His Hidden American Beauty

by Connie Cox

  Could he give up his dream, his calling to be a part of Doctors Without Borders, for her?

  Or his other option—could he get up every morning, knowing he’d never see her again?

  And the biggest question of them all. Did she love him like he loved her?

  “To Yiayia!” His brother Stephen began the toasting. “May she have another great eight decades.”

  “To my grandson Stephen, who had the good sense to marry Phoebe!” Yiayia toasted back.

  “To all the fine Christopoulos children, that they may be as wise and gracious and noble as their great-grandmother someday.”

  The older kids saluted Yiayia and the younger ones quickly followed suit with a little coaching.

  “That’s how it is in our family,” Niko overheard Marcus explain to Annalise. “Like the Musketeers. All for one and one for all.”

  “To Dr. Annalise, who has graced us with her wisdom and compassion,” Phoebe announced.

  That was a toast Niko was pleased to drink to.

  The toasting went on for almost an hour until every single family member had been covered, except for him.

  He cringed, dreading the toast that was sure to come.

  His brother Stephen was the one to deliver it.

  “To Niko, the slow one of the family.” Stephen held his glass high. “May he recognize love when it bites him on the butt then marry the woman and give her a household full of children before she figures out he’s so much trouble.”

  Under the guise of saluting them all with his glass, he noticed Annalise fail to drink. What did it mean? Anything? Everything?

  * * *

  Annalise couldn’t do it. She couldn’t wish Niko into the arms of another woman. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice.

  Phoebe splashed more wine into Annalise’s glass as Yiayia toasted her late husband, gone but not forgotten.

  She made sure Annalise knew about his heroic exploits.

  “My Leo, he was a brave and adventurous man. We travelled many places until we found the one that fit.”

  “Leo started the restaurant?”

  “Oh, no, child. Leo couldn’t cook any better than our Niko. He could never sit still either. Just like our Niko. Leo was a fireman. He died saving a pregnant woman. They called me to the hospital. He wasn’t burned, at least not that we could tell, but the doctor said his lungs were too full of toxins. They didn’t have all the fancy machines they have nowadays to save people. Two lives for one, he said, just before he died. Two lives for one.” She looked sad but resigned and proud. “That woman’s husband was a banker. He lent me the money to start the restaurant. My boys, Theo and Nicolos, they helped me after school. But then Nicolos became a policeman. We lost him in a bank robbery.”

  Yiayia glared at the Christopoulos men around her. “Until my grandsons, every generation has had a daredevil as far back as I can remember. But it stopped with my grandsons. I raised them to raise their own families, not to go and get themselves killed. It’s a family tradition I’m proud to break.”

  Over Yiayia’s head, Annalise shared a look with Niko, undertanding too well his reluctance to tell her about Doctors Without Borders. What would it do to Yiayia when she found out about his work?

  Yiayia waved away the conversation. “Enough of the sad talk. This is a party. Niko, bring Annalise a plate of grapes and cheese and crackers. She will need some meat on her bones when she settles down to have her own children.”

  Niko loaded up a plate as directed, bringing it to her with a blank expression on his face. She could imagine the turmoil under the surface and her heart went out to him.

  When Niko spoke of Doctors Without Borders, the resonance of his voice as well as the passion in his words told her how much it meant to him. When he described the work by saying it was the only time he felt like he was truly fulfilling his purpose for being alive, she easily believed him.

  She also knew how much he loved his family. If she had such a wonderful family, it would wound her beyond healing to know she had to disappoint them to live the life that meant so much to her.

  While Annalise regretted not having a family to speak of, at least she had the freedom to make her own choices, guilt-free.

  Annalise picked at the plate of food until Sophie called her to come look at how she could jump higher than her cousins.

  Before the evening ended, Annalise was treated to at least one family story for each member of the Christopoulos clan, from the story about Stephen getting his tongue stuck on a block of dry ice to the one about how Niko hadn’t told anyone about his motorcycle and how he’d been grounded for a week until he’d talked Yiayia into taking a ride on the back of it with him. Of course, she’d then forgiven everything and let him keep it.

  Finally, Yiayia declared the party over when half the little ones were asleep on the chairs and the other half were running around in circles from being overtired.

  All the brothers and sisters-in-law and their little ones hugged her goodnight, just like she was family. Annalise soaked it up. It would all be over too soon.

  When they were the only ones left, Annalise asked Niko, “Want to go up top with me?”

  “I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.” While he’d meant it to be a teasing flirt, Niko had meant it from the bottom of his heart.

  She grinned at him. “Tonight, the top deck will do for me.”

  “For me, too.” Those moments alone with her each night gave him a calm serenity he’d never known before.

  Tonight he needed that serenity to ease his angst. Niko had some deep thinking to do. If there was any other way...

  But he’d heard it himself, verifying what he already knew. Every woman wanted babies, a home, a husband she could count on.

  His grandmother had survived the tragedy of having to bury both a husband and a son. She’d raised her sons and then her grandsons alone. It had been a burden he could never ask any woman to carry.

