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This was his one bugbear. The baby checks. He knew he should be happy for others. Share in the joy of a new innocent life being brought into the world. But all he could think each time he saw a pregnant patient was, Good luck. You’ll need it.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for “happy families”. But happy families hadn’t been the remit in the Nikolaides household. Appearances were everything. No one outside the family knew he wasn’t his father’s success story. Nor did they know he was adopted. And no one—not even his sister—would ever know his silent vow never to bring a child into this world.
Pawns. That was what he and his sister had been. Pawns in a game that hadn’t seemed to have any rules.
“Theo?” Cailey had helped Marina up onto the exam table and was wheeling a sonogram machine into place. “Do you want to do the exam?”
Both women were looking at him a bit oddly. If they’d been exchanging information he hadn’t a clue.
He scrubbed his hands over his face and forced a smile. “Apologies, Marina. It’s been a long day.”
“Marina’s worried about her baby,” Cailey explained in a confident voice.
Ah! Of course. This was her terrain. He nodded for her to continue. It was a relief not to have to ooh and ah each time a fist curled, or a hiccough came halfway through an exam. In his darker moments he sometimes wondered if the only thing his fellow islanders could think to do during the slow winter months was procreate.
“She’s not experienced any blunt trauma, thank goodness, but when the quake struck she was taking a much-needed nap, I presume...”
Both women smiled at Marina’s large bump. She was probably near full term by now.
“Are you at seven months, Marina?”
“Eight,” she answered, her brow creasing with worry. “The baby used to kick all the time, but when the bed collapsed, I just—Ooooh...” She blew out a steadying breath as tears popped into her eyes. “I haven’t really felt the little one move since.”
“Well, then.” Cailey pulled on a fresh pair of gloves. “I guess we’d better take a look at the little one.”
Her tone was bright, efficient, and exactly what a worried mum needed to hear at a time like this.
She held out the scanning wand to Theo. “No, no, you go ahead. This is your terrain,” he said.
“You’re a maternity doctor?” Marina asked, her eyes brightening.
A flash of something crossed Cailey’s eyes before she answered. Frustration? Sadness? But when she turned back to Marina it was as if he’d imagined it.
“No, no. I’m a nurse working on a neonatal ward in a London hospital.”
“No chance you want to stay here, I suppose?” Marina asked, then threw an apologetic glance at Theo. “Apologies, Dr. Nikolaides, but sometimes it’s nice to have a woman to speak with about...you know...”
He nodded. He knew. But they were a small, charitable clinic running on a limited budget on an island few doctors wished to call home all year round. He’d tried to get female obstetricians to come in at least once a month, but with weather, budget constraints, people’s busy schedules—things didn’t always pan out.
He didn’t blame them, those doctors who refused his invitations to take a massive pay-cut and cope with small-town life complete with an unlimited supply of Mythelios Olive Oil.
Big-city hospitals, well-funded research clinics...those were the places that drew talent. Look at Cailey—she’d gone to London and stayed there. And his best friends had left. Add to that an earthquake, and... Oh, well. No need to go down that rabbit hole again.
Obstinacy—or something like it—was the only reason he stayed. Whether it was a relentless showdown or a twisted truce he and his father were engaged in...
He shook his head and forced himself to tune in to Cailey’s exam. There were no answers when it came to his father. But there were in medicine. Which was why he all but lived in the clinic. Long shifts were a damn sight better than “family time.”
Cailey had just slid up Marina’s top to expose her swollen belly, complimented her on her lack of stretch marks—something he would have felt like an idiot doing—and was about to apply a huge dollop of gel when she pulled it back.
“Have you eaten or drunk anything in the past few hours?”
Marina shook her head, then stopped herself. “I did drink a lot, because I remember from my last scan they needed me to have a full bladder. It doesn’t take much these days!”
“I’m not surprised.” Cailey laughed, then put the gel tube above Marina’s stomach. “Ready for the cold?”
