the graveyard shift and Natália hadn’t had the heart to ask her to leave the nurses’ station right after she’d gotten to work.
She could call Sebastian. And have him give her a lecture about having her car serviced regularly? She tried to remember when the last time had been. But life was so busy with all these hot dates and everything...
She rolled her eyes. Natália had had one serious relationship in her life. And in reality she was too self-conscious about her scar and the questions that would invariably come up. Plus the fact that her chemo treatments meant she could develop lymphoma at some point in her life. And, really, how did one bring up subjects like that with someone you were just getting to know? And yet to not talk about the realities she faced seemed dishonest somehow. To let someone fall in love with her and then suddenly spring it on him: “Hey, I had cancer. And chemo. And a complicated surgery that included having most of my arm bone removed. Oh, and by the way, I’m sterile and might not live to a ripe old age.”
Her lungs went tight all of a sudden at the thought of not ever having a baby. Dammit, Nata, you hold babies every single day.
But it wasn’t the same. She sighed in exasperation.
So, yeah, she never could figure out how to deal with any of that so she just did the next best thing. She didn’t date. Or at least she rarely dated. Her boyfriend hadn’t even lasted long enough for her to think about The Talk. Maybe because she’d been an uptight neurotic mess the whole time they’d dated. Undressing in the dark had been a huge turnoff for him, and she hadn’t wanted him to see her scars so that she didn’t have to go into explanations... And, well, it had just been too exhausting to keep up the act.
It was easier just to deal with eating takeout and sleeping alone.
She was going to have to do what she’d vowed not to do. But at least she had the great story she swore she’d have before she talked to him—she had her bottle of wine right next to her. Ugh! She could just catch one of the many buses that came through the area, but in São Paulo, leaving a car unattended was just asking to have it stolen. Or at least stripped down to almost nothing.
Kind of like she’d been in that exam room.
That got a smile out of her.
He had told her to call him, right? And she had wanted to make it uncomfortable for him, hadn’t she? Well, what could be more uncomfortable than having to come and give her a ride back to her apartment—after calling for a tow truck to have her car transported to her place, at least until she could find a service station that had time to fix it.
Securing the carton of yakisoba behind her purse on the seat so it wouldn’t dump out all over her floorboards, she fished out her cellphone. She didn’t bother wondering if his number had changed since the last time she’d called him, because she was pretty sure it hadn’t. Adam had had the same phone number for the last several years. He didn’t deal well with change.
So his divorce had probably not been the easiest thing for him to deal with. But he’d survived. Just like she’d survived a life-changing illness. His ex had been bad news. In Natália’s book he was much better off without her.
She took one deep breath and then two, her lips moving as she went through the story she was going to give him when he answered the phone. Then she found his number in her list of contacts and hit the dial button. The phone rang. And rang. And rang again before clicking to voicemail. Natália ground her teeth. Okay, so maybe Adam wouldn’t get the satisfaction of rescuing her after all. There was no choice. She had to call Sebastian. Just as she punched in the first two numbers, the cellphone began to ring. She glanced at the screen.
Adam.
Only now she was all frazzled, the planned words swept away.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Adam, it’s me, Natália.”
“I know who it is. Sorry, I was in the shower and didn’t hear the phone right away.”
The image of Adam standing on a bathmat with water streaming down his chest was something that made her brain freeze even further. “I know I said I’d call you when I got home, but I’m...um...kind of stranded.”
“Stranded? What do you mean, stranded?” There was silence for a second or two, then his voice came back. “Meu Deus do céu. I want a name, Nata.”
The low quiet tone held a wealth of menace. How humiliating was this? But she’d called the man. She could hardly pretend she hadn’t said the words. “I’m at the yakisoba place down in Santo Amaro.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes. But I’m still waiting for a name.”
She gulped. “Okay. Palácio de Yakisoba.”
“Not the name of the restaurant. The name of your date.”
The name of her...
Deus!
That’s right, where was that story you thought up?
Not in her head, that was for sure. She did not want to admit that she didn’t have a date after all. For some reason she thought he would be far too pleased with that news. And the last thing she needed was for Adam to turn into Sebastian and go all big brother on her. She didn’t need two of them. So she decided to hedge.
“It doesn’t matter. I just need to be jumped.”
Another pause. Longer this time. “Jumped?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand.”
Did she have to spell it out? “My car died at the takeout place. I think it’s the battery.”
A low chuckle came through her phone. “I see. For some reason I thought jumped meant...”
“You thought it meant what?” Natália was thoroughly confused.
“Never mind. So you were the designated driver this evening?”
Well, since she’d designated herself to drive to the restaurant, this question she could answer fairly truthfully. “Yes, yes, I was. It didn’t work out quite like I was hoping.”
“I’m glad he didn’t just leave you without transportation. Not that I approve of him leaving you there with a car that is quebrado. Did he find another way home?”
She gulped. “There is definitely something wrong with that picture, isn’t there?” Mainly because it wasn’t true. Not at all.
“Don’t worry, Nata. I will be there in fifteen minutes. Don’t go anywhere.”
Exactly where was she supposed to go? Her car was stuck here and so was she. “Please don’t say anything to Sebastian about this.”
“Your brother has a right to know.”
“Um, not really. I’m a grown-up, remember?”
“Then you should be grown-up enough to tell him yourself.”
Her brother would freak out if he thought some man had abandoned her at a restaurant. She was going to have to tell Adam the truth, dammit. But it could wait until just before she closed the door of her car and left the parking lot. She didn’t want to have to endure the expression on his face. Or listen to some kind of quippy comment. Yes, that would be the best route. “Don’t worry. I’ll let my brother know you turned into my knight in shining armor.”
A low dark sound tickled her ear. “I’m no knight, Nata. Remember that. I’ll see you soon.”
With that he was gone, and she was left standing next to her useless car with an even more useless sense of longing. Why could Adam never see her as an adult?
Maybe because they’d grown up together. Maybe because she had been someone he’d had to be careful around because of her cancer. Whatever it was, he had never seen her as an equal. Even after coming back to Brazil after furthering his training in orthopedic surgery