  With the work he did, the risk was always high that he wouldn’t make it back home. He was willing to accept the odds for himself but he couldn’t accept them for the woman he loved.

  Giving up Doctors Without Borders would be like giving up his right arm. But giving up Annalise would be like giving up his heart.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  MARCUS WAYLAID THEM before they got very far. “Uncle Niko, could I talk to you? In private?”

  Marcus looked serious, old beyond his years. Dread made Niko’s gut feel heavy. Whatever this was about, it wasn’t going to be good.

  Niko put on his professional stoicism. Teenagers could be spooked easily so he intended to play this as nonchalantly as possible. “Let’s see if the library is deserted.”

  Annalise gave Marcus an encouraging smile. “You two go ahead. I’ll catch up with you later, Niko.”

  “Dr. Annalise, I was hoping you’d weigh in on this, too. I could use a woman’s opinion on how to deal with the females in the family.”

  Annalise looked confused but reluctantly agreed. “I’m not sure how much help I’ll be but I’ll give it a try.”

  Marcus sent a surreptitious glance toward his parents, got a thumbs-up from his twin, who had obviously been assigned to keep them busy, and grabbed a folder of papers from under a chair cushion.

  He led the way to a secluded alcove half-obscured by a big potted palm. Niko and he straddled a lounge chair each and Niko had to grin at how much he and his nephew were alike.

  But the grin didn’t last long. Marcus pulled out a magazine and plopped it in Niko’s lap.

  On the front cover was a coastguard helicopter, hovering to pick up patients on a sinking home-made raft.

  Niko remembered that day well. He identified the sleeve of his own jacket. He’d been just out of camera range for the shot. The photographer ha
d caught the anxiety in the coastguard officer’s eyes as he’d checked the straps on the carrier before the patient had been lifted up into the helicopter.

  Niko was all too aware of Annalise studying the photograph. Did she understand the danger involved? By the seriousness in her eyes he thought she might.

  “That’s what I want to do, Uncle Niko.”

  “Be a doctor?”

  “No. A coastguard pilot.” He handed Niko a sheaf of papers. “The recruitment office sent me this paperwork. I can sign up now while I’m still in high school and get preferential consideration for the coastguard academy when I graduate. But there’s a problem.”

  Without Marcus having to explain, Niko understood fully what the problem was. Stephen and Phoebe. They would be adamantly opposed to their son choosing such a dangerous career.

  “Your parents won’t like it at first but they love you, Marcus. There is nothing that will make them stop loving you.”

  “But Mom and Yiayia... What do you think, Dr. Annalise?”

  “The women in your life are a lot stronger than you give them credit for.”

  Niko glanced down at the magazine cover’s headline. “U.S. Coastguard Teams with Doctors Without Borders to Make Daring Rescue”. “You want me to talk to them?”

  “No. I don’t need their permission. I’ll be eighteen by the time I graduate. I won’t need their signatures. But I need to get on the list now to take advantage of early enlistment.” He handed Niko a blank form. “I want you to recommend me.”

  Niko blew out a breath. “Marcus, you know you’ve got my support in anything you want to pursue and I think you’ll make a great coastguard pilot. But I won’t go behind your parents’ backs. Hiding things from your family is the wrong thing to do.”

  He was all too aware of the sideways glance Annalise shot at him.

  With the way Marcus stared at him, apparently she wasn’t the only one who knew he had something to hide.

  “You mean like paying for this trip and saying Yiayia won it?” Marcus flipped open the magazine to a photo of Niko precariously balanced on the disintegrating raft as he started an IV in the arm of a child. “Or like being part of Doctors Without Borders?”

  Niko looked away from his nephew’s eyes and swallowed. “The wrong thing for the right reasons.”

  Marcus nodded. “You gave us this trip because it’s something Yiayia always dreamed of doing but we couldn’t have afforded it. You figured everyone’s pride would be too great and they wouldn’t have accepted it as a gift.”

  Niko nodded. “That’s about the size of it.”

  “And keeping this a secret?” Marcus pointed to the magazine. “Because you didn’t want to worry anyone?”

  The dread of family drama built in Niko’s stomach. He felt as helpless as a child—as an eight-year-old, to be exact. After all these years Niko realized he associated family turmoil with that time of tears and hysteria he’d barely survived.

  Annalise put her hand on his shoulder, anchoring him and giving him strength.

  Niko leaned into her touch as he looked into the eyes of the nephew who looked up to him. “It’s time we came clean, both of us.”

  “You first?” Marcus challenged him.

  “Me first.” Niko threaded his fingers through Annalise’s. “Come with me?”

  “This is a family matter. They won’t appreciate an outsider hearing about your financial ploy.” Annalise unthreaded her fingers from his, leaving Niko feeling alone.

  Usually she would be right, but his family had taken her in as one of their own.

  “You’re not an outsider anymore.”

  “Then what am I?” She crossed her arms, hugging herself. “No. I don’t do families.”

  The guarded look in her eyes stopped him from saying more.

  “Náste kalá.” She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Antio.”

  * * *

  As the two of them walked towards the party room, Marcus said, “You’re going to tell them about paying for this trip and about Doctors Without Borders, right?”

