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“I think it’s best.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“In the meantime, if you need to get in touch with me, you can call through the hospital operator. They’ll know how to find me.”
She wondered if he was hoping she’d call him in half an hour and tell him she’d changed her mind about everything. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. “I’ll be fine. So will the children. I promise that at the end of the day there will have been no fatalities.”
“That’s reassuring.”
She watched him nod to Em and head for the door. She might have reaffirmed her decision that he was just as cold as ice, if it hadn’t been for what happened right before he opened the door.
A small child, a boy with carrot-red hair, who seemed to move faster and more steadily than someone his size should, ran up and clung to Jared’s legs.
“Nooo!” the child cried, clearly trying to stop Jared from leaving.
Melanie expected Jared to brush him off in a pleasant but firm manner. Instead he reached down and swooped the child into the air.
“It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s Superkid!”
The child screamed with laughter.
Jared laughed, too, and Melanie’s breath caught in her chest. The laugh completely transformed his face. He had dimples for one thing, not childlike little dents but manly smile lines. She hadn’t noticed them before, although he’d smiled politely once or twice yesterday. But not real smiles like this. His eyes crinkled at the corners, making him look as kind as a favorite grandfather.
In fact, for just one crazy moment, Melanie could see him as a grandfather many years down the road. In her mind’s eye, she saw him, a little older, a little gray at the temples, reaching down in the same motion for a little boy with dark hair and green eyes….
“Okay, sport, I’ve gotta go,” Jared said, giving the child a final toss-and-catch before placing him gently on the floor.
“Nooo!” the little boy cried again, clutching at Jared’s pant leg. “Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go! Play ba!”
Jared knelt in front of the child and took his tiny hands in his. “How about if I come back and play ball after lunch?”
The boy chewed his lip, as if considering. “Lunch?”
“After lunch,” Jared said. “If you’re a good boy till then, we’ll play a little ball before I go back to work.”
The child’s face brightened. “I be good!”
Jared laughed. “Then I’ll see you after lunch.”
Em walked up behind Melanie and watched the scene with her. “That’s little Johnny Souffel. Last month he turned three and still hadn’t said a word. Dr. Cross has been treating him for just over four weeks and the difference, as you can see, is remarkable.”
Melanie was surprised. Granted, she didn’t know much about children, but she wouldn’t have believed that a month ago Johnny didn’t talk. “So Dr. Cross does something here other than family planning?” she asked Em.
“Oh, my, yes. Dr. Cross is the finest child psychiatrist in all of Texas. Maybe even in the whole United States.”
Melanie turned to Em. “Child psychiatrist? Are you serious?”
“Yes, indeed.”
She wanted to ask why on earth he was wasting his time and talent trying to talk people out of having children, but she didn’t know Em well enough for that. “So he just volunteers at the clinic or something?”
“Oh, yes, he’s done it for years. He’s a fierce child-welfare advocate. He’s done a lot of good work at the clinic, and arranged more than a few very successful adoptions.” Em clucked her tongue like a proud mother hen. “The children are so lucky to have him.”
Melanie watched little Johnny go over to an older boy and hold a block out to him. “You play?” he asked, and the older child took the block and set it on the pile he’d already arranged into a wall.
Then Johnny went over and knocked the whole thing down.
“You had a different impression of Dr. Cross, didn’t you?” Em asked gently.
Melanie began to object, but the director held up a hand and said, “A lot of people get the wrong impression when they first meet him.”
Melanie smiled. “I guess it’s fair to say that I didn’t think he was the kindly type when I first met him.”
Em chuckled. “I don’t think I’m telling tales out of school when I say that Dr. Cross has a more natural rapport with children than adults. But he’s a good man. I like him very much.”
Although Melanie couldn’t go so far as to agree with everything Em said, she nodded. “It certainly looks as if the children like him.”
“There’s no better gauge of character than that,” Em said, then let out an alarmed exclamation and called, “Allison, Paul, we do not pour water on each other’s heads!” She gave Melanie a quick, exasperated smile. “Excuse me. Duty calls. Why don’t you get to know the children?”
But how? Melanie wanted to ask, but the director had already gone to tend to the crisis. She’d simply approach one of the kids and get started that way. It wasn’t that big a deal. She’d chatted with dignitaries from all over the world; she’d been to state dinners at the White House and tea at Buckingham Palace.
Children couldn’t be that much more intimidating.
A nurse walked in holding a small toddler. She approached Melanie and shifted the child from one hip to the other. “Hi, I’m Linda Darrow,” she said. “Do you know where Em is?”
Melanie started to point to where Em had just been with Allison and Paul, but she was nowhere to be seen. “She was just here. I’m sure she’ll be back in a moment.”
Linda looked at her watch. “Oh, rats, I’m already late for my shift.”
“Is there something I could help you with?” Melanie asked, hoping she sounded more confident than she was.
The woman frowned. “Do you work here?”
“No. Well, yes, but only temporarily. You see, I—”
“Wait a minute. You’re Melanie Tourbier!” Linda gasped. She clapped a hand to her cheek. “Oh my gosh, I thought that was just a rumor!”
Melanie felt her face go hot. “You thought what was a rumor?”
“That you were here at the hospital.” The nurse shook her head. “I thought you looked familiar…You don’t look like your pictures.”
“Pictures can be manipulated. Believe me.”
“I know it,” Linda said. “My husband was at the airport last month and got a picture taken that looks just like he’s standing there with the President. Of course, it’s just a cutout.”
Melanie laughed.
