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Before Sage can get out the door of the office, the scurry of small feet running through the lobby makes its way to the hallway outside the door and the excited voices of young boys talking at once echoes off the walls.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Sage tries to calm Jackson and his friend down and get them to talk just one at a time while I hover over her shoulder.
"Can Jackson go to camp with me and Toni now?"
"Please, Mom? Please?"
Looking over Sage's shoulder, I see Cody Yates standing shoulder to shoulder with Jackson, both boys giving Sage desperate puppy dog eyes.
"We talked about this, Jax," Sage says apologetically, "you were supposed to be with your dad this week."
"Yeah, but Mom, he's not coming. So now I can go to camp instead."
I let my hand slide down Sage's spine till I'm fingering the drawstring waistband of her pants. When she shivers at my touch, I know she knows what I'm thinking.
She turns around and gives me a look that silently begs me not to get Jax's hopes up.
"His plans fell through, doc," I say quietly, "why not let him go with his friends?"
"Pleeeeze."The boys beg in unison.
"The deadline for registration was two weeks ago," she explains to both me and the boys. "It's too late to get in now."
Eight-year-old faces fall and Cody's arm reaches around his buddy's shoulder in an already perfected manly half hug.
"I'm sorry, boys. If I'd known Jackson's dad wasn't coming, I'd have sent in the forms."
"It's OK Doctor Everett," Cody assures Sage.
"Yeah, Mom, I get it. Thanks anyway."
The boys leave through the clinic side of the house the way they came in, albeit much quieter.
Sage's shoulders droop as she watches them shuffle out the front door.
"I feel awful," she says without turning toward me. "He really wanted to go to that camp more than he wanted to see his dad. He was only excited about Arnold coming out because he was looking forward to the beach."
"This the miner's camp experience that Hart's Gulch hosts by any chance?"
Moonshine Ridge is home to a lot of camp outfits, both private and public, but the one that's most popular with the local kids is the week-long educational event that pays tribute to the ridge's mining camp roots. Any gold the kids find, they get to keep.
"Yeah," she says, "that's it. Apparently, it'sthesocial event of the summer for kids under twelve on the ridge. Jax was so disappointed he wasn't going to be able to go.
"I tried to talk Arnold into coming out a different week but he swore this was the only time he had available."
The sound that makes its way out of me is more of a growl than I intended, but this deadbeat dad routine is getting on my last nerve. If the loser ever does show up on the ridge, he's in for a hell of a man to man with yours truly and my fist.
"I know," Sage sighs and heads for the house with me close behind. "I really thought he'd make it this time. He had their whole week planned, he even sounded excited about it."
"Well, here's the good news," I take her by the shoulders and turn her to face me, "Mable Hart just happens to be my grandmother's best friend."
"Hart as in..."
"Hart's Gulch Gold Camp? That'd be her, yup. Vera even does most of the cooking for the camp every year. Teaches Dutch oven cooking for the older kids at the camp."
"I can't take advantage of your personal connections like that," Sage says, "that's not fair to other kids that couldn't go."
She stares at me openly while I laugh.