Marina flinched as it hit her skin and gave a nervous laugh. “This is my third pregnancy. You’d think I would be used to it by now.”
“Skin never gets used to a sudden hit of cold,” Cailey soothed as she placed the baton on the far right of Marina’s stomach and began the scan. “So...let’s see what your little one has got up to.”
Theo rocked back on his heels and crossed his arms. It was nice to take a backseat for a change, to watch Cailey slip naturally into a role that obviously suited her. He’d never known why she hadn’t followed her dream of becoming a doctor and had instead opted for neonatal nursing, but if her complete calm and confidence at this moment exemplified her professionally he’d bet that London hospital would be holding on to her for dear life. Dedicated quality nurses were like rare jewels—something you kept close.
Soon enough, the tell-tale rush of a liquid-sounding heartbeat was accompanied by the whooshed release of air from everyone’s lungs.
The women’s eyes connected and together they laughed, then returned their attention to the screen. where they could see the curled-up form of a baby sucking its thumb.
Theo picked up Marina’s chart, which Petra had somehow magicked out of the mayhem despite the ongoing chaos at the clinic. “Want me to take notes?”
The women turned to him, almost surprised to see him still there.
“Sure. Feels like a luxury to have a doctor take the notes,” Cailey said with a smile.
“Consider it payback for all your excellent help today.”
Cailey’s brows contracted together briefly, as if she were trying to divine something deeper from his words before turning back to the monitor. “The good news is we have a steady, regular heart-rate. One-thirty.”
“Isn’t that a bit low?”
“Mmm...it’s at the lower end of the spectrum, but well within what we would expect. Anything below one hundred or above one-seventy would be of concern.” She winked at Marina. “Your baby is obviously made of stern stuff! Now, I presume you’re up to date on all your antenatal scans?”
“Yep. Dr. Nikolaides makes sure of that.”
Theo nodded and lifted up the clipboard as a reminder that he was here to take stats. These lapses into chit-chat with mothers always made him nervous. There were the inevitable questions—when are you planning on tying the knot? Starting a family of your own? Bringing a little shining star into the world for your parents to spoil? Conversations he normally actively avoided.
Cailey threw him a hold-your-horses look, but gave him the baby’s BP in the same steady voice she’d been using with Marina.
She checked the baby’s growth, matched the results with the previous figures and pronounced them excellent. She measured the blood flow between the placenta and the baby, and checked the amniotic fluid.
Cailey pointed at the screen, then clamped her fingers over her mouth. Her fingers dropped to her chin and she threw an uh-oh look in Theo’s direction before asking Marina, “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
Marina nodded her head. Yes, she did. “It’s another boy! I’m going to be officially outnumbered when this one is born.” A look of panic crossed her face. “If everything’s all right?”
“Well, he’s moving around just fine, from what I can see. You probably received a big shock yesterday, and perhaps he was sensing your need for stillness. It sounds pretty scary.”
“It was,” Marina said. “But now that I know my baby’s safe I can relax.” She smiled at Cailey. “Have you got any of your own?”
Theo’s eyes snapped to Cailey. He knew how well he responded to that question...
“No,” she said simply, taking the baton off Marina’s belly and wiping it clean.
Irritation lanced through him as he finished off the notes.
No. That was it? No, Maybe one day. No, Yes, I’ve left him back in London with my lover. No, Perhaps when I meet the right guy...
What the hell? What did it matter to him if she wanted children or not?
They all started as shouting erupted beyond the curtained cubicle. There were calls for the defibrillator, for more blood.
Theo didn’t need to hear more. “Apologies ladies, I’d better get out there.”
“All right if I finish up in here?” Cailey asked, clearing the monitor and scanning equipment to one side.
“Yeah. Fine. You wrap things up then I’ll see you out there?”
She nodded.
“Good.”
Just a few hours in and already he was growing a little too used to having Cailey by his side.
Which was not good. Because whoever came too close into his orbit would also come into his father’s orbit...and that never went well.
