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Will you remember that I said I love you? And that I want you forever?”
    “I’ll remember.” She felt the sting of tears threaten, but she didn’t know if it was disappointment, fear for him or just the usual pain of saying goodbye.
    “I have an important question to ask you, but not on the phone.”
    “I’ll die waiting. Ask me. Please.”
    “No. I’ll be back before you know it and then we’ll sort everything out.”
    “What if we’re not right for each other? What if we just think we are because we never see each other?”
    “June, listen to me. I’ve never asked a person to wait for me. Never in my whole life. Never in my career as an agent. But I’m asking you. Wait for me, June. I’ll be right back.”
    “You better not get hurt!”
    He laughed, that deep, amused chuckle. “With all I have to look forward to? You think I’m crazy? I’ll be fine. And I’m so sorry. About tonight.”
    “You owe me.”
    “Big time,” he said. “Say goodbye, June. I have to go.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Okay. Keep a good thought.”
    The line went dead.
    June sat at her desk, holding the phone. Once again, nothing had been resolved. He moved in and out of her life so stealthily that sometimes she wondered if he was real.
    There was a light rapping at her office door.
    “Yes?”
    John poked his head in. “We just had a call from Clinton Mull. He can’t find his father anywhere. When he ran out of the hospital room this morning, he took off and hasn’t been back since.”

Four
    J une was feeling a little sorry for herself, to tell the truth. Charlotte was still barely holding on a few days after her heart attack, with Elmer sitting a painful vigil at her side. June was unable to spend much time comforting her father or her nurse because the clinic was full of kids whose parents had waited till the last minute to get them school and sports’ physicals and catch up on immunizations. Clarence Mull hadn’t come home yet, leaving Jurea wringing her hands in that stoic but distraught manner of hers. And June hadn’t heard a word from Jim.
    She’d dreamed about Jim the night before, a dream so real and voluptuous, she woke short of breath and with his scent on her. It took long moments for her to realize that it was only the pillow he’d used. That, combined with her longing, made the whole nocturnal event so real. Then she turned over and said a prayer that he’d be safe, and a second prayer that he’d still love her as passionately when this next assignment was past.
    There was a definite bright spot in the chaos, and that was Susan, who kept things moving with such efficient pacing that they were able to keep up with the heavy load without imposing on Elmer for help. It was difficult to believe she’d never been an office nurse, impossible to imagine that in the past seven years she hadn’t worked as a nurse at all. She was assisting in OB-GYN exams, removing stitches, helping Jessie schedule appointments, taking patient histories, giving shots and, most importantly, keeping the doctors moving if they started to get behind. Although it felt like a sacrilege, June thought she was even more capable than Charlotte, and that was saying something.
    She caught John in the clinic hall, between patients. “I don’t know how we managed before we had Susan in here,” she whispered to him.
    “Now you know how I felt when I met her. She was a surgical nurse. My life was a mess and she straightened me right out.”
    “At least you know how lucky you are.”
    “And if I don’t, she’ll be happy to remind me,” he teased.
    “Seriously, John, she’s a fantastic nurse. Do you think there’s any possibility she’d stay on? Full-time? With Sydney in first grade this year…”
    “Sorry, she’d never even consider it. Susan is completely devoted to being a full-time wife and mother.”
    “That’s too bad,” June said with disappointment. “I mean, not too bad that she wants to be a full-time wifeand mother,