“HAVE A GOOD NIGHT, Calla. Don’t stay much longer!” Alexa called as she waved and headed for the clinic door.
Calla waved back and walked into the break room to gather her lunch bag and purse. The clinic was nearly silent—a weird sensation. The clinics and hospitals she’d worked all had quiet periods, but they were never silent.
She, Alexa and the other midwife lived close enough to the clinic that unless a mother had recently given birth, they didn’t maintain a twenty-four-hour presence. Even Kostas’s palace was less than fifteen minutes from the clinic. A commute that most doctors in Seattle would love.
In the unlikely event that all of them were unavailable, Dr. Stefanios had agreed to be on call for Kostas. It was a tiny clinic, despite its location in Palaío’s capital city, and yet Kostas had avoided her for the last week and a half. Except for her first day when she’d treated Queen Eleni, he was always with a patient or in the office, with the door closed, when she was free.
In a larger facility with a staff twenty times larger than the ten on rotation here, it might happen. In Seattle, she’d had friends who shifted from night to day shift, and she occasionally wouldn’t see them for a few weeks. But in a clinic this size, it had to be intentional, and she was tired of it. She crossed her arms and looked at the closed office door. Calla felt her brows knit together as she stared at the door.
She could barge in, but a better idea crossed her mind. Calla wasn’t waiting for Prince Kostas to simply acknowledge her presence anymore. She was not leaving the island before her contract was up. Besides, she liked it here.
It felt like her place; a weird sensation for a woman who’d never left Seattle before traveling halfway around the world. Her apartment was nice and walking on the warm beach every morning had done more for her soul than she’d thought possible.
Her contract was a year, with the opportunity to extend, if there was a need. She and Kostas didn’t have to be friends. Calla doubted that was truly possible after the night they’d shared, but she refused to be ignored.
Dropping her lunch bag on the receptionist’s desk, Calla sauntered over to the main door, opened it and then closed it. She knew the buzzer in the office would register the movement, and Alexa’s goodbye had been loud enough to hear in every corner of the facility. Kostas knew she was the last midwife in the clinic—and that it was past the end of her shift.
“Ten...nine...eight...” She leaned against the door as she started her countdown. Kostas opened the office door, and she let out a frustrated sigh. “Didn’t even let me get to five.”
An emotion blipped across his eyes before the mask he’d worn the first morning resettled. “Five?”
“I opened the door—” Calla pushed away from her perch, trying to keep the bubble of emotions roaming through her body in check “—then started counting backward from ten.” It was childish, but at least it should silence the final tiny bead of hope that she’d misread the situation. That he’d just been really busy.
Better to accept the truth than give in to any wishful thinking. “You don’t have to worry that I think there is more to our night together. Or that I will ruin your reputation, Your Highness.” She offered a low bow before reaching for her lunch bag.
“It’s not my reputation that’s the problem, Calla.”
Her name on his lips stilled her feet. But it was his words that lit a fire in her belly. Liam had said it was her upbringing, her lack of societal connections, and her below-average bank account that had riled his parents. Not that her ex had argued with them.
And he’d only been a rich jerk.
Maybe she wasn’t the right girlfriend for a prince, but that didn’t mean he was any better than her. “My reputation is just fine, Your Highness. Maybe it’s not good enough for you.” Angry tears coated her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. “However, I will not be told that I am less than someone else again.”
“Again?” Kostas’s head popped back as he took another step toward her.
Calla straightened her shoulders. “You’re not the first man to tell me I’m not enough. However, we are colleagues and you should act like it. Treat me just like any of the other midwives.” A single tear fell and she wiped at it, furious that she’d lost control. She needed to get out of there; confronting him was a bad idea.
“I can’t do that, Calla.”
His hand gripped her wrist and she hated the heat climbing up her body, hated that she wanted him to hold her even as he dropped his grip. Why couldn’t her body accept what her brain had? Prince Kostas didn’t want her.
Men hadn’t wanted her before. It had stung then, but it ached with Kostas.
“I’m not saying you aren’t enough.” He dragged a hand through his hair then shook his head. “You aren’t like the other midwives. I’ve never...” He stepped even closer to her, the distance between them shrinking to millimeters.
When he didn’t finish his sentence, she raised an eyebrow and finished it for him. “You never slept with them? Never told them goodbye at an airport, expecting you’d never have to see them again? Never pretended not to know them when fate threw you back together?” The words flew from her lips as she glared at him. Finally, giving in to the hurt and fury his inattention caused.
