The Surgeon's Christmas Baby

She opened her mouth to ask where he was headed then changed her mind. Come morning Alonso would gone.

* * *

“MY SISTER SAID you’re staying the night.”

“I’ll head out in the morning at first light.”

“You don’t have to clean the horse stalls.”

“Someone has to do it.” Alonso tossed a clump of soiled hay toward the wheelbarrow.

Luke climbed the ladder to the loft and sat, legs dangling above Alonso’s head. Obviously the kid would rather watch than help. No wonder Hannah was miffed at her brother.

“Where will you go when you leave here?” Luke asked.

“I’m not sure. I don’t have any place in mind.” He pointed to the wheelbarrow. “Lend me a hand, will you?”

“And do what?”

Alonso set the pitchfork aside and dragged a hay bale over to a stall, then dropped the wire cutters on top of it. “Spread clean hay in the stalls I’ve already cleaned.”

Luke took his time climbing down from the loft. “A marine recruiter came to our school at the beginning of the year,” he said, tugging on a pair of work gloves. “He made his job sound like fun. Is it?”

“I wouldn’t use the word fun to describe my experience.”

“Where were you stationed?”

“I spent a month at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, before shipping out to Afghanistan.”

“Did any of your friends get killed in Afghanistan?”

Man, the kid was nosy. The doctors and nurses at the hospital tiptoed around the subject and pretended he’d spent time on an exotic island, not in a war-ravaged country. “Three of my friends were killed over there.”

And the hell of it was Alonso had just saved their lives after a roadside bomb had taken out their Humvee. No one expected them to get blown to pieces in the recovery room when an Afghan medic-in-training detonated a bomb strapped to his chest.

“I thought the war was over.”

“It is, but there are still crazies running loose in the country.” Alonso didn’t want to talk about his military experience. “You almost done with that stall?”

“Yeah.”

“Grab another bale and finish this one.”

Luke did as he was told. “You got a girlfriend?”

“Don’t have time for one.” That was what he told his coworkers, but after everything he’d been through, he decided nothing good lasts, so it made no sense wasting his energy on a serious relationship.

“Don’t you like girls?”

“I like girls fine.” He chuckled. “You always so nosy?”

“I guess. It’s just that this place is boring.”

“What do you do to keep busy?”

“Not much. My sister doesn’t like my friends.”

Alonso’s mother hadn’t approved of his school friends but she hadn’t understood that a brainiac kid didn’t stand a chance in hell of surviving in the barrio if he didn’t have buddies to defend him. Alonso’s best friends had made sure he hadn’t been picked on or targeted by gangs.

In the end it had been Cruz’s rebellious behavior that had got all three kicked out of school and enrolled in a special program to earn their GED. To this day Alonso believed he’d never have become a doctor if he hadn’t had the support of their teacher, Maria Alvarez—now Fitzgerald. Things had worked out for him and Vic. Not so much for Cruz—he’d landed in jail. “Maybe you should make new friends.”

Luke ignored Alonso’s suggestion and asked, “If you’re a doctor, why are you hitchhiking? Don’t you have a car?”

“I have a pickup back at my apartment in Albuquerque.” He pushed the wheelbarrow past Luke. “I guess I didn’t feel like driving.”

“You’re crazy.”

Luke wasn’t the only one who thought Alonso was an idiot. When he’d told his coworkers he’d needed a break from the ER they hadn’t expected him to hitchhike across New Mexico. “Exercise is good for the brain.”

“Then, run on a treadmill.”

Running in place didn’t work. After Alonso left Afghanistan and returned to the States, he’d believed he’d put all the death and destruction behind him. But more of the same had awaited him in the hospital. “You have any hobbies, kid?”

“My dad taught me how to use a shotgun. I like shooting at targets.”

Alonso caught Luke staring into space. “It’s tough losing both parents.”

“It’s not that hard. My dad was a drunk.”

Alonso had only just met the teen but he felt a special kinship with Luke. Alonso’s father had taken off before he’d entered kindergarten, and he wasn’t even sure if his old man was still alive. Once in a while he wondered what his life would have been like if his father had stuck around.

Luke leaned against the side of the stall. “What about you? What did you do with your dad?”

“My father wasn’t involved in my life.”

“Did you do stuff with your mom?”

“Not really. My mom worked two jobs. It was mostly just me and my sisters.”

“Did you guys fight all the time?”

“No.”

Luke laughed. “Yeah, right. You were best friends.”

“There were times when my sisters drove me nuts and I wanted to pick fights with them, but I didn’t.”

“Why not?”