Page 52

“Hey Hilly,” he greeted, approaching her with a smile.
She stabbed a button on her phone and turned to him with a rueful twist of her lips. “Hi, Cisco.”
“No luck I take it?” he asked.
“None yet. You?” she asked hopefully.
He couldn’t leave her in suspense.
“Yup. I’ve actually found someone for the next week and a half. But at least that’s something.”
Cisco didn’t expect it when a squealing Hilly launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his middle, tightly.
“Thank you,” she breathed out, from under his chin. “I was really stressing.”
She pulled back abruptly as if just realizing what she’d done, and looked around guiltily to see if anyone had spotted her spontaneous embrace.
Cisco could have told her there were no witnesses. If anyone had been around, he would have stopped her before her mini-PDA.
“Um, that’s great Cisco,” she regrouped with a blush. “Who is it?”
“Alvero Deluthe,” he told her. “Alvi is our SWAT team medic, and although he’s not a nurse or a doctor, he has all kinds of medical certifications. He checked the state’s web-site, and he more than qualifies to be your guy. The only problem is, he can’t get more than the rest of this week and next week, off. After that, he’s out of personal days to use.”
“Oh! I can’t let him do that.” Hilly’s brow furrowed. “It’s nice of him, but I can’t have him giving up his personal days for me,” she qualified.
“Are you kidding?” Cisco laughed. “When I asked him, he was practically bouncing off the walls. Apparently, he went to camp here when your grandmother ran the place, and has such good memories of his summers, he can’t wait to relive them. He’s already talking like it’s the best vacation he’ll have enjoyed in years.”
Hilly, instead of being as pumped as he thought she would, looked a little conflicted as she bit the hell out of her bottom lip.
“Really, Hilly. He’s excited. I promise,” Cisco attempted to assure her again.
“That’s…great,” she finally responded before squaring her shoulders. “I really do appreciate it, and…I’ll owe him, big time.” She seemed to regroup fully. “Maybe we can even recreate some of his best recollections from the camp as a surprise.” She looked at Cisco and gave an actual smile. “I’ll check back in Grannie’s journals to see what was going on when he attended.”
“You’re kidding me, right? You have records from twenty years ago?”
Now Hilly laughed. “Uh, huh. Complete, handwritten logs of every season she operated,” Hilly told him, her grin sticking this time. “And with the nearly two-week reprieve your friend will give us, he deserves a reward. And hopefully his assistance will give me the buffer I need to find someone to fill in for the rest of the summer.”
Cisco still didn’t understand the conflicting reactions he’d seen from Hilly, but as long as she was happy now, he’d try to keep the good news rolling. “I may have feelers out for that, too,” Cisco told her a little smugly. “I’ve been in touch with Mason. He’s Mrs. S’s son? My SWAT boss?”
She gave him an affirmative nod. “I know him.”
“Well, he thinks he might be able to dig someone up.”
“Wow,” Hilly responded, wide eyed. “It really pays to have a network of friends. I can’t believe you’ve accomplished all that in just a couple hours, while I’ve been scrambling for the same amount of time, coming up with nothing.”
Cisco chuckled. “That’s not all because of me. You have to understand. Mason loves a challenge, so when I presented him with your dilemma, he took it as a serious assignment. He’s the one who told me to call Alvi.”
“Geeze. I’ll have to make sure to thank him, too” Hilly told Cisco sincerely. “I don’t suppose he went to Gran’s camp?”
Cisco laughed. “Not a clue. You’ll have to ask Mrs. S about that one.
“I will,” she agreed. “Because if he can pull this off, it’ll be a lifesaver.”
Cisco had no doubt the boss would be able to solve Hilly’s dilemma. But that wasn’t the only thing on his mind.
Cisco cleared his throat.
“In the meantime, would you like to take a walk with me before craft-time finishes up and I have to get ready to teach my late class?”