She’d put herself through nursing school. Come around the world to work on an island where she knew no one. Calla Lewis was perfect the way she was.
“I see I’m interrupting.” Eleni’s voice carried over the room.
Calla blinked as she stepped back from Kostas. The queen looked from Calla to Kostas, her dark eyes holding her brother-in-law’s for far longer than was comfortable. “I apologize. Evan, my bodyguard,” she added looking at Calla, “recommended using the rear entrance. I was on my way back from an engagement and wanted to see if you were coming to dinner tonight, Kostas. I didn’t want the press to worry about the baby, but...” She shrugged. “I’ll see myself out.”
Calla raised her chin, knowing she looked tiny compared to Kostas and Eleni. She mustered the last of her reserves as she met the queen’s gaze. “I’m sorry that you had to hear that. I’d appreciate your discretion, Eleni.”
“You call her by her first name, but me you refuse to use mine?”
It was a ridiculous complaint, and she chuckled as she grabbed her things. A sad laugh that was the only thing keeping the sobs echoing from her soul. “She acknowledges my presence. I had to trick you to even see you. So, why should I use your name, Your Highness?”
She didn’t wait for a response. Just spun on her feet and walked out of the clinic.
“Don’t say a word.” Kostas turned on his heels without looking at his sister-in-law’s face. He’d spent more than a week avoiding Calla. Days of arriving early, staying late, bouncing from one exam room to the next while making sure that she was busy with her patients. It had been torture.
But he couldn’t stop his response to her. Even when she was furious with him, all he’d wanted was to beg her forgiveness then spend the rest of the time kissing her. It wouldn’t take long for people to notice how he responded to her.
And by trying to protect her from the rapid rumors this island liked to start, he’d made her feel unworthy of his presence. There wasn’t enough punishment in the world for that...though he suspected the universe was meting out divine justice by ensuring Eleni had heard everything.
“If you think I have any intention of keeping my mouth shut, then you don’t know me at all.” Eleni bounced further into the room—well, bounced as much as her heavily pregnant body would allow. “At least now I can tell Ioannis why you have been such a bear. I stopped by unannounced today because I doubted you’d answer your phone.”
He wouldn’t have, but Kostas left that unsaid.
He’d attended his brother’s formal Sunday dinner, which was more meeting than dinner. But he’d taken all his other meals in his private rooms...while thinking of Calla. “I have no intention of discussing this with Ioannis.”
Eleni fell into the chair across from the desk and smiled. “I said I would tell Ioannis. I don’t care what you do.”
He clicked his tongue. “I don’t believe that for one moment, Eleni. You absolutely care.”
“I do.” She grinned. “Your brother knows returning to the island didn’t thrill you. He hasn’t realized you’re plotting your escape yet—”
Kostas opened his mouth but Eleni raised her hand.
“Don’t interrupt the queen.”
“You only ever pull that card when you don’t want to be interrupted.”
Eleni continued as though she hadn’t heard his mutterings. “Ioannis is busy, but I know what escape looks like. I wore it once myself before I found my place.”
“I have a place in Seattle.” He forced the words through his teeth. “This island holds nothing for me.”
“Calla—”
“Would end up just like Mom or Maria. Devoured by the press and hating me.” Heat filled his cheeks as the truth escaped into the room.
Eleni held his gaze for a moment before pushing her body out of the seat. “You are Prince Kostas of Palaío. You can’t change that.”
She headed for the door. “And Maria was a teenage girl. The rumors your father allowed to circulate were not okay. Do you really think that Ioannis would follow the same path as your father did?”
Kostas wanted to say no. Wanted to think that Ioannis would put his partner before the needs of the crown. But if the pressure was too much...too distracting... He wasn’t sure the answer was yes. So he kept his thoughts to himself.
“Your mother...” Eleni paused, weighing her words. “Your father should have protected her. But this generation will not allow someone to get hurt. Especially for this outdated honor code of royals that we ‘don’t comment to the press.’ I comment all the time—exactly as I please.”
“Because no one can ever get you to follow the protocol rules.”
She waved a hand at him. “I follow the rules, just in my own way. And whoever you fall for will make their own rules, too, if you give them a chance.”
He opened his mouth to argue but Eleni had gone without a goodbye. His brother’s wife really had a way of making an entrance and delivering her exit.
