‘How do you know she can cover for us?’
‘I already asked her.’ Spinning her chair round so she was facing him, he bent to kiss her under the umbrella. Ana couldn’t help the burst of laughter erupting from her throat as she tousled his hair, and the growing intensity of his kiss brought a soft moan to her throat. Soon her lunch was forgotten and they were feasting on each other in the rain.
It was so hot, kissing in the rain. So was the way she completely forgot where they were whenever she was with him, as if she were a teenager again. Wherever they were, her whole body felt filled with a sense of longing, but also total security, the likes of which she’d never asked for and hadn’t known she’d needed. But how nice it was that he provided it anyway.
Come to think of it, she thought now, running her hand up and down his shoulder, admiring the feel of his impressive muscles, Gabriel was more emotionally available than anyone she’d ever dated. Yes, sometimes he still got waylaid by Ines and her demands, but it was nothing they hadn’t been able to handle up to now.
‘I’ll come,’ she told him quietly, breaking away for a second and gazing up at him as he stood tall.
He feigned shock. ‘Already?’
‘To the pawrents’ day with you and Javi!’ Ana pretended to slap him but he dodged her and took the umbrella with him, making her call out, laughing. Quickly he resumed his protective position over her and kissed her again, even more passionately than the last time. They were only forced to break apart when a lump of bread landed at Gabriel’s feet. They stared at a cheeky bird, who pecked at the ground around her chair as if she was entirely in its way, and they turned to find a grumpy-looking old woman in a long red raincoat staring at them, shaking her head under a giant umbrella.
Quickly the woman deposited the rest of the bread on the ground and a flock of pigeons descended from the sky, momentarily blocking her from their view.
‘Let’s go!’ Ana cried, still giggling as she sped back the way they’d come before the woman could chastise them again. Gabriel made pace with the umbrella close behind her.
‘Why are you so wet?’ Maria asked when they pushed their way back into the clinic.
‘It’s raining, Maria, that’s what happens,’ Gabriel quipped, winking at her as he pulled his white coat on and threw Ana hers.
Maria took her arm as she went to roll past and leaned down to her. ‘Is everything OK?’
Ana’s eyes were still on Gabriel’s firm backside as he disappeared into the consultation room, but she drew them away quickly. ‘Mm-hmm,’ she mumbled. ‘Why?’
Maria just frowned, as if deciphering all the things Ana’s flaming cheeks must’ve been hinting at. ‘Well, your mother was just in here. She said she’s worried about you...you haven’t been answering her calls.’
‘Oh. Well... I had my phone on silent for lunch,’ Ana replied heavily, yanking her phone from her pocket. Sure enough, there they were: six missed calls from her mother. Her heart sank on the spot. Why did she always feel like an incapable child the second one of her parents did this to her? Surely one call was enough, unless...unless something bad had really happened.
Feeling guilty, she called her mother back, following Gabriel into the consultation room. His eyes never left her face as she spoke, and she was quite sure the mounting shame she felt was evident.
‘She wants to know if she can cook for me tonight, and you and Javi too. All of us,’ she explained when she hung up.
Gabriel perched on the desk, smirking.
‘What?’
‘I told you—they just love you. You’re always so defensive.’
‘Can you blame me?’ She huffed, although he was right, she supposed. ‘It’s just, every time they call, I assume they’re going to offer to help me do something I can do perfectly well by myself.’
‘I know. We all know how much you’re capable of doing,’ he said, his voice turning low and gruff and ten times sexier as he scooped her out of her chair and held her close against his chest, running his thumb along her lip. ‘It’s not like I can forget exactly what you’re capable of doing.’
‘Very funny,’ she said, clutching his shoulders and marvelling at how her raised hackles seemed to calm instantly under his kisses. ‘So, can you come?’
‘What, now?’ he teased, nibbling her ear.
She thwacked his shoulder. ‘Stop it!’
‘Can’t. You’re too sexy.’
Sighing, she ran her tongue along his lower lip, forgetting where she was again until...a knock on the door.
Gabriel swiftly placed her back into her chair and almost flew to the other end of the room, smoothing out his coat. He was pretending to study a file when there in the doorway, alongside Maria’s, was a face she recognised. Ana felt her eyes bulge cartoon-style at the long red raincoat, before quickly regaining her composure. The elderly woman from the park... Of course it would be that particular woman who had just seen them kissing in the rain!
Gabriel adjusted his coat again in an effort to resume normality as Ana ushered their patient to the table, introducing herself. Ana’s face was flushed, her lips slightly swollen. It was obvious they hadn’t really stopped kissing till just now. He almost wanted to laugh, but he knew it wasn’t particularly funny. The woman must think them both entirely unprofessional.
‘You have pain in the stomach area? When did it start?’
Ana was examining her now, trying not to meet his eyes, although as she spoke the woman, whose name was Edith, kept flashing her cynical gaze between them, as if she really didn’t trust them.
Ana cleared her throat and told them both she suspected it could be Edith’s gallbladder.
‘We need to do some tests to confirm my suspicions,’ she said in her usual gentle but authoritative tone. Gabriel recognised this tone as a sign that she was struggling internally to feel the way she wanted everyone to believe she felt, when in truth she felt the exact opposite. Her mother had got to her, even without offering to do anything besides cook dinner, and now this. Maybe he shouldn’t be kissing her in the clinic. As if he could help himself!
‘First we’ll do a physical examination, then Ana will run an ultrasound of your abdomen,’ he said, grabbing his pen light and moving into position, brushing Ana’s sleeve accidentally with his as he shone it into Edith’s eyes.
‘No sign of jaundice, no other signs of infection,’ he said next, realising Ana had pulled away a little too fast and wheeled to the other side of the table where they couldn’t touch, even if they tried. ‘We’ll also want to take a blood sample to check for certain enzymes. Anything that may suggest inflammation or blockages, Edith.’
Edith simply nodded. With her raincoat now dripping from a nearby chair, she was turning something that was tucked just behind the collar of her blouse, studying each of them as though they were detailed paintings on a gallery wall. He stood taller under her scrutiny, but Ana was growing increasingly flustered and trying not to show it.
As reassuringly as he could, Gabriel continued his explanation as he inserted an IV line into Edith’s arm and then watched as Ana injected a mild sedative into it. ‘This will make you a lot more comfortable during the tests,’ he told her, noticing Ana’s hands were slightly shaking.
‘Doctor,’ he said quickly. ‘Would you mind getting Edith some water? She needs to stay hydrated.’
Ana looked at him gratefully and rolled her chair to the sink. The woman seemed oblivious to the tube in her arm. Her gaze stayed fixed on Ana the whole time, before she interrupted Gabriel mid-speech and asked, ‘Are you two married?’
Gabriel bit back a laugh. Then he saw what Edith was fiddling with behind her blouse collar. Around her neck a golden chain glinted importantly under the clinic lights. Fixed to that, currently getting his bare torso rubbed in devout adoration, was a pendant of Jesus.
