle DocJon?” Sam faced Autumn, waiting for her answer.
A blush spread across her face and Jon noticed a light spattering of freckles on her patrician nose that he hadn’t noticed before.
“No,” she said, “just Jon or Dr. Jon.” She looked at him for confirmation.
He nodded. He’d been taught to address adults by Mr. or Mrs. or Dr. So-and-So, in the case of his parents’ associates. But it wasn’t like he was going to be seeing the kid on a regular basis.
“Sam has also decided that adults should come in pairs—mommies and daddies and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles.”
“Oh.” That sounded brilliant, but he didn’t know what else to say. He looked pointedly at the group of women across the room, who were now moving toward them with a stream of kids behind. He should have just gone to his office at the birthing center.
Autumn waved them on. “Everyone, this is Dr. Jonathan Hanlon, the new director at the birthing center.” She went around the circle introducing the women as her aunt, grandmother—not stepmother—and Anne, and identifying the various children, ending with, “These are my brothers, Ian and Alex, and my sister, Sophia.”
“Call me Jon, please.” He felt a tug on his pant leg.
The little girl Autumn had introduced as her sister stood beside him, hands on hips. “Are you Autumn’s new boyfriend?”
“Sophia,” Anne cautioned.
Autumn seemed to be studying the laces of her sneakers.
“What? I was just asking.” Sophia raised her big blue eyes to him. “Autumn’s old boyfriend had to move somewhere else and she was sad. She needs a new boyfriend.”
Jon coughed. He didn’t think that was a position he was going to step into. When he’d asked Autumn out at Samaritan, she’d shot him down with a terse, “No, thank you.”
“No, Sophia, he’s not my new boyfriend. He works at the birthing center with me. I told you that when I have a new boyfriend, you’ll be the first to know.”
“’Cause we’re sisters.”
“Yep, because we’re sisters.”
“Sorry about that,” Anne said.
Obviously, the Hazard family didn’t subscribe to the tenet of “children should be seen and not heard”—or better yet, not seen and not heard—that he’d been raised with.
“Did you get all moved in?” Close up, Anne looked a little older than he had originally thought, but not old enough to be Autumn’s mother.
Like many of his father’s colleagues, Autumn’s father apparently had gone with a younger wife the second time around and a second family. He attributed his parents’ adherence to their marriage vows to the fact that they rarely saw each other. That and their passion to out-accomplish each other. His father couldn’t be happy sharing his mother’s research breakthroughs. He had to offset them with a new surgical procedure—and vice versa. To avoid anything resembling his parents’ relationship, Jon had made a pact with himself never to date other doctors.
He shook off the memories and answered Anne’s question. “Yes. Thanks for alerting the movers that I was on my way.”
“But he has another problem,” Autumn said. “He’s locked himself out. Dad must have another key at the house.”
He glared at Autumn. She couldn’t have pulled Anne aside and asked?
“We did,” Anne said. “But Alex flushed it down the toilet.”
“Sophie dared me do it,” Alex said as if that explained the matter.
“You tried the realty office?” Anne asked.
“Yes, I left a message there and on the Realtor’s cell phone. I’m surprised I haven’t heard back.”
“He’s probably out showing a property. If you haven’t noticed yet, cell phone coverage can be very spotty here. My father-in-law should have a key. Mary?” She turned to her mother-in-law.
“He does,” Autumn’s grandmother said. “It’s on his key chain. He’ll be back anytime. He went to the hardware store and is going to stop and pick up pizza for everyone. You’re more than welcome to stay and have some with us.”
After spending the day helping the movers, he’d thought he’d take a bike ride, which he had, get some takeout and relax in front of the TV. He glanced around the noisy room. Relax alone.
Autumn locked his gaze with hers. “We may be a little much for Jon.” She motioned around the room. “The kids and all.”
He tensed. She didn’t think he could handle them. Jon imagined eating with the kids. Tomato sauce, spilled drinks, grubby fingers. He pasted a smile on his face. “Sounds good, thanks. While I wait, I think I’ll go check out the lake.” He wasn’t going to let a few kids intimidate him. If his father had taught him anything, it was that a Hanlon never showed weakness.
