Wanted A Real Family(36)
“I just can’t count on my leg when I go walking. I have to take my cane along for most of the walk.”
“Maybe you’re trying to go too far.”
“I have to push myself or I’ll never get better. You said as much.”
“Yes, I did. But you have to know how far to push. Because if you overdo, you’ll set yourself back a few steps instead of going forward.”
Sara knew Ramona and she needed to discuss this more. The problem was she had to pick up Amy soon.
She patted Ramona’s shoulder. “I have to make a call. Rest a few minutes and then we’ll talk more about how far to push.”
Maybe Marissa could pick up Amy. But trying Marissa’s cell, Sara only reached her voice mail. Next she tried the winery.
This time Marissa didn’t pick up, but Jase did.
“Raintree Winery, Jase Cramer speaking.”
“Jase, I...” She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since their sofa session Saturday night. He’d said they needed time and space and she’d most assuredly agreed. “I thought I’d reach Marissa.”
“She had the afternoon off today. When she leaves, her calls are forwarded to my line.”
“I forgot.” Marissa had told her Saturday that she’d be taking a few hours off and Sara needn’t pick up Jordan on Tuesday. “I know Kaitlyn probably still has office hours—”
“What’s wrong, Sara?”
“I’m tied up with a patient. I was hoping Marissa could pick up Amy at day care today. But I’ll figure out something.”
“I could pick her up.”
She said the first thing that came into her head. “But you don’t have a car seat.”
“I can easily remedy that. The question is, do you trust me to pick her up and stay with her until you get home?”
Home. The cottage was beginning to feel like home, and that worried her as much as her attraction to Jase. She remembered his walk with Amy, the comfortable way Amy acted around him. “I don’t want to take advantage of you. A four-year-old can be a handful, or an armful, or a houseful.”
His voice was filled with amusement as he asked, “Are you trying to dissuade me or warn me?”
“Warn you. I just want you to know what you’ll be getting into.”
“I have been around kids, Sara. I can entertain Amy if that’s what you’re worried about. I have a key to the cottage. Do you want me to use it? Or would you rather I take her to the house?”
“It would probably be easier for both of you to be at the cottage. I don’t mind if you let yourself in.”
“Not worried I’ll steal the family jewels?”
“There are no jewels.”
“That depends on how you look at it.”
Was he saying that she and Amy were valuable to him?
“We can see if time and space did either of us any good,” he remarked.
“It wasn’t much time and space.”
“Then why did it seem like it?”
He felt that, too, had he? The sense of loss, the sense of something missing. She had told herself not to look for him in the vineyard, not to watch for his car, but she had anyway and had felt foolish about it.
“I’d better get back to my patient.”
“Of course.” He sounded as if he understood. “This will work out fine, Sara. Trust me.”
The last thing she wanted to do was trust another man. But in this situation, she felt she had no choice.
* * *
Over an hour later, Sara laughed out loud when she walked up to the cottage and saw what Jase and her daughter were doing. Were they really playing hopscotch with blue chalk checkerboarded all over the walk?
Amy had just finished hopping in the squares and Jase followed her, hopping, too. He’d been unaware of Sara until she’d started laughing.
Then he looked over his shoulder and grinned at her. “What? You don’t think a grown man can play hopscotch?” He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and sneakers and looked rakish and boyish.
“Sure, a grown man can play hopscotch. After all, I jump rope sometimes. But you totally altered the appearance of the front walk. I don’t want your father to think I did this.”
“I take full responsibility,” Jase said seriously. “It’s not going to be an issue. This washes off with the hose.” He pointed to his camera bag on the small porch. “I took some photos of Amy playing and of her watching the hummingbirds at the feeder. When I get back to my suite, I’ll print them out for you.”
“I’d love to have them. I lost—” Her voice broke when she thought about losing Amy’s precious baby history...over the giving way Jase was recording “now” for her.