Her Greek Doctor's Proposal (6 page)

She pressed her sore hand to her chest, huffing out a breath of relief and annoyance. “You make a habit of sneaking up on people to give them a heart attack?”

“Well, we did talk about my MO being injuring people, fixing them up, then billing them.”

“Uh-huh. Too bad for you my heart is still in one piece.”

“Good to hear. And I wasn’t sneaking.” He stopped in front of her. “Just hoping to find you on the way to the caves, since you’ve kept your poor workers imprisoned there, saying they couldn’t leave until you said so.”

“I didn’t keep them imprisoned,” she said indignantly. “I was hoping you’d show up to talk to them, since you thought it was important.”

“I’m sorry. We ended up having one injury or illness after another, and I couldn’t get away. Since they’re still there, I’ll go tell them they can leave now. I already spoke with two of them but wanted to find you before it got dark.”

“I’ll come with you.” Being the team leader now meant she couldn’t pass off her responsibilities
to anyone else. Something she’d had to learn all over again every time she’d been frustrated, even a little resentful, at having to stay home to take care of her sisters. Her parents had made it clear that, as the oldest, that was her job, when all she’d wanted was to go along on their summer digs instead.

Finally, those responsibilities were behind her, and she was here on this amazing mountain. Except her parents would never be with her too. Her new responsibility was to their memory and what they’d always expected her to achieve with her life.

“I was going to insist you do, so I’m glad I don’t have to.” He smiled, his teeth shining white through the dusk. “Don’t want you breaking an ankle walking down this mountain to your car in the dark. I parked not too far from the caves, so I’ll drive you and the crew back to it.”

“Are you saying I’m clumsy? Or do you always worry like this about everyone?” She smiled back at him, feeling the same silly little glow she’d felt when they’d been together here before and he’d wanted to take care of her hand.

“Clumsy? You’re as graceful as a dancer, Laurel Evans. Kyrie Prosektikos is just being cautious.”

The little glow grew warmer at the sincerity
in his voice. “Because you don’t want to fix another broken bone today.”

“That too.” He reached for her bandaged hand, rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. “How’s it feeling?”

A little shiver snaked up her arm at his touch, and she nearly closed her fingers around his until she remembered she shouldn’t. “Fine, thanks.” She tried to tug away from his grasp, but he didn’t let go. If she confessed that her cut actually hurt like blazes, he’d probably march her back to the clinic and torture her again.

“Good. Watch your step, and hang on to me.” He tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and, resting his wide palm gently on top of it, turned to head toward the caves.

They walked in an oddly companionable silence. As she held his strong arm, the way he’d tugged her close to his body as they picked their way over the uneven ground felt oddly right. The intimacy of it, the evening sky beautiful with pinkly puffy clouds, filled her chest with a sense of calm pleasure, until she suddenly wondered if he knew she’d feel that way. If he was the kind of man who used his amazing good looks and charm to solicit affairs with women from the archaeological site, knowing they’d only be around for a while.

That unpleasant thought obliterated her sense of comfortable calm. “Tell me about your wife,” she said.

It seemed there was a momentary hitch in his step, probably from guilt, and the chill that had filled her chest grew downright icy. “My wife?”

“Yes. Cassie’s mother. Is she from Kastorini, too?”

“Cassie’s mother was American. And we were never married.”

This time, the hitch was in her own step. “Was?”

“Yes.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you, but she and I weren’t…close. It’s for Cassie you should feel sorry, since she barely remembers her. She passed away when Cassie was only two, and I got custody of her then.”

He didn’t offer more, and Laurel knew it would be rude to ask for details. The cold tightness in her chest turned to an ache for the little girl who would never know her mother. At the same time, it absurdly lightened a little at the thought that Andros Drakoulias was single and available. All the feelings of intimacy she’d felt just moments ago came surging back, making her hyperaware of how good it felt to be tucked against his warm, masculine body.

She mentally smacked herself. Maybe she couldn’t shake this powerful attraction to him, but she wouldn’t act on it. There was so much work to finish in so little time, and they were down two people to boot. Hadn’t her mother always admonished her about never letting a boyfriend or crush get in the way of her focus on school or work? One hundred percent of her attention had to be on this dig and the important goal she still hoped to make happen.

