Daring to Fall for the Single Dad
Author
Becky Wicks
Reads
17.0K
Chapters
17
In this third installment of the Buenos Aires Docs miniseries, what happens when a doctor finds herself falling for her best friend and his adorable son? Read on to find out! TEMPTED TO TAKE A RISK… GP Ana's wheelchair doesn't hold her back, but reopening her local clinic is a huge task. So she's thrilled when childhood best friend and paramedic Gabriel offers to help. Once, she couldn't act on her crush. Now? The struggling single dad clearly feels the same! Ana knows it would be easy to fall for Gabriel and his adorable son. But dare she put their friendship on the line for the chance of more?
CHAPTER ONE
HOLDING UP A HAND, Dr Ana Mendez waved at the post boy, smiling at his pink feathered headdress as he zoomed past her windows on his bicycle.
‘I guess everyone’s getting in the spirit already,’ she said to her vase of fresh marigolds. It was early now, and relatively peaceful on the streets, but in just a few hours her city would be pumping with a thousand kinds of music, dancing groups and musicians in every side street. The crowds would be shuffling in colourful costumes through the blocks and barrios, and her ears would be assaulted from all angles as every speaker tried its best to compete with the rest. The first day of Carnival was always fun in Buenos Aires—unless you worked in A&E, she thought to herself. The staff at the hospital were always run off their feet at this time of year. Luckily this clinic wasn’t opening till Monday, so she had the perfect excuse to hide away from the mayhem.
Ah, this clinic—her new clinic! Steering her wheelchair expertly to the desk, breathing in the smell of the fresh paint, Ana glanced at the plaque on the wall above her MD certificate. Her lips twitched with a proud smile at the sight of her name glistening in silver: Dr Ana Mendez. She had her own practice...finally!
She and her small but excited team had decided to get the madness of Carnival over with first, but every day had dawned with a new set of tasks to complete in the run up to opening. She’d been coming here every day with new additions in preparation, or to assist the workmen with new equipment, new lighting or new posters. Any excuse would do, because this was all so exciting. So...not what people had expected someone like her to go and do.
Turning her chair back towards her consulting room, she noted how at home the snake plant she’d brought in today looked already. ‘Very nice, mijo, I think this place is ideal for you,’ she said to it. Its sword-like leaves with bold stripy patterns suited the corner of her desk, she decided, and, best of all, it could survive with little help—just like her.
After years of working her way up and around hospitals all over Argentina, she had finally taken over the barrio’s clinic round the corner from the home she’d grown up in, and moved into her new wheelchair-adapted apartment too. Dr Azaban, the old GP, had hung up her coat and retired just a few months ago. The call had come in while Ana was on a break from a shift at the Medical Medicina Privada in Bariloche, where she’d been for the best part of five years.
‘The time is now, Ana,’ she’d said, in the phone call that would change the direction of her life. ‘Are you ready to come home and take over?’
It had taken a while, a lot of prep, a lot of money and a lot of documentation but she’d sailed through it all with one goal on the horizon—a home from home, a place to call hers and a new, refreshed clinic for the community to call theirs. She’d always said, when she came home, it would be for something worthwhile. Dr Azaban was an old family friend who’d been preparing Ana for this since she’d completed her studies. Not that it wasn’t going to take a while to readjust—she was still bumping into people she’d forgotten to tell she was even back in Recoleta!
Ana adjusted a bright-red truck on the colourful mat in the children’s section of the waiting room, then sat up straighter a soft blue teddy bear on his tiny stool. It had been decided years ago, and even laid out on her vision board, that her clinic would possess none of the drabness she’d encountered in other GP practices over the years. The process of getting well began in the mind, in cheery surroundings with positive vibes, she reminded herself, plucking a colourful marigold from another vase on the magazine stand and placing it behind her ear.
This was something she’d taken on board as a child, when the kind staff at the children’s ward at Hospital General de Buenos Aires had sat her down and explained how she would likely never walk again. At just six years old, she’d lain there after the car accident, wondering how on earth she’d get by without the use of her legs. She’d been too young to fathom how hard it would be, not just on her going forward but also on her parents, Juan and Martina. She’d been too young to understand anything then, except the kindness and good intentions of the people around her and the way the bright colours had made her feel.
