Читать книгу His Hidden American Beauty - Connie Cox, Connie Cox - Страница 7

ONCE SAFELY IN her medical suite, Annalise took a deep breath, the first one she’d managed since that man had crowded her in the line boarding the ship.

Surrounded by the tools of her trade, she found her inner balance. If she could relive those brief moments as she boarded the ship …

But, then, going back in time wasn’t possible, no matter how hard she wished for it.

She dragged her clunking cases in front of the locked refrigerator reserved for medicines and inserted her key.

As Annalise put away the supplies she’d brought on board, bumping the bottles and boxes into uniform rows, she felt calm claim her. She pushed away the sheepishness she felt about overreacting. Emotional incidents happened on occasion, especially after such a trying day. Being ashamed of her reaction did nothing but undermine her success in coping.

The bell chimed, signaling someone had come into the medical suite. Officially, office hours didn’t start until tomorrow morning, but she had scheduled a visit with her juvenile diabetes patient to make sure they started off on the right foot. She glanced at her watch. Better early than late.

“But I don’t want to get stuck, Uncle Niko.”

Annalise heard them before she saw them as they entered the anteroom of the medical suite.

“Can’t be helped, Sophie.”

Sophie—it was the Christopoulos child.

That was his voice, wasn’t it? The elevator guy was with her little patient. Sometimes luck wasn’t in her favor.

Still, she liked it that he didn’t trivialize Sophie’s fears.

She’d checked the manifest earlier—solely to see where her little patient’s cabin would be and to verify that a small refrigerator had been moved into her cabin. She found it had been moved to the cabin next door, Niko Christopoulos’ room.

The girl was staying in the cabin next door to the refrigerator with her great-grandmother, Olympia Christopoulos. Twelve people surnamed Christopoulos, all with adjoining cabins or family suites, were on the ship, which had made the odds good she might run into him again.

She thought she’d braced herself for that strange feeling he’d caused in her. But her stomach gave a little flutter, knowing she’d soon be face to face with him again.

Apprehension? More than that.

Fear?

No. Not fear.

Anticipation, maybe?

Before she could sort that one out in her mind she rounded the corner and realized she’d downplayed his good looks in her mind. How could a real flesh-and-blood man be put together so well without magazine airbrushing to lend a hand?

He’d changed. He wore a charcoal-gray boxy button-down made of a silky cotton so fine it slid over his chest when he moved. Even though she wasn’t the touchy-feely type, she wanted to rub it between her fingers—purely for curiosity’s sake. And his white linen slacks looked loose, comfortable, deceptive. She remembered the shape of him in those jeans.

As he filled her office suite, she felt as if an electric current rode just below the surface of her skin. Unsettling was an understatement. But also energizing? Good? Bad?

She wasn’t sure.

Annalise stood a bit taller and smoothed down the lab coat she’d thrown over the chocolate-brown tailored slacks and matching loose blouse she’d changed into.

She felt acutely aware of herself as a woman, an awareness she always pushed down the list behind physician the minute she donned her lab coat.

What was happening to her?

Why now? Why him—okay, that one was easy. How could any woman not fail to go into immediate estrogen overload with him in such close proximity?

He held a notebook. The masculinity of his hand contrasted drastically with the notebook cover, which was totally overlaid with pink glittery stickers.

“Hi, again.” He stuck out his free right hand. “Niko Christopoulos, and this is my niece, Sophie.”

Sophie wore a baby-blue sailor dress with a large white collar and red cowgirl boots. Annalise could imagine the conversation between this little girl with the adorable stubborn jaw and the person who had helped her dress.

She took Niko’s hand, long-fingered and large enough to engulf hers, and that fluttery feeling intensified to an erratic quivering that grew as the seconds ticked by.

Using all her willpower, she made herself hold tight when she wanted to jerk back.

Then he quirked his eyebrow and glanced at their bonded hands.

How was she going to handle this?

Her fallback answer. Professionalism.

She released his hand and used her best patient care smile she’d practiced so hard to perfect. “Welcome, Sophie. I’m Dr. Walcott.”

“Uncle Niko is a doctor, too.”

“Really?” That didn’t surprise her. With his composure, Annalise was sure Niko Christopoulos could be anything he wanted to be.

