ANA’S HEAD WAS spinning faster than her wheels as she found herself scanning the periphery of the park, looking for Javi. ‘Where are you?’ Through clenched teeth she found herself murmuring prayers that hadn’t left her mouth in years. Javi had only been gone a matter of minutes but she’d never seen Gabriel so distressed and it tore at her heart to see him that way. Javi was his whole world. Her heart had started beating a strange kind of warning back there, when he’d clutched at his hair as if he wanted to break something or...well...run away. There had never been a maternal bone in her body, but she knew this little boy very well by now. There was something important that he wasn’t telling them.
A motion from the play park caught her eye, and Savio was alert now too. His ears pricked up, then he darted like a lightning bolt ahead of her towards the swings. At first she saw only the empty swings swaying on their chains in the breeze but, as she pulled closer, a flash of red alerted her to the bushes behind the climbing tower. Javi?
Savio got to him first, and Javi tried to push the dog off as he nuzzled his shoulder and cheeks. Javi was crouched down in a bush, his tiny body trembling as he hugged his knees. He was clutching his left arm to his body protectively.
Instincts primed, Ana leaned over him. ‘Oh, honey, what happened?’ She could see that he was trying to muffle his sobs, but still they escaped from him in short, painful bursts as he winced.
‘My arm!’
‘What’s wrong with your arm, mijo?’ Reaching for her phone, she called Gabriel.
‘I fell from the tower!’ Javi wailed.
Ana stroked Javi’s hair soothingly, murmuring words of reassurance as she helped him up. Already she could see Gabriel sprinting towards them from the other side of the park.
‘We’re getting you some help. Why did you run away, honey? Why did you try and hide in the tower?’
‘I don’t want Mama to take me away!’ he cried, just as Gabriel reached them and swept the little boy up into his arms. Ana’s heart hammered as she explained what had happened. Savio did his best to lick Javi’s tears away as Gabriel put his son down again, tearing at his own shirt to make a makeshift sling for the boy. Why didn’t Javi want Ines to collect him?
Gabriel, now a picture of sculpted perfection in just his faded jeans, stood with his back turned to her. His tanned flesh rippled with each movement as he held his phone to his ear and spoke to Bruno, his muscles flexing beneath the skin. The lines on his face were etched deep when he turned back to her.
‘Bruno’s coming with the ambulance,’ he said, before crouching down on his haunches, all his attention on Javi, who was still whimpering in pain. He called Ines next. It wasn’t good, Ana could tell: the woman’s voice was audible down the line, even as Ana sat three feet away with Javi, still holding his arm in the shirt sling. Ines sounded furious with Gabriel, as if this was his fault!
‘It’s not your fault, you know,’ she tried to tell him, but he didn’t seem to hear her.
All Ana could do was stay there, watching the distress cloud Gabriel’s eyes. In this moment she wanted nothing more than to take away his emotional pain, but the anguished expression on his face broke her heart, and she realised she’d never felt this helpless. Of course he would blame himself.
Eventually the ambulance rumbled onto the road beyond the hedges, and in seconds Bruno and one of his young trainees were hurrying into the play park with a first-aid kit and a stretcher, while a crowd gathered around behind the fence. The young paramedic checked Javi’s vital signs before examining the arm with ultimate diligence. She tapped and prodded gently, conferring with Bruno and Gabriel, and Ana watched the creases around Gabriel’s eyes deepening again when Javi winced in pain. They all knew it was broken.
‘It’s definitely broken,’ Bruno confirmed, ruffling Javi’s hair gently. ‘You’re very brave, bud; I know it hurts. Let’s get you to the hospital.’
‘I’ll come too,’ Ana said before she could think, but Gabriel looked at her, then Savio.
Oh, right.
‘You’re right—we can’t bring the dog,’ she said as Savio licked at Javi’s fingers while they helped him onto the stretcher. The distress mounted inside her as she felt increasingly redundant, but she sprang into action as best she knew how, summoning the dog. ‘I’ll take him home, then catch you up,’ she told them, trying to keep her eyes as well as her hands from his exposed chest. More than anything she itched to pull him closer, or offer some kind of extra reassurance, which she was becoming increasingly aware that she could not provide. He didn’t want her support. Gabriel merely nodded at her and quickly followed the others towards the ambulance.
