didn’t know what else to do for her. It’s been pretty difficult these past few days.”
Glancing up from her embrace, Edie answered him with a soft smile. “That’s fine. I’ve been worried about Molly, and she’s always welcome here. I’d thought about stopping by Gracie House, but I didn’t want to intrude on your family at a time like this, though, so I’ve stayed away.” She tried pushing back from Molly a bit, but the child clung ferociously. “But I am sorry for your loss, Dr. Corbett. We all loved your aunt. Dearly. She was a kind, caring woman. Full of compassion. She’s already missed.”
Yes, she’d been all that, and more. “I appreciate your sentiment, Miss Parker.”
“Please, call me Edie,” she said, her voice so collected and reassuring it reminded him, in a way, of his aunt’s voice.
He smiled. “I appreciate your sentiment, Edie. It’s been a difficult few days for everybody, and I’m not sure any of us have even begun to feel just how much she’s going to be missed.”
“If there’s anything I can do…”
He saw sincerity in her eyes. Saw genuine affection for Molly, too, and wondered…“Maybe there is. Molly hasn’t been eating well, or sleeping. I thought that spending some time with one of her playmates might help, but obviously you’re not a playmate. Maybe, though, you can point me in the direction of one of her playmates.”
“Actually, in a way, I am a playmate. I’m the hospital’s child life specialist, which does entitle me to play with the children, along with a few other more professional-type duties.” She laughed. “Although I’ll admit to a real fondness for the play aspects of the job.”
“Child life specialist. Isn’t that a position you’d be more inclined to find in a pediatric hospital, or a hospital with a large pediatric department?” A position about which he knew nothing at all as he kept himself locked away in the orthopedic surgery for half his practicing life, and in his office for the other half.
“Usually, but Dr. Navarro, our Chief of Staff, has plans to enlarge our pediatric ward here, and your aunt wanted me on staff before that started, to serve as an ad visor for the expansion.” Pushing back from Molly, she straightened up. “Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear, Molly has been my assistant for the past three months. She’s very important to the child life program we’re setting up.” She smiled, not at Rafe but at Molly…“An advisor.”
“I have!” Molly agreed eagerly.
Rafe noted the animation in her, pleased to see it. Something about Edie Parker was causing that in Molly. Of course, as pretty as Edie was, something about her would probably cause that kind of animation in any man, including himself, fortunate enough to be around her for very long.
“When Aunt Grace comes here to work, I get to help Edie sometimes. And sometimes I get to help other people here, too, because I have lots of jobs. So, when Aunt Grace comes back, I’ll come back and help again. Won’t I, Edie? Just like I used to before she went away?”
Rafe and Edie exchanged troubled looks, Rafe’s twisting from troubled into downright panicked. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do, and that must have shown quite clearly on him, as Edie jumped in for the rescue.
“Look, Molly,” she said. “Right now, what I need you to do is go and help Betty. She’s in the middle of a very important project, and she has a job for you.” She held out her hand to Molly, and took her to the reception area, where Betty put the girl to work rearranging the boxes of toys Edie kept on hand for the kids she worked with. A very important job, in Molly’s estimation. “Also, make sure nothing is broken, and if you see any toys in there that aren’t clean, give them to Betty to sanitize.” Edie turned to Rafe, then winked. “Molly knows how important it is to keep our toys clean.”
The wink definitely caught him off guard, but so did the way Molly went right at her task, separating the toys into three boxes, one for boys, one for girls, and one for everybody, being careful to inspect each and every one. For the first time since he’d returned to Lilly Lake, he was actually seeing Molly smile. More than ever, that was a sure sign that he had no business taking care of a child. He didn’t know what it took to cause her to smile, even though he’d made awkward attempts. Didn’t know how to assess her needs. In fact, everything he did felt wrong. And that feeling of inadequacy was only emphasized by Molly’s absence of response to his feeble attempts. The fact that even after he’d told Molly that Grace had died, her lack of understanding merely underlined his ineptness, which told him that even though he felt miserable disrupting Molly’s life so much, what he had to do was the right thing.
“I figured she’d have some problems coping with my aunt’s death,” he said, once Edie shut her office door, “but I had no idea she didn’t understand it at all. I’m sure you’ve already seen how much I don’t know about kids.”
“Don’t worry about it, Doctor. Children adjust in their own way, in their own good time. Right now, Molly’s just processing what’s happening to her. For a child, it’s difficult. But give her a little while to work through it. I’m sure she will, but if, for some reason, she doesn’t, we’ll try approaching it a different way, something she’s better able to cope with. And that’s all it’s about at her age…finding that one special way that will help her cope. Because, honestly, I do think she understands. It’s more a matter of her trying to figure out how to handle what she knows. That’s most likely where Molly’s still confused, which is why it’s easier for her to ignore everything that’s happened and simply return to a time when it was easier for her.” She reached out, and laid a reassuring hand on his arm. “However it happens, Dr. Corbett, we’ll work through it.”
He glanced down at her hand, surprised by the sensation running up his arm. A tingle? “Please, call me Rafe,” he said, sounding just the slightest bit unsteady.
“Rafe,” she replied, gesturing him to the chair across from her desk.
He opted to stand next to the door, however. Ready to escape, maybe? Ready to throw in the towel and admit that he was totally out of his league here, and it bothered him because he was used to being the one in charge? “So, in your experience, how long does this processing take?”
Edie sat down behind her desk, folded her hands patiently and precisely in front of her, then stared up at him. “You really don’t know a thing about children, do you?”
“It shows that much?”
She laughed. “You might as well be carrying a sign broadcasting it. Meaning I think you’re going to need a lot of help. Probably more than you know.”
Suddenly, the tension in him melted away. He liked Molly’s friend, and he was certainly glad she wasn’t a little playmate. In fact, he was very glad about that. “Do you like horses, Edie?” he asked impulsively, as the urge to ride hit him. He hadn’t done it in years. Had put it away as part of a past he’d never wanted to revisit. Now he wanted to ride, probably the only thing that had ever made him truly happy when he’d been a kid and, more surprisingly, he didn’t want to ride solitary the way he’d done more often than not back then. In fact, he could almost picture the three of them on the trail together—him, Molly, Edie. Odd, the picture of it developing. But pleasant. And totally unexpected.
“Real horses, toy horses?”
He chuckled. “Real horses. Leather saddle. A ride in the country.” An idea with growing appeal.
“Horses
