Caribbean Paradise, Miracle Family

by Julie Danvers

  But Gran had taught her to make do with what she had. And right now, all she had was her instinct that it would be better for Maisie to have no father figure in her life, rather than one who was unreliable.

  Willow also thought it might be for the best that she did not have much more exposure to Theo, either. Even though she hadn’t seen him for several days, her mind had an inconvenient way of recalling how his hair, short but unruly, seemed to spill over his forehead in a way that made her want to push back the locks that just brushed his eyes. And the way his mouth curved up at the corners, as though that warm smile were about to break over his face at any moment.

  She told herself that she had not been attracted to Theo. He simply had an interesting face, that was all. With a warm smile. As shocked and confused as Theo’s visit had left her, she hadn’t been able to stop herself from thinking about that smile over the past several days. Which left her all the more relieved that he hadn’t contacted her again.

  Between working full-time and raising a daughter on her own, Willow had always told herself that she was too busy to find a place for love or romance in her life. It was just as well that she hadn’t felt an attraction to anyone in years, because work and Maisie kept her very busy. Not just busy, but safe. She’d never questioned her decision to be done with relationships after the breakup with Jamie. She’d trusted him for years, and in the end, not only had she been deeply hurt, but all of her dreams for the future had almost been lost. She couldn’t risk that happening again, especially now that she had a child.

  She felt another burst of irritation with Theo. What kind of a person confidently agreed to the conditions under which he could see his own child, and then disappeared without any communication for a week? Even if he’d decided to leave, he could have at least called to let her know he’d changed his mind.

  She could understand if he was disappointed to learn that being involved in Maisie’s life might be harder than he’d thought. But unless he had a place to live, a job and a plan for how he was going to be consistently present for Maisie, then Willow couldn’t allow him to see her. Parenting was a huge commitment. Willow knew that none of the things she’d asked Theo to do were easy, because she’d done all of those things. She’d been doing them from the moment Maisie was born. And that really was the point. She knew what it took to be a parent, and she couldn’t accept anything less for her daughter.

  Of course, she could understand all he’d been through. Cancer wreaked such havoc and destruction on people’s lives. She was so glad he was in remission. But that didn’t mean he was ready to take on the reality of raising a child.

  As she walked into work, Willow decided that she wasn’t going to worry about Theo Moore any longer. She was tired of waiting for an update from him, and of worrying about the impact his presence would have on her life and Maisie’s.

  It’s been over a week, she thought. Surely if he were going to stay, I’d have heard from him by now. It’s time to stop worrying about it, and to let things get back to normal.

  And she did, indeed, have a wonderful sense of normalcy as she headed into the nurses’ station. She loved her job, and throwing herself into her work was one of her favorite ways to take a break from worrying about her own problems. She’d always found that when she was immersed in a medical procedure, her own worries drifted away as she focused on the task at hand. A few routine procedures were just what she needed.

  When Willow had taken her job at the Island Clinic, she’d been looking for a way to make a drastic change in her life. She’d hoped that the job would allow her to have better work-life balance, and more time with Maisie, but she’d never dreamed that she would end up loving her job as much as she did. Willow had always been a caring and compassionate nurse, but in North London, she’d also been overworked, burned out and struggling to make ends meet. Most of her colleagues were in the same position. Now that she was working at a clinic where the salary more than met her needs, and where her colleagues were excited to come to work each morning, Willow discovered a new sense of enthusiasm for her profession.

  At first she’d been nervous about whether she’d fit in at the Island Clinic. She was a practical person who had entered nursing because she wanted to care for those in need. But at the clinic, some of the clientele had faces that were almost as familiar to Willow as her own. Patients routinely arrived with an entourage and lists of extremely specific demands, including everything from dietary preferences to the kind of music played in exam rooms.

  But even though the clinic catered to the well-known and the wealthy, it also strove to meet the needs of the island’s residents, as well. The staff took the clinic’s mission statement seriously: We are always here to help. No patient was ever turned away from the clinic due to their inability to pay. The clinic often shared patients with nearby St. Victoria Hospital, taking on difficult cases or patients whose care might be too costly for the hospital. Willow was more than willing to put up with the quirks and demands of entitled celebrities from time to time, if it meant that the people of St. Victoria—people who were now her friends and neighbors—had the medical care they needed.

  As she began to review the day’s medical charts, she had to admit that after more than a year of working at the clinic, she was coming to appreciate many of its perks. The same luxury experiences the clinic strove to provide to patients tended to spill over onto the staff. Willow could and had worked under all kinds of conditions, and she didn’t need luxury to be an effective nurse. But she certainly didn’t mind that the coffee she sipped during her chart review came from a French press, or that the lunches she ate with her colleagues each day were prepared by a chef who’d earned three Michelin stars. In fact, she was almost starting to get used to it.

  She looked up from her chart to take in the view from the big picture window outside the nurses’ station. She’d never get used to the constant presence of white sand and palm trees, and she was glad of that. The view of the ocean was every bit as breathtaking as it had been the day she arrived.

