Michaelis came out of the taverna to see if he could get something for the baby.
“I’ve got some fruit juice in her baby cup,” Cathy said, sitting down once more on her seat, baby on one arm as she searched through her shoulder-bag. “Here it is.”
Rose was already halfway across the table, reaching for a piece of calamari and dunking it into the taramasalata.
“Bravo!” Yannis said. “Rose is hungry.”
“She loves calamari, as you can see.” Cathy wiped a paper napkin round her daughter’s face to remove some of the taramasalata. Rose pushed her mother’s hand away as she savoured the delicious taste in her mouth.
“I’ve prepared some lamb souvlaki on the barbecue,” Michaelis said, looking enquiringly from Yannis to Cathy. “Shall I bring them now?”
The lamb kebabs were delicious. Rose sucked on a tiny piece of tender meat then gummed it for a little while before depositing it on Cathy’s plate.
“She likes to try everything.”
Yannis smiled. “That’s good. By the time you’ve been here—remind me, how long is it you’re working at the hospital?”
“Six months. Tanya and Manolis have been offered a six-month sabbatical, if you remember.”
“Yes, yes. I remember signing your contract now. You were interviewed in London, I remember. Manolis has put me in charge of the day-to-day running of the medical and surgical side of the hospital while he’s away but I leave the paperwork to our efficient administration team. I knew you were coming in to work tomorrow but when you arrived briefly in Theatre this morning I couldn’t think who you were. Sorry if I was less than welcoming. I was in the middle of a difficult operation and—’
“Oh, please. I hadn’t realised that the theatre was in use. My fault.”
“I’ll take time to show you around tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
Rose was now crushing a potato chip against her mouth before opening it and demolishing it with her four tiny white teeth. She wiped her hands over her blond curly hair and grinned happily.
“I think it’s time for me to take Rose home,” Cathy said, reaching for another paper napkin. “I’ve got the numbers of the taxi drivers in my mobile so I’ll see who’s free to come and get us.”
The brief twilight had faded already, she noticed as she punched in the first number on her list. That number was engaged. She tried the next on the list and was lucky this time.
“Theo will be with us in ten minutes,” she said as she closed her mobile.
“Good. I’m glad you’re not going to attempt to walk back. I’ll take your buggy home with me and ask Petros, the man who helps me in the garden, to see if he can mend it. He can mend most things.”
Except broken hearts, Cathy thought as she smiled her thanks. It was so obvious to her that Yannis’s heart would need a lot of tender loving care from a good woman. She certainly wasn’t the person to do it because she needed to keep her own life on track. Whoever took on the mending of Yannis’s heart would have a difficult job breaking down the barriers he’d built around himself.
She reminded herself firmly that whatever it was that that Yannis needed, she shouldn’t feel obliged to try and provide it. After all, she was always the one left wanting when she was barrelled into trying to smooth things along for people. Besides which, she wasn’t here to get too involved with another man, let alone a colleague she was going to have to work intimately with for the next six months.
Out loud she told Yannis that she didn’t think Grandma Anna would need the pushchair for a while.
“Rose is her youngest baby at the moment. Tanya told me she was getting withdrawal symptoms now that they were taking baby Jack over to Australia. Anna told me today she’s lost count of how many babies she’s cared for over the years.”
“She’s an amazing woman. But you must still find it hard, being a single parent and working full time as a doctor.”
“I’m very lucky. In England, my mother takes care of Rose when I’m working and here I’ve got Anna. I wanted to spend a short time away from Rose today to see how she would get on with Anna. She absolutely adores her already so I won’t have to worry about her when I’m working.”
“So why did you want to bring Rose out with you this evening?”
“I wanted to spend some quality time with her. Every mother’s guilt trip, I suppose. Working away from home and leaving her baby in the care of someone else.”
Yannis swallowed hard. “Guilt is a terrible affliction. We all suffer from it at times.”
She saw the worried look on his handsome face and wished she could conjure up that wonderful smile he’d had just a short time ago. She’d noticed the flash of his strong white teeth, the curve of his full, sensuous lips, the vulnerable expression in his dark, brooding, brown eyes.
She gave herself another mental talking-to. She wasn’t in the dating market any more. Neither, it seemed, was Yannis— wise man! Never again! Not after the disastrous relationships she’d suffered over the years. Life was going to be very good if she avoided meaningful relationships.
“I think this is your taxi coming along the coast road.”
She gathered Rose up into her arms. “Kali nichta, Yannis,”
“Kali nichta, Cathy. I…” He hesitated. “I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWO
CATHY waited until she could hear Rose breathing that easy, steady rhythmic way that usually indicated her daughter was well and truly out for the count—for a few hours anyway. Barefoot, she walked backwards so she could keep an eye on her daughter, just in case she’d misjudged the situation.
She propped open the door then looked back to make sure she’d put the teddy-bear books that Rose loved so much at the end of her cot, where she would see them if she woke up early. With any luck, as had happened a few times recently back home in England, she just might become entranced by one of the pictures and give her sleeping mother a few more minutes of blissful oblivion.
Was she being over-cautious, over-anxious, over the top in her solitary state as a single parent? If she had a husband or lover waiting in bed for her now, would she be taking so much time? That would depend on the man in question. Sitting down at her dressing table, she confronted the image of an exhausted, sleep-deprived thirty-one-year-old mum with developing crow’s feet at the corners of her tired blue eyes.
What an evening! she told herself as she wiped off the bronzer that she’d applied earlier in the evening so as not to frighten the tourists with her unseasonal pallor. It may only be April but out here on Ceres the season was already in full swing following the Easter festivities, and there were lots of healthy-looking people tramping over the hills and lying on the beaches.
She’d never imagined that she would end the day in the company of Yannis Karavolis who, although technically in charge of the hospital, hadn’t seemed to know who she was when she’d arrived. She’d obviously been infinitely forgettable when she’d met him eighteen months ago at Tanya’s wedding, whereas he… She felt embarrassed now that she’d been attracted to him as soon as she’d seen him skulking— perhaps that wasn’t the word, more kind of hiding—in the kitchen so he wouldn’t have to mingle with the revellers.
She’d split up with Dave two weeks before, and had already been licking her wounds and vowing never to get interested in a man again. But there had been something appealing about Yannis tonight. His total vulnerability. His obvious unshakeable devotion to his deceased wife. Tanya had just told her about his wife’s tragic