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Santos leaned back and closed his eyes to rest. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”
“He can’t do enough here. Call him and we’ll go. You and Fox stay here, Magdalena.”
Too dizzy to stand, Maggie remained in her chair but still offered a faint objection, “No, I want to go.”
“I’d rather watch soccer than spend another minute in a hospital.” Fox went back to the kitchen.
“Stay here with him,” Rafael repeated softly. “They might want to keep Santos overnight, and you look as though you ought to be in bed yourself.”
Maggie wished she could stand up to him and insist she go, but her legs lacked the strength to carry her. Things were going badly all around her. She hated being so helpless. At home, she lived such an orderly life, but here, she could barely keep up with the problems. “Come back as soon as you can.”
He leaned down to kiss her and smoothed her hair. “Always.”
“Wait, will you leave me your phone number? I won’t call unless we have another emergency.”
“Where’s your phone? I’ll put it in for you.”
She rolled off her chair and pulled it out of her purse. His fingers brushed hers as he took it and sent a wild thrill clear up her arm. She wondered where he’d gone and what he would have said if Santos hadn’t needed him so badly.
“There, you have my number and I have yours,” he said. “I should have given it to you earlier. I don’t want you to feel abandoned.”
He looked more resigned than loving, and she didn’t want to believe Fox’s awful comment had turned him against the whole Aragon family. Santos sent Dr. Moreno a message, then limped out the door on his own. Rafael regarded her with a half-smile as he closed it behind them.
She hadn’t said she loved him, and maybe she’d lost the chance. Hoping it wasn’t so, she sank down on the sofa and looked at the papers scattered over the rug. What did it matter what Augustín had thought, when the present posed such difficult challenges?
Fox called from the kitchen, “You want some ice cream?”
“If you’ll bring me some in here.” She didn’t care what flavor it was, but it was an icy-cold, deep, dark chocolate. She’d never cared enough about a man to dive into a pint of Häagen-Dazs when he left her, but after one taste of the sinfully rich chocolate, it suddenly made perfect sense.
Chapter Seventeen
“I should have had you drive my car,” Santos complained.
“Mine will make it there, and you needn’t thank me,” Rafael assured him.
“Thank you, for what? Taking me to the hospital when I don’t want to go? You didn’t save my life yesterday either. I could have walked out of the ring on my own. The bull was already dead.”
“Yes, he was, and I could have kicked your good leg out from under you and left you lying in the dirt beside him.”
Santos had no quick response to that absurd comment, and they rode in silence for the next few minutes. “You know we’re really fighting over Magdalena, don’t you?”
“This isn’t what I’d call a fight.”
“We’ve never liked each other,” Santos declared. “I don’t know how Magdalena stands you.”
“Have you heard her complain?”
Santos snorted. “No, but she will. She’s her father’s daughter after all, and you’re, well, I can’t think of an appropriately repulsive term to describe you.”
Rafael swerved to the curb and parked. He turned toward Santos and rested his arm on the steering wheel. “I’ve been bullied by far worse men than you my whole life, but you keep Magdalena’s name out of this.”
“Or what? You’ll pull a knife on me?”
“No, I’ll haul you out of the car and stomp on your sore leg. How’d that be for a start? You’ll need a steel rod to repair the shattered bone, and you won’t leave the hospital for weeks.”
Santos stared at the threatening gleam in Rafael’s eyes and raised his hands. “Fine, you win, but if you hurt Magdalena, I’ll come after you even if I have to do so on one leg.”
Rafael drove the rest of the way to the hospital without another word, and he let Santos make his way into the emergency room on his own. Just as he’d expected, a nurse rushed forward to usher him into a treatment room without asking him to sign in and wait his turn. Rafael leaned back against the wall and folded his arms over his chest. He heard someone whisper his name, but they wisely stayed away.