In those dark times she’d grown to find a sense of hope in the cheery flowers and toys, the pretty fabrics of the blankets and the reassuring faces on the posters on the walls. Everything ever since had been about colour, she thought now, catching a glimpse of herself in the window. She didn’t need Carnival as an excuse to dress up as though she’d wheeled her chair through a rainbow and come out draped in it on the other side. Her bright-yellow polka-dot headscarf held back her long mass of raven black curls and matched her shoes. She always matched her headscarves to her shoes wherever possible.
A banging on the door made her start. ‘We’re not open yet!’ she called. But the banging continued, this time louder. What the...?
Ana sped for the door, only to find a white-haired man doubled over on the pavement, clutching his chest. ‘Mr Acosta!’ she cried, recognising in shock the seventy-something man from the shop over the road.
‘I think I’m having a heart attack, Ana,’ he managed, his face creased in pain. No soon had she flung open the doors than he was lurching forward, practically landing on her lap in the wheelchair.
‘Come in, we’ll get you help!’ Her words were reassuring, even as she swiftly lowered her chair as far down as it would go. Bundling him inside across the threshold onto the cool floor, she loosened his collar with one hand and called for an ambulance with the other, praying the streets weren’t yet too packed with Carnival revellers for it to reach them. Pressing an ear to his chest, the rhythm of his heart was evident, which would buy some time, but she carefully tilted back his head on the tiles, keeping his airways clear. ‘You’re going to be OK, Mr Acosta.’
Thankfully, the sound of a siren in the distance soon gave her comfort, and within minutes she was watching two men leap expertly from the vehicle outside, Ambu bags bouncing on their hips. Then she realised who was wearing the first paramedic’s uniform.
Oh, my God.
‘Gabriel Romero,’ she mouthed in surprise as the world stopped.
He pulled up short in front of her. ‘Ana?’
Her old friend looked at her wide-eyed, and she took in the full extent of his dashing looks in a fraction of a second: the piercing yet warm brown eyes that had steadied her as a child and teenager into adulthood; the thick chocolate-brown hair that matched his beautiful dark skin; his sculpted face; and those adorable dimples that had always made him seem more boy than man. Now at thirty-two, as was she, he was just all man. Their locked gaze left her breathless, before any surprise at seeing him was quickly overshadowed by the severity of Mr Acosta’s condition.
His partner, Bruno Gomez—whom admittedly she hadn’t known as well as Gabriel had over the years—dropped to his knees beside the man. He swiftly assessed the situation. ‘Pulse is weak, respirations are shallow,’ he murmured to Gabriel, his gloved hand checking for signs of life. Mr Acosta wasn’t moving now and dread pooled in her stomach.
Gabriel looked up. ‘Possible myocardial infarction. Get the AED ready, Bruno.’
Bruno nodded and reached for the automated external defibrillator from their medical bag. ‘AED’s ready, Gabe.’
Bruno attached the AED pads to Mr Acosta’s chest as Gabriel continued monitoring his vital signs. ‘Analysing,’ the AED’s automated voice announced. They both stepped back as it assessed the situation. Ana held her breath. ‘Shock advised. Stand clear.’
A surge of anxiety gripped her, and she fought to stop herself gripping Gabriel’s arm. She had seen her share of medical emergencies, of course, but the urgency of this moment in her as yet unopened clinic seemed different for some reason. She glanced at Gabriel, who nodded, his face determined.
‘Clear,’ he declared as the AED administered the shock. The man’s body jolted briefly as the electric current coursed through him.
Bruno leaned in, listening to the man’s chest with a stethoscope. The man’s face made her want to cry suddenly. No! She could not have a man die here, not now, not ever! Her clinic would be a big failure before it even launched, and as for poor Mr Acosta...
‘We’ve got him!’ came Gabriel’s relieved announcement. ‘OK, we’re good, let’s get him to hospital.’
The two men talked coolly and calmly to Mr Acosta, and fixed him with the breathing apparatus. Ana remained calm and collected, making a call to Mr Acosta’s wife to tell her what was happening.
At the same time, she couldn’t help the way her mind was reeling, not just with the adrenaline of the moment, but with the rapid-fire memories coming at her the more she watched Gabriel in action. He had done a lot to help bring her to this point... Actually, did he even know this was now her clinic? He had always wanted more for her. He was the one who’d encouraged her to apply for medical school in the first place!
