Margaret Barker – A Father for Baby Rose (страница 2)
Heavens above! She would have to get out more so that she could apply her new rules to every encounter with the opposite sex. She’d had her fingers burned so many times before that she wasn’t going to ever—repeat, ever—take another chance with a man. However handsome—and Dr Karavolis was decidedly handsome from where she was now standing. If she wasn’t now so world weary and experienced she might have considered a little dalliance with this man who’d literally just dropped by so suddenly.
Rose was now giggling, having stuck out a chubby, dimpled hand to grasp a clump of the helpful doctor’s thick black hair.
Cathy, glanced anxiously down at the crouching Yannis. Their eyes met. For a moment she felt a definite flutter of excitement. Yes, that’s what it was. Just a simple flutter but enough to make her think that this man must have been quite something in his younger days; before tragedy had turned him into a working zombie.
It was a good thing that she’d given up on the difficult male species or she might at that fleeting moment have found herself advancing her embryonic ideas into something exciting.
His eyes were dark brown, sultry, vulnerable. She’d had time to notice that before he bent down once more to his task.
“Gently, Rose,” Cathy said in Greek. “You must be careful not to hurt Dr Karavolis”
Rose giggled on, completely ignoring her mother’s instructions.
“You’re teaching your daughter Greek? That’s good.”
“Oh, she’ll pick it up like I had to when I came out here for holidays and my cousin Tanya and all the other children used to make fun of me. I soon learned out of self-preservation, I can tell you.”
Yannis gave one more tug at the wheel and removed it from the deeply sunken crevice between the cobblestones.
“Here’s the wheel, but unfortunately it’s come unstuck from the buggy,” he said, gravely. He pulled himself to his full height, holding the wheel in one hand and making sure the buggy remained upright with the other.
Cathy looked up at him. “Well, er…thank you, anyway. I suppose…”
“Look, I was just going to have a drink and watch the sunset so…”
“Great minds think alike. I mean, we were just…”
“Please, why don’t you join me?”
He couldn’t imagine why he’d just said that! Company was the last thing he needed after his long, tiring day at the hospital. Especially another doctor…and a child…
“Both of us?”
He took a deep breath. “Well, we can hardly ask Rose to sit it out in her broken pushchair.”
He was already unbuckling the seat belt and lifting the delighted baby up into his arms. Something about the way he held her daughter told Cathy he adored babies, children in general.
She wondered, fleetingly, if he had children being looked after by a doting grandmother back in Athens, which Tanya had told her had been where he’d been working before he’d come here. Better not ask. She didn’t want to upset the fragile ambience that was building up between them.
Carefully holding Rose, whose fingers, had now transferred from his hair to his ears, he pushed the wrecked pushchair to the side of the path and led the way to the taverna that occupied the rocky peninsula at the beginning of this quiet bay.
The owner came out to the table Yannis had selected, beaming all over his face. He was carrying two glasses half-full of colourless liquid.
“I saw you struggling with that buggy,” he said in Greek. “You need a drink,
So, the owner knew Yannis was a doctor. Probably this was Yannis’s hideaway when he was off duty, searching for solitude.
So Yannis had found the time between operations to check that she’d signed in with the admin department today. Otherwise she doubted whether her arrival on the island had registered with him. Certainly, no one had been expecting her to turn up unannounced today. The staff in the small admin department had told her she was expected to start work tomorrow but she could have a look around if she wanted to. That had been when she’d made her solitary tour of the hospital and barged into Theatre.
She picked up her glass. Realising the clear liquid was ouzo, Cathy decided to ask Michaelis for some water to dilute it. “
“You’re sure you’re happy with ouzo?” Yannis asked as Michaelis disappeared inside the taverna to get the water.
She smiled. “When in Rome…or rather on Ceres…it’s best to go with the flow. I prefer wine but I don’t want to hurt Michaelis’s feelings. He obviously knows you very well.”
