by Amy Ruttan
Lisa continued to chat about different things, but Naomi was only half listening. It surprised her to hear that Chris had become something of a hermit when he’d been the quintessential playboy in Manhattan—or so all the tabloids had said, when she was doing her fellowship in Nashville.
The church bell in the center of the old town chimed the hour.
“I’d better get back. Evangelos is due for a walk and Dr. Moustakas has to get back to work.” Lisa picked up her shawl and purse. “Are you heading back to Athens tonight?”
Naomi nodded. “There’s no place to stay on the island after the earthquake—though Dr. Nikolaides did offer a boathouse. But a place like that is more suited to a bachelor. Are you headed back to Athens too?”
“No, I’m on for three nights and then off for two. I have a small room close to Evangelos. I suppose when the boy gets older I’ll be making the commute daily, but it’s really not that long.”
“No, but it would be easier to stay here. Isn’t there a ferry that goes to Spritos?”
Lisa frowned. “Spritos? What do you need to do there?”
“There’s another small clinic there, and I was told Spritos could be accessed by ferry from Mythelios.”
“On the other side of the island. The ferry only runs twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Pray you don’t get stuck there, because they really have nothing—but it’s a beautiful place.”
Naomi walked Lisa back to Chris’s house.
“I hope we can visit more,” Lisa said as she unlocked the old wooden door to Chris’s home. “It’s nice that you’re here, and if Yia-yia did put a curse on you, perhaps we can lift it, eh?”
Naomi laughed. “I would like that.”
She turned and began walking back to the clinic. She made slow progress and was annoyed with herself for wearing completely impractical heels—especially when walking on cobbled streets. Then her heel broke, and she swore out loud and leaned precariously against a wall to inspect the damage.
Yep. Definitely cursed.
There was the beep of a horn behind her, and she looked over her shoulder to see a little scooter being driven by none other than Chris, who was grinning from ear to ear as he leaned over the front.
“I told you those heels would be your downfall one day.”
She snorted. “I wasn’t thinking. In Athens it’s no big deal.”
“Here, especially on the cobbled streets of the old part of town, flats are your friend. How badly is it broken?”
“Bad—but I do have a pair of flip-flops in my bag back at the clinic. I was planning on getting a pedicure in Athens when I returned tonight.”
“Well, you won’t make it hobbling like that. Do you want a ride to the clinic?”
She eyed the scooter speculatively. “I thought you walked.”
“In the morning, yes, but I’m running late and I thought I’d take this for a spin. It was my yia-yia’s and is proving handy.”
“Your yia-yia’s?” Naomi tried to picture a tiny little grandmother, dressed in black, motoring around Mythelios on this little turquoise scooter.
“Why not?”
“A scooter’s not very practical for a man with a baby.”
“I have a car on the mainland. The ferry’s not a far walk and neither is the clinic. Do you want a ride or do you want to spend all day holding up that wall?”
“Thanks.”
Naomi hobbled over to him and climbed precariously onto the back of the scooter, sitting sidesaddle behind him because she was wearing a tight pencil skirt. She crossed her legs at the ankles.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Uh...you do have to hold on.”
“There’s nothing to hold on to.”
“Sure there is. Me. You have to hold on to me.”
Definitely cursed.
“Fine,” she murmured as she slipped her arms around his waist.
Under his loose scrubs she could feel every single one of his abdominal muscles, and when she closed her eyes, she could see him without his shirt on and it made her heart beat just a little bit faster.
She’d never really forgotten the electric effect he’d had on her, and being so close to him now, with her body pressed against his, it all came rushing back, making her blood heat and her palms sweat.
She hated that he still had this effect on her. Why did he still have this effect on her? Why was she letting him get to her?
Because you’re weak. Because you’ve never really gotten over him.
“You ready?”
“No!” she said, but nodded.
He chuckled. “Hang on.”
Chris revved the engine and the little scooter took off down the hill, through the narrow cobbled streets of the old part of Mythelios. Naomi closed her eyes tight for a few moments as Chris drove like a maniac through the streets, but then he turned away from the clinic road onto another road. A dirt track that overlooked the sea.
“Where are we going?” she shrieked over the roar of the engine.
“Just taking the back way,” he teased. “A more scenic route, since you probably haven’t seen all of Mythelios yet.”
“Uh, no—I really need to get back.”
“Live a little, Naomi. You’re always so uptight.”
That was what he’d said to her when they’d first met, and look where that had gotten her. It had left her with a broken heart, an unimaginable loss and, for the first time in her life, without a clue as to how to go on.
She’d fought hard to dig herself out of that pit of heartbreak and learn to put herself first. She wasn’t going to let him do that to her again.
“Chris, stop this thing now!”
Chris pulled over into a lay-by and stopped the scooter. Once she was off, she slipped off her shoes and began to walk barefoot down the dirt track toward the clinic.
“Naomi, I was only joking.”
