Boss Meets Her Match. Janet Lee Nye
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“Great. Well, the first planning meeting is going to be next Saturday. Right now, we’ve got it slated for ten in the morning, at my house. Is that good?”
“Got it. Thanks for asking me.”
After saying goodbye and walking to the end of the line, she realized she was grinning ear to ear. Uh. Okay. Maybe you should try this actual volunteering stuff more often. Feels pretty good.
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.