THE GREEK'S TINY MIRACLE

by Rebecca Winters

  Nikos could be gone for the rest of the day. As for Yannis, he’d said he’d be back at three. She had a half hour to leave without him seeing her.

  The town had only two taxis. One of them was waiting for her at the dock. She got in and told the driver to drop her off on a corner where she’d seen used cars for sale. Her passport still showed she was single. The man who sold her the car had no idea she was Kyria Vassalos. That suited her fine. It didn’t take long before she was in possession of a clunker that cost only five hundred dollars.

  Free to do what she wanted, Stephanie drove to a wonderfully sited convent nestled among pines and ringed with a magnificent garden. The weary traveler was welcome to stay at their hospice, which was located on the west side of the island, about ten minutes from town. During one of their lessons Borus had told her she should visit to learn its history.

  En route she passed several quiet coves, enchanted by the scenery and grateful she could use her bank card to draw money from her final paycheck. She still had enough to pay the fee for board and room for a week.

  The convent suited her perfectly. For the time being she intended to get some reading done and keep her feet up. But when she got restless, she could take short drives around the island. It helped to know she’d be out of Nikos’s hair for a while. He’d been hurtled into a world of pain after he’d left the Caribbean, and deserved a break.

  As she’d told him, she was the ball on the end of his chain. By her staying here at the convent, out of sight, he didn’t have to drag it around. For the time being he didn’t know where to find her and that was good. He hovered too much.

  On the plus side, she could give in to her emotions, which were out of control at this stage of her pregnancy. If she wanted to cry her heart out at night, no one would hear her through the thick walls.

  Once in her simple room, she sank down on the bed. Right now she was so exhausted she couldn’t move. For the last hour she’d had pain in her lower back. It was from all the walking she’d done today. Tomorrow she’d go out in the garden, but not now.

  * * *

  Evening had fallen before Nikos returned to the dock. Yannis was waiting to help him tie up the cruiser. But there was a worried look on the older man’s face that raised the hair on the back of Nikos’s neck.

  “Is Stephanie all right?”

  “That’s the problem, Nikos. I don’t know. When I came back at three she was gone, but she left a note on the desk in the lounge.”

  Forgetting the pain in his back, Nikos raced along the pier to the yacht and hurried down the stairs. As he read her message, his heart plunged like a boulder crashing down a mountain. “She had to have called for a taxi to take her to one of the tourist lodgings. I’ll call and find out which one.”

  But when he finally reached the driver who’d picked her up, the man was no help. “I dropped her off on a corner by the Pappas Market. She was carrying an overnight bag.”

  Searing pain ripped Nikos open before he hung up. “I’ve got to find her tonight!”

  Yannis looked grim. “You get dressed and we’ll go to every place where she might be staying.”

  Nikos changed into jeans and a sweater before they took off for town in the car. They combed the whole area for an hour, without results. “I should never have closed up on her like I did earlier. She couldn’t help it that Mother came to see her.”

  “That was my fault, Nikos.”

  He stared hard at his friend. “No. The fault is all mine for letting old wounds fester until the result caused Stephanie to run away from me. I can’t lose her, Yannis.” His voice shook. “Where in the hell has she gone?”

  “How did she find you?”

  The shrewd seaman’s question gave Nikos pause. He struggled for breath. “Through sheer persistence and determination.” His mind reeled with possibilities. “Since she’s not at any local lodgings, she had to get a ride with someone to somewhere else.” His turmoil grew worse.

  Yannis patted his shoulder. “Perhaps she went to another part of the island.”

  “Maybe. But there’s no place for her to stay, only ruins and churches.”

  “Could she have gone back to the dock, to take the boat to Chios?”

  “Anything’s worth looking into.” Nikos got the port authority on the line. The captain in charge of the last crossing was emphatic that a blonde, pregnant American woman had not been on board.

  Nikos shook his head. “She’s here somewhere, Yannis. Maybe she crept on some fishing boat down at the harbor to spend the night.”

  Yannis scratched his head. “I don’t think she’d do that, not in her condition. She’s so excited about that baby, she’d never put herself in precarious circumstances. Besides, everyone knows you. I doubt she’d do anything that could embarrass you. She said as much in the note.”

  Nikos stared blindly at the water in the distance. “She had to get help from someone, but in my gut I know she wouldn’t turn to Tassos or my family. She hasn’t made any friends yet.”

  “That’s not exactly true.”

  His gaze swerved to Yannis. “What do you mean?”

  “Bulos.”

  Though she’d spent ten hours a week for months with her language teacher, Nikos still ruled him out and shook his head. “Let’s go home and see if she’s back on board the Diomedes. If not, I’ll think about bringing in the police.”

  Except that she expected him to trust her enough to take care of herself and come back when she was ready. The police would want to know why she was missing and would figure out she and Nikos were having a domestic quarrel. It would be the talk of the Oinousses.

  By three in the morning it was clear she wasn’t coming back. Nikos thought he’d been at the end of his rope in the hospital, but this was agony in a new dimension. If anything untoward happened to her or the baby because of him, life wouldn’t be worth living.

