by Laura Iding
Hearing about his son’s life, bedtime stories and preschool caused helpless anger to wash over him. He’d missed so much. Too much.
She was right, his son didn’t know him. He couldn’t bear the thought of being a stranger to his own son. “I can’t wait to see him, Katerina. I want to see him, to hold him in my arms. I feel like I’ve missed too much already.”
Her expression went from tolerant amusement to frank alarm. “Miguel, you can’t just barge into his life like a steamroller. You’ll be a stranger to him. You have to give him time to get to know you. And what exactly are you suggesting? That we’ll just move here to Seville to be near you? Neither one of us speaks the language here and, besides, Tommy is an American citizen. We have a life back home.” As she spoke, Katerina edged closer to the door, her eyes wide with panic.
“I’m sorry, but this is too much stress for me to handle right now, Miguel. I came to Seville because of Juliet’s injuries, remember? And after working all day, I can barely think straight. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Katerina…” he protested, but too late. She already had her hand on the front door. He knew he was pushing her too hard, too fast. “All right. We can talk more tomorrow. I’ll be happy to take you back to the hotel.”
“I’ll ride the metro,” she said, lifting her chin in the stubborn gesture he secretly found amusing. Except that her eagerness to get away from him wasn’t at all comical.
“Katerina, please allow me to take you.” When she still looked like a rabbit ready to bolt, he added, “If you insist on taking the metro, I will have no choice but to follow you. We will ride together.”
Her mouth tightened, but after a moment she gave a small, jerky nod. “Fine. We’ll take your car. But I’d like to go now, Miguel.”
He couldn’t think of a way to talk her out of it, so he simply nodded and reached for his cellphone. He called his driver, Fernando, and requested him to return right away. Fernando sounded surprised, but readily agreed. “My driver will be here in five minutes,” he assured her.
Katerina didn’t move away from the door, but simply looked at him from across the room, a long awkward silence stretching between them. He glanced over at the photograph of Tomas, still sitting on the kitchen table. “May I keep the picture of my son?” he asked in a low voice.
For a moment he thought Katerina was going to burst into tears, but she bit her lip and nodded. “Of course,” she murmured in a husky voice. “I have others at home.”
The way she said the word home, as if he wasn’t included, made his temper flare, but he managed to hold his tongue. Thankfully, Fernando arrived quicker than expected.
Katerina didn’t say more than a couple brief sentences on the way back to her hotel. He couldn’t think of anything to say to put her mind at ease. Because even though he didn’t want to upset her, there was no way on earth he was going to give his son up easily.
“Thank you for the ride,” she said politely, when Fernando pulled up in front of her hotel. “I’m sure I’ll see you some time tomorrow.”
He caught her hand before she escaped from the car. “Katerina, wait. How about if we agree to meet at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning? I will have finished making rounds by then. We’ll meet in your sister’s room and then we can go somewhere for a cup of coffee, okay?”
“Fine. I’ll see you at eleven.” She looked pointedly down at where his hand was locked around her wrist and he forced himself to let her go. “Goodnight,” she said, and didn’t wait for him to respond before slamming the door shut and practically sprinting into the lobby.
He watched her hurry away, trying not to panic at the realization that she could easily catch a flight home tonight, making it extremely difficult for him to find her. And his son.
“Ready, sir?” Fernando asked from the front seat.
He hesitated, fighting the urge to follow her upstairs to her hotel room before she could slip away, maybe for ever. He wanted to talk to her about how they would deal with this situation, to insist they finish their conversation right this minute.
He took several deep breaths, fighting to stay calm. Logically, he knew Katerina wasn’t going to run away. She wouldn’t leave Juliet, not when her sister had suffered seizures earlier that afternoon. Besides, no one had forced her to tell him about his son. Truthfully, Katerina could have kept Tomas a secret, simply returning home without telling him a thing. The fact that she had told him indicated she wanted their son to have a father. The thought calmed him.
