Connie Cox - His Hidden American Beauty

He had to admit, paying attention to a beautiful woman sounded a lot more enticing than paying attention to his brothers as they droned on about the restaurant or to the sisters-in-law as they expounded on the joys and tribulations of parenthood.

As he and Sophie joined them he realized, as he had so many times in the past, that he was a square peg in a family of round holes. Now he understood that no amount of buying anonymous vacations was going to change that.

Seeing his sisters-in-law with children in tow, he also understood that no number of casual relationships would fill that hole of not having someone special to belong to, like his brothers did.

Choices. Live every man’s dream or live his own personal dream.

He would never again become involved with a woman who made him feel the pain of having to choose.

Annalise .

The good doctor was safe, right?

At a glance, Annalise recognized the people in her waiting room as family. They looked—and sounded—exactly alike.

Still, while the family resemblance was strong, Niko stood apart.

One of the lanky teenaged boys jostled another, who looked like an identical twin. “Of course we’d find Uncle Niko down here, playing doctor with the nurse.”

“I’d expect you to be out by the pool, Uncle Niko, checking out the bikini babes. When we walked by, there was this one …” He raised his hands like he was holding coconuts, or maybe watermelons.

Niko cut them both a harsh look. “Respect,” he growled.

At the same time as one of the women gave the twins a sharp look and said, “Boys, behave.”

Amidst the chaos of the two women and smaller children throwing themselves into Niko’s arms and the two men patting him on the back, Niko made introductions.

“Dr. Walcott, these are my brothers and their wives, with assorted nieces and nephews and my grandmother in the back. Family, meet Dr. Walcott. She will be helping us while we’re here.”

A tiny older woman, small in stature but big in presence, waded through three waist-high children and elbowed her way past the two tall boys to the front of the crowd. “I am Olympia Christopoulos. Everyone calls me Yiayia. We were all greatly relieved to learn the ship has its own doctor to help us with our little Sophie.”

Surprising Annalise, Yiayia wrapped her in a big hug. Annalise flailed her arms, unsure what to do, who to be. Should she pretend to be the type of person who was comfortable with this type of thing? Should she hug back? Finally, the hug was over and Annalise could be herself again.

Too late, she wished she’d wrapped her arms around the old woman, just to see what having a grandmother might feel like.

The woman who belonged to the twin boys turned to Niko and patted her huge Hawaiian print tote bag. “I have the meter. I see you have the notebook. It’s time for Sophie’s s-h-o-t.”

From the stricken look on Sophie’s face she clearly knew what word the woman had just spelled out.

Niko gave Sophie a reassuring pat. “Already taken care of, Phoebe.”

“You wrote it all down in the notebook, right? The time and the amount and her blood-sugar reading?” She turned to Annalise. “You know how men are. They don’t always think of these things.”

Who were these people? They acted as if they didn’t even acknowledge that Niko was a doctor in his own right. Or was that a good-natured tease? Maybe this was just a normal give and take of a normal family. Group dynamics wasn’t her strong suit.

“Don’t worry, sis. I learned how to chart in medical school.” Despite Niko’s self-deprecating smile, his tone held a hint of bite and his jaw held more than a hint of firmness.

His sister-in-law must have seen the same sparks in Niko’s eyes that Annalise saw because she tried to excuse herself by saying, “Of course you did, Niko. It’s just that you don’t usually have children as patients and you have that big staff to do things for you.”

Annalise envisioned a spa-like office suite with customized furniture arranged by a top designer, staff in matching trendy uniforms and coffee and tea with French names available to sip as the clientele discussed lifting brows, firming chins and reshaping cheekbones.

Her own utilitarian facilities would be stark in comparison. Still, her suite and her staff were top of the line, assembled to handle any emergency.

One of the men, older than Niko but definitely related, stepped forward. “Time to eat. Let’s see how cruise-ship food stacks up to Christopoulos food.”

A twin clapped Niko on the shoulder. “It’ll be nice to be served instead of being the server for a change, too. But, then, you never had to do the waiter thing, did you, Uncle Niko?”

The tiny ancient woman reached up and tweaked the boy’s ear. “If your grades were as good as Niko’s, you wouldn’t either.”

Phoebe turned to Annalise. “Niko tutored during high school instead of working in the restaurant.”

Annalise processed information, trying to fill in the holes while simultaneously wondering why this family would reveal so much to a total stranger.

“Good thing Niko’s so smart since he can’t cook worth a flip,” the other brother added. “Now, let’s go and eat.”

En masse , they turned and exited, carrying Sophie along with them but leaving Niko behind.

He raised an eyebrow. “Family. Gotta love ‘em, right?”

No. No, you didn’t. Annalise knew that first hand. But that was knowledge she had no intention of sharing. Sharing meant intimacy and intimacy was something Annalise didn’t do, especially with a man who made her breath skip when he stood this close.

She fell back on her professionalism. “Enjoy your dinner. Bring Sophie back any time you need to.”

“Thanks.”

Annalise stood by the glass door and watched him walk away.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like to look at men—she just liked to look from a distance. Now she allowed herself to admire the breadth of his shoulders and tautness of his butt even while her medical training had her noticing the slight hesitation of his left leg as he climbed the short flight of stairs leading to the main hallway. He’d said something about an injury when he boarded the elevator with her, hadn’t he?

Not her concern unless he sought out medical attention. She had to remind herself of that daily when she wanted to fix the world.

When her office was empty once again, it felt as if all the energy had been sucked out with the Christopoulos family.

No, not energy. They had taken joyous chaos with them when they’d left. The energy had gone with Niko, along with the impression of stability he projected of keeping that wild bunch under control.

Usually her haven, the atmosphere of the medical suite felt as cold as the stainless steel of the countertops and she felt restless, on the verge—but on the verge of what?

Underneath her feet the rumble of the huge engines reverberated as they churned through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on their way towards the open water of the Atlantic.

She was being silly. The feel of freedom was all around her. Why, then, was she missing the anchoring sensation Niko had taken with him?

NIKO SAT AT the dining table surrounded by family, knowing he’d turned down his best chance of a family of his own.

His ex-fiancée hadn’t asked him for anything extraordinary—only to give up his work, to give up his soul.

She hadn’t understood. He hadn’t been able to make her understand what Doctors Without Borders meant to him. That he’d never felt more alive as he beat the odds, winning out over a harsh world unlike any his family had ever seen and snatching the downtrodden back from the edge of death. What were the odds he could make his family understand anyway?