“Kostas!” Calla’s voice echoed from the front of the clinic, and his heart picked up. Finally, she’d called him by his name again. Not Dr. Drakos. Not Your Highness. Kostas.
His joy was short-lived when he saw her holding up a barely lucid Narella.
“Her husband called me,” Calla stated as Kostas put his arm on the other side of Narella. “Said she told him she was going to the clinic, but her voice sounded off. Then he couldn’t get hold of her. He’s on his way now.”
Calla shifted, adjusting her position to account for Kostas’s height on the other side of the woman. “I found her at the edge of the parking lot, looking confused.”
“Feel funny...dizzy...mind foggy.” Narella glared at Kostas. “Why are you holding me?”
“She’s irritable,” Calla whispered and didn’t flinch when Narella glared at her. “Any chance of GDM?”
Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, frequently called gestational diabetes, was the most common metabolic disease in pregnancy. He hadn’t seen Narella yet, but the symptoms she’d described, combined with the usually warm and bubbly woman’s irritability, were classic symptoms.
“Can you tell me how far along you are?” Kostas kept his voice low and comforting as they eased Narella into the exam chair. The woman’s pregnancy was showing, but Kostas knew she had at least one child already, and women showed quicker with subsequent pregnancies. Besides, visual pregnancy clues were notoriously unreliable!
“Twenty...” she panted as she looked at him, her eyes narrowing in focus as she bit her lip. She knew how far along she was. If she couldn’t remember, that was a bad sign. “Twenty something...”
Calla moved to the computer and began pulling up records. “She’s twenty-three weeks along. Scheduled for her diabetes test next week. She had GDM with her first and second pregnancies. Probably why she was already walking to the clinic when the symptoms started.” Calla moved without him asking to grab the finger test kit from the cabinet.
She handed it to him, and he took it, meeting her gaze. “I suspect this is coming back with a very low blood sugar result. While I do the stick, can you please get a juice box from the fridge?”
They kept several food items for their patients for such situations in the common area and Calla left quickly. “All right, Narella, you’re going to feel a prick and then I am going to get a little blood to test.”
She nodded, but Kostas wasn’t sure how much she’d actually understood of what he’d said. If they were right, they needed to get Narella’s blood sugar up quickly.
“Ouch.”
“That was the only pinch,” Kostas promised as he pulled a little blood into the tester. It dinged just as Calla walked back through the door with two apple juice boxes.
“Forty-two,” Kostas stated as Calla put the straw in the juice box and handed it to Narella. It was a good thing she’d thought to bring the second box. Each one only had half a cup of juice, enough to get a woman with low blood sugar—anything below seventy milligrams per deciliter—into the normal range. Below fifty-four was considered a medical emergency. Below twenty, a person could lose consciousness or have a seizure.
Narella drank the juice and, within three minutes, was already acting more like herself. “I’m so sorry. I got a little dizzy and cut up an apple while waiting for my mother-in-law to arrive to watch my two little boys. I can’t remember if I ate it...” Her cheeks colored. “My youngest started crying and... I must have forgotten.”
“It’s easy for that to happen.” Kostas kept his tone calm. “I don’t know why Dr. Stefanios was waiting to test you for diabetes, but with your previous history, I would have asked you to start testing your blood at week fifteen. Unfortunately, with your history, you will probably have gestational diabetes with each pregnancy. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have healthy babies.”
“It’s just...with Marcus and Atticus at home, it’s hard to remember to eat at regular intervals.” Narella bit her lip as she looked at her fingers. “I’m not complaining. I love them, but it’s so easy to get distracted, and Atticus is still in diapers.”
Calla slid onto the corner of the exam chair and patted Narella’s knee, waiting for the woman to meet her gaze before she said, “I bet you are a super mom. Two boys under the age of five and pregnant with your first daughter...you are amazing. Being tired and distracted is normal, but the best thing you can do for the boys and your daughter is to take care of yourself.”
“Easier said than done.”
“It is,” Kostas agreed. Expectant mothers had so much to deal with, and he wanted to make sure Narella knew he understood that. “But taking care of yourself is the best thing you can do for your children. A healthy mom, a happy mom, a well-rested mom—those are the best things you can give your children.”
“Dr. Drakos is right.” Calla grinned as she picked up the finger stick test. “It’s been about fifteen minutes. Want us to stick you or want to do it yourself?”
Narella glared at the small device before she held out her hand. “I may as well get used to doing it again.” She pricked her finger and sighed as the monitor registered sixty-five. “So close.” She held out her other hand. “Guess it’s another juice box for me.”