Annalise squatted down to eye level with her patient, which gave her a good view of Niko Christopoulos’ expensive shoes. “And what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“A cook, of course. That’s what we all are—except for Uncle Niko.” She said it as if becoming a doctor instead of a cook was the most rebellious thing a man could do.

Niko shifted, causing Annalise to look up.

His eyes were tense and his mouth bracketed at the corners. “That’s not true, Sophie. Your mother is studying to become a nurse.”

“And my dad says it’s all your fault.”

He gave a deep, sad sigh as he held out his hand to help Annalise stand. “Maybe I should start over. Niko Christopoulos, black sheep of the family.”

Annalise wanted to make up an excuse to ignore his outstretched hand, but she couldn’t bring herself to reject the man even that small bit when he’d obviously been rejected enough by his own family. She knew how that felt.

“Dr. Christopoulos, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” As she said the niceties, he wrapped his hand around hers again, this time with the slightest of familiar pressure as if they were comrades in arms. Between his strength and his warmth she felt cocooned. Before she could feel trapped, he released her.

“Call me Niko. Professional courtesy, right? And you are …?”

She was a woman who rarely gave out her first name to strangers, liking the barrier titles and surnames erected around her.

“Annalise.” Saying her own name aloud felt so intimate, like a secret revealed. Trying to erase the uneasy feeling, she said in her most authoritative voice, “I understand you’re in charge of your niece’s blood-sugar checks while you’re aboard. Do you understand how to balance her food and activity with her insulin? Are you comfortable giving injections? I can give you a refresher course if you like. I know some doctors don’t give injections regularly.”

“Got it down.” His sister-in-law had emailed Sophie’s requirements and he had studied them on the plane.

“I don’t want a shot. I don’t like Uncle Niko being a doctor.”

Annalise shouldn’t get involved in family relations but she found herself saying, “I think it’s awesome your Uncle Niko is a doctor. He helps people feel better.”

“Daddy says Uncle Niko makes people’s noses smaller and his wallet bigger.”

This time Niko grinned, his cat eyes sparkling. “Guilty.” He gave Annalise a wink. “Although I can see my services are not needed here as you have a perfect nose. But we need your professional help, Dr. Walcott. We need to check Sophie’s blood sugar.”

Annalise had a huge moment of doubt. “You don’t know how to use her meter?”

Sophie looked down at her red boots. “Yiayia might have forgotten my blood-sugar meter in the car.”

Niko kept his smile firmly in place to hide his disappointment with Yiayia. She couldn’t seem to understand how important it was to monitor Sophie’s condition. Juvenile diabetes could get out of hand in a heartbeat.

“It’s hard for some family members to accept their young ones needing such continuous care,” Annalise said sympathetically.

Apparently, she saw behind his smile. He must be slipping. He was beyond tired. Could he catch a nap on deck after supper? A few moments of solitude would go a long way to preparing him to facing three weeks with his raucous family en masse.

Annalise pulled up Sophie’s charts on her computer screen. “When’s the last time you ate, Sophie?”

Sophie shrugged, uncharacteristically shy, and pointed to the notebook her uncle held.

Niko turned to the last entry and angled it so Annalise could have a look at the meal listed there. Fast food at a burger joint. There were better choices—much better.

Sophie was young, but she would still have to be taught to be aware of what she ate.

Annalise asked in a different way. “What did you have for lunch?”

“French fries.”

“Anything else?” Niko prompted.

“Aunt Phoebe made me eat my hamburger meat, but I didn’t want to and Yiayia said I shouldn’t have to because we were on vacation.”

“Aunt Phoebe did the right thing.” Annalise opened a cabinet and brought out a glucose meter. “Ready?”

Sophie folded her hands together behind her back and stuck out her chin. “No.”

Niko’s heart broke for her. Life wasn’t fair.

What method of persuasion would work best with her?

Of all his nieces and nephews, Sophie was the most stubborn of the bunch. She’d often been compared to him. What would have worked best for him?

“Sophie Olympia Christopoulos, I’m not going to treat you like a baby. You’re too brave for that. Now stick that finger out there and prove it to me.”

