Page 49 of Frog

“Don’t you have friends here?”

“I have colleagues. Most of my good friends, who are doctors, have private practices.”

I nodded.

“But my best friends aren’t doctors.”

“They’re the guys who came along with you on the trip to Texas, huh?”

“Yes.”

I had to think. “There was a dentist and a lawyer and the real estate guy.”

“He’s a land developer, and yes.”

“Do you still see them?”

“We’re supposed to take a trip to Cancun in February.”

I smiled at him. “I’m sure you’ll have a great time.”

“I’d rather stay home,” he said, eyes softening as he looked at me.

“I won’t be here.”

“You never know.”

But I did know.

AFTER we had clam chowder and bread bowls—mine the spicy kind, the kids the regular—we headed over the bridge to Sausalito. Tristan had a cell phone, amazing but true, and used it to make the important call.

“It was really good,” he told his uncle on speaker phone. “We ate it all.”

“That’s awesome,” Cy praised. “I love it when you guys eat.”

I cleared my throat.

“I hear you,” he said, chuckling, “ass.”

“Yours,” I snickered.

He groaned and we hung up. I couldn’t stop smiling.

Spending time with Carolyn’s boys was fun. Going to the psychologist proved to be a surprise. I expected an office, a couch, everything I had ever seen in the movies. What I got was an older woman, Dr. Erin Watase, on a small farm in the foothills. She had a few chickens, horses, a donkey, one cow, and four ducks. I felt more comfortable than I had in days.

“You’re a real cowboy?” she asked when she and Micah had finished their session and returned to the wrap-around wooden porch where I was relaxing in a rocking chair watching the boys push each other in the tire swing.

“Not anymore.” I smiled at her, standing up, taking off my hat. In the jeans, peacoat, scarf, sweater, hiking boots, and dress shirt, I didn’t look like one anymore either.

“Micah says you are.”

I arched an eyebrow for her. “Micah says?”

“Okay,” she admitted and grinned at me, small black eyes glinting, “you caught me. Micah draws.”

I nodded.

“Go run,” she told Carolyn’s middle child, and Micah bolted off the porch to where his brothers were. “I’m glad to see the worthless nanny is gone and you’re here.”