“Yes, I’m ready, Fernando,” he said, giving his driver the signal to leave. As they pulled away from the curb and headed home, Miguel sat back in his seat, his mind whirling.
He had until tomorrow morning at eleven to come up with a new plan. He needed some way to convince Katerina that Tommy would benefit from having them all be together as a family, rather than living apart. Surely she wanted such a thing as well, or she wouldn’t have told him her secret.
Granted, the obstacle of living in different countries was no small thing. They both had family members to take into consideration as well. He had his brother Luis, who still needed support, and she had Juliet, who might need ongoing medical care.
The entire situation seemed impossible, but he was determined there would be a way to make things work out to everyone’s satisfaction.
Grimly, he stared out through the night, knowing he would fight anyone and anything that stood in the way of establishing a relationship with his son.
CHAPTER EIGHT
KAT barely made it up to her hotel room where she collapsed in the chair beside the bed and buried her face in her hands, trying not to give in to mounting hysteria.
Miguel wanted to meet his son, and it sounded pretty certain that he would want custody. All this time she’d figured he wouldn’t want the responsibility of having a family, yet he’d made it clear that he intended to follow her back to the U.S. in order to claim Tommy as his own.
“Kat?” Diana whispered from the bed. “Are you all right?”
She lifted her head and struggled to swallow her tears. Thankfully, Tommy was sleeping in the small roll-away bed as he would only be upset to see her crying. The room was dark, but they always left the bathroom light on in case Tommy needed to get up. “Fine,” she whispered back, subtly swiping her hands over her wet cheeks. “We’ll talk in the morning.”
She wished Diana was asleep already too, because her emotions were too raw, too fragile to talk now.
Maybe Diana had been right to encourage her to wait before telling Miguel about Tommy. She wished she’d listened to her friend’s advice. But it was too late now. There was nothing to do except to move forward from here. Telling Miguel about his son was the right thing to do, but while she thought she’d prepared herself for the conversation, Miguel’s reaction had overwhelmed her.
He’d assumed she’d left her son back home, and she hadn’t possessed the courage to tell him otherwise. She could rationalize the reason was because Miguel would have come right up here to the room, demanding to see Tommy regardless of the fact that he was already asleep. Regardless of the fact that seeing a stranger might upset him.
But deep down she knew her reasons for keeping silent were far more selfish. She’d needed a little time to come to grips with how her life would change from this point on. Miguel’s demand to return immediately to the U.S. had frightened her. The fantasy she’d harbored, where Miguel would allow her to continue to raise his son while he joined Doctors Without Borders, had exploded in her face.
She crept over to the side of the roll-away bed where Tommy was sleeping to gaze down at his sweet, innocent face. He was clutching his favorite stuffed animal, Terry the tiger, to his chest. She lightly brushed her fingers over his silky dark hair, being careful not to wake him up. She wanted to gather him close into her arms, as if to reassure herself that she wasn’t going to lose him.
She pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head, before heading into the bathroom to wash her face and
change into her nightgown. She crawled into her bed and stared blindly up at the ceiling, knowing she’d never relax enough to fall asleep.
Going back over the events of the evening, she couldn’t help remembering, in vivid detail, the way Miguel had kissed her. Before he’d known about Tommy. He’d clearly wanted her, his body’s reaction had been no secret. Had he assumed that since they’d made love four and a half years ago she wouldn’t think twice about doing so again?
It had been tempting, far more tempting that she wanted to admit, to give in to the passion that shimmered between them. Truthfully, Tommy was the main reason she’d pulled back. If not for her son, she knew that she and Miguel would have continued where they’d left off all those years ago.
Because she cared about Miguel. More than she should. And while they might be able to get along enough to share custody of their son, she wasn’t sure how to get past her personal feelings for him.
* * *
“Mama, wake up!” Tommy said, climbing up on her bed. “I’m hungry.”
