“Already done. I took a full inventory the first day I got here, including what I’d brought with me.”
“Good.” He felt a stab of shame at his ongoing doubts about her not being quite good enough at her job for him to feel confident in her. Noting all the equipment available was something usually done by nurses, not the anesthesiologist, not to mention she’d had the foresight to bring more. Then again, being organized in that way was a totally different thing than delivering anesthesia to the sickest patients during long and serious surgeries. “That will save us time, but I can’t imagine it’s enough for both places, is it?”
“Probably not. If only the stuff I shipped had gotten here already.”
“Yeah, that’s unfortunate. But from what you’ve said, it should be here soon, right? So it’ll be good to have on hand here after we get back. With more equipment coming, we can leave whatever we take to Huancayo. And I’ll see what Eduardo can provide when he gets there.” He stopped at the fork in the path. “Let’s start at the OR, getting stuff together, before we pack and take off.”
He shoved open the OR door and snapped on the lights. Annabelle quickly began pulling together the necessary anesthesia items as he gathered the surgical ones.
“Dare I suggest we take the monitor, or will you have another fit about it?” Annabelle asked.
“I don’t have fits. You make me sound childish.”
“Well, you know the saying, if the shoe fits...”
The little smirk she sent him took any sting from the words and he couldn’t help but grin back. “A part of me doesn’t want to see you gloat, but the mature part of me says to take the monitor. If it’s really ALCAPA, it’ll be a long, tricky surgery.”
“Acknowledgement that it’s handy to have is all I wanted to hear, Dr. Ferrera.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say she still should have shipped it instead of being so late because of it, but hadn’t he decided to stop being so rigid and critical with her? So he kept his mouth shut and concentrated on making sure he had all the surgical supplies he’d need. He and Annabelle packed things so efficiently together he couldn’t help but think they were like a well-oiled machine, and neither interrupted their work even when the door swung open again.
“You guys are back fast,” Jennifer said, walking in with a big box in her arms. “Good news! Your package came, Annabelle. I’ll go through it tomorrow to see what all’s in here.”
“Can you do it now? We have an emergency surgery in Huancayo, and it would help to see what we can leave up there.”
“No problem. What should I tell the little girl and her family who were expecting her to get treatment tonight?” Jennifer asked.
Before Daniel could say anything Annabelle briskly and efficiently went through her mental roster of the next morning’s surgeries and suggested the best way to fit the young patient in. He couldn’t blame her for the look of triumph there, the slow curving of her mouth. “See, Dr. Ferrera? I’m not worthless at all. Maybe you’ll actually come to appreciate me.”
“Never said you were worthless, and as for appreciating you? It might surprise you to hear that just might be happening already.”
“THE CLINIC IS right around this next curve,” Daniel said, turning to Annabelle with a slightly tired smile. “I think we made good time.”
“Probably because you drove like a maniac. It’s a wonder I didn’t have a heart attack and need a cardiologist. Good thing there was one close by.”
A soft laugh left his lips, his eyes gleaming at her through the dark interior of the car, and she found herself staring at how much younger and more handsome he looked when he was relaxed and away from the OR. At least for the moment.
“I’d have let you drive except for that whole controlling streak of mine you’ve already noted.”
“And I’d have declined anyway, since I’m sure you’re the worst backseat driver in the whole world.”
Again, he laughed, and she had to quickly turn away from the unexpected charm of his smile. The same way she had the past three hours of semi-torture, sitting way too closely to the man who utterly confused her. One minute he was being a total jerk toward her, then the next he was sitting snugged up next to her against that tree and holding her hand in his large grasp. Sending a smile her way that was so sexy and attractive she’d nearly forgotten how much she disliked him.
All through the drive it had been a huge effort to not frequently glance over at his handsome profile. At his firm jaw and nicely shaped mouth. To not think far too much about how large and masculine he was. To not make too big a deal out of the seemingly sincere admiration in his warm, dark eyes as he’d looked at her beneath that tree and told her she was doing a good job and that he respected her.
Because, yeah, he’d then quickly followed that praise with a statement about needing the best anesthesiologist for difficult heart surgeries, and he clearly still didn’t believe she was that person.
The friendly banter on this car ride, completely different from the friction in all their exchanges before this, had thrown her off guard, making her see him in a way she didn’t want to. Her completely unexpected and unwelcome feelings of attraction to the man were a whole lot of stupid for a whole lot of reasons, and she wouldn’t let herself think about his sex appeal for one more second.
The car growled to a stop, and she was more than glad to have something else to focus on in the darkness of the night, when his shadowed shape next to her had been the only thing she’d been able to see and think about, the scent of him filling her nose the way it had earlier that evening.
She peered at the building in front of them, very similar to the one in Ayllu that she’d always worked in on her trips to Peru. The one she’d never dreamed Daniel Ferrera would end up working in, too. This one, though, looked a little more worn and neglected. Faded green paint peeled from the cement walls, exposed by a single, dangling bulb of light above the front step. Scrubby plants and weeds grew all around its perimeter, and the door was slightly off-kilter on its hinges.
“Looks like the front door doesn’t really close,” she said. “Not a good thing when it comes to keeping the space as sterile as possible.”
“Not a good thing for keeping creatures out either.” Another one of those smiles that made her ridiculous heart inexplicably flutter.
“Very true.” She reached for her seat belt, more than happy to get out of the car and away from the close proximity to Daniel. “I’d been congratulating your home country at the miles and miles of completely paved roads we drove on to get to Huancayo. Then we hit that last however many miles of dirt and rocks outside the city to get up here, and I’m pretty sure it might have jarred one of my teeth loose.”
“Don’t worry. I could probably perform emergency oral surgery if I absolutely had to.”
That startled a laugh out of her. “Thanks, but, no, thanks. I’d eat through a straw for the rest of my life before I’d submit to something so terrifying.”
“Smart woman.” Daniel sent her another quick grin before he pulled the monitor and oxygen tank from the back of the car, and it struck her that the past hours had been the first time she’d seen a smile on his face quite like that. Laid-back and friendly and genuinely amused. “Not to mention that we have a different kind of surgery to get to ASAP. Luciana said the child is inside, prepped and ready to go, so let’s get to it.”
Grabbing the rest of the items they’d brought for the surgery, including