Well, he wasn’t the only one feeling beyond annoyed right then. It was painfully obvious that he’d never planned to contact her when she was back in Venice, and she wasn’t sure if she was angrier at him for that, or at herself for wishing he’d wanted to.
“I assumed you were working at the hospital with Shay.”
“Well, you assumed wrong, the same way I did.” She tipped her chin and stared him down, her chest pinching tightly at the way he was looking at her. As if she were some black rat that had scurried out of the sewer into his clinic.
A long slow breath left his lips as he stuck his hands in the dress pants that fitted him as impeccably as the ones he’d taken off as fast as possible the last time she’d seen him. His white lab coat was swept back against his hips, and even through his dress shirt his strong physique was obvious. The body she’d gotten to see in all its glorious detail.
The jerk.
“Our time together before was...nice, Aubrey. But this is a problem.”
Nice? The most incredible sexual experience of her life had been nice for him? “Why?” she challenged, beyond embarrassed and steaming now. “You’re obviously a man who enjoys women. I enjoyed our night together, too. But that’s long behind us. Now we move into a professional relationship, which won’t be a problem for me at all.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire, her inner self mocked. Though maybe it was true. Right now, if he tried to kiss her, she just might punch him in the nose.
“Listen.” He shoved his hand through his hair. “I think it’s better if we look at other options.”
Other options? The rise of panic in her chest shoved aside her anger with him. Nora had said he was director of the clinic. Did that mean he could toss her out if he wanted? She knew there weren’t any positions available at the hospital. What if there wasn’t a single other place to work in all of Venice?
“Enzo, there’s no reason we can’t work through this. I—”
“Dr. Affini.” Nora rushed into the hallway with a boy who looked to be about seven trailing behind. Blood stained his torn pants and dripped onto the floor with every step he took. “Benedetto Rossi is here. He fell off his bike. I tried to call his father and his nonna but haven’t reached either of them. I’ll keep trying.”
“All right.” Instantly, the frown on Enzo’s face disappeared, replaced by a calm, warm smile directed at the boy. “Were you taking the corners too fast again?” he asked in English.
The boy responded in quick Italian, gesturing wildly and looking panicked. Enzo placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and led him to an examination room as the boy talked, his head tipped toward the child as he listened. Aubrey hurried to follow. Enzo might not want her here, but maybe she could prove he needed her anyway.
The boy stopped talking to take a breath, and Enzo took advantage of the brief break in his recitation. “Sit up here.” He swung the child up onto the exam table. “And speak English, please. I know your papà likes you to practice, and the nice nurse here is American. I’m going to take a look, okay?”
Benedetto nodded and sucked in a breath as Enzo leaned over to carefully roll back the boy’s ripped pants. The skin beneath sported a wide, bleeding abrasion. It was a nasty one, to be sure, but at first glance it didn’t look to be deep enough to require stitches. Not that his leg couldn’t still be fractured in some way.
Time to show how competent and vital to this clinic she could be, right? Before Enzo booted her out the door for having nice sex with him?
Aubrey shoved down the anger and worry and stab of hurt still burning in her chest and opened a few drawers. Pulled out the supplies she’d need to stop the bleeding, washed her hands, and snapped on gloves. “That’s an impressive scrape you’ve got there,” she said to the child, smiling to relax him. And herself, if she was honest. She was glad Enzo had asked the boy to speak English, because she hadn’t been able to understand a single word he’d said. “You’re obviously a very tough guy. Is your bike okay?”
“No.” The panicked look came back. “The wheel is bent, and the tire is flat. Papà is going to be angry.”
“Oh, surely he won’t be angry when he sees you were hurt,” Aubrey said.
“Yes, he will.” He licked his lips and turned his wide-eyed attention back to Enzo. “Nonna will be, too. I was supposed to be getting bread and seppioline, but I went to play with Lucio first. And then I fell off my bike near his house.”
“Let’s worry about that later.” Enzo straightened to send the boy another wide smile he should patent to relax a patient. Or kindle some other reaction, depending on the circumstances and who he was sending it to. “First, we’re going to stop the bleeding. Then we’ll take an X-ray to look inside your leg. Luckily your papà signed papers allowing me to treat you the last time you were here.”
“X-ray?” Tears sprang into the boy’s eyes. “You think my leg might be broken?”
“I don’t think so, no. But we’ll check just to be sure.” Enzo patted the child’s shoulder and glanced at Aubrey as she cleaned the wound. “Looks like you have that under control. I’m going to get the portable X-ray.”
“Yes, Doctor,” she said, oh, so coolly and professionally, staring at the boy’s leg because she didn’t want to look at Enzo’s wickedly handsome face. Be distracted by all his undeniable beauty, and get mad at him all over again.
He returned just minutes later, rolling the cart to the table. “Between the blood and rips, I’m afraid these pants are ruined, Benedetto. I’m going to cut them off so we don’t have to slide them down over your leg.”
“What? How will I get home without pants?”
“We keep spare clothes here for things just like this. No worries, okay? Nurse Aubrey here will find you something. Now, this won’t hurt at all, and you’ll get to see a picture of your bones afterward, which I think you’ll like.”
Enzo was so incredibly gentle as he lifted the child’s leg to place the X-ray plate under his calf, her vexation with the man softened slightly. The steady stream of calm, amusing conversation he kept up with the boy actually had the child laughing, which was a dramatic difference from the scared tears of earlier. She had to grudgingly admit that the man had a wonderful bedside manner. In more ways than one, darn it.
Enzo straightened, and his dark eyes lifted to hers. “This will take just a short time to develop.”
“I’ll wait to dress the wound until you’ve taken a look. Then find those pants you talked about. Unless you want to wear the ones I brought, Benedetto? They have little flowers on them—quite pretty.”
“Eww, no!” He obviously knew she was kidding, because he laughed, and the impish smile she’d so enjoyed on Enzo’s face the first moment she’d met him returned as he winked at her.
“Benedetto wearing flowered pants to the fish market just might make the fishermen’s day, don’t you think, Aubrey?”
“I don’t want to wear them, but I want to see you in them, Nurse Aubrey! I like flowers on girls’ clothes.”
A laugh left Enzo’s annoyingly sexy lips, and the eyes that met hers held a hint of the amused look she remembered too well. “You’re smart for being so young. Very, very smart. I’ll be right back.”
Hopefully this proved they could take care of patients and interact just fine, and the weight in Aubrey’s chest lifted a little. She absolutely did not want to have to leave Venice before she’d learned more about how her mother’s foundation could help restoration projects there. Before she’d barely had a chance to explore this unique city. Enzo Affini might be superficially charming and very irksome, but she was confident she could look past all that and think