Page 12 of Sweet Surrender

“I can see that, Mr. Lawrence,” she said, leading him into the office and motioning for Becca to join them. “Now let me guess, wait until I see the other guy, right?”

Cal didn’t laugh, but when Becca bent to see his expression she could see he was giving the nurse a wide smile.

“Angela Perrault,” the nurse said to Becca with a smile. “And you must be Miss Hawthorne.”

“Nice to meet you,” Becca said. “Yes, I’m Becca Hawthorne.”

“Oh, and I’ll bet that’s one of the pretty mittens your grandmother made you boys, isn’t it?” Angela scolded gently, looking back to Cal.

He nodded his head up and down.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Angela chuckled. “You hop right up on my table here.”

Cal did as he was told, carefully holding the mitten to his nose so as not to drip blood.

“I’m going to have to touch your nose,” the nurse told him solemnly. “You have my word that I won’t do more than I have to just to be sure you don’t need to go to the hospital. Okay?”

Cal nodded slowly.

“Miss Hawthorne here can sit with youifyou want her to,” she said.

Cal looked to Becca, and she nodded.

He nodded back after a moment, and she felt her heart squeeze. The poor boy was really hurting, and it was a blessing that he would allow her to be with him. She sat carefully beside him, placing her hand next to his so that they were just barely touching, but not grabbing his hand.

“Okay,” Angela said. “Let’s get that mitten off there so we can have a good look.”

Cal pulled the soiled wool away, keeping his chin tilted up.

“I’ll see if I can get that cleaned up for you,” Becca offered.

He put it in her hand, glancing over at her gratefully.

“Well, that’s very nice, isn’t it?” Angela asked cheerfully. “Your new teacher is making a good first impression, isn’t she?”

Cal’s eyes flashed to Becca’s, and she smiled back at him, delighted that she had aninsidejokewith one of her students on the very first day.

“Here we go,” Angela said.

Out of instinct, Becca took Cal’s hand and gazed right into his eyes.

“You look at me,” she told him softly. “Don’t even think about your nose right now. Let’s think about the posters on the wall in your classroom, and what kind of fun things we might be doing this afternoon.”

Before she knew what was happening, his little hand was sliding into hers and squeezing. And she gently squeezed his hand back, grateful that he trusted her enough to take comfort.

“I’m going to tell you a little bit about our projectbeforeI tell the others,” she whispered to him. “So, you’ll have to keep it a secret until then.”

His eyes widened at the idea.

“You and your classmates are going to do a project about Sugarville Grove,” she told him. “I can’t wait to learn more about this town and what it’s like to live here. And I think you guys are the perfect people to teach me, and each other, all about it.”

He started to smile and then winced as the nurse moved her hand slightly.

“All set,” Angela announced, pulling back. “You’re going to be just fine. We just have to stop up the leak in the old sniffer.”

That made Cal grin in earnest and Becca smiled too.

“Thank goodness,” she said, watching Angela grab some gauze and make a better substitute for the mitten.

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