Her Greek Doctor's Proposal

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The adults’ eyes all met, with Taryn looking slightly embarrassed and Andros quite amused at the sexual connotation of what were, really, innocent words. Laurel should have felt a little embarrassed too, since she was the first to use the unfortunate phrase, but instead found the fantasies she’d enjoyed last night popped front and center into her mind. Dang it.

“What were you going to say about the fairy house?” Taryn hastily asked her son.

“I told Cassie we should make toad or snake houses instead. There’s no fairies around here.”

“Oh, there definitely are, Petros,” Laurel said. “I’m sure there are plenty nearby.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. How ridiculous to defend Cassie’s belief in fairies, when the child had her aunt and parents to pretend with her, and it was just cousin dynamics anyway, which made it none of her business. Must be habit from the fun she’d had making up stories for her little sisters. From defending them, too, she supposed.

“You know about fairies?” Cassie stared at her, wide-eyed.

“Ancient stories of fairies and nymphs and all kinds of things are part of what I do.” The child was adorable, and she found herself wishing she could play fairies with her right then. But it was high time to change the subject and get back to work. “Speaking of which, I’ve got to get going. The students and volunteers are probably already at the sites by now.”

“I’ll go with you.” Andros turned to his sister and spoke in a low tone. “The dig leaders are pretty sick, and I’m going to ask the workers some questions about where they’ve all been. For now, don’t go into the hospital wing until it’s been sterilized. I’ll let you know when I’m done seeing patients this afternoon. I’ll pick Cassie up then.”

Taryn looked surprised, but nodded without comment before turning to Laurel. “Nice to meet you. Perhaps before the dig is over, you can come for dinner and tell us about all you’ve found in our backyard.”

“Thank you, I appreciate the invitation.” Having dinner with the happy Drakoulias family would be interesting, and she had to admit she was curious to meet Andros’s wife. If he had one. So long as she could keep from drooling when she stared at the man the lucky woman was married to. “Nice for you to have all of Mount Parnassus as your backyard.”

“Yes, Miss Laurel! And you can see our fairy house,” Cassie said. “And help me get the fairies to come.”

“I’d like that, Cassie.” The child’s bright eyes and smile would melt anyone’s heart. It made her think of her sisters with a sudden longing to hug them. She was surprised at how much she missed them, considering she’d practically danced with joy when the youngest had started college this year and Laurel could finally get to this dig.

The dig. She glanced at her watch, dismayed to realize how much time she’d lost this morning. Time she couldn’t afford to lose.

She turned to Andros. “Are you able to leave right now?”

He nodded. “Let me grab—”

“Dr. Drakoulias.” Christina stuck her head out of the door. “We have a patient with a possible broken arm.”

His lips twisted as his eyes met Laurel’s. “Guess I’m not. How about I find you at the other site when I can, then we’ll head over to the caves?”

“Okay.” A mix of both relief and disappointment battled inside her as she said her goodbyes and headed to her car. She didn’t particularly want him looking over her shoulder as she took over what would hopefully be temporary leadership and talked to all the dig workers. But she’d like to have him with her to ask the cave-dig volunteers questions she wouldn’t know to ask.

And of course it had nothing to do with wishing she could just look at him and talk to him all day long…

The temperature thankfully dropped a few degrees when the sun sank behind the mountain. Laurel kept carefully digging and cataloging, ignoring the stinging ache in her palm, even though she’d let most of the crew leave long ago. Shoveling dirt and rocks and working in this kind of heat wore everyone down by the end of the day, and she couldn’t expect them to be as intensely committed as she was. This dig hadn’t been their parents’ baby, and they didn’t know about what Laurel still hoped was here somewhere, just waiting to be found.

Between her time at the clinic and meeting with different crew members, she’d lost more than half the day, and if she had to work until nearly dark to make it up, she would. So disappointing that Andros apparently hadn’t been able to get away. She’d asked the volunteers at the cave dig to stick around later than usual, but, as far as she knew, he hadn’t shown. Every time she’d seen someone move into her vision, her silly heart had kicked a little, until she’d realized it wasn’t him after all.

Time to go to the cave site to tell everyone they were through for the day. Hopefully it didn’t matter that Andros hadn’t been able to talk with any of them. Maybe Mel and Tom would be better after their hospital stay, and they could all quit worrying about why they’d gotten sick in the first place.

She stood and stretched her tired back, shoved her things into her backpack, and turned to walk the half mile to the cave site, realizing too late how dusk was closing in fast. With her head down, she concentrated on staying on the goat path, well-worn through the scrub, her mind moving from Mel and Tom, to how she could possibly pick up the pace of the excavation without them, then to Andros and how unfair it was that a man she was attracted to more than any she could think of in recent memory was likely a married man.

“You make a habit of working until it’s so dark you can barely see?”

Startled, Laurel nearly tripped over her feet, heart pounding as she looked up to see Andros’s unmistakable broad form moving toward her on the goat path.

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.”