In minutes, they had Mr Acosta on the stretcher, breathing heavily but stable. Ana held the door open for the two paramedics, and grabbed her own car keys.
‘I’ll follow you,’ she said on the street, motioning to her wheelchair-adapted vehicle outside.
‘Are you sure? It’s getting pretty crazy out here already.’ Gabriel held her eyes for a second over the stretcher as he heaved it up into the back of the ambulance with Bruno. Her breath caught in her throat as he leaned out through the doorway, reached for her face and adjusted something in her hair. She had clean forgotten the marigold was still there, sticking out from behind her ear.
‘They were always your favourite flowers,’ he said, just before Bruno called to him, offering her an apologetic look over Gabriel’s shoulder. Ana fought the flush warming her cheeks.
‘I’ll meet you in A&E,’ she said quickly, sweeping past him, surprised and marginally annoyed by the fluttering in her belly at a time when she could have done with staying calm.
As she drove behind the ambulance in the blare of its siren, her cheek tingled with the lingering feeling of him rearranging flower in her hair after all this time. Of course, the city was big, but the medical scene was small, so it had always been just a matter of time before their paths crossed again.
Still, now she couldn’t stop thinking about their history together. Five years was a long time to go without seeing her friend, maybe even too long to pick up where they’d left off without it being a little weird, she thought, taking in a crowd of teens in feathers and sequins drinking soda by a pulsating speaker. Ana being in Bariloche for the last five years had cemented the divide, but they’d fallen out of touch even before that. She supposed he’d been too busy to check in as much, just as she had. He was a dad now; Dads were always busy. Or maybe those were just the excuses she’d been telling herself to trick her mind into falling out of love with him...
‘Mr Acosta is going to be fine; he’s stable, and his wife is on her way,’ Gabriel said later, closing the door to the treatment room and motioning Ana to accompany him down the hall. ‘Coffee?’
With the elderly man settled in recovery, Ana thought, what was another thirty minutes? Especially if it meant finding out what Gabriel Romero had been up to all this time.
Her heartbeat intensified yet again as she motored her chair alongside him through the labyrinth of corridors. Silly, she scorned herself. Once, maybe years ago, she’d had a hard crush on Gabriel, but that had been stomped out pretty fast once she’d realised he definitely did not feel the same way about her. The fact that he’d had a child with a relative stranger proved she’d hardly known him at all, really!
He looks beyond handsome in his uniform, though, she thought to herself as they made for the cafeteria. And Ana didn’t miss the way he kept shooting her sideways glances as he stopped briefly to discuss something with a tall, muscular man whose name tag read ‘Dr Carlos Cabrera’. She’d never seen Carlos before.
A&E was a hubbub of activity as usual. Nurses called out names, another ambulance arrived in a blare of sirens outside and Ana wheeled her chair alongside Gabriel, noting the acrid, astringent smell in the air and the lack of colour. Her clinic would always smell fresh, if she could help it, such as using flowers, she decided. It would always be a place of calm...at least, compared to this. It was more than a little strange just being here in the giant, hectic Hospital General de Buenos Aires, after all the time she’d spent in quieter, smaller establishments, let alone being with Gabriel.
‘You look really well,’ Gabriel said, holding open the cafeteria door for her. ‘I see you’re still as colourful as I remember. Nice shoes, by the way.’
‘Why, thank you!’ He was such a charmer. That hadn’t changed, then. Gabriel had always complimented her choice of clothing, unlike her mother, who’d suggested on more than one occasion that it was unprofessional. Ana disagreed, of course. Mama was always trying to help in ways Ana didn’t need her to; besides, she could do her job in any size, shape or colour of clothing, as long as she was always sitting down. Not everyone knew how to approach a GP in a wheelchair, so she’d learned over the years to hit them with the real her before they could imagine her as someone else in their own heads.
Gabriel sat her down in a quiet corner of the cafeteria, undisturbed. Soon they were sipping their coffees. His dark hair was still short, almost shaved to the scalp, which only intensified his liquid brown eyes as they talked.
