Читать книгу Boss Meets Her Match - Janet Lee Nye - Страница 16

CHAPTER SEVEN

LATE MONDAY AFTERNOON, Lena wandered the labyrinth that was the Children’s Hospital. Ava, her cousin’s little girl, had broken her leg in a trampoline accident the previous summer. It hadn’t healed correctly over a growth plate and now required an operation.

Finally, she found the correct unit. She paused outside the open door to Ava’s room. She could hear voices. Ava and a man. Not a relative. She stepped into the doorway.

Ava was in the bed, her leg up in something that looked like a torture device. In a chair beside her was a man. She recognized that flow of dark blond hair, tied back with a length of leather. Recognized those shoulders. That voice. In a moment, she’d be seen and he would turn and those impossibly icy blue eyes would look into hers and those lips would curve into a smile and...

“Auntie Lena!” Ava squealed.

Matt turned with a surprised expression, but she had Ava to distract her. She circled the bed to the opposite side and leaned in to give Ava a hug and kiss on the forehead. “Ava. Mi probo prima! Como te sientes? Tienes dolar?”

“No, it doesn’t hurt and it’s rude to speak Spanish in front of people who don’t,” Ava said prissily. She held up a sketchbook. “Mr. Matt is drawing pictures with me because I can’t go to the playroom.”

“Ms. Reyes,” Matt said, his tone dripping with pleasured surprise and more than a little teasing. “How delightful to see you. I didn’t know Ava was your niece.”

“Technically, she’s my second cousin. But since I’m an only child, it’s agreed I get to be aunt to all my cousins’ children.”

“Did you get me a present?” Ava asked.

“You know I did.”

Lena handed Ava the gift bag she’d brought with her. Ava took out the small teddy bear. The present wasn’t really the bear though; it was the envelope dangling from its arm by a ribbon. Ava tore it open eagerly.

“Oh my gosh! Five hundred! Thank you, Auntie Lena! Am I there yet?”

Lena sat on the edge of the bed. “Not quite. But you have time.”

Ava turned to Matt. “Auntie Lena is paying for all of us to go to college.”

“Mr. Matthews doesn’t want to know about all that, Ava. And I’ve interrupted your time with him. Where are your parents?”

“They went downstairs to get Granddaddy.”

Matt lounged back in his chair, arms across his chest. His mouth was twisted in a smirk, but his eyes were warm and full of questions. “You didn’t interrupt. We were almost done.”

Lena stood and smoothed down her skirt. “Well then.” Her voice sounded prissy even to her own ear. Matt’s grin widened to a smile. “I’ll leave you to wrap it up. I’ll be back with your parents, my sweet.”

She tried to make a graceful, dignified exit. One that didn’t make it seem like she was running away. But she was fooling no one. Matt’s loaded “Goodbye, Ms. Reyes,” followed her out of the room. Saco de huevos. So infuriating. She’d like to wipe that smirk off his face.

She’d just rounded the corner when she heard her name. Turning, she saw her parents with her aunt Paula and her husband and Ava’s mother, Louisa. “There you are! I just peeked in on Ava.”

“Is the art therapist still with her?” Louisa asked.

The question took Lena aback for a moment. She’d been looking at Matt as the smirking, snotty frat boy who pissed her off by just breathing, not as a therapist doing his job. “Yes,” she stammered out. “I think they are finishing up soon though.”

“Good. Good,” her uncle Tomas said, looking over his shoulder.

Lena frowned and looked down the hallway. A man was walking toward them. A man in a white coat. A Hispanic-looking man. No. Just no. She shot a murderous look at her mother, who shook her head slightly and lifted her hands palms up.

“Ah, Vincente,” her aunt Paula said. As if she was surprised. Yeah, right.

Lena narrowed her eyes and felt her jaw clench. Louisa hid her smile behind her hand. “I’m going to kill your parents,” Lena muttered under her breath at her cousin.

“Hey! I’m going to go check on Ava,” Louisa said brightly before making a run for it.