Kat forced her gritty eyelids open, inwardly groaning. She’d been awake half the night, worrying herself sick about the future, and could easily have slept for several more hours. But as a parent she was used to putting her needs aside for her son. “I’m awake,” she murmured, trying to focus on the clock across the room and wincing when she realized it was seven a.m.
“Do you want me to take Tommy down to the café for breakfast?” Diana asked as she came out of the bathroom. “You can probably catch another hour or so of sleep.”
“No, that’s fine. I want to come with you.” Kat sat up, running her fingers through her hair. “I was thinking maybe we should go on the boat tour this morning, instead of waiting until later.”
Diana’s eyes lit up. “That would be great.”
Kat didn’t have the heart to tell her friend that by early afternoon she’d likely be arranging a meeting between Miguel and Tommy. Better to put that conversation off for a little while yet. “Give me fifteen minutes to get ready, okay?”
“Sure.”
Kat freshened up in the bathroom, forgoing a shower to pull her hair back into its usual ponytail. During the long night, when she’d tossed and turned for hours, she’d decided Tommy needed his father, so she planned to present Miguel with her joint custody proposal. As much as it pained her, she thought that having Tommy spend summers here with Miguel, along with a few holidays, would probably be the least disruptive to their lives. And she could travel with Tommy to make sure things went well, at least for the first few years. She could only hope that Miguel would find parenting too much work. Although remembering the way he cared for the pediatric patients in the hospital, like Pedro and DiCarlo, she knew he wouldn’t.
Tommy ran into the bathroom and grabbed her hand. “Mama, let’s go.”
“All right, all right. Slow down. Diana, do you have your room key?”
“Right here.” Diana held it up.
“All right, here’s mine. After we go on the boat ride, I’m going to head over to the hospital to see Juliet.” And Miguel, although she didn’t voice that last part.
“Do you want to stop on the way?” Diana offered.
She did, very much, but at the same time she was too afraid they’d run into Miguel. And since she’d promised Diana and Tommy a boat ride, she was determined to follow through on her promise. If she was back in the U.S., she could simply call the hospital to see how her sister was doing, but with the language barrier she had no choice but to actually go in to see Juliet for herself. And it didn’t help that Miguel’s eleven o’clock time frame hung over her head like a time bomb. “No, that’s okay. Let’s do the boat tour first.”
As they left the hotel and walked down the street to their favorite breakfast café, she was determined to have this short time to play tourist with Diana and Tommy. A few hours alone, before their lives changed, for ever.
“Look at these bikes, Kat—isn’t this the coolest idea?” Diana said as she gestured toward the bike rack located a few feet from the café. “I found out that this is a type of public transportation offered in Seville. For a small annual fee you can take one of these bikes, ride it to your destination, park it in another bike rack and then use it again to go home. No need to buy a bike of your own. These bike racks and bikes are located all over the city.”
Kat smiled when she saw an elderly gentleman ride away on one of the red and white bikes, his front basket full of groceries. “Very cool idea.”
“Have you notice the people walk or bike everywhere? No wonder they’re healthier than Americans.” Diana was starting to sound like a TV commercial sprouting the benefits of living in Seville.
“Remember, this is southern Spain where the weather is mild and we live in the northeast of the U.S. Biking in snow and ice isn’t an easy task.”
“Maybe,” Diana murmured. “But I have to say, this trip has really opened my eyes to how other cultures thrive.”
Kat couldn’t disagree. They finished their breakfast and took the metro to the heart of the city, where the sidewalk vendors sold tickets for the boat tours. Tommy was happy to be on the move, running from one location to the other. She gave him room to run, knowing that his boundless energy had to be let loose some time.
They had to wait almost thirty minutes for the next tour, and Kat kept an eye on the time, knowing she needed to head back to the hospital in order to meet Miguel by eleven o’clock. As much as she wanted to enjoy the tour, her stomach was knotted with nerves.
The boat tour wasn’t crowded this early in the morning and they had almost the entire upper deck of the boat to themselves. Tommy was thrilled when she lifted him up so that he could see over the railing.
