‘Your father’s going to love this.’
Gracie smeared glue and glitter in between the now indistinguishable petals, turning the flower into a sparkly, purple blob she was sure the proud daddy would display along with her other works of art.
There was no verbal response from her protégé but once Gracie was interested in something it often became her sole focus. Although that could be problematic in public places, it did prove useful when Summer had to go elsewhere. Like now, as she saw Rafael through the window, striding towards the nursery unit.
She wanted to intercept him before Gracie spotted him and shut down any chance of a private talk about future arrangements for his daughter.
‘Kaylee, could you watch Gracie for a minute while I talk to her father?’ Summer quietly caught the attention of her colleague, trying not to disturb her art student or alert her to her father’s appearance in the process.
‘Sure.’ Quickly and quietly, Kaylee slid into the seat she’d vacated and Summer hoped she could achieve her goal before the switch became apparent.
With ninja-like stealth she slipped out, closed the door gently behind her and managed to accost her target in the hallway.
‘Dr Valdez, could I have a word with you about Graciela?’ She positioned herself directly in front of him, forcing him to come to a halt.
‘I’m late. Sorry.’ He rubbed his hands over his face, giving her some indication of the day he’d had. His dark brown eyes were hooded and heavy as though he hadn’t slept well in days and it made her more determined to offer some assistance. She wasn’t sure the man knew how to relax but she’d been around enough children with special medical needs to understand the toll it could take on the parents without them realising the importance of self-care.
There was also her experience of watching her own mom’s health decline rather than accept outside help. All those years of hard manual work her mother had done to earn a living, taking on cleaning jobs where she could, had caused the early onset of arthritis and limited her mobility at a relatively early age. If they’d given in and let someone else into their circle of trust, that might’ve been prevented, or at least delayed.
Summer opened her mouth to assure him she wasn’t here to scold him or delay him any longer than necessary, only for him to dodge around her. She backed up, praying there was nothing in her path she could fall over as she tottered backwards, trying to keep up with him. In the end she resorted to grabbing his arm to get him to stop, almost knocked completely off balance by the discovery of the taut muscles beneath his pale blue shirt.
It must be the swimming, she mused, before her mind drifted towards his cycling and running regime and what effect that might have on other parts of his body.
She shouldn’t be thinking of him in such a fashion but her imagination seemed to run wild where Rafael was concerned. Not only was it a conflict of interest when he was the parent of one of the children she worked alongside, but he represented everything she was afraid of in a potential partner. He had a young child she was already attached to, and they worked at the same clinic so any romantic daydreaming about him was a disaster waiting to happen.
By blurring that line she would put her job and her heart in jeopardy. She was afraid she mightn’t have any choice in the matter when she was fixating on something as innocent as touching his arm and reacting as though he’d given her a lap dance.
Rafael stared at the hand on his arm, then at her, his eyebrows raised at her audacity. She had to fight through the foggy muddle of her brain now flicking through snapshots of him in cycle shorts and sweat-drenched running gear to search for words to string a sentence together. Perhaps she really should think about getting back into the dating scene—restricted to single men she didn’t work with—if her body was so desperately craving some interaction with male company.
‘Gracie. There should be a constant in her life.’ It didn’t quite articulate everything she’d intended but it was the gist of why she’d come out here to him and sufficient for that dark scowl to slide over his face as he began walking away again.
‘I was in surgery. It couldn’t be helped. I’ll collect her now and we’ll be on our way.’
No, no, no. This wasn’t going the way she’d planned at all. She’d merely succeeded in ticking him off even more.
She spun around and was forced into a half-run to catch up with him this time.
‘Can you stop so we can talk properly?’ Okay, she was verging on the bossy side of insolence in a professional capacity but the man was infuriating at times.
He pulled on the brakes with a hiss of air through his teeth. ‘What exactly is it you want, Miss Ryan?’
Miss Ryan. Not Summer, as every other person on the island referred to her. She was sure he did it to annoy her, keeping things formal so it was impossible for her to penetrate his defences.
‘Sorry, I wasn’t criticising you. What I meant to say was that I’d like to offer some assistance with Gracie’s care. I thought I might take on sole responsibility for her nursery care where I can. I’d have to run it past my superiors but I think that continuity of care when you’re working would help her flourish. You saw yourself how stressed she gets with change.’
* * *
‘This is about us running late this morning?’ He shook his head, any possibility of him agreeing to her plans evaporating before her eyes.
‘No.’ She refused to be embarrassed about standing up for what she believed in, although her temple was throbbing with the threat of a stress headache. This was so much harder than it ought to be and he was making it that way. Or it could be her recent inability to express herself adequately. Something she’d never had trouble with previously.
If it wasn’t for their common goal of getting Gracie as settled into island life as possible she’d have given up explaining herself and gone home for date night with a tub of mint choc chip. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to help anyone and would only make her feel even more nauseous than she was for having started this conversation in the first place.
She took a deep breath and cleared her mind of everything except the little dark-haired girl who lived predominantly in a world of her own and started over. ‘As you’re aware, I have experience of dealing with children who have specific needs and I was merely suggesting we could discuss an arrangement for Gracie. I would have no objection to taking over her care, day or night, if it suited you, rather than having a variety of new faces parading through her life.’
He studied her silently for a moment too long, those dark eyes scrutinising her every word and body language as though searching for her true intentions. Well, he had nothing to fear. As far as she was concerned, it was about time someone else stood up for Gracie along with her father.
Finally, he said, ‘I don’t think so,’ and left so abruptly Summer gasped at his brusque dismissal. No discussion. No explanation. No gratitude. She was sorry she’d even approached him about the matter when she didn’t appear to be anything more than a nuisance to the busy surgeon.
Rafael didn’t stop to hear any more or break into a smile until he walked into the nursery unit where he was assaulted in the face with his daughter’s painting. Summer reached them as they were preparing to leave, no further conversation apparently warranted as he took his daughter’s hand.
‘Vámonos, Graciela.’
Let’s go. He may as well have added they needed to get away from this crazy lady by the way he was staring at her. As he swung the child up onto his shoulders and walked away, singing to her in that deep Spanish burr, Summer wondered if he had a split personality or simply a Summer Ryan aversion when he was so wonderful with his daughter and his patients.
Her sigh was full of regret for the tunnel vision he had when it came to Gracie’s guardianship