Her stomach twisted with guilt as he talked about Javi. The little boy was already five—how had that even happened? Maybe he thought she was a terrible friend for not reaching out sooner...but he’d have been so busy, being a father to baby Javi, and she’d felt bad taking up his time. He had always wanted to be there for her, so maybe a part of her had felt that, if she wasn’t around, he wouldn’t be able to and she’d free him somehow. The distance had also been a pretty convenient way to get over her unrequited crush, seeing as never in a million years would he feel the same way about her.
‘How are your parents? I see Martina quite a lot in the grocery store; she always says you take ages to return her calls.’ He grinned even as Ana flinched.
‘Well, now, my mother can just walk down the street to me, like old times,’ she said with a wry smile. ‘Lucky me.’
He stifled a laugh and she felt her eye twitch. Gabriel knew how overbearing both Juan and Martina had always been. She’d been lucky, she supposed. Well, as lucky as a girl with a spinal cord injury could be, in that she’d never let other people’s impressions of her, or her condition, stand in her way. Not that people hadn’t tried. Her own parents, as well-meaning as they were, had never abandoned their tendency to try and wrap her up safe and tight in cotton wool. There’d been a decade when they’d barely let her leave the house alone. She’d had to battle every cousin, aunt, uncle and grandparent over the years to be able to do anything independently at all.
But Gabriel...he’d always been different. Consequently, her crush on him had grown and grown, until she’d almost been bursting with her secret feelings. Gabriel had been the ever-present friend, platonic, and completely oblivious to the fact that, upon reaching their teenage years, and with the two of them being pretty much inseparable, Ana had wanted more.
The cafeteria was filled with people, and the sound of voices talking filled the air, along with the strong smell of coffee. It should have been quite comfortable talking to him, despite her old feelings, which had probably started around the time she’d turned twelve or thirteen. They’d grown up together after, all, the two of them and their families. He’d been the first one to jump in front of her whenever one of the mean kids had tried to bully her because of her wheelchair—her hero! But he’d never known about her massive crush on him. How could he? She’d feared his rejection so much that she’d never told him. And, besides, how could she tell him that, hear him say, ‘Er, no thanks, Ana’ and then go back to being friends? There was just no way!
There had been one point when he’d asked to see her, all serious and nervous-looking, and she’d freaked out inside, thinking, finally, he was going to tell her he knew how she felt about him, and that he had feelings for her too. Her heart had swelled to the size of a balloon as she’d sat there opposite him in the park, watching him wringing his hands together.
Just kiss me, she’d willed him. Just do it before I burst!
Then of course he’d told her about Ines being pregnant and that they were going to make it work because she wanted to keep the baby. Talk about being blindsided.
‘So...tell me about this clinic,’ he said now, gesturing with his cup. ‘I saw the plaque on the wall, Ana. I know it’s what you always wanted. Look at you, taking over from the barrio’s favourite GP. Dr Az only ever had you in mind for that. When does it reopen?’
Ana breathed a harried sigh through her lips. ‘I know, crazy, right? It opens officially on Monday.’ She told him how she’d been so worried that things wouldn’t come together in time, but soon her usual excitement was shining through as she told him all about her plans—from hiring the staff and finding donations from local businesses for the toys and furnishings, to decorating the interior and selecting medical equipment—it felt as if no detail was too small for her to go into. He listened intently, as he always did.
‘It all sounds very impressive.’ He smiled warmly. There were those butterflies again, she thought. They flapped even harder in her chest as he added softly, ‘You were missed around here, you know.’
She flushed again, readjusting her yellow headscarf. ‘By who, your mother? How is she?’
Gabriel laughed softly. ‘She’s well.’
Ana looked away for a moment, suddenly not sure what to say all over again. ‘It must have been different in Bariloche,’ he continued into the awkward silence that had just descended. ‘Wasn’t it cold in the foothills of the Andes?’
‘Sometimes, but I loved my work, and that’s where I spent most of my time. It was a pretty small clinic, not unlike the one I’m opening.’
Gabriel eyes narrowed indecipherably as he studied her, and he sat back in his seat. ‘But you took yourself somewhere different; you embraced the challenge. I’m proud of you, Ana.’
Ana bit her lip, wishing the stupid butterflies would calm down—this was Gabriel, her friend! ‘You helped give me the courage, remember? You cheered me on.’
‘Maybe so, but you still would have done it without me. You always just did everything you set your mind to. You’ve seen so much more than I ever will. You’ve travelled...’
