"Oh, well, work has to come first," she chirped, ever the good soldier.
Gray grimaced. "I'll still be over next Saturday for the party."
"And we'll be at your little ceremony on base Friday."
Magda folded the "Mama's" legs and sat her on the tiny porch steps. Lori would have a field day analyzing the doll play unrolling before him.
Gray yanked his attention back to the phone conversation. "You don't have to come to that, you know."
"We wouldn't miss it. Your father's looking forward to it."
Yeah, right. "Okay, then."
The little girl doll swung higher. Magda giggled and squealed, sounds Gray had never heard from her before. Perhaps if he looked into an interpreter, Lori could collect those memories for Magda and record them for when she was older. Magda squealed again.
"Who's that?" Angela asked.
Busted. Apparently, his mother's radar extended through telephone wires. "Uh, my patient."
"You're still working with those children from overseas?"
"Uh-huh." Keep it simple and get off the phone. "Look, Mom—"
"What about that little patient you and Lori were going to check on?" His mother's bracelet jingled over the phone. "Are you seeing her?"
"Yeah."
"I thought she wasn't supposed to be in the hospital more than a couple of days."
Might as well spill it before his mother concocted something more convoluted than reality, although he couldn't imagine what that might be. "She's home. Her foster parents backed out, so Lori stepped in. She called for a consult when Magda got sick."
"Magda," she sighed, her grandmother bracelet chiming. "What a sweet little name."
He could almost hear the jeweler's engraving tool etching out the name on a new charm for his mother's bracelet. "She's a sweet kid."
When she wasn't scowling at him.
"I'll bet she would enjoy playing with all those other children at the base party Friday."
Seconds ticked by while Gray clamped his teeth together. Magda moved the papa doll as he pushed the swing. She should remember her father had played with her. Every kid should have happy childhood memories.
His own father had been big on camping trips and parks when Gray had been a boy. Of course, looking back now, Gray realized that's probably all their budget would allow. Those simple vacations made for good memories. Odd how he hadn't thought about them in years.
"Grayson? Are you still there?"
"Yeah, Mom."
"Why don't your father and I pick up Lori on our way to base? Then she won't have to bother with the guards and registering her car at the front gate. Where does she live?"
"Above her office, but Mom—"
"If the two of you are back together, you really need to make the most of your time before you leave."
He and Lori a couple again. He could see how his mother could come to that conclusion.
Had Lori gotten the same idea from all the time they'd spent together? He'd told her they weren't going to start anything. But he'd seen that softening in her eyes when he'd told her about his father, then again when he'd brought her those lame crackers.
Somehow he needed for her to realize what he'd said about his job was true. Maybe a trip to the base, combined with time spent with his parents might help her to understand.