resolve was tested even before lunchtime. Since the weather held through the morning, she and her dozen new campers gathered at a picnic table under the spreading boughs of a pine tree outside the center.
She was showing them intertidal zone specimens in aquarium display cases collected earlier that morning by center staffers when she heard a familiar voice call her name.
She turned to find her new friend from the morning barreling toward her, eyes wide, her gamine face animated.
Moving at a slower pace came Eben Spencer, his silk, undoubtedly expensive tie off-center and his hair slightly messed. He did not look as if he were having a great day.
Of course, when Sage was having a lousy day, she ended up with circles under her eyes, stress lines cutting through her face and a pounding headache she could swear was visible for miles around.
Eben Spencer just looked slightly rumpled in an entirely too-sexy way.
Heedless of the other children in the class, Chloe rushed to her and threw her arms around Sage’s waist.
“It’s not my fault this time, I promise.”
Under other circumstances, she might have been annoyed at the interruption to her class but she couldn’t ignore Chloe’s distress—or the frustration stamped on Eben’s features.
“Lindsey, can you take over for a minute?” she asked her assistant camp director.
“Of course.” The college student who had worked for the nature center every summer since high school stepped forward and Sage led Eben and Chloe away from the interested campers.
“What’s not your fault? What’s going on?”
“I didn’t do anything, I swear. It’s not my fault at all that she was so mean.”
Sage looked to Eben for elucidation.
“The caregiver the agency in Portland sent over was…unacceptable.” Eben raked a hand through his wavy hair, messing it even more.
“She was mean to me,” Chloe said. “She wouldn’t let me walk out to the beach, even when I told her my dad said it was okay. She didn’t believe me so I called my dad and she got mad at me and pulled my hair and said I was a bad word.”
From that explanation, she gathered the caregiver hadn’t appreciated an eight-year-old going over her head.
“Oh, dear. A bad word, huh?”
Chloe nodded. “She called me a spoiled little poop, only she didn’t say poop.”
“I’m sorry,” Sage said, trying to figure out exactly what part she played in this unfolding drama.
“I didn’t care about the name but I didn’t like that she pulled my hair. She didn’t have to be so mean. I think she was a big poop.”
“Chloe,” Her father said sternly.
“Well, I do. So I called my dad again and told him what she did and he came right over from The Sea Urchin and told her to leave right now. He said a bad word, too, but I think she deserved it.”
She gave a quick glance at her father, then mouthed H-E-L-L.
Sage had to fight a smile. “I see,” she said. She found it admirably unexpected that Eben would rush to his daughter’s defense.
“And now the place that sent her doesn’t have anybody else to take care of me.”
Sage raised her eyebrows and glanced at Eben. “I suppose the temp pool is probably pretty shallow right now since the tourist season is heading into full gear.”
“I’m figuring that out,” he answered. “The agency says it will be at least tomorrow or the next day before they can find someone else. In the meantime, I’ve got conference calls scheduled all day.”
Sage waited to hear what all of this had to do with her, though she was beginning to guess. Her speculation was confirmed by his next words.
“I can’t expect Chloe to entertain herself in a strange place while I’m occupied. I remembered you mentioning a summer camp and hoped that you might have room for one more.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. We’re completely full.”
The center had always maintained a strict limit of twelve campers per session to ensure an adequate adult-to-student ratio. Beyond that, she had her hands full this year. Three of the children had learning disabilities and she had already figured out after the first few hours that two more might be on their way to becoming behavior problems if she couldn’t figure out how to channel their energy.
Even as she thought of the trouble to her staff if she added another camper, her mind raced trying to figure out how to accommodate Eben and his daughter.
“I was afraid you would say that.” He smiled stiffly. “Thank you for your time anyway. We’ll try to figure something else out.”
He looked resigned but accepting. His daughter, on the other hand, appeared close to tears. Her shoulders slumped and her chin quivered.
“But I really wanted to come to camp with Sage,” she wailed. “It sounded super, super fun! I don’t want to stay in a boring house all day long while you talk on the phone!”
“Chloe, that’s enough. If the camp doesn’t have room for you, that’s the way it is.”
“You think I’m a little poop, too, don’t you?” Chloe’s chin was definitely quivering now. “That’s why you don’t want me in your camp. You don’t like me, either.”
“Oh, honey, that’s not true. We just have rules about how many children we can have in our camp.”
“I would be really good. You wouldn’t even know I’m here. Oh, please, Sage!”
She studied them both—Chloe so dejected and her father resigned. She had to wonder how much pride he had forced himself to swallow for his daughter’s sake to bring her here and ask Sage for a favor.
How could she disappoint them?
“We’re at capacity,” she finally said, “but I think we can probably find room to squeeze in one more.”
“You mean it? Really?” The girl looked afraid to hope.
Sage nodded and Chloe squealed with delight and hugged her again. “Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Sage hugged her in return. “You’re welcome. You’re going to have to work hard and listen to me and the other grown-ups, though.”
“I will. I’ll be super super good.”
Sage glanced up to meet Eben’s gaze and found him watching her with that same odd, slightly thunderstruck expression she had seen him wear earlier that morning. She didn’t fathom it—nor did she quite understand why it made her insides tremble.
“I’m busy with the class out here,”