Niko could see the wheels turning in Sophie’s little brain and knew he’d scored. She stood up straighter and held out a finger. Right before Annalise rested the meter against it, Sophie broke. “Hold my hand, Uncle Niko, so it won’t go and hide again.”

Niko looked up at the ceiling, trying to find the strength before looping his fingers firmly around her tiny wrist. “All right. Let’s do this.”

“Are you ready?” Annalise moved quickly, pricking in mid-sentence before Sophie had a chance to tense up more. “It’s over.”

Sophie looked surprised. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“When Daddy does it, it hurts more.”

Niko could guess why. His brother probably let the drama build so high that the fear was worse than the prick.

It seemed a family meeting was in order.

The tug o’war that had been pulling at him all these months gave a jerk to his gut. He was the doctor in the family, the one they’d all sacrificed to put through medical school. The one they relied on for explaining these kinds of things. But he’d been out of town and out of touch more often than not.

And, if all went as planned, after this trip, he would be practically unreachable most of the time.

Guilt bowed his shoulders.

Annalise read the numbers then showed them to Niko. He hid his wince then checked his watch.

“We’ll eat in fifteen minutes. It’s about time for insulin, rapid and long-acting. Let’s go with the same amount and I’ll make sure she eats better this meal to balance it out.”

“Sounds good. Check again a few hours before bedtime to see if she needs a snack. Ask your waiter to bring apples and orange juice to keep in your room’s refrigerator.”

“Will do.”

“Ice cream!” Sophie said. “I want ice cream. Yiayia said I could have—”

Niko cocked his eyebrow, stopping her whine in mid-sentence. “If you eat your meal, you can have a little for dessert.”

While Annalise opened up her refrigerator and took out a vial of insulin, Niko paged through the notebook. “Abdomen for breakfast and lunch, thigh for supper, right?”

Annalise double-checked her notes. “Yes. And today is left side, tomorrow is right side.”

Sophie’s face clouded up as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She looked so small and delicate.

Niko felt so powerless. Injections and a strict regimen were Sophie’s fate for the rest of her life.

He picked her up to sit her on the examining table, giving her a big hug midway. “Sweetie, I would take this for you if I could, but I can’t.”

“If I don’t eat, I don’t have to have a shot, right?”

“Not an option, little one.”

He took the vials from Annalise and filled the syringe to the proper marking.

“Hold your finger out like a candle, sweetie.” He held up his own finger, showing her.

“I’m going to hold your leg still.” He put his hand on her thigh. “When I say, ‘Now,’ pretend you’re blowing out the candle. Be sure to blow hard.”

She gave him a confused look.

“Trust me.” He focused on the injection site. “Now.”

While Sophie blew, Niko took advantage of her distraction and injected the insulin.

“Good girl. All over.” He jotted down the particulars in Sophie’s notebook, taking a moment to appreciate the details his brothers and sisters-in-law were trying so carefully to document.

“You want to dig through the treasure chest, Sophie, and pick out a toy?”

“Okay.” Sophie shrugged, not looking very excited. After all these months of doctors’ visits she’d probably been rewarded with too many cheap toys in the past to make this one special.

Annalise helped Sophie down from the table then opened a huge plastic tub filled with monster trucks and snorkels and magic wands.

“I think there’s a superhero cape in there somewhere. A real one.”

Sophie began flinging plastic trucks and coloring books out of the box, digging for the cape. “Really?”

“Absolutely. I save the good stuff for the most courageous girls and boys.”

Niko gave Dr. Annalise Walcott a long look. She was a smart one, reinforcing Niko’s challenge to be brave with an enticing reward. Small things made big impressions with little patients. While he had the minimum of pediatrics training, he’d treated enough frightened children to pick up a thing or two. Apparently, Annalise had treated her own fair share of children, too.

“Found it!” Sophie triumphantly held up a bright pink cape along with the sparkling wand attached to it.

Niko quickly yanked off and crumpled up the tag that declared it a fairy costume instead of a superheroine disguise.

As she pointed the wand at him, he obligingly shrank back with as much mock terror on his face as he could muster. “SuperSophie. If I were a nasty villain, I would be quaking in my shoes right now.”

“Let me tie it on for you,” Annalise offered.

The pleased smile she gave Sophie made Niko think the good doctor really had picked out the cape herself. With her long legs she’d make the perfect bustiered and masked crusader.

