She smiled at him. “Sorry that didn’t work out, Scott.”

“No, you’re not,” he said.

“No, I’m not. I say we give Peyton time to settle in and then reevaluate.”

“Gina, I say we face facts.” And too bad about the jeans, he thought. But, damn!

Five

Devon and Spencer weren’t due back until Thursday, but on Wednesday afternoon they pulled into the garage of their beachfront home. They dropped their bags inside the door of the house and went directly to Cooper’s.

“Hey, the bride and groom are back!” Cooper said. “Don’t you have another day of freedom?”

“I missed the kids,” Devon said.

“She missed the house,” Spencer corrected.

“Well, I’ve never had a house before!” Devon said. “And there’s still a lot to do before football practice starts, and I no longer have a husband.”

“She brought me back to work,” Spencer said. “I don’t know what’s harder on my back—football or construction.”

“But we’re so close....” She flushed a little. “And I did miss the kids,” she said.

But to Devon this house meant security, for maybe the first time in her life. She’d been raised by a woman known as Aunt Mary, but she was really the day-care provider Devon had been left with when her mother died. She didn’t realize Mary couldn’t leave her a house to live in until after her death when Devon was a very young woman. The years since had been hand-to-mouth, until she’d met and fallen in love with Spencer. Once Spencer understood how uncertain and unstable her life had been, he thought the best thing he could do for her, for both of them, was to own a piece of property, protected and secure. Devon loved him so much for understanding, for helping to provide. And she’d made a promise to him. “I’m going to make it the most loving home you’ve ever known.”

“All you have to do to accomplish that is live in it with me,” Spencer had said.

Cooper grinned at them. “I’ll help out while I can, but I think pretty soon Sarah is going to have chores for me.”

“How is she doing?” Devon asked.

“She’s laying down right now. She has heartburn, water retention and gas. I had no idea how sexy pregnancy was.” Everyone laughed at him. “Your kids are down there with the real babysitter.”

Down on the dock Rawley was fishing with Mercy and Austin.

“I’d better go tell them we’re back,” she said.

“Let ’em fish,” Spencer said. “They’ll figure it out pretty soon and come up here. Cooper’s going to give me a beer.” He looked at his watch. “I have at least a few more hours of honeymoon left.”

“Is that Ashley with Scott’s kids down there by the water?” Devon asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Cooper said. “It’s been kind of exciting around here. Let me get that beer and I’ll tell you all about it. A wine, Devon?”

“That would be wonderful. What’s going on?”

Cooper sat with them on the deck and explained that Gabriella had left suddenly because her mother needed her, the bus accident being the big talk around town, Peyton helping out in the clinic and Ashley babysitting—the story as he knew it. It was only a few minutes before Mercy was up the stairs and on her mother’s lap, a few more minutes before Scott was walking across the beach at the end of his work day to check on his kids. He came up to the deck to have a beer, and Rawley and Austin joined them. And then Sarah appeared, looking a little sleep rumpled.

“And here’s Mrs. Cooper with her big bump and bed head,” Cooper said.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. And then with a muffled groan, she bent over slightly, and water spilled down her legs.

Cooper jumped to his feet with a horrified look on his face.

“Oops,” Sarah said. “Maybe that wasn’t gas.”

“Mommy,” Mercy said. “Sarah had a accident.”

With a very large grin, Sarah said, “I’m going to have ankles again.”

“That’s not all you’re going to have, Sarah,” Scott put in.

* * *

Peyton enjoyed the pace of the Thunder Point clinic, especially once Devon was back managing the schedule and paperwork. It ran very smoothly. A three-person clinic with appointments spaced to give the practitioners the opportunity to handle the walk-ins, to take time for lunch and breaks, even to arrive late or leave early, was so easy on the nerves. Scott was able to spend some time at the ER or Bandon clinic, which supplemented his income. Now that Peyton was on board, that moonlighting didn’t rob him of time with his kids. They had it worked out so that the bulk of their appointments fell when both Peyton and Scott were available to see patients, and with Devon’s expertise in scheduling, they were at the clinic together at least twenty hours a week.

A couple of very low-stress weeks zipped by. Peyton even took a long Fourth of July weekend with her family at the farm.

Peyton happened to be standing at Devon’s desk one weekday afternoon when Al Michel brought in one of his foster sons. The boy was pale as a ghost, slightly bent at the waist, and he was holding a bowl. “Oh, boy,” Peyton said. “Who is this, Al?”

“This is Kevin, and he’s feeling really terrible.”

“That bowl was a dead giveaway. Come on back. Let’s figure it out.”

“I heard there was a bug going around,” Al said, following them to the exam room. “I had to pry him off the bed to bring him in to see you.”

“Can you make it up on the exam table, Kevin?” she asked him.

He took his time, but he made it.

“Ordinarily I’d put you in a gown, but if you’ll just loosen your jeans, that should be enough. Lay down for me. And tell me where the pain is.”

“Right about here,” he said, indicating his lower abdomen just south of his belly button. “But I been throwing up, and I think it’s just sore.”

She pressed down, and when she let up, he winced.

“Al, can you take Kevin’s shoes off, please? Socks can stay on.” While Al was doing that, Peyton took the boy’s temperature. Then she swatted the bottom of his feet, and again, he winced. “When did this start?”

“Early this morning, but it’s getting worse,” Kevin said.