Now and Always (7 page)

On the screen a too macho type man was gazing amorously at a young nubile girl who was looking back at him as if he was her savior. Connie wanted to puke. She was a firm believer that women saved themselves.

“Please tell me you don’t really like this junk.”

“Give it a rest, sis. You take this too seriously. Lighten up. It’s fun,” Carmen said between munches.

“Mmmm,” she mumbled and reached for more popcorn, but Carmen slapped her hand.

“Ouch, what’s up with that?” Connie rubbed the spot.

“Don’t come here and interrupt my soap opera or tell me it’s stupid.” Carmen glared at her and turned up the volume, but their mother called out, asking them to turn it down. She did.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Connie whispered as in the soap, the heroine was being bossed around by an older woman — the head servant for the household. Until the hero appeared and put an end to it. Just like Cinderella and her prince, only Spanish-style.

She wondered if she didn’t need to save herself, although from what she didn’t know. And what if she was wrong and this time she needed a savior? Connie realized she now had a likely candidate for the prince. Maybe. “What do you know about Victor?”

“Victor is it? Tell me, sis. How was your date tonight?” Carmen asked as she glanced at Connie out of the corner of her eye while also giving part of her attention to the increasingly torrid love scene between the hero and his young admirer.

The passion on the screen was difficult to ignore
, Connie thought, pulled to watch despite herself. The protagonists pulled apart and the heroine glanced at her protector, eyes widened in surprise. The nasty head servant returned to the room and the hero coughed, turning away while Cinderella wiped her mouth with a hand as if that would eliminate the proof of the desire between them.

Connie popped up and surreptitiously rubbed a hand over her mouth, wondering if that was why it had been so obvious that she’d had a date with Victor. She didn’t get a chance to ask.

“I heard his car pull away. It roars.” Carmen glanced at her and laughed. “And it’s all over your very expressive face, Con. You’ve got it bad.”

Connie shook her head. “We’re just ….” She sighed heavily, slouched back down, and leaned her head back against the sofa cushions. “I don’t know what we’re doing. Where this is going.”

Carmen nodded and placed an arm around her shoulders. “I sometimes think that you spent too much time behind the books and not enough in the real world.”

She wanted to deny it, but couldn’t. There hadn’t been time in her young life for fun and frivolities. For learning all the coquette games that men and women play. “Since I’m at such a disadvantage, please enlighten me.”

Carmen squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. “Victor’s not what he seems. He’s kind and caring, not a snob like his mother. He’s basically monogamous and a good guy.”

Connie grabbed the remote and lowered the volume. “How do you know he’s such a saint?” she hissed, fearing that despite Victor’s assurances, he had been around more than she would care to know.

Carmen laughed, clearly enjoying her normally unflappable sister’s suddenly uncertain position. She took back the remote and increased the sound just enough to mask their conversation. “I’ve worked with him for months and there hasn’t been a peep of him screwing around. The nurses at the hospital all adore him. Everyone says the same thing. Victor’s a great guy. He’s not the kind to mess with you.”

Connie held back a reply and turned her attention to the screen, where this time the hero was busy lusting after the heroine from afar, watching as she walked along a deserted beach. As he strode after her, Connie reached for the popcorn.

“So tell me. Why’s this girl so hot for this guy?” she asked.

But it became apparent quickly as he joined the heroine along the beachfront. He embraced her and kissed her with such longing that Connie’s nerve ends sizzled. A second later the two were rolling around in the surf, as much clothing coming off as the censors would allow.

The heat from the scene started to get to Connie’s imagination. Only it wasn’t the too macho hero and virginal heroine. It was Victor and her, naked as sin, warm tropical water washing over their intertwined bodies.

“So this is why,” she said and gulped.

Carmen let out a small hoot and bopped her on her good arm. “Girl, if you have to watch this
novela
to figure it out, it’s no wonder you don’t know what to do about Victor.”

Connie blushed and sank further down into the cushions of the sofa in embarrassment. Watching the couple on the
novela
fade to black for the commercial, she wondered why it was that everyone, Carmen included, seemed to know what to do about Victor.

She only wished she knew.

Chapter 8

Connie seemed to have set a new goal after their quick late night dinner together — to keep him waiting. Victor had called her every day since the other night, but she’d had one excuse after another to avoid him and had repeatedly hurried him off the phone. Despite that, he had been sure she would keep her appointment tonight so he could see if it was time for her cast to come off.