“I think we’ll go too,” Lena’s mother said, grabbing her husband by the arm and following Louisa.

“Vincente, this is my niece Lena Reyes. Lena, Vincente goes to church with us. He’s a doctor.”

Lena smiled lukewarmly at the man. Okay. He wasn’t bad. Tall. Rather handsome. Nice smile. “Hello,” she said, reaching out to shake his offered hand.

“Lena. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Your aunt speaks very highly of you.”

He had just the tiniest scrap of an accent. He held on to her hand a bit too long, forcing her to pull away. “Nice to meet you,” she said automatically.

“Doctor Perez is single also, Lena,” Paula said.

Lena turned a furious, incredulous face to her aunt. “Aunt Paula!” she hissed out between her teeth.

Vincente chuckled. “Come now, Mrs. Hernandez, you’ll make me blush.”

He looked over at Lena. His expression was both embarrassed and amused. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t in on this setup. Still. What next? Were they going to offer him a dowry to take her dried-up, old spinster self?

“And,” he continued, “I think you’ve embarrassed your beautiful niece.”

Infuriated. That’s the word you’re looking for Mister Doctor Man. Infuriated. Before she could form a coherent sentence, Paula nudged her.

“Give Dr. Perez one of your cards, Magdalena.”

A motion in the hall caught her eye. Oh, this just makes it perfect. Matt breezed past. Close enough to make sure that she saw him seeing her trapped in this moment. He turned a few feet beyond them, walking backward and grinning at her. Pendajo. As she fumbled out a card, an idea popped into her brain. A way out of this.

She held the card out and let her gaze drift over the doctor’s shoulder. She looked back at him and smiled. “It certainly was a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Perez. Now, if you all will excuse me, I’d like to speak to Ava’s art therapist.”

She ran for it this time. Didn’t even look back to see her aunt’s face. She reached an intersecting hall and glanced in both directions. There he was. “Matt,” she called out.

He stopped and looked back, surprise clear on his face. “You need a place to hide?”

“Shut up,” she said as she approached him.

He leaned a shoulder against the wall and grinned at her. “That looked like an ambush to me.”

“That was an ambush. But I wanted to ask about Ava.”

The smirk grin faded a bit. “Ask,” he said.

“Is she okay? Did you learn anything from working with her that will help us help her?”

He straightened. His smile was different this time. Warm and sincere. “Yes. I asked her to draw the hospital room. Having kids draw their environment is a good way to get a glimpse into their feelings.”

“And what did Ava show you?”

“Well. She drew the bed very small and the windows very large. Which can mean she feels overwhelmed by being here and she wants to escape. But she also drew herself smiling and surrounded by her parents and family. Which means that she feels safe and loved. I think she’s going to be just fine.”

Lena nodded. “Did you talk to her mother about this?”

“Yep. You’ve got a nice family, Ms. Reyes. I’m glad I got to help them out.”

“Thank you.”

She smiled up at him. A moment. This was a real moment. Then his smile twisted back to that little sideways grin and the glint came back into his eyes. “If only I could have helped you out with that scene in the hall. If you’d drawn that for me, my assessment would be that you were being set up.”

And moment over. She gave him her most vicious glare and arched an eyebrow. “Why? Were you jealous?” Venom still dripping from the words, she turned and stomped down the hallway, putting a little extra swish in it just to give him a show.

His laughter followed her. “You are surely something, Ms. Reyes.”

Humph. Just how much of something, you’ll never know. She turned the corner and flipped her hand dismissively in his general direction.

* * *

MATT WATCHED HER sashay down the hall. Because she wanted him to watch. Still smiling, he shook his head and entered the playroom. She was something. Hot. Cold. Smart. Sexy. Let it go, dude. A woman like that isn’t to be trifled with. And he had too much on his plate right now to take on the likes of Ms. Reyes.