‘You can still travel,’ she told him, noticing the flecks of gold around his pupils that she’d always thought made his eyes look like marigolds shimmering in deep, dark pools. For so long, she’d been living life on her own—away from family and old friends—so it was kind of hard to fathom how anyone wouldn’t want that experience, even if it wasn’t for long. A few years, or even months away, doing things by oneself, and for oneself, could do wonders for the self-esteem.
‘I can’t go far, can I? I have my family, Javi and his dog...’
‘Oh, I know!’ She nodded, realising how naive and idealistic she must sound. Fathers of five-year-old kids didn’t just uproot themselves and go work on the other side of the country.
‘How is Javi liking school?’ she asked now. ‘I assume you share custody with Ines?’
In that moment, something seemed to shift between them. Gabriel pressed his palms together.
‘Things are a little different now, yes,’ he said quietly. The tension was rising by the second. He hunched his shoulders suddenly, gripping his coffee cup so hard it looked about ready to break. Surely he wasn’t still upset about the separation with Ines? Ana knew they’d tried hard to make it work for the sake of the baby, but the baby had been the result of a quick fling over five years ago!
Ana was just about to ask what was wrong when someone called his name. They turned to see a heavily pregnant medic hurrying over to them as best she could, scraping back chairs to fit herself and her belly through, muttering apologies to people as she moved.
‘There you are.’ Ana studied her name badge: Dr Isabella Lopez. Isabella blew a long, shiny black curl from her face as she stopped in front of them, squinting her dark eyes a moment. Gabriel shot up and helped her into a chair, and she pressed two hands to her belly. ‘Sorry guys; hi.’ She huffed, introducing herself quickly to Ana. ‘I’m glad I caught you, Gabe, I have a huge favour to ask you.’
Gabriel nodded in understanding as Isabella explained how she wasn’t feeling very well, how her pregnancy was doing a number on her sleep patterns and that she didn’t think she could handle the medical post at Carnival tonight. She was expecting triplets!
‘I’m so sorry to ask at such short notice,’ she said now, her tired brown eyes pleading. Isabella pressed a hand over his and rubbed another over her sweating forehead in a way that made Ana wonder what on earth it must feel like, having a tiny human inhabiting you, let alone three of them throwing your internal systems all out of whack. She had parts that didn’t work as they should herself, namely her legs, but being pregnant must be something else entirely.
‘No need to apologise, Bella. Of course I’ll cover for you; you go home and rest,’ Gabriel said kindly. Ana realised she was staring at him over the table now, and that her heart was melting at his kindness. And Isabella was looking between them with some interest.
‘My parents are taking Javi tonight anyway; they’ll probably take his dog too, seeing as they adore him,’ Gabriel added, glancing at Ana, as if knowing full well she’d ask, what dog? ‘Actually, they might leave the dog behind. Carnival is no place for canines. He’s a rescue dog called Savio, a terrier mix—super-smart. He lives with Ines and Pedro but we’re teaching him tricks when he visits. Pedro—that’s Ines’s new husband—picked him up from a farm. Savio killed a chicken, so they were about to put him to sleep for it, but the poor thing was starving. They hadn’t fed him in a week, can you believe that?’
Ana’s mouth had fallen open, but not just because of the chicken-killing dog and his troubled life on the farm. Ines had remarried; when on earth had that happened? Usually she got all the gossip from her mother. Maybe she should have returned more of Mama’s calls.
OK, so there was a lot she didn’t know about Gabriel’s life these days, she mused despondently. Before she had even thought about what the heck she was doing, she turned to Isabella.
‘I can help him this evening.’ She smiled broadly. ‘If that’s OK?’
‘Really?’ Gabriel looked surprised and the fluttering started back up in Ana’s stomach lining. ‘You have so much to do before the clinic’s opening; you should take tonight to relax!’
Isabella reached out and took Ana’s hand in her own slightly clammy one, squeezing it gently before letting go. ‘You’re opening a clinic?’
Ana answered all of the sweet Isabella’s questions, feeling Gabriel’s eyes on her face the whole time. She wasn’t quite sure, as later she made her way back out to her car, whether it was the clinic’s impending opening that kept the butterflies soaring around her internal pathways or the thought of having Gabriel back in her world after all this time.