“Oh, yes, we go back a long way. I’ve got a house further along this bay, on the shoreline near Nimborio. This is my bolt hole at the end of the day.”
“I thought it might be.”
Michaelis brought a bottle of water. Yannis, expertly holding the tired child against his shoulder, leaned across and topped up Cathy’s glass.
“Thank you.”
He raised his glass towards her.
Rose’s eyes were closing now. In another few seconds she would be asleep. Maybe she should relieve him of the burden on his shoulder. But something told her he was quite comfortable with the arrangement and she didn’t want to speak until Rose was asleep.
They sat together in companionable silence that was broken only by the sound of the sea close beside them below the rocky promontory. Cathy found her eyes, protected by her sunglasses, drawn towards the sun that was slipping slowly behind the mountain, casting a shadow over their table. She moved her gaze to her daughter, who was now peacefully sleeping with her small head cradled against Yannis’s shoulder.
Yannis saw Cathy looking anxiously at her daughter. Gently he eased the child down to a more comfortable position, cradled in the crook of his left arm. He smiled across the table, wondering why he felt so comfortable here with this mother and baby. It was a whole new experience and not something he’d expected to enjoy like this. He could feel it soothing his jangled nerves.
This was what life would have been like if…if only he… No! He mustn’t torment himself by going down that road again. Just enjoy this simple, pleasurable feeling that was stealing over him—if he would let it.
He forced himself to relax again. “Rose is sound asleep now, Cathy, so don’t worry about her. Would you prefer a glass of wine?”
“Well, only if…”
He tipped his ouzo glass and finished the fiery liquid in one swift gulp. “So would I.”
Usually he sat, watching the sunset, sipping his ouzo slowly before ordering supper and a glass of wine, always reminding himself that he needed a clear head for his work the following morning. He’d no idea where this reckless feeling had come from but he was suddenly feeling in party mood. It had been a long time since he’d felt like this.
Michaelis, who was obviously watching from his seat just inside the door, came hurrying across and after a discussion about whether the wine was to be red or white he disappeared again, bringing out a tray with a selection of mezes and a bottle of white wine.
“We Greeks usually like to eat something if we’re drinking wine,” Yannis explained, pointing out the different small dishes of taramasalata, squid, calamari and olives. “But, then, you’ve obviously spent a lot of time in the Greek community so I don’t need to tell you all this. I vaguely remember meeting you at Tanya and Manolis’s wedding. So you’re Tanya’s cousin?”
“Yes, our mothers were sisters. My mother was keen to bring me over to Ceres after her sister married Dr Sotiris and came to live out here. Every holiday she would bring me here so that I could learn the language and absorb the Greek culture. I’d always hoped that one day I would have the opportunity to come and work out here.”
Yannis leaned across the table and poured more wine into Cathy’s glass. She’d hardly touched the ouzo but seemed to be enjoying the wine.
“I didn’t know you were planning to start a family when I last saw you.”
Cathy raised an eyebrow. “Neither did I! I’d just ended a relationship and didn’t know I was pregnant. Tanya had just suggested I apply for the temporary four-week post they needed to fill at the hospital while she and Manolis were away on honeymoon. I’d decided I’d go for it, but when I found I was pregnant I withdrew my application.
“Difficult, I imagine. I’m sorry the relationship ended.”
“I’m not! It was far too complicated. But I can’t imagine life without my wonderful daughter. She’s the most special thing that’s ever happened to me. Did you…?”
She stopped herself just in time to avoid the question she’d wanted to ask. Looking across at Yannis now, with her daughter cradled in the crook of his arm, he looked like the perfect father.
He filled the awkward silence that ensued. “You were going to ask if my wife and I had children, weren’t you?”
She cringed inwardly. “Well…”
“The answer is no. It…it wasn’t to be.”
He’d managed to refer to that most poignant period of his life without faltering and that was a step in the right direction. He hadn’t told the whole truth but that would be a step too far. He couldn’t bring himself to even think about it.