As he set up the table where he’d lead a session with several of his regular kids, his mind drifted back. Not to Lena, but the entire family. They’d shown up in force. Ava was never alone for a moment. When he was five, his nanny had taken him to the hospital when he’d had his tonsils out. When he developed a complication and had to stay overnight, she left at 6:00 p.m. The maid was supposed to stay with him, but never showed up. His parents were in London. He’d been terrified. And after that, he’d spent several scary nights alone in the hospital with asthma attacks.

Shake it off, man. But he wondered. What would it be like to come from such a family, full of loud laughter and love? And how did that family forge someone as guarded as Lena?

“Mr. Matt! Mr. Matt!”

He turned toward the voice with a smile. Clarissa. Dr. Rutledge’s granddaughter. With her was a tall woman, whose red hair matched the wisps of hair still clinging to Clarissa’s little head. She was being dragged by the hand across the playroom.

“Hey there, pretty girl. You seem mighty perky today. And you’re the first to arrive, which means you get to be my assistant.”

He shifted his attention to the woman beside Clarissa. He held out a hand. “Matt. Are you Clarissa’s mother?”

The woman laughed. “No. Although you aren’t the first to make that guess.”

“This is my aunt Logan, Matt. She’s visiting me and I wanted to show her the playroom.” Clarissa looked up at Logan. “I told you he was cute!”

Logan blushed and Matt felt a little heat on his own face. Here he’d been teasing Lena about an ambush setup and now he was the victim of one. “Logan,” he said. “Might you be the daughter who was asked to leave several deportment classes?”

Her laugh echoed through the playroom. “Indeed I am. How did that conversation ever come up?”

“I think it was my confession to having been in a similar situation.”

Clarissa grabbed his hand. “What are we doing today, Mr. Matt?”

“We’re going to make Halloween decorations. So we are going to need construction paper, glue and scissors. Do you know where they are stored?”

“I do,” Clarissa said seriously. She turned to her aunt. “Promise me you won’t leave.”

“I promise.” They watched Clarissa open the supply cabinet. “I’m sorry about this. She just said she wanted to show me the playroom.”

“It’s okay. She’s a good kid. Has a lot of fight in her.”

“That she gets from me.”

There was something in her stance. The slight nuance of her voice. Matt grinned. “Baa, baa,” he said.

“Black sheep,” Logan returned with her own grin.

They did a fist bump. “May we ever run free,” he said. “Hang out awhile. No need for you to miss out on time with Clarissa while she’s doing this.”

She glanced at her watch. “I really need to go. Clarissa, come give me a hug and kiss. I have to go back to work.”

Clarissa wrapped her arms around Logan’s abdomen. “Will you bring me a dessert?”

“Tomorrow, Mini-Me,” Logan said as she kissed the top of Clarissa’s head.

Clarissa looked up at Matt. “Aunt Logan is a pastry chef. She makes the best desserts ever in the whole world.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. You two should go on a date.”

“Clarissa! That’s not very polite,” Logan said.

“Why? You’re my favorite aunt. He’s my favorite hospital person.”

Matt held back laughter. He looked thoughtfully at the little girl. “Would it make you happy if we went on a date?”

“Yes.”

Matt pulled over a chair and sat down to be at eye level. “What if we go on the date and we just want to be friends instead of boyfriend and girlfriend?”

Clarissa shrugged. “I don’t care. I just think you should go on a date.”

“Okay then,” he said. “Go finish getting the supplies ready.”

As she skipped away, he turned to Logan. “So we’ll go on a date.” He made air quotes.

Logan smiled and held out a hand. “Deal. But just so you know, this really isn’t a date.”

“I understand. But I’m new in town. A little short on friends. We’ll talk about the lives of black sheep and Clarissa will feel like she did something good for us.”

Logan looked back to where Clarissa was rummaging through the supply cabinet. Her eyes filled with sadness. “I just want her to have a date of her own someday.”

“She will. She’s a fighter. Like her favorite aunt.”

Logan laughed. “I’m her only aunt. Give me your number and we’ll arrange a time for this date.”