Crystal crouched down to talk to Owen on his level. “That’s so cool,” she said. “I’ve never cut down a tree before. Is it very difficult?”
Owen shrugged. “Sort of. But I did it. You just have to do it. That’s the thing. Even if it’s hard, you just have to keep at it. That’s what Dad says anyway.”
“Your dad sounds pretty smart,” Crystal said with a wink.
Owen nodded. “Oh, he is! He’s pretty much the smartest guy I know. We’re making a present for him today.”
“Oh, are you?” Nathan turned his attention to April and gave her a sly smile.
She laughed nervously. “It’s not a big deal. I thought I could get a good portrait of Owen for him. We came here to get my camera. It’s a surprise, though.”
Crystal joined Nathan with yet another knowing smile. April thought it was entirely too many, but she couldn’t be mad at them. “A gift, huh?” Crystal said. “For the smartest lumberjack in Summit Falls. I don’t envy you. I couldn’t shop for him, but you seem to have found the perfect present.”
April hardly knew what to say, but Owen cut in and saved her from having to respond. “She has. Because she’s the smartest nurse in Summit Falls.”
Both Nathan and Crystal burst out laughing, and Crystal said, “Well, I can’t argue with that, although I’d like to.” April could tell both her friends were charmed by Owen, and she couldn’t blame them. He was an adorable kid.
And then there was his father. Owen himself was just the icing on the cake. Cal was the cake, which April was craving more and more with every day that passed.
CHAPTER 12
CAL
Shopping without his son at his side had been a lot more difficult than Cal had expected. The truth was, he hadn’t asked April to babysit for his benefit. He was used to Owen’s presence, used to going everywhere with him. The boy’s absence felt like a mistake, not a relief. But April’s suggestion that Owen needed to socialize with more people outside his immediate family had found a foothold in Cal’s thoughts. He couldn’t see how she was wrong, but he wasn’t ready to drop his son off in a group of people he didn’t know and… trust them.
April was a different story. He was starting to believe her when she told him she’d take good care of Owen. If anyone would, she would. Despite that, though, going to the café induced way too much anxiety in Cal. What if they weren’t there? What if only April was there with bad news? The weather had gotten pretty bad while he was at the hardware store. No one was expecting that much rain. What if something had happened as a result? A slip. A fall. Cal’s thoughts would not stop racing.
After all that, it was such a massive relief to walk into the café and find April and Owen already waiting for him. She seemedto be in the habit of always showing up early, and Cal was more grateful for it than he could have expressed in that moment.
“So, how was shopping?” April asked before Cal could get a word out.
He paused to recalibrate. “Oh, it all went smoothly. Thank you again for watching Owen.”
April shook her head. “No, I should thankyou. We had so much fun today. Didn’t we, Owen?”
“I got a book!” Owen thrust a plastic bag at Cal, and Cal took it automatically. “It’s the one from story time,” Owen explained before Cal could even ask.
He took the picture book from his son and flipped through it. It was one about trains, which was a topic Owen enjoyed. Cal reached into his pocket for his wallet, but April immediately knew what he was about and put a stop to it.
“No, no,” she said. “That was a gift from me to Owen. For his birthday.” Then she stood, leaned in close to Cal’s ear, and whispered, “It’s a bribe, you see, so he’ll like me.”
Cal chuckled and returned his wallet to his pocket. “If you say so. Are you ready to head home, Owen?” he asked.
Owen whined, “Do I have to?”
“Yes, you do. But we can come back sometime.”
That seemed to satisfy Owen, though he still wore his pouty face. Cal never chided him for expressing negative emotions, as long as he did it reasonably and non-destructively. Just before they were about to leave, a woman Cal had never seen before slid into their conversation.
“Well, Nurse April!” she cried. “Fancy seeing you here.”
April laughed and greeted the woman while Cal marveled at how easy it all seemed to her. He had never been much of an extroverted person, preferring to spend most of his time in solitude. It wasn’t that he disliked people. He just knew he wasn’t really what they were looking for when they wanted an amusing conversation or a shoulder to cry on. He’d spent so much of his life barely surviving, dealing with trauma the only way he knew how, that he kind of forgot how to be with people in such an easy way.
“How have you been, Mrs. Jansen?” April asked the woman with a big smile. “How’s your husband? Is he feeling better these days?”
“Well, we’ve been doing really well, thanks to you. I’ve had to nag him to take his medicine, but when he does, he’s as good as new. He has so much energy that I hardly know what to do with him.”
April elbowed the woman gently. “You’ve got to get that man a hobby now.” She laughed. “Keep him busy.”