“Two or three sips should get you to seventy, if you don’t want to drink the whole thing,” Calla encouraged as she stood.
“Narella! Narella!” Carlos, Narella’s husband, raced into the room. “Are you all right, my love?”
His wife waved a hand and gestured to the blood testing kit in her lap. “I have gestational diabetes. Again.” Her bottom lip shook as the first tear rolled down her cheek.
Carlos slid next to his wife and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry.”
“Why don’t we give you a few minutes?” Kostas nodded to Calla.
“I’ll test my sugar again in fifteen minutes.” Narella hiccupped as the sobs racked her body. Carlos kissed the top of his wife’s head.
Kostas and Calla quietly stepped from the room.
“Will you want to keep her overnight, Dr. Drakos? I am the midwife on call tonight.” The energy that allowed them to work so seamlessly together evaporated as the door to their patient’s room closed.
“Calla...”
“Just answer the question, please, Doctor. I don’t want to discuss anything else.”
Her bottom lip shook, and Kostas wished for the thousandth time since he’d met her that he was simply Dr. Drakos.
“If this was her first experience with GDM, I would. But she and her husband know the symptoms and are skilled at managing the disease.”
“Do you need anything else from me tonight?”
“Yes.” The word was out before Kostas could think through the moment. But he didn’t wait to consider backtracking. “I need to check back in on Narella and her husband. Let them know they can go home, assuming her blood sugar came into the normal range with that second juice box. Can you wait in the office? Or out here...just wait. Please.”
Calla crossed her arms, but she didn’t argue or head into the office.
That was fine. He owed her an apology. And the knowledge that it wasn’t her reputation that was the problem...at least not in the way she assumed.
Calla waited until Kostas headed back to the patient’s room before heading to the small break room. Maybe it was petty. She knew he wanted to discuss her outburst, and she didn’t want to do that in the waiting room. But the office was his space.
The midwives used it, but rarely. That was the realm of Dr. Drakos and whomever was hired to join him. Having a personal discussion in his space wasn’t what she wanted.
Calla tapped the edge of the wall with her toe and wished she had the strength to just walk away. There was part of her that wanted—needed—an explanation. But if Kostas expected her to apologize for this evening, he was going to be waiting a long time.
She heard Narella and her husband offering their thanks to Kostas and her stomach tightened. Any moment Kostas would find her and say...whatever she hadn’t allowed in her pique this evening.
Calla hated to admit that she’d been proud that she’d left without listening to him. It was something she’d never gotten to do with Liam. He’d always had the last statement in any disagreement.
But it hadn’t brought her as much satisfaction as she’d hoped.
Because Kostas isn’t Liam!
Why couldn’t her brain stop that thought? She’d known the man for less than twenty-four hours and had spent the night with him. That didn’t mean she knew him.
He’d had plenty of time during their time together to mention he was a prince. And he hadn’t. Hadn’t said where he was going or shared anything too personal.
Their connection was physical. Primal, even...but that was all.
So why was her heart so certain that Kostas was somehow different?
Before she contemplated that meandering nonsense, Kostas walked in. His tall frame filled the doorway, and she waited for him to step closer, but he kept his distance. That should make her happy...but rational thought was not something she excelled at in his presence.
When he didn’t say anything, she shrugged. “I guess you didn’t need anything, Dr. Drakos.”
“I owe you an apology.”
“Just one?” Calla flinched at her tone and closed her eyes as she rocked back on her heels. “That was uncalled for.”
“No.” Kostas’s voice was warm as it filled the room. “It was very called for. I owe you so many apologies. I should have told you who I was in Dayton.”
He pushed a hand through his hair and a muscle in his cheek twitched.
Was the nervous tic not as satisfying with his now short hair?
“Dr. Drakos, OBGYN, is the title that I love. The one that I wish defined me. It’s the one I earned. When I’m not here, I try to forget that I have a hereditary title. I’m second in line to the throne, soon to be third. I will never be king, and I am fine with that. More than fine.”
He shook his head as he looked at her, his eyes studying her. “When you met me, I was Dr. Kostas Drakos. Still am. Unfortunately, Prince Kostas is the only one that matters on this island.”
“That’s not true.” The denial shot from her lips. This was not the conversation she’d meant to have. Not the one they should have. But the words kept coming, “The people here refer to you by Dr. Drakos or Kostas more than they call you ‘Prince’ or ‘Your Highness.’ You are more than your title. If you want to be.”