  She heard a buzz of voices as three nurses headed toward the station, deep in excited conversation. “Willow!” gasped Talia, a fellow nurse. “Have you heard? There’s a rumor that Roni Santiago is on her way to the clinic!”

  Willow couldn’t help raising her eyebrows. Even though she was used to celebrity patients by now, Veronica Santiago—or Roni, as she was known by nearly everyone on earth—would be one of the most famous patients ever to arrive. Roni had begun her media career decades ago as a daytime talk show host. Her program was known to delve deeply into serious social issues, going far beyond typical sensationalism and fluff. She developed a reputation for bringing out deep emotions among her program guests and audience members. She’d also been known, and perhaps especially loved, for her frequent giveaways. Once, she’d gifted her entire studio audience with a weeklong cruise on the Baltic Sea. Since then, she’d founded a global nonprofit organization as well as her own media empire. There was a Roni magazine, a streaming TV channel and a lifestyle website where members could engage directly with Roni and with each other.

  “Isn’t it exciting?” said Talia. “My mother and I used to watch her show together after I got out of school. I’ve always wanted to meet her.”

  Under other circumstances, Willow might have shared in Talia’s excitement. But she’d been hoping to get wrapped up in some straightforward medical procedures. A few days of setting broken bones and mending lacerations would help her to get her mind off the turmoil that Theo’s arrival had caused. She’d been in charge of coordinating celebrity care before, and in her experience, it usually meant not much medicine and a lot of babysitting. A guest with as big a name as Roni’s was bound to arrive with her own list of special demands in addition to the luxury the clinic already offered. Willow hoped that she would be able to stay out of Roni’s way and focus on providing medical care, rather than meeting the needs of a celebrity who wa
s likely used to getting her own way most of the time.

  Those hopes were dashed moments later when her boss, Dr. Nate Edwards, arrived at the nurses’ station.

  Nate was chief of staff at the Island Clinic, and Willow had developed tremendous admiration for him over the past year. When she’d first arrived in the Caribbean, his warmth and patience had helped Willow overcome any lingering doubts about her decision to move to St. Victoria. When she’d first read about the Island Clinic, she’d been intrigued by the location and the high salary. But it had been Nate’s personality that confirmed for her that she was going to take the job. Nate’s demeanor, driven yet down to earth, had convinced her that the clinic was sincere in its mission to help. She’d worked with him long enough to know that she could always trust him to do what was best for the clinic, the staff and their patients.

  Which was why she felt her heart sink when he said, “Willow, I was wondering if you’d be willing to take the lead on coordinating Roni Santiago’s care when she gets here.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need me somewhere else?” she asked, desperately trying to think of an excuse. “Wouldn’t I be more use in surgery? Or in the infectious disease wing?”

  “I know looking after celebrities isn’t your favorite part of the job. But Roni is in a somewhat unusual situation. She began chemotherapy for breast cancer a month ago, and since then, someone either in her entourage or on her treatment team has been leaking information to the press. A lot of it has been sensationalized—the tabloids make it sound as though she’s on death’s door.”

  “That’s terrible,” said Willow. “I had no idea Roni Santiago had cancer. And I’m sure the reports in the news aren’t good for her physical or emotional health.”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t heard—it’s been all over the tabloids.”

  “I never pay much attention to those,” she said. That, and she’d so been preoccupied with thoughts of Theo’s visit that she hadn’t had much time to think of anything else.

  “The paparazzi have been a serious problem. They’re hounding Roni at every turn. She and her doctors agreed it would be best for her to come here, for the sake of security and privacy. We’ll all need to be extra careful. I want her to be able to focus on rest and recovery.”

  “Is there any danger of the press finding out she’s coming here?”

  “The director of her previous cancer treatment center has assured me that no one at their end could possibly have revealed that Roni is headed our way, so we should be able to maintain her privacy without worrying that we’ll be inundated by paparazzi. Still, caution is important. The press has been relentless.”

  “I’m sure that doesn’t help with her emotional state.” It was crucial for cancer patients to keep their spirits up. Still, Willow had been hoping for a brief respite from celebrity nursing. “Are you certain you need me to be the one to coordinate her care?” she asked Nate.

  “If you don’t mind. For one thing, you live off-campus. In the unlikely event that the paparazzi become a problem, it’ll be less pressure for Roni and the staff if those involved in her care are able to leave at the end of the day.”

  Willow nodded. Being able to leave her work at work was one of the primary reasons she’d opted not to live in the clinic’s on-campus housing.

  “To tell you the truth, I have some ulterior motives in wanting Roni’s care to be coordinated by one of our best nurses.”

  Willow couldn’t help smiling at the compliment. She cared about what Nate thought of her, and it meant something to be held high in his regard.

  And she didn’t have to think very hard about what his ulterior motives might be. Nate was passionate about the clinic’s mission to serve the island, especially to provide care to those who couldn’t afford to pay. Even though the high fees paid by celebrities helped to offset the clinic’s outreach work, Nate was always on the lookout for opportunities to encourage donations from high-profile patients.

