‘It is you, isn’t it? Ana! Gabriel said you’d be here tonight. Oh, it’s so good to see you! We kind of need your help... Where is Gabriel?’
Ana could hardly believe it. It was Gabriel’s mum and dad, sprightly as ever, standing here after all this time. And between them, nursing a grazed knee, was little ladybird Javi.
‘I’m so sorry, Gabriel went out for snacks,’ she explained, motioning for them to sit the little boy down.
‘What’s happened here, mijo?’
‘I fell.’
Quickly she got the gauze back out and told him to sit still as she wiped his wounds gently with antiseptic. All the while, she couldn’t help thinking how much he looked like Gabriel: the same mussed black hair fell wildly across his face, like his father’s used to when it had been longer, and he’d the same soulful brown eyes. His little brow was furrowed, his eyes screwed up with concentration. He gasped when Ana dabbed the disinfectant onto his skin, then breathed bravely through the sting, blowing bursts of air through his mouth as if he was blowing up an invisible balloon—dramatic, just like Gabriel.
He was looking up at her now, sussing her out, as if realising for the first time that she was different. ‘Why are you in a wheelchair?’ he asked.
CHAPTER THREE
GABRIEL HAD TAKEN longer than expected getting the snacks, thanks to Carlos Cabrera and his captivating capoeira group. That had taken him completely by surprise—he’d had no idea that the stoic trauma surgeon from the hospital had been so into capoeira, but there he’d been just now, on the side street by the snack stand with his group, drumming up interest for his gym. That had been pretty cool. He could have sworn he’d seen his friend Sofia in the crowd too, too far away for him to call to or reach, but suffice to say it had all been all going on out there and he was later getting back than he’d intended. Was that his parents he could hear...?
Their enthusiasm meant they’d always had the loudest voices of anyone around, but the gap in the blaring music confirmed it was definitely them that he could hear. His heart sped up as he hurried for the doorway of the tent, but when he saw Javi sitting on the chair, talking to Ana, something made him stop and stand back for a second. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but Ana seemed to be explaining something about her wheelchair. To his shock, Javi put his arms around Ana, and he watched as she pulled him into a sweet embrace, as if they’d already become firm friends.
‘What happened mijo?’ he demanded, dropping the snacks onto a table and making straight for Javi. His parents stood up from their seats, said his name in unison and he did a double take at their ridiculous outfits.
‘I fell, and Ana was just helping me,’ his son said, wriggling his knees from his chair, both of which were covered in plasters.
‘Nothing too terrible; he’ll live,’ Ana said, steering her chair back to make more room for him. Gabriel was already on his knees in front of Javi.
‘Good thing you knew to come here. We wouldn’t want a trail of blood in the parade; it’s not Halloween,’ he said, making Javi giggle and Ana smirk. He mouthed, ‘Thank you!’ at her then he pulled his son into a hug, breathing in the familiar scent of his hair, grateful as he always was after a scrape that his son was fine.
He tried never to show it—his son should grow up confident, strong and fearless—but he himself feared something new every day when it came to Javi, especially now the boy lived with Ines and Pedro most of the time. He thought a lot about that cosy family unit. It was something Gabriel had never been able to give him. Javi wouldn’t exactly grow up remembering the short year or so after his birth when he and Ines had bunked up together, trying to make things work for his sake.
‘I was on the way to the children’s parade when I fell, Papa,’ Javi said now, pouting and crossing his arms. The action made a huge dent in the front of his ladybird outfit. ‘I’ll never get to join the parade now.’
‘I’m sorry, guapo,’ Gabriel sympathised. ‘But you had a good time with Grandma and Grandpa, right?’
He nodded a little despondently, and Ana pulled up beside him again. ‘Why don’t you go?’ she suggested to Gabriel, touching his arm. Her slender fingers lingered there for just fraction of a second, but it was long enough for heat to shoot up his forearm and start pumping fresh, hot, new blood to his heart. It was the same as when her eyes had locked on his over Mr Acosta—he hadn’t been able to shake how attractive he found her, even more so now that she’d helped Javi.
Gabriel stood up as his mother took to comforting Javier and promising him a story before bed time. ‘Go, enjoy what you can of Carnival with him before bed time,’ Ana said. ‘I’ll be fine here, and I should have help soon...’
Just as she said it, Sebastián Lopez, the A&E clinical lead, poked his head round the door, ready for his shift. ‘Just in time!’ She beamed.
‘You have snacks!’ Sebastián grinned, high-fiving Gabriel and Javi respectively, before checking out the array of food items on the table.