Dusk had nearly given way to full darkness as they arrived at the entrance to the caves, and she released Andros’s arm so no one would start any gossip, which at a dig could spread like poison ivy. Becka and Jason, two of the three volunteers, were packing up by the light of electric lanterns. “Where’s John?” she asked.

“He’s coming. Said he was working on unearthing another human bone and wanted to finish,” Becka said.

“There’s something I didn’t ask before,” Andros said. “Do each of you have your own section of the cave you work, or do you move around a lot?”

Becka swiped her hair from her eyes. “We keep to our own sections, mostly, unless Tom needs us to work somewhere else.”

“Have you—?” Andros was interrupted by
a violent coughing sound, echoing from inside the cave.

Oh, Lord, no. Laurel looked at Andros and saw his expression turn grim.

“Put these on. Now.” He dug surgical masks from his pocket and quickly handed them out before putting one on himself. Another racking cough came from the cave just before John stumbled out, bending over and holding his chest for what seemed like minutes until it finally subsided, leaving him gasping.

Andros wrapped his arm around John’s back, helping him stand upright. “You’re burning up,” Andros said, his voice slightly muffled through the mask. “How long have you been like this?”

“Had a cold the last couple days, like Tom. Got lots worse the past hour or so.”

“Let’s get you down to the clinic hospital and do some tests. My car’s close by.”

With John leaning heavily against him, Andros helped him down the path. Laurel’s throat tightened when she saw Andros had taken a second to put on surgical gloves as well.

She hoped and prayed this was something completely different than what Mel and Tom were experiencing. That it was just a cold, and he’d be feeling better in the morning. Not horribly sick and hooked up to oxygen the way Mel
and Tom had been. That Becka and Jason would stay healthy. That they’d all be fine.

But what if John got worse? What if his symptoms were exactly the same? And if they were, where would that leave the dig?

“S
O WHAT DO
you think?” Andros asked Dimitri in a low voice as they stood in the doorway of John Jackson’s hospital room at the Elias Sophia Hospital. “Same thing as the Wagners?”

“Presents the same, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is. We’ll have to wait for the blood tests to come back, and we won’t have Mr. Jackson’s until a few days after the Wagners’.”

Andros looked at the woman standing next to the patient’s bed and couldn’t help but be impressed at how calm she seemed through all the activity around them. How steady, despite the incessant beep of monitors, nurses slipping in and out of the room, and techs checking the patient’s vitals. Far calmer and steadier than he might have expected her to be, considering the heightened intensity in the air.

Though lines creased her brow and the blue eyes visible over the surgical mask she wore held
a deep concern, her composure didn’t waver. She stood straight, talking to John about the dig.

Andros had already transferred the patient here this morning, just before Laurel had shown up at the clinic. When she’d asked for directions to drive here after the day’s work at the dig, he’d instantly offered to bring her instead, wanting to see the Wagners and John, too. And if an hour’s car ride enjoying her scent in his nose and conversation from her lush lips was part of his motivation, what was the harm in that?

When he’d first introduced her to Dimitri, she’d asked good questions, her responses intelligent and thoughtful. She hadn’t overreacted or panicked, simply displaying clear leadership in taking over for the Wagners.

Andros’s heart knocked in his chest when he saw her reach out to touch John’s arm, relieved when he saw her hesitate and withdraw it. John said something Andros couldn’t catch, and a smile touched her eyes as she answered him back then said goodbye. She turned toward the door, and her eyes met his, held.

“You have something going with the pretty lady?” Dimitri asked.

The surprising question had him breaking eye contact with Laurel to stare at his friend. “I just met her two days ago.”

“Sometimes only takes two minutes.”

And damned if that wasn’t the truth. Or even two seconds, which was about how long it had taken for his interest to go from zero to sixty the first moment he’d laid eyes on her.

“And if you don’t, you should,” Di said in a lower voice, grinning and waggling his thick eyebrows like Groucho Marx. “I’ll keep you posted on our patients.” He headed down the hall as Laurel joined Andros at the doorway.

