Dianne Drake - A Family for the Children's Doctor

It was an odd first meeting. More than she expected, and a whole lot less. Not that she was sure what that meant. But Adrian McCallan wasn’t the stodgy old codger she’d thought him to be. Which could be a powerful problem, as it seemed her young daughter was already in full-fledged infatuation, dragging her heels, looking back at him and flirting in the way only an eight-year-old girl could flirt. “You’re getting chocolate,” Caprice said. “And that’s final!”

“So what brings you out here?” Adrian asked, taking a seat across from Caprice and Isabella in a little sweet shop in downtown San José. Already Isabella had chocolate smeared on her face, and instinctively he handed her his napkin. “Other than the surgeries you do, why Costa Rica?”

“This was the first place I ever came with Operation Smiling Faces and I fell in love with it.”

She had a little speck of chocolate above her lip and he handed her a napkin, too. Caprice Bonaventura…everything he’d expected in a good surgeon, and so much more. He’d known she was beautiful, even though he’d only seen her from afar. Then when he’d read the article about her, he’d been amazed by the scope of her work. Plastic surgery got such a bad rap. Vanity medicine was what most people thought. A new nose, eyelid readjustment, breast implants. That came to mind right off when you thought of a plastic surgeon. But she didn’t do vanity work. It was all corrective—birth defects, accidents, severe illness. She was an amazing doctor in the field. Noted internationally for her work. And up close, even the word “beautiful” seemed lacking. Caprice was exquisite. Shoulder-length black hair pulled back to the nape of her neck in a no-nonsense style, which made her look sexy as hell. Dark brown eyes surrounded by thick, black eyelashes. Sexy as hell again. And her body… No man should be having those kinds of thoughts about a woman with the woman’s daughter sitting next to her. But, damn it, Caprice was enough to rob a man of his breath, then hold it for ransom.

And that wasn’t just his long stretch of abstinence talking.

Sexy aside, though, she was a little tight where her daughter was concerned. Over-protective didn’t go far enough in describing what he was seeing right here. Isabella was a bright, outgoing child, beautiful like her mother, but Caprice seemed to stifle all that in her, and if there was one thing he did not want in his life, it was a woman with issues. Mother issues, professional issues, relationship issues. Issues of any kind. He’d had one, and Sylvie’s had been just the opposite of Caprice’s… She didn’t want to mother her child at all… Issues were issues. He steered clear. And that was going to include the over-stressed mother sitting across from him now. Which, admittedly, took away from some of that sexy-as-hell aura she’d been exuding.

No, he didn’t go anywhere near a woman like her. Burned once, and he wasn’t going back to the flame. Not even anywhere near it. That was his motto as well as his sworn oath.

“So you’ve kept coming back?” he asked, deliberately staring at his ice cream rather than at Caprice lest his motto wanted to slip a little.

“I know the area, the people. And as far as I’m concerned, Costa Rica is the most beautiful place on earth. As long as the children here need my help, this is where I’ll keep coming back.”

“And you’ve done how many surgeries?”

“Just over one hundred fifty now.”

“All free of charge?”

Caprice nodded. “It’s not about the money. We have sources who fund us, especially after they see the smiles.” She herself smiled, talking about her work. “And, like you, our staff is all volunteers.”

“It’s worthy,” Adrian commented, just as his cellphone jingled.

“You’ll have to go outside to get reception,” Caprice said. “And once we’re out in the jungle, you won’t get any at all. It’s back to the old-fashioned land lines.”

He glanced down at the number. His mother’s. Probably Sean wanting to talk to him, and as this might be the last time for a while, he was glad to step outside to say his temporary goodbyes to his son.

“Sylvie took him,” were his mother’s first words, after Adrian answered.

“What do you mean, Sylvie took him?” he said, not yet alarmed. “She came by earlier, and demanded to take Sean out for ice cream.”

“You let her?”

“She has shared custody, Adrian. I couldn’t stop her, could I?”

Damn, he hated shared custody. He’d fought for more at the original hearing and lost as the judge had believed a mother had rights, too. Under most circumstances Adrian would have agreed. But not in this case. Not with Sean. “So she hasn’t brought him back?” The warning hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand up.

“Not yet.”

“How long?” he asked, trying hard not to sound irritated with his mother. It wasn’t her fault after all. It was Sylvie’s.

“Five hours, Adrian.” Emma McCallan began to sniffle. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to let him go with her, but she had papers…court papers.”

The infamous custody agreement. She always used it when she wanted something from him…money, mostly. “Did she tell you which ice-cream parlor?”

“Yes, and I called them. Sylvie and Sean haven’t been there.”

“And you tried calling her house?”

“Phone’s been disconnected.”

Now the warning hairs on his neck were rioting.

“Have you called Ben?” Benjamin Rafferty, his attorney.

“Yes, and he’s reported it to the police, but the police said that since Sylvie does have partial custody there’s nothing they can do about it if the child’s not in danger.”

“She runs off with my son and there’s nothing they can do?” He glanced back in the window at Caprice, who was staring at him, then turned his back to her. “Have him call a private investigator.”

“What if she hurts Sean?”

“She won’t. This is just for effect.” Sylvie was a lot of things, most of them not so nice, but she would never hurt her son. She wasn’t cruel like that at all, and as much as he wanted to throttle her for doing this, he truly didn’t fear for Sean’s safety. Not physical safety, anyway. But his emotional well-being…that was something entirely different. “She asked me to up her child support payments last week. Up them permanently. Enough to nearly wipe me out, and I turned her down.” He’d given in every single time before when she’d come at him, each time against his attorney’s advice. After all, Sylvie didn’t have custodial care of Sean, just occasional visitation rights, which legally entitled her to no financial support. But he’d done it merely to make things easier, to avoid arguments. To protect Sean.

In fact, if anything, she was legally obligated to pay Adrian child support. Which she didn’t, and he wouldn’t have accepted had she offered. But what she did was demand it from him in large amounts, always with the threat of dragging their whole custody issue into court one more time, which would pull Sean right into the middle of it. And Sean didn’t need to be part of the ugliness between his parents.

Adrian would not allow that. Not under any circumstances. It had already happened at the initial hearings after they’d separated, and Sean had suffered. So, not again. It was easier to meet the woman’s demands and leave his son out of it altogether. Except the last demand had been unreasonable. She’d wanted practically every penny he had, and in one lump sum at that!

That’s where he’d drawn the line and, for the first time in their rocky relationship, said no! Now Sylvie was having her say in the matter. “Tell Ben to get me the best he can find, and that I’ll be on the first plane back to Miami.”