  Yannis made them coffee. Both of them were too wired from anxiety to do anything but pace. They were waiting for morning so they could begin their search all over again.

  At five to four Niko’s cell phone rang, causing him to almost jump out of his skin. He clicked on. “Stephanie?”

  “No, sir. This is Sister Sofia at the Convent of the Holy Virgin on Oinoussa. Are you Kyrie Vassalos?”

  Beads of perspiration broke out on his forehead. “Speaking.” He couldn’t imagine why she’d called.

  “Your wife checked into our hospice this afternoon.” The hospice! Of course! “But she’s been in labor ever since and is now at the hospital.”

  Nikos weaved in place. “God bless you, Sister. You’ve just saved my life!” He hung up. “Yannis? Stephanie is at the hospital having the baby!”

  With Yannis driving, they made it there in record time. Nikos burst inside the emergency entrance. “My wife!” he said to the surprised attendant. “Stephanie Vassalos—”

  “She’s in the delivery room.”

  “Has she had the baby?”

  “Not yet. Dr. Panos says for you to come with me. I’ll get you ready. We need to hurry.”

  The next few minutes were a blur as Nikos was instructed to sanitize his hands before being led into the delivery room. He was told to sit.

  “Nikos!” He heard Stephanie call out to him.

  “You’re just in time,” the doctor said without missing a beat. “Your baby fooled everyone and decided to come a few weeks early. Push, Stephanie. That’s it. One more time.”

  Nikos’s wet eyes flew to his brave, beautiful wife, propped on the bed. The strain in her body and the way she worked with the doctor was something he’d never forget.

  “Ah, there’s the head. This guy’s got your husband’s black hair.”

  He heard his wife’s shouts of excitement.

  “Keep pushing. Here comes Alexandros.” Dr
. Panos held the baby up in the air by the ankles and Nikos heard a gurgle, followed by a lusty cry.

  Stephanie started sobbing for joy. “How does he look?” she begged the doctor.

  “You can see for yourself after I’ve cut the cord.” A minute later he laid the baby across her stomach and wiped off the fluid. “Come on over here, Papa. You can examine your son together.”

  As wonderful as that sounded, Nikos leaned over to kiss Stephanie’s dry lips first. “Are you all right? I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

  Her eyes were a blazing blue. “But you have been, all this time, and I’ve never been so happy in my life. Isn’t he beautiful?”

  His gaze flew to the baby, who’d stopped crying and gone quiet. His dark eyes looked at Nikos so seriously, reminding him of the way Stephanie sometimes did. He studied the rest of him. His perfect hands with their long fingers were curled into fists. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope, where all the bits and pieces formed a miraculous design. This one was made from the molds of a Walsh and a Vassalos.

  Nikos saw Stephanie’s mouth and chin, his brother’s ears, his mother’s black hair, his own fingers and toes, his father’s body shape. My son. My one and only.

  “He looks exactly like you, Nikos.”

  He turned his head toward her. “You’re in there, too. But I want you to know that even if he didn’t look like me, it wouldn’t matter, because I fell in love with the two of you a long time ago. A miracle happened on the island.”

  “I know.” Tears gushed from her eyes. “I love you, darling. So much I can’t begin to tell you.”

  “No woman ever fought harder to show her love than you did when you came all the way to this remote island to find me. I’ll never forget,” he said against her mouth. “I’ve got to tell Yannis. Then I’m going to call the family and tell them they’ve become grandparents again.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  January 24

  YANNIS WAS WAITING for her at the car outside the clinic. The temperature had to be in the forties. Her sweater felt good. There’d been some light rain that afternoon, but now that the sun had dropped into the sea, it had stopped.

  Stephanie had decided to get her six weeks checkup a few days ahead of schedule, without Nikos knowing. The whole point was to surprise him.

  “Dr. Panos says I’m 100 percent healthy, but I need to lose weight.”

  “You look good for a new mother.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Now remember our plan.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this, Yannis?”

  He grinned. “Nikos’s parents have spent more time on the Diomedes than they have at their house. It’s my turn.”

  “Alex is crazy about you.”

  “I love him. Maria and I have been waiting to tend him. We have it all planned for tonight. Everything’s ready for you on the cruiser.”

  “Do you think Nikos suspects anything?”

  “No. Tassos is with him and so are your parents. Between family, the demands of the business and the duties of a new father, he’s too exhausted to be doing much thinking.”

  She took a shaky breath, so nervous and excited at the same time that she couldn’t hold still. “Then I’ll just keep walking past the yacht to the cruiser, and wait for him to come.”

  “When he asks where you are, I’ll tell him that after you got back from shopping, you went in search of the camcorder, since you couldn’t find it in the lounge. In the end he’ll come looking for you.”

  This was the first night they would be away from the baby. “We’ll be in that little cove around the point if there’s a problem.”

  “Don’t you worry about anything.”

  “Alex isn’t too crazy about formula, but he’ll drink it when he gets hungry.”

  “Of course he will. It’s Nikos you should be worried about. He needs some attention.”