“What on earth are you doing working in the nursery?” Linda asked, then lowered her voice. “Are you trying to escape the paparazzi?”
That was a fortunate by-product of being in South Texas. So far, the paparazzi didn’t know she was here. With any luck, they’d concentrate on more interesting people and not even look. Although she was modest about how interesting she was to the public, Melanie was realistic enough to know that, thanks to Roberto’s book, her being here to get artificially inseminated was newsworthy to the tabloids.
“Actually, Linda,” she said in a confidential tone, “I’m here for a medical procedure, but I don’t really want people to know I’m here, if I can avoid it.”
Linda made the sign of locking her lips and throwing away the key. “They won’t hear it from me. In fact, I’ll squelch the rumors if I can.”
Melanie smiled. “Thanks. Now, since I am working here for the moment, what can I do for you?”
“I need to leave Dan here for a couple of hours this morning.” Again she shifted her grip on the squirming toddler. “My mother normally takes him but she has a dental appointment. Em knows I have to spring this on her every once in a while, but usually I’m able to give her at least a little warning.”
“No problem,” Melanie said, hoping she was right and that it wasn’t going to be a problem for Em. “You just leave little Dan with me and I’ll see to it that he gets the very best care.”
“Thanks.” Linda shuffled the warm bundle to Melanie’s arms without hesitation. “My mom will be here by noon. Em knows her.” She glanced at her watch again and made a face. “Gotta run. It was nice meeting you, and don’t worry, mum’s the word!”
She rushed off, leaving Melanie standing there with the toddler in her arms, staring at her. He didn’t seem afraid, merely curious. His little face, just a few inches from hers, was so cute she nearly laughed.
“Hi there,” she said to him.
He blinked his large blue eyes, studying her silently.
“You want to play?” she asked.
He still didn’t answer. She wondered if he understood her.
“How about if we read a book?”
At this, his eyes lit up and he smiled. “Book,” he repeated, enunciating the k. “Book.”
Melanie felt nothing short of triumphant. “Yes, book!” They were communicating. It was a great feeling. “Let’s find a book.”
She carried him over to a shelf of picture books and leaned over to pick one. “Oh, Goodnight Moon,” she said, in a tone of reverence. She took the familiar favorite off the shelf and looked at the picture on the front. She hadn’t seen it in at least twenty years and probably longer, but she knew every tiny detail right down to the number of stars out the window.
One of the clearest memories she had of her mother was of her reading Goodnight Moon to her when she was small. “And goodnight to the old lady whispering ‘hush’…”
She carried the book and the child to a large comfortable rocking chair and sat down to read. The boy settled in against her, his blond head warm against her chest.
Melanie smiled down at the top of his head, then opened the book. “‘In the great green room,”’ she started, then stopped for a moment, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.
The boy turned in her lap and touched her chin.
She reached up and twined the little fingers in hers. “‘There was a telephone and a red balloon and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon.”’
The boy pointed a pudgy little finger and moved it across the next page to the picture of the little mouse. Melanie laughed with sheer delight, remembering how she used to do that same thing herself. Find the mouse in every color picture. She supposed it was something all parents passed on to their children.
He moved his finger to the picture of the window. “Star,” he said, pointing at the little white specks.
“That’s right, stars.”
She read the rest of the book, stopping to linger over the pictures on every page. It gave her a funny feeling to see them again. In a way, it made her melancholy, remembering the warmth of her childhood, and then the sudden cold when she’d lost her parents. But it also lit within her an optimism that she could feel that warmth again, with her own child. The fire would be rekindled and she would keep it stoked this time.
She finished the book and closed it. “Should we read another one?” she asked Dan, setting the book aside.
“Book,” he said, but he stayed where he was, leaning comfortably against her. She loved the feeling so much she didn’t want to move.
He tipped his head back and pointed to her ear. “Star,” he said.
“Ear,” she corrected.
Dan was insistent. “Star.” He touched her diamond stud earring.
“Oh, I see. It looks like a star, yes.”
“Star,” he said again, nodding and pushing his finger against it.
“Hey, Dan,” a familiar voice said next to them. “Melanie. How’s it going?”
Melanie looked up, surprised to see Jared Cross again. Was he checking up on her already? He’d only been gone for about twenty minutes. “Fine,” she said in a clipped voice.
“Good.”
“Did you come back hoping I’d given up?” she asked, certain that he’d done exactly that.
“Star,” Dan said again.
“That’s right, honey, star,” she said, hoping Jared would notice the instant rapport she had with the child, the ease with which she dealt with him. “Well?” she asked Jared in a low tone.
He was looking at her strangely. Or so she thought. “What are you doing there, Dan?” he asked.
“He’s looking at my earring,” Melanie told him. “We just read a book and talked about the stars in it and now he’s telling me that my earring looks like a star.” She looked at Jared steadily. “Everything is under control.”
He frowned. “You’re not wearing an earring.”
“What do you mean I’m not wearing an earring? Yes, I am. Right here.” She lifted her hand to her ear and felt for it.
It was gone.
She looked at Dan, just as he raised his pinched finger and thumb to his mouth. The diamond caught the light for an instant and flashed.
“Oh, my God, Dan, no,” she said, panicked.
Unfortunately, the child also panicked at the tone of her voice and he jerked his hand into his mouth.
Melanie saw it just as it went in. “No!”
The child began to cry.
The blood drained into Melanie’s toes. “Dan, honey.” She tried to sound calm but she could clearly hear the mounting hysteria in her voice. “Let me have that back. Open your mouth, honey.”
The baby stopped wailing and poked his lip out, still sniffling softly.