  “I’ll tell them about the trip.” Niko said aloud the decision he’d not wanted to face. “I’m resigning from the field.”

  “Why?”

  “I want a—” Niko almost said family. But that was the easy answer, the answer he was programmed to give and Marcus was programmed to accept.

  In the face of Marcus’s honesty, Niko could do no less. “I can’t ask a woman to take on my passion and travel with me or to stay at home and accept a part-time man in her life. So I’m giving up what I love most for who I love most.”

  “You’re in love, Uncle Niko? With Dr. Annalise?”

  Niko nodded.

  Marcus cocked an eyebrow, looking so much like a typical Christopoulos male it made Niko smile. “The women in our lives are a lot stronger than we give them credit for. You should talk to her about it before you decide.”

  “Maybe I will, Marcus.” Niko had to look away because he knew he wouldn’t. Annalise would feel honor-bound to set him free. He would never put her in that position.

  She would either tell him to go and she would wait for him at home—or she would just tell him to go. The first would wound her but he was certain the latter would kill him. While Marcus made arrangements with his brother to watch the little ones, Niko roused the adults and herded them into one of the family suites amid much confusion and speculation.

  Once they were gathered, Niko tinged a half-full wine bottle with a fork to get everyone’s attention.

  “Marcus and I have some things to tell you.” Niko took a deep breath, wishing he’d drunk the rest of the wine first. “I’ll go first. Yiayia, the lady who delivered your sweepstakes check was an actress who owed me for medical work. I paid for this trip.”

  Thankfully, the suites on either side of his family’s suite were no longer occupied as they all got uncivilly loud.

  He told them everything—how much they meant to him for raising him and putting him through medical school, how he would be forever in their debt, how he deeply regretted disappointing them, but he had to be his own man. Everything had all tumbled out, as if the words couldn’t escape him fast enough.

  In the confusion and the turmoil Niko wasn’t quite sure how his confession came out so ungracefully. All he knew was that no matter how angry his family was with him, they still loved him, even if he insulted them by thinking he owed them anything. They did what they did for love—not for paybacks.

  “Because that’s what families do,” Phoebe yelled at him when he tried to defend why he’d hidden his financial gift.

  “Anything else you need to confess, Niko?” Yiayia asked. At his hesitation, his sisters-in-law added their own questions. Who could withstand the interrogation of the Christopoulos women en masse?

  How he wished Annalise had been there to protect him when he said, “About those trips I’ve been taking...”

  He made a full confession about Doctors Without Borders, even though he planned to resign for Annalise’s sake.

  Yes, Chistopoulos women were stronger than they looked.

  They still weren’t on board with Marcus’s plan to make early application to the coastguard training academy. But when Stephen told Phoebe that at least Marcus was showing self-motivation and they wouldn’t have to keep on him about keeping up his grades, Niko know they would eventually come round.

  As always, his brothers forgave him everything, even expressing admiration, despite their wives’ frowns.

  Yiayia wasn’t so kind about his involvement in Doctors Without Borders and his apparent bad influence on his nephew.

  She wasn’t speaking to him. In solidarity, neither were the other women. From past experience he knew their silent treatment wouldn’t last beyond the night, and in the morning the
y’d be just as vocal as ever—which would not be a good thing if they were all still angry at him.

  Yet he knew, when all was said and done, they were family—his family—and they loved him as much as he loved them. That’s how the Christopoulos women were.

  It was a comforting feeling.

  But he had another woman on his mind who was giving him heartache.

  Niko took the stairs two at a time, needing to see Annalise, to touch her, to hear her voice. Needing to reassure himself he was making the right decision.

  As he made his nightly climb, he heard voices from above.

  The top deck was filled with passengers watching Barcelona grow smaller and smaller as they pulled away from shore.

  But it felt completely empty without Annalise.

  What was that she’d said when she’d kissed him on the cheek? “Náste kalá. Antio.”

  Be well and goodbye.

  She hadn’t meant...she couldn’t have meant...

  There was still too much unsaid between them.

  * * *

  Packing had gone quickly. Everything Annalise wanted to take with her fit in a single suitcase. The rest she left for the crew, as was the custom.

  She now stood on the dock at Barcelona’s main port, watching the ship sail without her. The single suitcase made travelling easier as she caught a taxi to the airport.

  Her last-minute decision meant she’d be flying to Athens for her interview with the local office of Doctors Without Borders tomorrow afternoon, instead of arriving by ship. Otherwise, everything was going as planned.

  Except she hadn’t expected her heart to be shattering into a million pieces.

  How had she fallen in love so hard, so quickly?

  Saying goodbye had been the hardest thing she’d ever done.

  But it had been the right thing to do.

  Annalise had left the medical suite in good hands.

  Should an emergency occur, Annalise had total confidence in her P.A. and the ship would be in port each day with easy access to the best of medical care. And Sophie was surrounded by her loved ones, who would take very good care of her, just as they would if she were at home, while the Christopoulos family spent the week among the Greek isles. The thought made her smile. Those islands would never be the same again after they left.