Mendoza's Miracle

And really, wasn’t she better off not knowing what Javier had planned to say next? The last thing she needed to do was to create any unnecessary workday drama.

Still, the line of questioning had taken her aback and made her face the fact that, in spite of her efforts to remain completely professional, she was growing a little too fond of one of her patients.

Of course, she would never act on her attraction. She was too committed to her job to let anything like that get out of hand.

As she made her way to the nurses’ station, glad to be back on the job and out of Javier’s room, she held her head high, her shoulders straight. Yet disappointment threatened to drag her down for the count. She was sorry about the way things had played out.

And why was that? she wondered.

Probably because she cared more for her patient than she should. So for that reason alone she really ought to be glad that Savannah’s arrival had interrupted their conversation.

And she was.

Yet she’d flinched when the beautiful blonde had entered Javier’s room, and she’d found her emotional reaction to the visit more than a little bothersome. After all, Javier was a handsome bachelor. He probably had a slew of women in his pre-hospital life. How could he not?

So why would one woman’s visit surprise her? And why would it leave her so unsettled, so uneasy?

She supposed that was because, at least up until now, only his family had come to see him. And she hadn’t given his love life much thought.

Well, now… that wasn’t entirely true. She’d thought about the women he might have dated in the past, but in all of her musings they’d been faceless beauties.

Of course, that was no longer the case. Now one of them had a face—a pretty one that suggested Javier liked tall, sophisticated blondes who dressed to the nines and were skilled at applying makeup and styling their own hair.

Leah clicked her tongue, scolding herself for making that kind of assumption. Maybe she was connecting all the wrong dots. How did she know that Savannah and Javier had actually dated? Hadn’t he downplayed that possibility?

If he had no idea whether she still held the same job, how could he and Savannah be romantically involved? Clearly, he hadn’t seen her in a while.

Leah’s uneasiness began to lift at that conclusion—until she realized he’d spent more than two months in the hospital. He’d also been in a coma for nearly half that time. And he’d suffered some confusion and memory loss when he’d first come to.

Then, to make matters worse, she remembered what his brother Rafe had suggested to the family earlier this morning.

So it was easy to conclude that Savannah’s hospital visit hadn’t been a coincidence. In fact, Rafe had set it into motion when he’d run into her at the grocery store earlier today.

It hadn’t taken much of a leap for Leah to realize that, even if Javier had made it sound as if he and Savannah were merely friends, that hadn’t always been the case. At one time, they must have been more involved than that.

As Leah took a seat behind the desk, she had to admit that she didn’t like the idea of Javier having a girlfriend, which meant that her feelings had grown to the point that they bordered on that fine line between sympathetic and inappropriate.

Bordered? She was afraid that she might have crossed the line already, and that she was more attracted to her patient than a nurse ought to be.

So the way she saw it, she would either have to request a transfer to another floor or fight her feelings so she wouldn’t compromise her professional ethics.

With the dilemma still weighing on her mind, she reached for a chart belonging to another of her patients and tried to pretend she was busy. Yet even though she studied the paperwork in front of her, her thoughts were a million miles away.

Okay, so they weren’t all that far away. They were just down the hall, with Javier and the attractive blonde who’d come to visit him. A frown slowly stretched across her face as she realized she had no one to blame for her green-eyed uneasiness but herself.

For some reason, while he’d been on the third floor at San Antonio General, she’d come to think of him as…

Well, unattached, she supposed. And even pondering his romantic status had been the first hint that her interest in him was out of line.

So now what? Should she request a transfer to either the obstetric or pediatric ward? That might help.

Trouble was, Javier’s mood lifted whenever she was around. And Margie Graybill, who worked the night shift, had told his family that Javier never cracked a smile, no matter how hard she tried to coax one out of him.

“You must have a special touch,” Javier’s father had said to Leah the other day. “His attitude is much better whenever you’re on duty.”

She liked to think that she had managed to reach him when other nurses hadn’t. So if she was one of a few who had the ability to draw him out of his somber mood, how could she ask for a transfer?

What kind of nurse would she be if she gave up on her patient when he needed her most?

Leah had lucked out. She’d finished the rest of her shift without having to go back into Javier’s room. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of who went in or came out.

Savannah had left the hospital shortly after she’d arrived, which had pleased Leah more than it should have, especially since she’d made up her mind to maintain a professional attitude when it came to Javier. But there wasn’t anything remotely professional about the rush of relief she’d felt when the blonde had left his room after only a few minutes—five or six at the most.

Leah glanced at her wristwatch, realizing it was about time for the shift change. Thank goodness she didn’t have to work tomorrow. Taking a break from her handsome patient would help tremendously. She’d shake those inappropriate thoughts and feelings that surfaced whenever she was near him.

As she opened the last patient’s chart and prepared to make a note before leaving the hospital for the next couple of days, Leanne Beattie, the nurse’s aide who delivered meals to the third floor, said, “The guy in three-fourteen doesn’t seem to like anything we serve him.”

The guy in 314 was Javier.

Leah glanced up from the note she was writing, “What do you mean?”

“Well, he hasn’t eaten much of anything today. He didn’t touch his breakfast and only picked at his lunch. As far as I can tell, he left everything except the chocolate ice cream on his dinner tray. So I thought I should mention it.”

“Thanks, Leanne. Loss of appetite is a side effect of one of the new medications he’s on, so I’ll be sure to tell his doctor.”

Of course, the depression his family had been concerned about might also contribute to him not eating, although Leah wasn’t convinced that they were right. Whatever was bothering him only seemed to flare up when he had visitors.

But either way, she’d like to see him start eating better. He was going to need his strength when he moved to the rehab unit and his physical therapy became more vigorous than it was now.

On her drive home that night, she thought about her own dinner and what she’d like to eat. For the most part, she avoided red meat, fats and processed foods. But she’d had the munchies ever since she’d left Savannah and Javier alone in his room, so she decided to give in to temptation and pick up a cheeseburger and fries.

She didn’t allow herself those kinds of indulgences very often, but she figured the fast food would be filling—and it was better than fixing herself a salad with low-fat dressing, then popping open the freezer and wolfing down the rest of a carton of rocky road ice cream, which was what she’d probably end up doing when the veggies didn’t hit the spot.

And on a night like this, she didn’t think a salad was going to be enough to hold back temptation.

As she pulled into the drive-through of her favorite fast-food restaurant, she realized that people sometimes craved foods that they’d grown up eating. There were days when nothing else would do the trick.

At that thought, a game plan began to unfold.

She didn’t have to work tomorrow. Why not take lunch to Javier? She could pick up something tasty that was a change from the usual hospital fare he’d been served. Maybe that would spark his appetite and entice him to eat a full meal.

So the next morning, after cleaning her small apartment, she took a shower and slipped into her favorite jeans and the new black sweater Aunt Connie had given her for her birthday. Then, after applying a little makeup, brushing out her hair and pulling it back in a ponytail, she drove to the most popular Mexican restaurant in Red Rock, which Jose and Maria Mendoza owned.

Jose was related to Javier’s father, Luis, although Leah wasn’t entirely sure of the exact connection. They might be cousins, she supposed. Either way, it was probably safe to assume the entire Mendoza clan spent a good deal of time eating at Red.

Actually, she was surprised that none of Javier’s relatives had come up with the idea before. But she wouldn’t think about that now. Instead, she would surprise him by taking him lunch.

At a few minutes after eleven, Leah arrived at Red and parked her car out front. So far, not many people had gathered, but she knew it was only a matter of time before the lunch crowd would begin to roll in.