How wrong he had been.

Victor glanced at his watch and drummed his fingers across the face of the file on his desk. He had decided to give up and go home when Carmen knocked on the door, opening it a second later.

“Victor. Someone’s hear to see you.”

He smiled and jumped out of his chair eagerly, but Carmen waved him back down. “It’s not Connie. It’s Mike Vila.”

He wondered what Mike could want at this hour. “Did he say what was up?”

“Just that it was private.”

Stranger and stranger. Mike was his main competition for the position of Chief of Orthopedics, but despite that, they were friends. His visit could only mean something bad. “Send him in. What about Connie?”

Carmen shrugged and raised her hands in question. “As far as I know she’s still on for tonight.”

He nodded and motioned for her to let Mike in. She stepped aside as the other man approached and then entered. Victor rose and stepped around his desk to shake Mike’s hand as Carmen closed the door. “Mike. It’s good to see you. What can I do for you?”

He offered his friend a seat and Mike sat and waited until Victor settled himself on the edge of his desk. “I guess it’s pretty obvious that we’re both in line for Orosco’s position,” Mike said, referring to the outgoing Chief of Orthopedics.

“Sure. We’re the two most likely candidates,” Victor confirmed.

“It’s not easy to say this, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while.” Mike’s tone was uncertain, hesitant. A surprise to Victor who rarely saw this side of the man. Mike always appeared calm and sure when they ran across each other at the hospital and related gatherings.

“Is something wrong, Mike?”

The other man dropped his head and hunched his shoulders. As he spoke he grasped his hands together, clasped and unclasped them over and over. “My wife and I ….” The strain in his voice intensified and he shifted his hands to grip his thighs tightly.

“Mike? Luisa is okay, isn’t she?”

Mike exhaled harshly and drew his hands together again, almost mangling them in his anguish. “Luisa is fed up with my hours. With all the time we spend apart. She wants a divorce.”

The word hit Victor like a physical blow. He cared about Mike and Luisa. He had thought they were happy. “I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

Mike flung out a hand and waved at everything around them. “Can you change this whole stinking thing?” He grabbed the cell phone clipped to his belt, ripped it off, and stuck it in Victor’s face. “Can you make this thing stop ringing?”

Victor reached out, grabbed Mike’s shoulders, and held them tightly. “Easy, Mike. I’m sure you and Luisa can work things out.” Beneath his hands, Mike grew lax.

“I’m not so sure.” Defeat rang in his voice.

“Take some time off. Take her somewhere and let her know how important she is,” Victor urged.

Mike looked up and the question in the other man’s eyes was obvious. The question he was too proud to ask.

“I may be needing some time off also.” Time to spend with Connie, he hoped. “We can take over for each other. Carmen and your secretary can keep things straight for a week or two. Maybe you can think about getting a partner for the future.”

Mike nodded. “What about you?”

“Me?” Victor asked, confused.

Mike pointed to Victor’s chest, then back to himself. “Yeah, you and me. Partners instead of competing with each other all the time. We could work well together.”

Victor raised his hands in question. “What about the Chief’s position at the hospital?”

Mike waved him off. “It’s yours, Victor. It’s not worth losing Luisa, but think about the partnership. In the meantime, thanks. I won’t forget this.” He rose, held out his hand, and when Victor clasped it, the other man reached out, embracing him.

Victor returned the hug, grasping Mike’s shoulder fraternally. “Give Luisa your time. Rest. We can talk when you get back.” He walked Mike out to the exterior office and after he had left, Victor returned to the window by the receptionist’s desk.

Carmen busily organized the last of the day’s files and didn’t look up when he approached. “She called while you were with Mike. She can’t make it.”

He didn’t want to feel angry. He didn’t want to feel rejected. But he did. “Bill her for the visit.”

Carmen’s head jerked up so quickly and violently he was afraid he would have to treat her for whiplash.

“What?” she croaked.

“We have a twenty-four hour cancellation policy. Bill her,” he said, and walked away, but not before he heard her softly muttered words.

“Damn. You’ve both got it bad.”

#

Connie stepped through the door of her house. Her sister was on the sofa once more, engrossed in the continuing saga of the
novela
. She dropped her briefcase on the floor by the front door and joined her sister on the sofa.

Carmen held the bowl of popcorn out to her. “You canceled your appointment last minute.”

“Hello to you, too, sis.”