The tour lasted almost an hour, and by the time they disembarked from the boat Kat knew they needed to head back toward the hotel. “No, we need to go this way, Tommy,” she called, when he took off down the sidewalk.
Her son ignored her instruction and Diana glanced at her. “I’ll get him,” she offered.
“No, I’ll go.” Kat took off after Tommy, who was running and laughing as if they were playing a game of chase. She wanted to be mad at him, but just listening to him laugh made her smile. She gained on him and tried to get his attention. “Tommy, come on, now. We have to go for a ride on the metro.”
A woman walking a dog was heading towards them and Tommy suddenly swerved right in front of them. The dog was on a leash but reacted instinctively by jumping up and nipping at him at the same time both Kat and the dog’s owner shouted, “No!”
Tommy let out a wail as the dog’s owner yanked the dog back and Kat rushed over, picking Tommy up and carrying him out of harm’s way. “Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay, Tommy,” she crooned as she tried to examine him for injuries.
Her heart sank when she found puncture marks in the fleshy part of Tommy’s arm a few inches above the wrist. The wounds were bleeding, and she glanced up as Diana joined them, feeling like the worst mother on the planet. “The dog bit him.”
Diana was a nurse too, and she looked at the wounds with a grimace. “We need to get that cleaned up right away.”
“Yeah, but I think he’ll need antibiotics too. Do they have clinics here? Or should we go straight to the hospital?” She hated knowing this was all her fault. She shouldn’t have let Tommy run around. She should have anticipated something like this.
The dog owner was talking in rapid Spanish, clearly upset about what happened. Kat tried to smile, shaking her head. “No comprendo Espanol,” she said.
“They must have clinics,” Diana was saying with a frown. But Kat had already made up her mind.
“We’ll go to the hospital where Juliet is being cared for. I saw an emergency department there.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Diana asked. “We could run into Miguel.”
“It’s a risk, but Tommy needs good medical care. Miguel is a surgeon—chances are good that we’ll be in and out of there without him knowing
.” And even if they weren’t, she wasn’t going to worry about Miguel’s reaction at seeing them. Tommy’s health was far more important.
Diana reluctantly agreed. Kat made sure they stopped in a restroom to wash the dog bite with soap and water, before taking the metro back to the hospital. As they walked into the small emergency room, Kat couldn’t help glancing around for any sign of Miguel.
Tommy was, of course, her first concern. Miguel already knew about their son, but she didn’t really want him to find out like this that Tommy was here in Seville. She would much rather tell him herself.
The woman at the desk in the emergency room didn’t speak any English, and she showed her the dog bite on Tommy’s arm, pulling out her Spanish dictionary to find the word for dog. “Perro,” she said, demonstrating the action of biting.
“Sí, un momento.” The woman spoke to someone else in Spanish, and then took them back to a small exam room. Kat was glad to see the nurse bring in a wash basin.
She relaxed, feeling better now that they were actually getting medical care for Tommy. She glanced at her watch, realizing she was going to be late for her meeting with Miguel.
“I can stay with Tommy if you need me to,” Diana offered, sensing her distress.
She slowly shook her head. “No, I can’t just leave. Not until I know the wound is clean and that he’ll get the antibiotics he needs.”
If she had a way to call Miguel, she would. But as she didn’t, she could only hope Miguel would have patience and wait for her.
* * *
Miguel arrived at the hospital early, unable to contain his excitement. He’d found a flight to Cambridge that was scheduled to leave early the next morning and he’d been tempted to go ahead and book it, except that he wasn’t sure when Katerina’s return flight was scheduled for. It wouldn’t help him to get there before she arrived. Yet he was thrilled that he was closer than ever to meeting his son.
He went up to see how Juliet was doing, hoping that she would soon be stable enough to transfer home. He was pleased to discover that she was following instructions again and hadn’t had any more seizures. Her electrolytes were back to normal, which was also a very good sign. He left orders to begin weaning her from the ventilator.