CHAPTER SIX (#u7fe11c50-78a5-5354-93e4-ef7a9b2634b7)
“AND IT LOOKS like we’re back to a normal BP. Heart-rate is steady.”
The team around Theo clapped with relief. Their sixty-five-year-old patient, a local schoolteacher, had been helping rescue crews to pull away rubble when a lifetime’s worth of deep-fried squid and a love of the honey-soaked sweets brought to him by his students had caught up to him.
Despite her fatigue, Cailey was riding high. She hadn’t helped on a cardiac arrest in ages, and this had been a resounding success. Theo had been amazing. A cool, calm and collected doctor in the eye of a pretty crazy storm.
As an orderly wheeled the patient to a recovery room Cailey couldn’t help but express her admiration. “That was amazing.”
Theo smiled down at her, green eyes alight with the satisfaction that came with a high-adrenaline, high-stakes treatment. He’d never looked more attractive to her than he did at that moment.
All of a sudden her knees went weak and everything flew off balance. Theo’s arms were around her in an instant, swirling her into the doorway in a fluid move that would have put a tango dancer to shame.
When she opened her eyes all she could see were his lips. And that teensy little scar her tongue itched to reach out and—Stop it! She sucked in a shallow breath, horrified to notice that her breasts were pressing against his chest. They obviously had a mind of their own. Little minxes.
Theo didn’t move. OMG. Did he...did he like it? Like her?
Her brain went into overdrive. Was she going to have to rearrange a thousand vows never to succumb to the likes of Theo Nikolaides for the very clinical and reasonable sake of finding out just once what it would be like to...? Oh... Oh, my... His thighs were pressed against hers. His hips... He was very, very close. She felt the soft exhalation of his breath against her mouth and wanted more than anything to part her lips and taste him.
She risked a glimpse up into his eyes.
What she saw in them conveyed a thousand messages. Hope. Interest. Desire. A bit of confusion.
Little wonder! She was feeling about as confused as they came. For starters...why was he holding her in this doorway after she’d swooned like an idiot?
“Aftershocks.”
“I’m sorry?” Cailey shook her head, only to hear a collective gasp come from the trauma unit as another one hit.
Theo’s hold tightened around her, his tall, lean form curling protectively over her, his hands cupping her head against the rigid doorframe as they waited for the tremor to pass.
When it did he stood back and, as if nothing had happened at all, reached out to tuck a few strands of her disobedient hair behind her ear.
“Are you all right, love? Do you need to take a break? We’ve got relief doctors coming in from the mainland in about...” his eyes traveled to a nearby wall clock “...twenty minutes or so.”
Love? Since when did he call her “love”?
He stifled a yawn.
“I think if anyone deserves a break it’s probably you,” she said, pleased with her stern tone. Then she reached out to give his arm a you’ve-worked-hard squeeze.
Big mistake.
Go away, tingles and butterflies!
“You look tired, Cailey.”
“No, you look tired.”
He rolled his eyes. No kidding, the gesture said. Of course I’m tired, but I’m in charge.
A strange need to coddle him seized her. He was great at looking after others, but who looked after him?
Good grief. She wasn’t letting herself fall for him again, was she? But then perhaps she had never actually got up again after the first time...
“Cailey...”
“Theo?”
He crossed his arms and fixed her with a classic big brother look. “You should get some rest.”
She crossed her arms too, beginning to enjoy this back and forth banter. Never mind the fact that being sassy helped her hide the wave after wave of emotion pummeling her mind, her guts, her heart.
Longing. Desire. Heartache. Lust.
She’d thought she’d lain all those things to rest when she’d boarded that plane bound for London all those years ago.
“Tell me, Cailey, who exactly do you think is going to look after the clinic if I leave?”
His expression of triumph spoke volumes. He thought he’d nailed it.
She glanced past his shoulder and smiled as a group of a dozen-plus doctors shouldering medical kits walked through the double doors leading into the trauma area. Fresh-faced. Ready to work.
“They will.”
“What?” Theo turned around and registered the change of events.
