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