‘Help yourself,’ Gabriel offered, still composing himself regarding the strange new heat that had settled around his chest. ‘But I’m warning you, there’s a vegan item in there.’
Sebastián pulled a face, and Gabriel swung round to Ana. ‘Are you sure it’s OK if I go?’ He studied her deep brown eyes. For some reason, even though he was thrilled to spend at least an hour with Javi before bed time, he was a little reluctant to leave Ana...and it had nothing to do with the fact that he didn’t think she could handle things. She could handle anything; it was the thing he admired most about her. It had felt like old times just then, just the two of them dancing on the street, like before she’d left for Bariloche.
‘I’m sure. Go.’
Gabriel gathered his things and changed out of his uniform behind the screen, listening to them talking. He remembered more about that night she’d got herself stuck on the beach in Pinamar. That was the night she’d told him she had a job offer in Bariloche.
He’d been crushed. Ines was pregnant and he was losing his best friend at the time he needed her most. He’d had no idea how to be a father! But then, how could he have asked her to stay? That would have been so selfish. Instead he’d missed her madly, all on his own. Maybe he’d even realised what she’d meant to him, how he’d taken her friendship for granted. He felt so guilty that he’d stopped contacting her once Javi had come along—it wouldn’t have been fair to burden her with his problems, not when he’d landed himself in the situation in the first place.
She’d been everywhere before that anyway—or, it seemed like everywhere—while he’d always stayed with his family, where he belonged. It was his place to look out for them and always had been. The Romeros looked out for each other; it was just what they did.
‘Go!’ Ana laughed now as he hovered around the cabinet, about to put a few more things away.
‘OK, OK...bossy as you ever were!’ She was practically shooing him out of the door. His parents fussed around her behind him as he took Javi outside. He heard them gushing over how nice it was to have her back after all this time, and how they’d missed seeing her around. Everyone loved Ana. He’d had a pretty hard crush on her once, he mused to himself before shaking it off. No point going there. It wasn’t as if he’d ever told his best friend that in the first place. She’d only have rejected him, what with all her plans for global domination.
‘Enjoy!’ she called to him now, waving at them all, just as he saw Sebastián gag and almost spit something out into his hand.
‘He told you not to eat the vegan thing,’ he heard Ana reprimand him playfully as he, his parents and Javi were swallowed by the crowd again.
The carnival was as crazy as usual as they manoeuvred through a block party, swung past the capoeira demo again and moved out the other end to the kid’s carnival. Luckily, Javi seemed to have forgotten the fact that he’d hurt his knees. While they didn’t catch the kid’s parade, they did forge a path to the funfair for a few games.
‘Grandpa, Papa, I want that one!’ Javi cried now, jabbing his finger towards a giant stuffed panda hanging above the man behind the mini basketball hoops.
Gabriel and his father exchanged glances. ‘Maybe later, Javi,’ his father suggested, eyeing his watch. It was almost his bed time, but Gabriel knew that look in his son’s eyes. When he wanted something, he wanted it now—a trait he’d inherited from Ines.
The man behind the stand handed Javi a basketball, while pointing towards the hoop at the other side of the booth. Javi missed twice at first, but soon got into a rhythm, and to Gabriel’s surprise it wasn’t long before he landed three shots in quick succession.
‘You’re a pro player. Nice one, mijo!’ He offered a high five, making Javi’s ladybird wings knock the hat off a lady nearby, and Javi jumped up and down with excitement as he was handed the large stuffed panda. Javi walked ahead with his grandfather, but Gabriel’s mother took his arm, whispering conspiratorially.
‘It’s so lovely that Ana’s back, don’t you think?’ she said with a sideways smile. ‘She was so good with Javi, and she’s as pretty as ever. You know, I remember you two running around together before her accident. Such a shame, what happened to her...’ She trailed off, shaking her head, and Gabriel frowned.
‘It hasn’t stopped her doing everything she’s always wanted to do,’ he found himself saying, as Javi stopped abruptly near the fishing stand and turned to them expectantly. His father promptly handed over the cash for the fishing rod, and Javi went about trying to fish for plastic turtles in an inflatable pond.
‘I know, she’s always been ambitious,’ his mother agreed as they looked at Javi, who was tossing the rod over and over into the water until finally it knocked a small turtle out of the pond completely. ‘That new clinic of hers is going to be a lot of work.’
‘She has a great team,’ Gabriel told her, wondering why he felt obliged to defend her. They were adults now. They weren’t on the playground any more, facing the bullies. ‘You just watch her, Ma. Dr Az wouldn’t have sought her out to take over if she didn’t think she could handle it. She always had Ana in mind to run the place after her.’