“Next time call earlier. Victor and I would have liked to get home on time.” She reached for the remote and turned up the volume.

“What happened? Why did you have to cancel?” she whispered.

Connie noted the concern on her sister’s face. “We think we have a break in the case. We needed to get a court order and start making plans for me to go undercover.”

Carmen bolted upright and squeaked too loudly, “Undercover?”

“Girls, what’s going on out there?” her father called from the bedroom which was only a few feet away.

“Nothing, dad. Go back to sleep,” Connie answered and faced her sister. “I’ll be fine, Carmen. But I am going to have to move out for a few weeks, maybe more. Whatever it takes to draw this guy out.”

“You don’t sound so sure of things.”

Connie needed to be sure. After all, they were relying on her profile of the killer to trap him. They had enlisted other agents to help with the backup and surveillance and maybe that was part of her concern about the assignment. “You remember that guy Stone?”

Carmen nodded. “The one you hated at the Academy and who broke your arm?”

“He pulled some strings and got himself reassigned to the Miami office. He’ll be working with me on the case.” She was worried he would do his best to either show her up or see that she made a fool of herself.

“You can handle him, Con,” her sister said confidently.

She had been telling herself that since this morning when her partner Jeff had made the announcement of the teams for the assignment. “I will handle him.”

Carmen reached out and hugged her sister hard. “Take care of yourself, Con. I only just got you back.”

Tears came to her eyes. Connie returned her sister’s embrace, held her tightly, and ran a hand through her sister’s wealth of dark curls. “I’ll be all right.”

When they broke apart, Connie smiled as they both brushed the tears from their eyes. She grabbed her sister’s hand, gave it a gentle squeeze, sat back, and reached for the popcorn. “So, what’s happening tonight?”

“She’s trying to decide whether or not to go all the way with the hero. Oh, and by the way,” Carmen said and reached forward, grabbed an envelope from the table. She passed it to Connie.

She took the envelope, gave her sister a questioning look as she tore it open and pulled out the paper. A bill for the missed appointment. She fingered it and tapped it against her palm. “He was pissed.”

“You might say that,” Carmen replied. “Do you want another appointment? The cast’s due to come off, remember?”

So he was mad, was he?
she asked herself. Well, so was she. She had struggled every night with her desire to spend time with him again. With every one of his calls, she had wanted to forsake her duty to see him. When she went undercover, she couldn’t afford that kind of distraction. “I think I’ll arrange for the staff doctor to take it off. Tell him that.”

Carmen waggled a finger back and forth. “No way. I will not do your dirty work for you. You can call him yourself. Explain why you’re being a horse’s ass.”

“I am not,” she hissed at her sister and snatched the bowl of popcorn away.

Carmen grabbed the bowl back. “Do you like him?”

Connie glared at her sister, but in the dim light from the television screen, the full effect of her scowl was minimized. She gave in. “Victor is very nice.”

Her sister rounded off on her. “So what is your problem?”

She jabbed her index finger at her own chest. “Me. I’m the problem. I’m not ready.”

Her too loud outburst was greeted with silence and then the opening of a door. Her mother stood in the hallway, her figure limned by the light from her bedroom. “What’s going on here? You’d think you were both twelve again with the way you’re carrying on.”

“Nothing, Mom. Nothing is happening,” Carmen replied.

Her mother gave a small, “Humph,” shuffled back to her room, and closed the door loudly behind her.

Connie sat with Carmen in silence, staring at the screen, not really seeing anything. Seconds became minutes and then there came a softly whispered, “I’m sorry. I would never side with Victor against you. You know that, right?”

Connie turned, opened her arms, and her sister came to her. They hugged again. “I know, Carmen. And I know Victor is a wonderful man, but I’ve just started a new job. A hard job,” she reminded, drawing away, and cradling her sister’s cheek with her palm. “I need to keep my mind on what I’m doing. Victor is one major distraction.”

Carmen ran her hand through Connie’s hair and tucked a stray lock behind one ear. “Definitely. But did it ever occur to you he wouldn’t be so distracting if you knew where you stood with him?”

Connie grasped her sister’s chin in her hand and gave it a teasing shake. “Just like I said before. You should have been the older sister. You’re the one with all the answers.”

Connie dropped her hand and reached for the popcorn. “So are you going to tell Victor that I’m going to cancel?”

Carmen shook her head and the wavy locks of her hair bounced against her cheeks. “No way.”