Niko rubbed his hand over his eyes, clearing the vision. What was it about this demure doctor that had his imagination running wild? Had he been under so much pressure that he needed to resort to a fantasy life for relief? If so, what did that say for his stamina in the field?

Lack of resilience or desire to make a difference wasn’t what sidelined most of the special mission doctors. Coping with the mental stress, knowing they were only making a small dent in the needs of so many was what broke most of them.

Then again, maybe Annalise brought out the creative imagination in him. Nothing wrong with that, was there? This was a fantasy cruise after all.

“You’re really good with her, Dr. Christopoulos. I’m impressed.” When she smiled, her gaze was honest, her voice sincere. It felt better than good to be appreciated.

“It’s Niko.” His own voice was huskier than normal.

“Niko.” She licked her full lips.

Fascinating and, oh, so sexy with no contrivance or even an awareness of what her mouth could do to a man.

Niko reined himself in. It had been a while. Where he’d been wasn’t exactly an environment conducive to lovemaking.

How did he ask the good doctor if she would like to share a drink with him under the stars tonight? How could he make himself stand out in a crowd when he bet every man on board this ship would like to do the same?

I don’t do dinner, she’d said.

She’d been offputting on the gangway, but Niko could understand why. She probably had to field invitations and propositions all day, every day from total strangers.

What made him different from them? And why did it matter so much that he was? There were plenty of women aboard this ship looking for a diversion. But he had no interest in pursuing them. Only her.

What made her different?

He didn’t know, but he wanted to find out.

He searched for the right pick-up line but came up blank. What was the matter with him? He’d had no trouble knowing what to say to charm the opposite sex since he’d turned twelve.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” Annalise wiped away a non-existent blemish.

“How about sharing a bottle of wine tonight?” Nothing glib or witty or clever there. Just a straightforward request. “I thought, as colleagues, we could discuss medicine aboard ship. Strictly professional curiosity.”

She was shaking her head before she even started to turn him down. “I don’t really think …”

That’s when he heard them coming. No one could ever say a Christopoulos didn’t give you fair warning before arriving. From the sound of it, the whole family was in the medical suite’s anteroom.

Annalise looked alarmed.

“Not to worry. It’s not a mass emergency. Just an invasion of family.”

Family. Wasn’t that what he’d wanted when he’d planned this elaborate ruse, to spend time with family? Why was he even trying to strike up a shipboard romance with a woman who obviously had no interest in him?

He had to admit, paying attention to a beautiful woman sounded a lot more enticing than paying attention to his brothers as they droned on about the restaurant or to the sisters-in-law as they expounded on the joys and tribulations of parenthood.

As he and Sophie joined them he realized, as he had so many times in the past, that he was a square peg in a family of round holes. Now he understood that no amount of buying anonymous vacations was going to change that.

Seeing his sisters-in-law with children in tow, he also understood that no number of casual relationships would fill that hole of not having someone special to belong to, like his brothers did.

Choices. Live every man’s dream or live his own personal dream.

He would never again become involved with a woman who made him feel the pain of having to choose.

Annalise.

The good doctor was safe, right?

At a glance, Annalise recognized the people in her waiting room as family. They looked—and sounded—exactly alike.

Still, while the family resemblance was strong, Niko stood apart.

One of the lanky teenaged boys jostled another, who looked like an identical twin. “Of course we’d find Uncle Niko down here, playing doctor with the nurse.”

“I’d expect you to be out by the pool, Uncle Niko, checking out the bikini babes. When we walked by, there was this one …” He raised his hands like he was holding coconuts, or maybe watermelons.

Niko cut them both a harsh look. “Respect,” he growled.

At the same time as one of the women gave the twins a sharp look and said, “Boys, behave.”

Amidst the chaos of the two women and smaller children throwing themselves into Niko’s arms and the two men patting him on the back, Niko made introductions.

“Dr. Walcott, these are my brothers and their wives, with assorted nieces and nephews and my grandmother in the back. Family, meet Dr. Walcott. She will be helping us while we’re here.”

A tiny older woman, small in stature but big in presence, waded through three waist-high children and elbowed her way past the two tall boys to the front of the crowd. “I am Olympia Christopoulos. Everyone calls me Yiayia. We were all greatly relieved to learn the ship has its own doctor to help us with our little Sophie.”