She spun around. “That’s the thing. You’re always joking! I have real work to do. I have patients to see this afternoon! I don’t have time to waste driving all over the island just because I need to let loose! I’ve done enough of that in my life and look where it got me.”
Tears were stinging her eyes—not because she was sad, but because she always cried when she got mad, and she was mad about this whole situation. How he thought things could ever be normal between them was a mystery to her.
Maybe she was cursed and maybe he had all the luck, but she worked hard for what she wanted, for what she’d achieved, and she wasn’t going to let him stand in her way this time.
“Naomi!” he called out, but she ignored him, limping along the road, feeling small pebbles digging into the soles of her feet.
Chris came jogging up beside her and took her hand in his. It was so strong, so warm.
“I’m sorry, Naomi.”
There was sincerity in his eyes, and a well of sadness.
“Please let me take you back to the clinic and I’ll make it up to you any way that I can.”
“You’ll make it up to me?” she asked.
He nodded. “Of course. I was impertinent and flippant and I’ll do whatever it takes to make things right. I’ll do whatever it takes to make this whole thing go away so we can work together.”
“Okay.” She grinned suddenly. “I know exactly how you can make it up to me.”
He cocked a wary eyebrow. “Really? That fast?”
“Yes. It’s something that’s put me in a bit of a predicament.”
“What is it?” Chris asked hesitantly.
“You’re going to be my feature bachelor.”
His expression fell. “What?”
“At a charity auction to raise money for earthquake relief. You’re going to give up your time and take the highest bidder on a romantic night out.”
* * *
>
He wasn’t quite sure that he’d heard her right.
“You want me to do what?” he asked in disbelief.
“Be in the bachelor auction.”
“No way!” he almost shouted at her, throwing up his arms.
“You said you’d make it up to me, and being the featured bachelor in our Hot Greek Nights bachelor auction would definitely be a highlight.”
“Nope.” He shook his head and crossed his arms. “I’m not a bachelor.”
A strange expression crossed her face and for a fleeting moment he thought he saw that flare of jealousy again.
“You’re involved with someone?” she asked slowly.
“No, but...”
She held up her hand to silence him. “Then you’re doing it, pal.”
“I think not. I’m a single father. I don’t have time to do a charity auction.”
“Even if it will help those less fortunate here in Mythelios? Those who were affected by the earthquake? Not everyone is so lucky as to have a trust fund and live like you do. There are other single parents out there seriously struggling to survive.”
Dammit.
He couldn’t argue with that, and if it was to help out with fund-raising, there was no way he could walk away from it. Naomi had him cornered, the minx.
“Who suggested me?” he grumbled.
“No one did. I see no wedding band. Like you said, you’re a single father.”
“I told you my son’s mother made it clear that she did not want him and left,” he snapped, surprised at how touchy he was about it.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
“There was nothing to work out. I told you it was a one-night stand. I regret sleeping with Evan’s biological mother, but I don’t regret having him in my life.”
An unreadable expression crossed her face and he couldn’t quite place it, but then it vanished again as quickly as it had appeared.
“So, will you do it?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I guess I have no choice—because I can’t have you cut your feet up walking back down to the clinic, nor have you savaged by a wandering goat.” A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth when he saw her eyes widen.
“Goats?”
He laughed. “I’ll do it. What do I need to do, though?”
“Just think of something romantic to do with whoever wins the date. You were always pretty good at that.”
A blush rose in her cheeks and his blood heated. He loved it when she blushed, and it made him feel good that he still had some kind of effect on her after all this time.
She was the only woman he’d ever cared about. Even though he’d been completely stubborn and too pigheaded back then to see it.
And now it was too late.
Is it?
“Come on, let’s get you back to the clinic,” he said, heading back to the scooter.
“Before I’m savaged by a goat?” she teased.
“Yeah.”
Naomi stumbled over some of the small rocks on this section of the road and without thinking he closed the distance between them and scooped her up, carrying her the short distance back to the scooter.
She was blushing again.
“This...” she whispered as he sat her down on the back of the scooter.
“What?”
“Sweep the winner off her feet. You’re good at that too.”
“Okay. I’ll think of something.” He climbed onto the scooter.
“Thank you, by the way. In case I don’t say it later. You’re making my life just a bit easier,” she said gently.
He smiled. “You’re welcome.”
He fired up the scooter and made a careful turn off the winding hill road. Her arms were around him again and it felt so right. She’d told him that he was good at sweeping a woman off her feet, and perhaps he was, but there was only ever one woman whom he’d truly wanted to do that to and she was sitting behind him.
And she didn’t want him anymore.
CHAPTER FOUR
“YOU’RE DAYDREAMING AGAIN, EH?”
Chris looked up to see Ares standing over him. Ares had a mischievous glint in his dark eyes as he sat down next to Chris in the clinic’s lounge.
“I wasn’t daydreaming. I might’ve been nodding off, though. I have a young son and I don’t get much sleep, so I tend to zone out.”
