to the drawing board. He was going to have to find a new nanny for Rose. He had hoped that Ray was the answer to his prayers. She wasn’t a teenage babysitter, she seemed nice and loved children, supposedly. Her references were impeccable. Who knew she would turn out to be so lacking in patience? He wasn’t an idiot, he knew how stubborn his child could be and he didn't allow her to overpower him. He believed in discipline when warranted but that wasn’t discipline. Scaring a child with threats or anything else was just cruel. If he did have to punish Rose, he preferred a time out. Really if she was getting difficult it was for one or two reasons; either she needed one on one attention or she needed a nap. If only he could just stay home and take care of Rose himself, but he was the only doctor in their small town, he had a practice to run. Right now, though, he would pick up the pieces and spend some time with Rose and while he was in town he would put an ad in the general store window. Maybe he would have more luck with someone close by or passing through than just by using an agency.
“Hey, poppet?” he said. “Daddy thought you might like to go to town and have some ice cream, would you like that?”
“Is Miss Ray gone?”
“Yes, she is,” he said. “What about some ice-cream?”
The little girl nodded enthusiastically. “I love ice-cream,” Rose said, her problems seemingly gone with Ray’s exit.
“I know you do. I even know your favorite flavor, you like pink.”
“Pink is a color, Daddy, not a flavor.” Rose giggled happily.
Curtis smiled, so relieved to hear his daughter’s tinkling laughter again. It never ceased to amaze him how articulate Rose was for her age. He put it down to her mom being a teacher. She had read to their baby from the moment they brought her home with them from the hospital. “Aren’t I silly?” He took the little girl’s hand and walked her to the bathroom. “Let’s get you fixed up and then we’ll get some ice cream and go see Trish.”
“I like Trish,” Rose said. “She ain’t mean.”
“Isn’t,” Curtis corrected, “and no, she is not mean.”
Curtis walked into the old house that served as his doctor’s office with Rose in tow. The child’s hands were covered in strawberry ice cream. “Hi, Trish.”
“I thought this was your afternoon off,” the middle-aged woman said. Trish worked for the doctor before Curtis and had stayed on after the older man retired.
“I thought it was your day off as well, but I knew you’d be here,” he said with a smile.
“Just taking the opportunity to get some paperwork done while I don’t have patients trooping through every five minutes. What’s your excuse as if I have to ask? Hello, my little Rosie bear!” She gathered the sticky little girl into her arms, not caring at all about getting messed up herself.
“I had ice-cream,” Rosie said with a giant grin.
“You don't say,” Trish shook her head. “I never would have guessed that.”
“Yep, we just need a quick clean up before I put her in the car,” Curtis said. “Come on, missy.”
“Has something happened to your n.a.n.n.y?” Trish called out.
“I f.i.r.e.d her,” Curtis answered. “Long story. Would you have a minute to put a notice in the general store window for me, please, and maybe the paper?”
“Sure, I will.” Trish smiled. “What would you like me to say?”
“I’ll leave that up to you. I haven’t had any luck so far myself. Maybe you would know what I’m looking for. I need someone special.” Curtis picked up Rose and headed for the door. “Thanks, Trish, I know I can trust you.”
“No problem, you just leave it to me.”
Vi and her grandmother had no idea where to start even though they had the father’s name. “How about a Google search?” Vi suggested. They typed in the name.
“There’s so many,” Lillian said. “How can we narrow it down?”
“I guess we can look at more of his Facebook page,” Vi said. “Maybe it would have his occupation.”
“Good idea but I already tried that, it’s private.”
“I have an idea; why don't we try one of those people search things. We know his name; we know Rose’s name. Maybe the white pages?” Lillian asked.
“I don’t think they include children.”
“I know what we can try. I have no idea if it will work. This photo is like a professional photo shoot, right? What if we drop the photo into photo booth and cut out the picture of Curtis?” She demonstrated as she did just that. “Then we can do a reverse image search of the cut picture. We might just get lucky.”
“Bingo!” Lillian said a few minutes later. “He has a LinkedIn account.”
“How do you know about all this stuff, Grandma?” Vi asked.
“I did a free class for seniors.”
“You amaze me. How did my mother ever come from you?”
“Your mother wasn’t always the way she is now, your stepdad had a lot to do with the finished product,” Lillian said sadly. “Anyway, back to this. Let’s look at his LinkedIn account.”
“That’s him,” Vi shouted.
“He’s a doctor!” they both said at once.
“And his number is right there,” Vi said, staring at the profile like it was the Holy Grail, in a way it was.
“Now, what are you going to do with this information?” Lillian asked. “You need to think about this, you can't just go like a bull at a gate. You need to know exactly what you are going to say.”
“I could just say—” It wasn’t going to be as easy as she first thought. “Hi, this is Viola Spring, I was just ringing to offer my condolences.”
“Honey, it was a year ago. What if he was to say, who are you, Viola, and how did you know my wife?”
“Maybe I should tell him the truth,” Vi said. “I could say, I’m your baby’s birth mother, I don’t want anything from you, I heard you lost your wife and just wanted to know that the baby I gave you is okay.”
Lillian blew out a deep breath. “Whew, it isn't a lie, but you could open up a can of worms with that.”
“If I can't lie and I can’t tell the truth, what can I say?” Viola was feeling extremely frustrated. She knew her grandmother was right, but her little girl was on the other side of the phone that belonged to the number right in front of her. She couldn’t just do nothing, she had to try.
“I