She hated the look in his eyes. She’d seen it reflected in her mirror so often. The look of unworthiness. She’d done her best to banish it from her own gaze, following her relationship with Liam, but she knew how insidious the element was. How it lied to you; convinced you it was true even when all the evidence everyone else saw was crystal-clear.
She didn’t know why Kostas, a doctor and a prince, felt unworthy. But he did.
“Maybe.”
There was the word that really meant no, but she would not press him. Only he could find his worthiness within the life he had.
“Doesn’t change the fact that I reacted badly when I saw you in the clinic the first day. I’d spent my three days on the island imagining you, trying to figure out if there was a way to contact you when...” His voice faltered and he shook himself.
“Then you were here, and Alexa was watching, and the press was outside. It kept me from doing what I actually wanted, or even treating you like a colleague that I’d watched work through a medical emergency in the most amazing way I’d ever seen.
“I am truly sorry, Calla. And I am sorry that after fumbling everything so badly, I avoided you. It was unprofessional.”
Those were a lot of words. A lot to work through. “What’s wrong with my reputation?”
It wasn’t the only question hovering in her mind, but it was the one she needed an answer to. Maybe hearing him say out loud that an American nurse, a broke American nurse, wasn’t the ideal candidate for a royal girlfriend would stop the fantasy invading her nightly dreams.
“Nothing is wrong with your reputation.”
“You said—”
“I know what I said and how you interpreted it, Calla.”
Kostas took a step toward her and Calla desperately wanted to close the distance. But she forced her feet to remain still. She pulled her arms even tighter around herself as she waited for him to continue.
“Calla.” Her name slipped from his lips and her skin ignited.
What was the hold he had over her?
“You are perfect. It’s me that’s the problem.” He continued before she could respond. “I know what happily ever after with a secret prince looks like in the movies. I’ve seen the holiday specials that people binge where everything falls into place with the royal and the baker or journalist or...”
“Nurse?” Calla added as his dark eyes held hers.
“Or nurse.” Kostas nodded. “Multiple photographers have captured my picture every day since I returned to this island. There are rumors about my advancing age—”
“Advancing age!” Calla let out a laugh then wished she could pull it back in when the lines on his forehead deepened. “Kostas, you’re what? Thirty-seven?”
“Thirty-eight.” He grinned at her and took another step forward. “Anyone attached to me, even in a rumor, will be hounded by the island press. It is brutal for those caught in the trap.”
That wasn’t a guess. She heard it in his voice. He’d watched others ensnared and hurt. He’d been protecting her. It was sweet in a messed-up, internal trauma way.
“Someone you loved was caught in it?” It was a personal question, and one she wasn’t sure he’d answer. But she saw the pain hovering in his eyes.
“Loved is a strong word, though I guess all first relationships feel like love, particularly as a teen. My girlfriend, Maria...the press hounded her. It was stressful but she laughed about it. Until a supposed friend of hers told the press that she’d gotten pregnant and lost the baby.”
“Oh...” Calla covered her mouth at the horror of that rumor.
“She left the island not long after. She’s happily married now, but on the few occasions she returned to visit her parents, she’d always been greeted by at least one or two journalists. I heard a few years ago that she pays for her parents to visit her now. She doesn’t come home because of me.”
“That’s terrible.” It was, but it also wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t spread the rumor...
“It is.” Kostas agreed before Calla could think of anything else to say. “I still should have talked to you. Should have explained.” He pulled at the back of his neck as he looked at her. “Can we start over...as professionals? Colleagues?”
“Colleagues.” She nodded, hoping the hurt in her heart wasn’t radiating through her voice. “We work well together. We’ve proved that twice now.” She winked, hating the feelings crawling through her.
She wanted to scream at him. To tell him that what was between them might be special. Maybe it was really something. Couldn’t they at least try?
But perhaps he was right. Maybe all the emotions, the voice in the back of her head pleading that what they’d shared was special, was just fantasy breaking through.
He was right; life wasn’t made for television movies. Even when you really wanted it to be. It was time for her to leave before all her rambling thoughts slipped past her lips. No sense embarrassing herself when they’d finally addressed the issues between them.
“Good night, Kostas.” She slipped past him, so close that a bit of his heat touched her shoulder.
No, that’s more fantasy, Calla.
“Good night, Calla.”