Surprising Annalise, Yiayia wrapped her in a big hug. Annalise flailed her arms, unsure what to do, who to be. Should she pretend to be the type of person who was comfortable with this type of thing? Should she hug back? Finally, the hug was over and Annalise could be herself again.

Too late, she wished she’d wrapped her arms around the old woman, just to see what having a grandmother might feel like.

The woman who belonged to the twin boys turned to Niko and patted her huge Hawaiian print tote bag. “I have the meter. I see you have the notebook. It’s time for Sophie’s s-h-o-t.”

From the stricken look on Sophie’s face she clearly knew what word the woman had just spelled out.

Niko gave Sophie a reassuring pat. “Already taken care of, Phoebe.”

“You wrote it all down in the notebook, right? The time and the amount and her blood-sugar reading?” She turned to Annalise. “You know how men are. They don’t always think of these things.”

Who were these people? They acted as if they didn’t even acknowledge that Niko was a doctor in his own right. Or was that a good-natured tease? Maybe this was just a normal give and take of a normal family. Group dynamics wasn’t her strong suit.

“Don’t worry, sis. I learned how to chart in medical school.” Despite Niko’s self-deprecating smile, his tone held a hint of bite and his jaw held more than a hint of firmness.

His sister-in-law must have seen the same sparks in Niko’s eyes that Annalise saw because she tried to excuse herself by saying, “Of course you did, Niko. It’s just that you don’t usually have children as patients and you have that big staff to do things for you.”

Annalise envisioned a spa-like office suite with customized furniture arranged by a top designer, staff in matching trendy uniforms and coffee and tea with French names available to sip as the clientele discussed lifting brows, firming chins and reshaping cheekbones.

Her own utilitarian facilities would be stark in comparison. Still, her suite and her staff were top of the line, assembled to handle any emergency.

One of the men, older than Niko but definitely related, stepped forward. “Time to eat. Let’s see how cruise-ship food stacks up to Christopoulos food.”

A twin clapped Niko on the shoulder. “It’ll be nice to be served instead of being the server for a change, too. But, then, you never had to do the waiter thing, did you, Uncle Niko?”

The tiny ancient woman reached up and tweaked the boy’s ear. “If your grades were as good as Niko’s, you wouldn’t either.”

Phoebe turned to Annalise. “Niko tutored during high school instead of working in the restaurant.”

Annalise processed information, trying to fill in the holes while simultaneously wondering why this family would reveal so much to a total stranger.

“Good thing Niko’s so smart since he can’t cook worth a flip,” the other brother added. “Now, let’s go and eat.”

En masse, they turned and exited, carrying Sophie along with them but leaving Niko behind.

He raised an eyebrow. “Family. Gotta love ‘em, right?”

No. No, you didn’t. Annalise knew that first hand. But that was knowledge she had no intention of sharing. Sharing meant intimacy and intimacy was something Annalise didn’t do, especially with a man who made her breath skip when he stood this close.

She fell back on her professionalism. “Enjoy your dinner. Bring Sophie back any time you need to.”

“Thanks.”

Annalise stood by the glass door and watched him walk away.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like to look at men—she just liked to look from a distance. Now she allowed herself to admire the breadth of his shoulders and tautness of his butt even while her medical training had her noticing the slight hesitation of his left leg as he climbed the short flight of stairs leading to the main hallway. He’d said something about an injury when he boarded the elevator with her, hadn’t he?

Not her concern unless he sought out medical attention. She had to remind herself of that daily when she wanted to fix the world.

When her office was empty once again, it felt as if all the energy had been sucked out with the Christopoulos family.

No, not energy. They had taken joyous chaos with them when they’d left. The energy had gone with Niko, along with the impression of stability he projected of keeping that wild bunch under control.

Usually her haven, the atmosphere of the medical suite felt as cold as the stainless steel of the countertops and she felt restless, on the verge—but on the verge of what?

Underneath her feet the rumble of the huge engines reverberated as they churned through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on their way towards the open water of the Atlantic.

She was being silly. The feel of freedom was all around her. Why, then, was she missing the anchoring sensation Niko had taken with him?