Tina Beckett - To Play With Fire

But he might be the kind of person who played the field. And there was something between these two. She could tell by the way they leaned into each other as they talked, by their easy smiles and casual manner.

Past lovers?

Present?

That thought made having to sit with them that much worse. Because, if the two of them were involved, the last thing her boss would want was for Sophia to discover what they’d been up to a month ago. From the uneasy look on his face, he was thinking much the same thing.

Before she could veer away to another table, however, Sophia leaped up and took her tray, setting it next to hers and then kissing her cheek. Maggie still hadn’t gotten used to that aspect of their culture: the kissing—whether it was the casual Brazilian kissing that went on between friends and relatives or, worse, the crazy intense style she’d experienced with the Brazilian seated across from her. Yep, that style of kissing was still kind of foreign to her, since the encounters she’d had in her past life had almost never involved mouth-to-mouth contact.

She sucked down a quick breath as an unwanted memory pushed its way in. She shook it off, her fingertips curving and pressing deeply into the sides of her thighs.

He’s dead. The past is dead. Get over it.

Slumping into her seat and wishing she could be anywhere else, she forced a smile. “I didn’t realize you’d be here.” She gave the offhand remark in such a way that neither party would know who she referred to.

“I come here every morning.” The faint amusement that tinged his words made her bristle. She wasn’t stalking him, for heaven’s sake.

“Really? I only come when my boss asks me to show up at a ridiculously early hour,” she retorted.

He glanced at his watch, one side of his mouth quirking. “Six o’clock is hardly early.”

“Hmm.” The vague noise was meant to be noncommittal, but it caused Marcos to lean back, arms crossing over his chest.

Sophia, seemingly unaware of the tension in the air, spoke up. “I was just telling Marcos about the ballet. And that you were going, too.”

Oh, no! She’d hoped any drama involving those tickets would happen out of her earshot.

“When is it again?” Marcos asked, his eyes trained on her face, which was growing hotter by the second.

Sophia glanced at her. “Two weeks from Wednesday.”

Lifting his phone off the tabletop, he used a finger to scroll across the screens, probably looking at his calendar. “We have a medical conference starting this Monday.”

Something she was trying her best to forget. They were supposed to sit together, since part of the conference dealt with advances in neurosurgery. Marcos said he’d probably need to translate portions of it for her.

The last thing she wanted him doing was whispering in her ear. She’d had that experience once already and didn’t need any reminders of what a heady thing it was.

“That’s perfect,” Sophia said. “Those things never go past five in the afternoon, and the ballet doesn’t start until eight.”

Maggie wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say to that. She’d already promised Sophia that she’d go. But that had been before she’d found out she’d be a third wheel. She wanted to back out more than anything, but didn’t want to offend her friend in the process.

“Will it be at the Municipal Theater?” Marcos asked.

“Of course.”

Now was her chance to try to wriggle out of it. “Maybe I should just let you guys go and enjoy it on your own.”

“What are you talking about? Of course you must go.” Sophia laid her hand on Marcos’s arm. “He wants you to come as well, don’t you, Marcos?”

“Definitely. I want you to come.”

The smooth words were said without the slightest twitch of an eyebrow, but she felt her face flaming back to life. He’d used that phrasing on purpose...knew it would bring up memories of her—with him—as he’d told her he wanted her to do exactly that.

And she had.

She wished she could think of something equally witty and sophisticated to lob back at him, but she couldn’t come up with anything that wouldn’t be obvious to everyone. Which made her feel like a royal dork.

Besides, how could she refuse to go after her friend had been so excited about winning the tickets in the first place? Nope. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words. So she gritted out a smile instead. “Well, I guess that’s settled, then.”

Sophia gave an audible sigh, then leaned back with a grin. “Exactly.”

CHAPTER THREE

“DO THEY HAVE to shave all my hair off?”

Teresa Allen’s big blue eyes looked up at her with a pleading expression. The seven-year-old had come in to have her ventriculoperitoneal shunt checked. She’d been having headaches for the last couple of days, and Marcos wanted her in his office right away to make sure the device was draining off the excess cerebrospinal fluid the way it should.

It wasn’t. And now Maggie’s task was to keep their young American patient and her mother calm while Marcos prepared for the emergency surgery. Once Teresa was anesthetized, however, she’d be able to scrub up and join the surgical team.

Maggie smiled. “No, they won’t shave all your hair, only this little spot right here.” She drew a U-shaped figure with her fingertip behind the little girl’s right ear. “You can comb the rest of your hair so that it covers it once you’re out of surgery. But it’ll all grow back before you know it.”

Her mom, seated beside her daughter, smiled. “Thank you for speaking to us in English. I really need to learn Portuguese, but there are so many ex-pats here I haven’t needed to. Your English is excellent, by the way. Congratulations.”

Maggie grinned back. “That’s because I’m an American, too. And believe me, once I open my mouth, no one would mistake me for a Brazilian, even when I’m speaking Portuguese.”

It felt so good to speak her own language. It was also the reason Marcos had left her here with the mother and daughter. And although she knew she deserved to be in that operating room every bit as much as he did, she didn’t resent being here. She could remember the times her own mother had held her hand when she’d gone to the doctor to have her inoculations...or when she’d been sick. It was important to feel safe.

And Maggie could remember, down to the minute, when she’d no longer felt that way. It had taken her a long, long time to recover. Even now she wondered if she was functioning one hundred percent normally.

Her ex-boyfriend certainly hadn’t given her much reassurance on that front.

But Marcos hadn’t seemed to sense anything weird during their brief interlude. Then again, she hadn’t been paying attention to much outside of how he was making her feel.

One of the nurses came into the room with a pair of hair clippers. “Are we ready?”

“I think so.” Maggie stroked Teresa’s head. “What do you think? Are you ready for those headaches to go away?”

Teresa nodded. “I’m really scared, though.”

Meeting her mother’s eyes, she could see it was taking every ounce of willpower for the woman not to burst into tears in front of her daughter.

Maggie smiled. “I’m going to be with you the whole time. I promise.”

“Even during the operation?”

She nodded. “Even then.”

Her mom’s chin wobbled even more as she mouthed, “Thank you.”

Forty-five minutes later, Maggie stood beside Marcos as he carefully examined the shunt valve he’d removed from Teresa’s head. “The problem’s in here. We’ll need to replace it with a new one.” Setting the device aside, his fingers followed the path of the tubing down the child’s neck and chest, feeling it through her skin. “Everything else seems okay, and she’s got plenty of room left for growth. So let’s get in and get out.”