  “You’re hoping she’ll make a donation, either to us or to St. Victoria Hospital,” she said.

  “I certainly am. In fact, if Roni can see all the potential she has to help people on the island, then I’m hoping she’ll consider sending some people from her nonprofit foundation out here, to help support the community even further. And...there’s something else, too.”

  Willow waited. Nate looked around to make sure that no one else was listening. Then he turned back to her and said, “The thing is... I’m a huge Roni fan.”

  “What?” Willow laughed, not at Nate, but because she was surprised. He hardly fit the profile of Roni’s core fan base, which tended to be a bit older, and mostly female.

  “It’s true. I grew up watching her show. Our housekeeper had it on every day when I came home from school. My family wasn’t especially into big emotional discussions, or really any emotional discussions. So when I saw Roni’s show, I was instantly hooked. Her guests and the people in her studio audience didn’t even know each other, and yet they talked more about their feelings in five minutes than my family did in the average month. And Roni always tackled the real issues. There was nothing she shied away from. I think Roni Santiago might be personally responsible for a good ninety percent of my emotional development as a teenager.”

  “Wow,” said Willow. “I’d never have taken you for a Roni fan.”

  “One of her biggest.” Nate tapped his messenger bag. “This bag was on Roni’s list of Favorite Fall Must-Haves two years ago. I’ve been using it ever since. Her recommendations never let me down.”

  Willow couldn’t help smiling. “All right. If this one is important to you personally, then it’s personal to me, too. I’ll do everything I can to make sure she has a good experience here.”

  Nate beamed in gratitude. “I know you will.”

  “Meanwhile, I haven’t seen a chart for her yet. Is her previous treatment center faxing her medical records?”

  Nate pulled a chart from his bag and handed it to Willow. She thumbed through it, mentally gathering the essentials. “This is her second bout with breast cancer?”

  “Yes. She had a bout of it eight years ago and went into full remission.”

  “It looks like she got lucky the first time. Just surgery to remove the tumor, and a few rounds of radiation. No chemo.”

  “The tumor was less than one centimeter, fully encapsulated when they caught it. Things are still looking good for her this time. They caught it fast, and she’s already started chemo. In addition to the extra privacy, she and her doctors thought that a relaxing setting like ours would be helpful for her. Chemo takes a toll on the body, after all.”

  Willow nodded. Chemo was a terrible treatment, but if one absolutely had to undergo chemotherapy...well, she couldn’t think of a better place than an island paradise with world-class doctors on call.

  “Actually, there’s one other piece to this that I wanted to talk over with you. We’ve just hired a new oncologist, and naturally he’ll be the attending physician on Roni’s case.”

  Willow felt a sudden sense of dread. No, she thought. It’s not possible.

  She held the edge of the counter at the nurses’ station for balance as her knees had suddenly become unreliable and threatened to give out from under her. She swallowed hard, forcing herself to get the words out. “A new oncologist? What about Dr. Armstrong?”

  “She’s been talking about retirement for a while. She wants to cut back on her hours so she can spend more time with her family. This new guy is the perfect solution—he wants to focus on research, so both he and Dr. Armstrong can work part-time. It’s win-win for everyone—we get a top-notch cancer researcher, Dr. Armstrong gets to cut back on her hours and we’re still able to meet our own patients’ needs while taking on those from St. Victoria Hospital. Also, he’s pretty nice. I think you’re going to like Theo Moore.”

  As if on cue, Willow saw the double
doors behind Nate swing open, and Theo walked in.

  He strode toward the nurses’ station, nodding at Nate. His eyes widened as he saw Willow. Willow steeled herself, trying to maintain her outward veneer of calm, even though she felt as though the room was spinning. Somehow, when she had told Theo he needed to get a job, it had never crossed her mind that he might work here. She hadn’t even known the clinic was looking to hire a new oncologist.

  And if she had, would she have told Theo? A firm no welled within her in response. She couldn’t possibly work with him. There was the complicating factor of his relationship to her as Maisie’s biological father, which put him in the unusual position of being a complete stranger, yet also connected him to her.

  And then there was the matter of his eyes. They were quite problematic, standing out as they did from the few locks of hair that fell from his forehead and just brushed against them. Why didn’t he simply push the hair out of his eyes? Her fingers gave an involuntary twitch as she fought a momentary impulse to do it for him.

  She reminded herself that she was a very busy single, working mother who didn’t have time for distractions. She could understand how some women might find Theo attractive, but she was too busy to care about the way Theo’s tousled hair fell over his forehead.

  She definitely didn’t have any attention to spare for his mouth and the way it creased up at the corners.

  Then he smiled, and she caught her breath.

  Dammit, she thought. No matter how busy she was, there was no way around it: Theo was an undeniably attractive man. And now, apparently, he was her undeniably attractive coworker.