  She had news for him. So do I. “You’re an angel, Yannis.”

  After he’d parked the car at the dock, she gave him a hug, then ran along the pier to the cruiser and hurried on board. There was just one bedroom below. She turned on the heat to warm things up. While she waited, she took a quick shower and changed into a new nightgown her mother-in-law had given her for Christmas.

  Though she was already missing her little boy, she was dying to be with her big boy. They hadn’t been intimate since her vacation on Providenciales. Right now she was horribly nervous. If he still wasn’t prepared to make love to her because of his PTSD, she needed to know before she made herself sick with expectations.

  For weeks now they’d shared tender, loving moments with the baby, but Nikos went to bed alone every night like clockwork.

  Not tonight!

  After leaving the light on in the hallway, she brushed out her hair and climbed under the covers with a novel. For fifteen minutes she kept reading the first page, until she heard him call to her.

  “Stephanie? What are you doing? The camcorder was in your bedroom. Come on up. The family’s waiting for you.”

  Her heart thudded too hard. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay down here for a while.”

  In the silence she could almost hear him thinking. “Why?”

  “Because I’d like to have my husband to myself for a little while.”

  She heard him come down the stairs. “Are you upset about something?” His voice had suddenly deepened. It did that when he suspected trouble.

  “Actually, I am.”

  He burst into the bedroom. The worried look on his handsome face was priceless. “What are you doing in bed?”

  She sat up, feasting her eyes on him. “I’ve been waiting ten months for you. This afternoon Dr. Panos gave me a clean bill of health, so—”

  “You’ve been to see him already?” he interrupted. If she wasn’t mistaken, the news seemed to have shaken him.

  “Yes. I couldn’t stand to wait until next week. Everything’s been arranged. Yannis and Maria are taking care of Alex until tomorrow. I told him we’d motor around the point to the cove and stay for the night. I grabbed your medication earlier today. It’s in my purse. So there’s nothing you need to go back for. Your parents and Tassos will understand.”

  A haunted look crept over Nikos’s features. “Stephanie—”

  “If you have a nightmare, you won’t have to worry you’re hurting the baby. He’s safe and sound on the Diomedes. I’m tough, Nikos. I can take whatever happens if you’ll give me the chance. I want to be your wife. Won’t you let me?”

  She watched his throat working. It felt like an eternity before he said, “It’s cold on deck. Stay right where you are.”

  “I promise.”

  In a few minutes she felt the cruiser reversing. After traveling at wake speed, Nikos opened it up and they were flying across the water. It didn’t take long to round the point. He eventually slowed down, and she felt them glide onto the sand in the cove.

  More waiting while she heard him take a shower.

  Before the light went out, she saw his silhouette in the doorway. He’d hitched a towel around his hips. “I have a confession to make, Stephanie.”

  Not another one. She couldn’t take it. “What is it?”

  “When I got back to my unit, I told Kon I’d fallen in love with you, and planned to resign my commission after our mission so I could marry you.”

  With a moan of joy she climbed out of bed and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck.

  He crushed her to him, scattering kisses over her face and hair. “Forgive me for being so horrible to you. You’re the most precious thing in my life.”

  “There was never anything to forgive. Let’s not talk anymore, darling. We’ve said everything there is to say. I want to make love all night, and the same thing every nigh
t for the rest of our lives. You have no understanding of how much I love you.”

  Nikos gripped her shoulders. His black eyes blazed with desire. “Actually, I’m one man who does know. And one day soon, I’m going to do everything in my power to help you find your own father. He deserves to know he has the most wonderful daughter a man could ever be blessed with. I adore you.”

  “And I, you. Love me, darling. Love me.”

  They were on fire for each other to a degree they hadn’t known in the Caribbean.

  As he picked her up and followed her body down on the bed, he spoke the Greek words she’d been yearning to hear him say. Over and over again he whispered, “Agape mou.” My love, my love.

  April 26

  “Stephanie? Are you ready?” Nikos walked into the nursery they’d made aboard the Diomedes. He was so gorgeous, she almost fainted as he approached in a formal gray suit and white shirt.

  “We are!” She looked down at their precious four-month-old Alex, who was so excited to see his daddy he kept smiling and lifting his arms. The two were so handsome it brought tears to her eyes to see them together. “Guess what, big boy? Today you’re going to get christened.”

  She expected Nikos to pick him up, but he fooled her and swept her into his arms first. “I need this before we go anywhere.” Catching her to him, he gave her a long, passionate kiss reminiscent of their lovemaking earlier that morning, before the baby was awake. It was a good thing her eggshell-colored suit with lace trim was wrinkle proof.

  After thinking it over, she and Nikos had decided the ceremony at the church would take place on the date of their baby’s conception. It was a secret between the two of them. Knowing Alex was their miracle child, they’d chosen this particular date to commemorate the sacred occasion.

  They’d asked Tassos and Elianna to be godparents. Except for the addition of Nikos’s mother waiting for them at the church where they’d been married, it was like déjà vu to travel there with Yannis and join their closest friends for the baptism.