A&E was as busy as ever, and Gabriel sat stiffly in the shirt Bruno had lent him. His friend Sofia, the trauma surgeon, had found him. Being as fond of Javi as she was, she’d been worried and had rushed to check on him. ‘What’s going on with our little mijo?’ she asked now. ‘And you? You look... Oh, Gabe.’
Gabriel accepted her comforting hug, realising he’d missed her since he’d been combining his shifts with the ambulance staff and the clinic. Not that she needed his friendly ear as much, now that she and Carlos Cabrera were an item.
‘Things are OK,’ he said. Javi’s arm was now in a cast and, instead of crying, he’d seemed quite intrigued by the hospital once the painkillers were doing their job. He kept asking what this instrument was for, and what that machine did. ‘How are you and Carlos doing?’ he asked her, unable to stop a little sly nudge and wink.
Sofia bit back a smile, looked around her and leaned in conspiratorially. ‘We are doing better than great,’ she said, her pretty mouth breaking out into a fully fledged grin. He was about to ask for more juicy gossip when Ines swung through the door like a hurricane.
‘I came as soon as I could, but the traffic was terrible... Oh, Javi!’
She rushed straight through to her son, speaking rapidly, checking his arm and then looking for any other injuries, dropping a flurry of kisses to his face and head. Then she stepped back and locked eyes with Gabriel. Sofia made her swift departure with a squeeze of his hand and he stood, bracing himself. Ines was a formidable woman—as tall as him, and statuesque, with the kind of beauty that drew attention wherever she went. Today being no exception as she glowered at him from beneath her heavy black fringe, causing the nursing assistant to excuse herself from the room.
‘You were supposed to be watching him,’ she admonished. Her dark eyes glinted with anger and indignation as she crossed her arms over her chest. ‘What if something worse had happened?’
‘I’m OK, Mama,’ Javi insisted groggily, wiping lipstick from his cheeks. He was still wearing his medal, which glinted in the harsh lights above. Ines tapped her nails on her arms and shifted in the silk trousers that accentuated her curves. It was clear where Javi had inherited his fiery temperament from; Ines wanted answers and she wanted them now.
He was about to ask her why Javi hadn’t wanted to go home to her in the first place when the door opened and Ana appeared. His heart leapt to his throat.
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ she started, before Javi called out to her.
‘Ana! Look at my cool cast. Bruno and the nurse said I can get people to sign it later.’
‘Very cool,’ she said, though she was frowning in Ines’ direction now. He watched the two women size each other up. Suddenly he was more aware than ever of how different they were. Of course, they had met before, on that beach trip to Pinamar when Ines had been pregnant while they’d been trying to make things work. It only just struck him now how Ana had always made some kind of excuse as to why she couldn’t stick around with them for long.
‘Good to see you again,’ Ana said politely. ‘It’s been a long time.’
‘Hmm,’ was Ines’ cool reply. She stared at Ana, who was still holding a wrapped gift she had bought for Javi. ‘I see now why Gabriel has been so distracted.’
Ana bit her lip and turned away and a surge of rage thundered through Gabriel that he had to suppress. He stood between them, lowering his voice so Javi couldn’t hear. ‘Ines, that’s enough. Ana has nothing to do with this. What’s going on with you?’
Ines blew air through her nostrils and looked between them. Her voice hardened as she glared at them. ‘I just worry about Javi, that’s all.’
‘I know you do, but he’s fine,’ Gabriel told her, shooting a sideways look at Ana. He felt so bad at the way Ines was acting, and for dragging Ana into this mess. Hearing that Javi was fine wasn’t enough for Ines, clearly. No sooner had the nurse arrived to discharge him, than Ines was whisking him away, insisting on carrying all his things to her parked car. Gabriel followed with Ana close behind, telling Javi he would see him later as Ines helped him carefully into the car. Once the door was shut, she turned to him, glaring again.
‘This should not have happened—you’re his father.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Ines just glowered at him a second longer before stalking to the other side of the car. In less than thirty seconds he was watching her pull out of the hospital car park. Ramming his hands in his hair, it was another moment before he remembered Ana was behind him. She was watching him closely, Javi’s gift still on her lap.
‘That went well,’ he said drily. He crossed to her. ‘Ana, I’m so sorry you had to witness all that.’