Ares snorted. “Sure, that must be it. It has nothing to do with Dr. Hudson.”
Chris straightened his spine and sat up. “What’re you talking about?”
“I see the way you look at her and the way she acts around you. Is she one of your paramours from America?”
No, she was more than that. But he’d been too much of a coward back then to do anything about it.
Ares didn’t need to know that.
“Something like that...” Chris stretched.
“Why didn’t you tell us? If you’d told us, we could’ve had someone else from International Relief come in her place,” Ares said.
“No, don’t do that—it’s not necessary.” Chris sighed. “It was nothing, and we’re still friends.”
Ares cocked an eyebrow and Chris could tell that he didn’t believe him.
“You’re sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
Chris didn’t want to talk about Naomi with Ares, Deakin or Theo. He didn’t want them to think badly of him—the way he felt about himself for walking away from her.
“I heard that you’re now the lone bachelor representing us in that bachelor auction in Athens in a couple of weeks. Thanks for doing that, but I seriously doubt that you’ll earn as much money as I would have.”
Chris snorted. “You were supposed to be the feature bachelor?”
“What’s with the snort of derision? Of course. No woman can resist me or my charms.” Ares grinned and tossed his head, making those long dark curls bounce.
Chris rolled his eyes. “Don’t let Erianthe hear you talking like that.”
“Right,” Ares said, chuckling.
“So what were you going to do?” Chris asked.
“I was going to walk across the stage in a tuxedo,” Ares answered, puzzled.
Chris punched him in the arm. “No, I meant for the date. What were you going to do? What’s romantic in Greece? I’m too used to sweeping a girl off her feet in Manhattan. I think I’m out of touch.”
And that was the understatement of the year. He was definitely out of touch—and had been since the day Evan’s mother had told him she was pregnant. That was when his life had come to a screeching halt.
It was also the night when he’d stopped sleeping soundly.
“Well, I was planning on hiring a yacht and taking the lucky winner out on a moonlight boat ride. Spritos isn’t far, and my plan was to have a little impromptu fancy picnic set up on one of the beaches your father owns, complete with a waiter and the very best champagne. Maybe some dancing under the stars.”
“You’re quite the Valentino, Ares.”
Ares grinned. “I know.”
“Well, that might be going a bit overboard.” Chris rolled his shoulders to loosen the tension knot that had formed in his back. “I’m not trying to seduce the woman. Just give her her money’s worth.”
“Oh, for sure—because your seduction technique would have her demanding a refund.”
Ares got up and jogged out of the room before Chris could react.
Yeah, you’d better run!
Ares’s idea wasn’t half-bad, though. His father had a yacht he could use, and Chris was pretty sure that the captain who ran it would do the tour pro bono, but since his father’s yacht was a bit larger than what Ares had planned, dinner on the beach was probably a bit out of reach.
What was he doing?
He should have just said no to being in the auction!
Actually, he shouldn’t have done such a spur-of-the-moment thing and taken Naomi on that scooter ride at all. He didn’t know what had come over him.
Exhaustion. That’s what your problem is.
Or guilt. Naomi could have asked him for almost anything and he’d have given it to her.
Except marriage. You couldn’t give her that.
Chris swore under his breath as he tried to forget about that. He couldn’t be thinking about that now, when he had a patient to see.
Deakin poked his head into the lounge. “Stavros is here for his appointment.”
He wasn’t looking forward to this, but it had to be done.
“Thanks, Deakin.”
“He’s in exam room one.” Deakin left and Chris picked up his notebook.
How did you tell someone he was dying? He’d never get used to telling patients that. In Manhattan he had all the newest equipment and the finest surgical team at his fingertips, but here in a small island clinic he was feeling distinctly uneasy.
Even if Stavros agreed to go to Athens, the neurosurgical team there wasn’t his. They wouldn’t be used to his nuances, and that upped the risk factor of this whole thing.
Chris gathered up Stavros’s file and headed to exam room one. He knocked on the door and slipped in when Stavros responded.
“So the prodigal son returns to Mythelios,” Stavros said brightly. “Your yia-yia was a regular at my taverna. She was a force to be reckoned with, God rest her soul.”
Chris nodded. “That she was.”
“You’ve only been to my taverna once, though, since you came home.”
“I’ve been busy. And I have a young son.”
“Ah, well, congratulations. I hadn’t heard,” Stavros said.
Only, Chris was pretty sure that Stavros had heard. Stavros knew everything, and this forgetfulness might be the tumor talking.
“Thank you.”
Stavros smiled. “So I take it since they brought in such a big gun to handle my file after the headaches and the seizure, that it’s something a bit more serious than epilepsy?”
Chris nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry, Stavros, but you have a grade three anaplastic oligodendroglioma. It’s a fast-growing, rare and aggressive form of tumor that is growing in your temporal lobe. If left untreated, it will spread to other parts of your body.”
