“AUTUMN, ARE YOU SURE this isn’t too much of an inconvenience?”
“Emily, I’m sure. You said the baby-sitter would be here in half a hour, right? And I’m not due at the wedding until half an hour after that. That gives me plenty of time. Besides, I can get ready with Ryan here. He’s no trouble.”
“I really hate to ask this, but I promised Mr. Dawson I’d work tonight to finish up those reports.”
“Emily, stop it. You’ve never asked me to baby-sit before, and I’ve told you several times that I’d be happy to do so. I think I can manage for half an hour. We’ll be fine, won’t we, Ryan?” Autumn smiled at the child in her arms, receiving a broad grin in return. “Tell Mommy bye-bye.”
“Bye-bye,” Ryan echoed obediently.
When Emily had gone, Autumn set Ryan on the floor of her bedroom with a cookie and a toddler’s spill-proof cup of juice, keeping an eye on him as she applied her makeup for the evening. A friend from work was being married that evening, and she felt obligated to go, even though she’d never been too excited about going to weddings.
“Babs, get away from Ryan’s cookie,” Autumn warned automatically, her mind still occupied with her plans for the evening. For some reason she was really dreading this particular wedding. Why was she so sure that she would be haunted by thoughts of Jeff during the solemn ceremony?
She hadn’t seen Jeff all week. And he wasn’t at all happy about it. He’d called every day, only to have her make excuses for why she couldn’t see him for another few days. The truth was she was trying to allow enough time to pass for her to get over the lingering aftereffects of their lovemaking on the night she’d returned to Tampa. Finding herself crying in the shower had been such a shock that she’d decided she’d better wait awhile before seeing him again. Make sure that she had firmly reconstructed the emotional barriers between them that he’d so effectively shattered that night. She would not fall in love with him, she told herself for the thousandth time. She would not allow herself to need him.
She added an extra layer of foundation beneath her eyes to hide the circles that testified to her atypical sleeplessness during the past week. Unfortunately, her body was not as cooperative as her mind in denying her longing for Jeff. Nor was her subconscious. When she’d slept at all, it had only been to dream of him, to replay the most incredible night of her life, to reexperience the feel of him against her, inside her. She cursed under her breath as those thoughts made her hand tremble, smudging her mascara.
She jumped when the telephone rang. She’d told Jeff her plans when he’d called last night to ask her for dinner this evening. He’d responded with growing impatience, demanding to know when he could see her again. Was he calling again already?
Ryan was still working on the cookie as Autumn passed him to answer the extension phone on her bedside table. She patted his sandy head and lifted the receiver. “Hello? Oh, hi, Webb. No, I didn’t think you were Jeff,” she lied. “My voice was not breathless! Stop being such a jerk, Brothers, or you’re going to find yourself sitting alone at this wedding. Right, it starts at—Ryan, no!”
Autumn threw the receiver down and made a lunge for the curious child, moments too late to stop him from pulling her curling iron off her dressing table by the cord and picking it up in one chubby fist—by the wrong end. Ryan screamed and dropped the hot appliance, bursting into tears of pain.
Her stomach contracting, Autumn dropped to her knees on the floor beside him. “Let me see, Ryan.” She spread his clenched fingers and swallowed. The tiny palms and fingers were an angry red, already beginning to blister. “Oh, you poor baby. God, that must hurt.” She pulled the crying child into her arms and rocked him against her shoulder, her own eyes filling with tears of sympathy.
Swiftly unplugging the curling iron, she looked around for her shoes, grateful that she still had on jeans and a T-shirt rather than her robe. Her gaze fell on the telephone receiver lying on the floor, and she snatched it up. Webb was yelling her name, trying to find out what had happened.
“Webb, Ryan’s burned his hand,” Autumn told him, raising her voice to be heard over the child’s noisy sobs. “I’m going to take him to Jeff. Wait for me here, okay?”
Almost sick with guilt and concern, Autumn rushed Ryan out to her car. She didn’t have a car seat, of course, but she managed to fasten the seat belt around him, hoping it would be safe enough. He cried most of the way to the clinic, calling for his mother, his hiccuping little sobs wrenching Autumn’s heart.
Ryan stopped crying as Autumn took him out of the car. He placed his arms tightly around her neck and buried his face in her shoulder when she paused in front of the clinic reception desk. “Is Jeff here?” Autumn asked the receptionist. “Dr. Bradford, I mean.”
“Dr. Bradford is just about to leave for the day. Can someone else help you?”
“Autumn?” Jeff stepped out from the shelves of files behind the reception desk. “I thought I heard your voice. What happened?”
“Oh, Jeff.” She’d never been so glad to see anyone in her life. “Ryan burned his hand on my curling iron. It’s badly blistered, and I know it’s painful.”
“Bring him around,” Jeff told her, assuming his professional mien, though his tone was still the quiet, deep one that he seemed to reserve for her. “Sheila, call Kelly and ask her to give me a hand.”
Autumn had seen Jeff at work before, when she’d worked on the clinic lights, but she was struck anew by his gentleness and patience when he treated Ryan. He talked softly to the child as he spread a thick white cream over the burned skin and then wrapped the entire hand, fingers and all, in soft gauze. Ryan took immediate exception to the latter procedure and didn’t hesitate to inform everyone within about a half-mile radius.
“It doesn’t hurt much now,” Jeff assured Autumn with a half smile, glancing up at her pale face. “He’s just mad. Aren’t you, pal?” he asked the screaming toddler.
“There,” Jeff said a few minutes later. “All done.” He picked Ryan up and patted his back, pleased when Ryan stopped crying to curiously investigate the stethoscope dangling from Jeff’s pocket, the bandage already forgotten for the moment. Jeff winked at Autumn as he handed the stethoscope over for inspection. “See? He’s already forgiven me.”
“What did you put on it?” Autumn asked curiously.
“Silvadene Cream. It’s practically a miracle drug with burns. Soothes the pain and promotes healing. In a week to ten days the blisters will be gone and Ryan won’t even have a scar.”
Autumn was preparing to ask another question when she was interrupted by the arrival of Webb and Emily, escorted into the examining room by the young nurse who’d assisted Jeff in treating Ryan. “Is Ryan okay?” Emily asked immediately, rushing to Jeff’s side to examine her son. Ryan dove into his mother’s arms, contentedly submitting himself for her inspection.
“He’s fine,” Jeff assured her, explaining again what he had done and telling her how to care for the hand until the burns were fully healed.
“I’m really sorry this happened, Emily.” Autumn twisted her hands in front of her, feel
ing terrible about the entire situation. “One minute he was quietly eating a cookie, and the next he was pulling the curling iron off my dressing table. I didn’t even see him move.”