“Believe it or not, he has.” Cal laughed. “Anyway, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind watching him for a few hours, just while I run my errands. He seems to really like you, and unless you’re the best actress I’ve ever seen, you seem to enjoy his company, too?” He ended the sentence like a question, prompting April to reassure him.
“Oh, gosh, of course I enjoy his company!” she said. “I’d love to spend the day with him. I have to work at six this evening, so as long as you’re done by then, it’ll be just fine.”
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“No need,” she said. “Owen and I will have a great afternoon together. And thank you so much for entrusting him to me.” He was silent for a moment, and April thought he maybe hadn’tthought about the fact that he was entrusting the safety of his son to someone. She decided to reassure him. “I’ll take great care of him, Cal. You know I will. Who better to watch him than an actual nurse?”
“I know,” he said, and she could hear the relief in his voice. “Thank you.”
“Let’s meet at the café. I’ll get the kid another little treat to bribe him.”
Cal laughed hard on the other end of the line. “You know him well already,” he said. “We’ll be there at noon, if that works for you.”
“It works beautifully.”
After they ended the call, April looked down at her bag of popcorn on the kitchen counter and decided to put it away. As much as she would have enjoyed a day alone, she thought she would enjoy a day with Owen even more.
April arrived earlyat the café and ordered the same three drinks they had ordered last time they were there. This time, she wasn’t going to let Cal pay for them. There was no way he could protest if she got them before he even arrived.
When she had the beverages, she sat down at a table to wait. It wasn’t long before Owen was running toward her, shouting her name.
“Owen,” Cal said, following close behind him. “No running, and use your indoor voice, please.”
Owen skidded to a stop right in front of April and whispered loudly. “Is that for me?” He was pointing at the hot chocolate. April nodded, and Owen hissed out an excited squeal.
Cal narrowed his eyes in brief judgment, and April knew he was silently chiding her for paying for their drinks. Funny how easy he’d become to read. “I got one for you, too,” she said defiantly.
With a deep, mildly irritated sigh, Cal took his cup. “You’re in trouble, Nurse April,” he said under his breath.
“You can punish me later,” she said, and suddenly, his cheeks went bright red. This was probably the first time she’d actually seen him blush like that over something she said. It felt like flirting, and she wasn’t sorry. For some reason, she wanted to stir the pot for Cal, to see him swirl out of his depression and live. There was a sadness behind his eyes. It was always there, but when she made him smile or feel anything strongly, it shrank to almost nothing. It made her feel wonderful to be able to give him those little reprieves.
“We’ll meet back here in three hours,” she said. “Will that be long enough for you to run your errands?”
“Plenty of time. And again, I can’t thank you enough.”
“Hush, it’ll be a treat. Now go on. Owen and I have an appointment with a swing set. I’ll take good care of him. I promise.”
Cal left the two of them, and April was alone with Owen. It occurred to her again how much faith Cal had to have in her to entrust his son into her care. He definitely gave off the overprotective father vibe, so this request that she watch his son had come as a surprise, to say the least. Then again, she was a nurse. She’d only said it to comfort him, but maybe that reallyhad been his reasoning. It made sense, so she couldn’t fault him for it. But part of her also hoped he’d entrusted his son to her care because he liked her.
“Are you ready to hit the park?” she asked Owen.
“Will there be a slide?” he said.
“Of course there will be. What kind of park doesn’t even have a slide?”
“The safe ones,” Owen answered matter-of-factly. “That’s what Dad says anyway.”
April smiled and stood, taking Owen by the hand and carrying his hot chocolate for him. “Well, we’ll be very careful on the slide then. It’s not a very big one.”
“I wish it was, though.”
“Ah.” The first challenge had presented itself. One overprotective father with one potentially reckless, rebellious child. Luckily for April, she had a lot of experience working with kids, and not just the fun stuff either. She’d given shots and taken blood and patched all kinds of wounds, even when they stung. April was even more comfortable around kids than she was around adults, and she was pretty darn comfortable around adults—people in general, really.
“Well,” she said as they headed five blocks down to the park. “You have to practice dangerous stuff before you really do it. So this slide is like a training slide where you get really good at sliding before you go down the giant ones. That way you’ll impress everyone the first time you go down a big slide because you’ll be so good at it.”
Owen looked up at her and narrowed his eyes, and for a moment, he looked so much like his father that it gave April chills. “You’re funny,” he said, and she knew her explanation had not flown with him.
At the park, April didn’t take her eyes off Owen once. Cal’s protectiveness seemed to have rubbed off on her. All she knew was that allowing anything to go wrong on this occasion would destroy Cal’s ability to trust anyone ever. In turn, it would isolate Owen even more. She pushed him on the swings, but not too high. She let him go on the slide, but only while she was waiting at the bottom to catch him.
