Dianne Drake - The Doctor's Lost-and-Found Heart

On the other hand, being here was bordering on complicated since this was everything he was trying to put behind him. Medicine, unidentified outbreaks, epidemics … he wanted all of it out of his life. Problem was, controlling hospital-acquired infections, now called HAIs, was a growing specialty and the bigger problem in that was he was pretty good at what he did. It was hard to walk away from it when you were in demand. Harder still when he actually let himself think about the lives depending on his discoveries. But walking was what he’d been trying to do for the past two years. Walking, but always getting pulled back in.

So now, this Hospital de Caridad he was trying to find … He was promising himself it would be the last one. The last of the line for him, come hell or high water. Amanda Robinson had worked miracles with his nephew and this was paying back a debt of gratitude. Meaning, he’d find the HAI infecting the hospital she owned with her brother, then finally be done with it. Done with everything, without a clue what came after that.

Another mosquito dive-bombed Jack’s ear, and he slapped at it, hitting it in midair. “You dirty little …”

“Dr. Jack Kenner?” a young voice piped up from the bushes just beyond the edge of the trail. “Are you Dr. Jack Kenner?”

“I’m Kenner,” he said, quite surprised by an obviously adolescent voice. “Who are you, and does anybody know you’re out here in the jungle alone?”

A scrawny scrap of a kid popped out of the bushes and walked right up to him. No shoes, no shirt, scraggly black hair, well-worn jeans, the biggest, widest smile Jack had ever seen on a face. “I’m Ezequiel,” he said, extending his small hand to Jack. “I speak good English and I know all the roads and paths to the hospital. That’s why they sent me to find you.”

“That would imply I’m lost,” Jack said, taking firm hold of Ezequiel’s hand, amazed and a little amused by the adult and purely unexpected gesture. “Which I’m not.”

Ezequiel’s grin didn’t fade in the face of Jack’s solid grip, or his denial. If anything, it widened. “Okay, then I’ll go back and tell them you’re on the wrong trail, but you’re not lost.” He pulled his hand back when Jack let go and crammed it into his pocket.

“How old are you, kid?”

“Twelve,” he said. Then quickly added, “Almost.”

Jack chuckled. Smart kid. Smart in his head, smart in the world. “And why do you speak English so well?”

“Missionaries used to teach me in school. I was the best student. Now the doctors and nurses teach me.”

“Not surprised you’re the best.” Jack pulled a stainless-steel bottle of water from his backpack and offered it first to Ezequiel, who refused. Then he twisted off the cap, took a swig, and replaced the cap. “So, if I were to admit that I might be lost, how far, would you say, I’m off the trail I need to be on?”

“Far off,” Ezequiel responded.

“If I’m that far off, how did you find me? Or even know where to look for me?”

“Everybody makes that mistake first time.”

Yes, very smart in the world. He liked Ezequiel instantly. Saw that same gleam of youthful enthusiasm he used to see in Robbie’s eyes. “Then I suppose I’m lucky you knew I might get lost.”

“I didn’t, but Doc Ben did.”

Ben Robinson, Amanda’s brother. Admittedly, he knew nothing about the man. Amanda hadn’t said and he hadn’t asked. Kept things the way he liked them—uninvolved. “And Doc Ben would be the one who sent the Jeep for me … The Jeep with a driver who dropped me off halfway here and pointed me in the direction of Aldea de Cascada rather than taking me all the way there?”

“We had an emergency, Doc K. Only got one Jeep.”

Doc K? A nickname smacked of familiarity, and he didn’t want familiarity of any kind coming anywhere near him. Especially not with another kid. Jack’s nephew, Michael, was the only one he was going to allow in his life from now on. He was Cade’s son, and there was safety in that relationship. He could get as close as he wanted yet keep the distance he needed. “Call me Jack, or Dr. Kenner,”

“Okay, Doc K,” Ezequiel said, giving him the thumbs-up sign.

Choosing not to correct the boy, Jack shook his head in resignation. What the hell? He was only going to be here a day or two then he was going back to Texas, back to wondering what came next. “So, how about you lead, and I’ll follow?” Follow an almost twelve-year-old boy to a village hospital with one Jeep, an unidentified infection spreading, and God only knew what else. Sounded like a mess to him, but that pretty much summed up his life these days, didn’t it? A real mess.

“Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have interfered, but you’re in over your head here, Ben. And not asking anybody for help. Not even me, which has got me a little angry, to be honest.” Amanda Robinson dropped her canvas duffel bag next to the bed, then plopped down on the lumpy mattress. Her home away from home. She loved it here, loved Caridad, didn’t mind the lack of amenities. In fact, back in Texas, she found herself always counting off the days until she could return. “So I asked him, even though you didn’t want me to. He was hanging around, working a few hours here and there at the hospital, and I took the opportunity when I saw it because Jack’s the best in the field, and we have a problem he can fix. What did you expect me to do?”

“Let me handle it since I’m the one who actually runs the hospital.”

“But I had Jack Kenner at my fingertips. I’d be crazy to ignore that.” The way she hadn’t been able to ignore him all these months. A man who made her toes tingle. Except, when she looked, he didn’t look back. Hence a whole lot of unrequited tingling going on.

“And I have a computer with a connection to a satellite. These are modern times, Amanda. We have communication, even in the jungle, and I’ve been in touch with a couple people who are experienced in these kinds of infections.”

“Okay, so maybe I overstepped … a little. But your people aren’t Jack Kenner.”

“You overstepped a lot.” He sighed, then sat down on the edge of the bed next to his sister and wrapped a supportive arm around her shoulder. “But I’m glad you’re here, interfering.”

“Because I care,” she said, her voice giving way to tenderness. “Your vision, my passion. That’s why I work my butt off to support this place. You … we do important work.” There might have been only a year separating them in age, and no real blood relationship between them, but Benjamin Thomas Robinson was the person she most admired in this world. What he’d overcome to get here … “And I’m sorry if this is going to cause a problem between us, Ben, but …”

“But you were taking care of me, the way you always have.”

“I can’t help it. That’s just what happens, and you should be used to it by now.”

He chuckled. “I am. And most of me appreciates your … hovering, nurturing, mothering, whatever you want to call it.”

“Then we’re good with this?”

“We’re always good,” he said, wrapping his other arm around her to give her a hug. “And I’m glad you’re back. Ever since Dad died …”

“I know,” she whispered, feeling her eyes dampen. “It throws everything off balance, doesn’t it?” Ben was a Robinson by birth, she was a Robinson by adoption. But there’d been no distinctions in the family. They were tight-knit, loving. And her dad’s death a few months earlier had changed things …. Things Ben didn’t know. Didn’t need to know. He had enough struggles of his own, without taking on hers. Which he would do, if he knew.

“Look, it was a long trip down here. Any chance that fantastic hospital cook might have a bowl of guisos left over from lunch?” At the mere mention of guisos Amanda found herself suddenly craving the thick meat and vegetable stew. It was a simple concoction, quite traditional here, and something she could easily make for herself back home—onions, garlic, veal, tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, rice … But in Argentina it tasted better. Satisfied a certain craving that wasn’t about food—something she couldn’t explain.