* * *
Autumn watched Jon stride across the room and out the door. The speed at which he left confirmed her feeling that he’d been uncomfortable with her large, noisy family. She’d been certain he’d go off in a corner to wait for Grandpa, get his key and go back to the duplex. She had no idea why he’d agreed to stay.
A minute later, the screen door to the lodge pushed back open. “Was that who I think it was heading down to the beach?” Jamie’s voice carried across the room. “You had a change of heart?”
Autumn felt her family members’ eyes on her.
“Go ahead down to the lake if you want, honey,” Grandma said. “We really are done.”
Just what she didn’t need. The other women in her family joining in with Sophie and Jamie to try to fix her up with Jon.
“Eli,” Autumn said to the tall man who’d followed Jamie in with her daughters beside him, “can’t you do something with her?”
“No, not a thing. Why, what’s she up to?”
“Matchmaking.”
Jamie shook her head. “I’m encouraging her to get to know the new director of the birthing center better. We passed him on our way in.”
Autumn’s aunt Jinx caught her attention and rolled her eyes. At least someone was on her side. Maybe she should head home and catch the alone time she’d planned on this morning.
“Pizza delivery,” Grandpa’s voice boomed from the lodge porch, taking care of that decision.
“I’ll open the door,” Ian said, racing across the room.
She smiled. Anne was strict about what she let the kids eat, so pizza was a real treat for Ian. That had to have been a change for Dad, who’d pretty much figured in pizza as one of the three major food groups when Autumn was growing up.
“Go let your friend know food is here,” Gram said.
Her friend. As if she was Ian’s age. No, she was being too sensitive. As she passed by Grandpa, the spicy smells of the pizzas made her stomach growl, reminding her that all she’d had to eat today was the coffee with Jon and a granola bar she’d grabbed from the camp kitchen midafternoon. That would explain a lot of her crankiness.
“I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder as the door swung closed behind her. “Save some of the veggie pizza for me.”
“You can have it all,” Ian said, and everyone laughed.
Autumn paused on the porch. Jon could be anywhere along the lakeshore, so she headed to the most obvious spot—the camp swimming dock. The evening sun filtering through the trees made an interesting shadow pattern on the wide gravel path to the lake. When the dock came into view, she raised her hand over her eyes to block the sun and scanned its length for Jon. He wasn’t there. Fabulous. Her stomach growled again.
“Jon, pizza’s here.” Her voice echoed over the still water. She looked up and down the length of the camp’s waterfront as she listened for a response. She didn’t see or hear anything. Maybe he’d gotten tired of waiting and left. Except his bike helmet was up at the lodge, and she didn’t think he’d be that rude. More likely, he’d decided to take a run along the beach. He could be halfway around the lake. And she wasn’t about to hike the circumference looking for him.
Walking toward the dock, she spotted one of the megaphones the camp lifeguards used. She flicked the battery switch. “Jon, pizza.” This time her voice boomed over the lake, and she caught a motion to her right.
Jon jogged over to her. “That’s some voice you’ve got.”
She lifted the megaphone. “Me and AmpliVox. You didn’t hear me the first time?”
He shook his head and gazed out at the water. “It’s so quiet here. I’m surprised I didn’t. But I was a ways up the beach.”
“Quiet for now. Wait until tomorrow when the new campers arrive. That will make the family crew up at the lodge look like nothing.”
He frowned.
“So you admit it. You found the family a little intimidating.”
“I admit to nothing.” A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “You didn’t happen to bring the pizza with you, did you?”
“No, I did not. But my brother Ian is saving some of the veggie one.”
“I’m more of a meat lover’s fan myself.”
Of course he was.
“Autumn, Autumn.” Ian raced up to them. “You have a phone call.”
“Do you know who it is, sweetie?”
“Your friend Kelly. She talked to Opal’s mother, but she wants to talk to you.”
Autumn turned to Jon. “It might be one of our mothers, although we don’t have anyone due for a couple of weeks.” She hurried ahead to the lodge.
Jamie handed her the lodge phone. “Kelly said to call her back on her cell phone.”
Autumn dialed the number and listened while Kelly explained the situation. “Okay, I’ll need to stop by my house. See you in a bit. Bye.”
She placed the phone on the table. “Sorry, Gram, Aunt Jinx. I have to go. Oh, Jon, did you get your key?”
“Yes. Is there a problem with one of your mothers?”