“John seems to be holding his own. Doesn’t he?” Her questioning eyes seemed to be willing him to reassure her. “He doesn’t seem to have as much trouble breathing as Mel and Tom did when I first saw them in your clinic hospital.”

“Not at the moment. Hopefully he’ll stay that way.” He wrapped his fingers around her arm and drew her farther into the hall. “Di told you we just don’t know if this is the same thing the Wagners have or not. An influenza or some other virus. Bacterial infection or fungal infection.”

“When will you know?”

“Di asked to have John’s test results expedited, but that will still take a couple days.”

She nodded, that pucker of worry still on her face. “I’m so relieved, though, that Mel and Tom aren’t any worse. Do you think they’ll be released soon?”

“Hard to say. They’re getting good care, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.” He wanted to
banish, for at least a little while, that deep concern clouding her eyes. There was nothing more to do here, and a glance at his watch showed it was already well past 7:00 p.m. “How about we have dinner here before we head back?” He’d thought of that, wanted that, from the moment they’d left Delphi to drive here. Time spent with her away from her work and his, away from Kastorini, away from the serious problems on both their minds.

“I probably should get back. Update the team and make sure they’re okay.”

“Why wouldn’t they be okay?”

“Well, they…” Her voice trailed off and she gave a little rueful smile. “You’re right, they’re adults. I forget sometimes I don’t have to play mom anymore.”

“When did you have to?” Surely she didn’t have children. Leaving them for the entire summer for the dig.

“Oh, for my sisters. It’s a wonder my hair’s not prematurely gray.” The tone of her voice had lightened and she smiled. “The dig team has explored a few towns outside of Delphi on weekends, but not here. So dinner sounds lovely.”

“Good.” He let go of her arm, resisting the urge to hold her hand instead, and they headed to his car. “You in the mood for seafood, or Greek food, or both?”

“Anything. Everything. I didn’t have much lunch, and I have to admit that, next to digging, eating’s one of my favorite things to do.”

“Yeah?” She’d obviously decided to let herself relax with him, to let go of her worries for a time, and he grinned at the sudden enthusiasm in her voice. “Something we have in common. I know just the place you’ll like.”

It was only about a ten-minute drive from the hospital to the waterfront, and, since it was early yet for locals to be eating dinner, he had no trouble finding a parking spot. “Sit tight,” he said to Laurel as he got out of the car, going around to her side of the car to open her door.

“More of your worrying I’m clumsy?” she asked as he held out his hand to her. “Getting out of a car isn’t quite as dangerous as walking down a rocky mountain in the dark.”

“Being a gentleman pleases me. And because I can see you’re a woman who cares about others, you won’t mind indulging me, will you?”

“Ah, the charm of Greek men.” She shook her head, but a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

She placed her soft hand in his and stepped from the car. It felt so nice to hold it, just as it had when he’d washed her palm at the clinic, and he couldn’t seem to make himself let go. A little surprised that she didn’t release his either, he gave in to enjoying the simple connection. Stars began to
wink in the darkening sky as they strolled down the brick promenade that went for a good quarter mile along the lapping gulf waters.

“I’ve been in Greece two months, and I’m still amazed at all the little restaurants that line the water in every town,” she said, gazing at the lanterns and lights beneath huge umbrellas connected together, one after another. “So pretty. With comfy seats too, if you want, instead of a table. I wish there were more places like this in the States.”

“I went to med school in New Jersey,” he said. “I admit I never got used to the beach restaurants there. Always wanting you to move on your way right after you’re done. In Greece, you’re expected to eat and relax for the night.”

“Somehow when you said you lived in the US, I was picturing LA or Montana.”

Her eyes were filled with a teasing look, and he found himself drifting closer until his shoulder brushed hers. “LA or Montana? First, I’d say those two places don’t have much in common, and second, I’d ask why.”

“I’m not sure.” She tilted her head at him, seeming to size him up, and he grew even more curious about what she was thinking. “Maybe because you seem sophisticated and at the same time rugged. Like a Greek cowboy.”