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a fantasy cruise after all.

      “You’re really good with her, Dr. Christopoulos. I’m impressed.” When she smiled, her gaze was honest, her voice sincere. It felt better than good to be appreciated.

      “It’s Niko.” His own voice was huskier than normal.

      “Niko.” She licked her full lips.

      Fascinating and, oh, so sexy with no contrivance or even an awareness of what her mouth could do to a man.

      Niko reined himself in. It had been a while. Where he’d been wasn’t exactly an environment conducive to lovemaking.

      How did he ask the good doctor if she would like to share a drink with him under the stars tonight? How could he make himself stand out in a crowd when he bet every man on board this ship would like to do the same?

      I don’t do dinner, she’d said.

      She’d been offputting on the gangway, but Niko could understand why. She probably had to field invitations and propositions all day, every day from total strangers.

      What made him different from them? And why did it matter so much that he was? There were plenty of women aboard this ship looking for a diversion. But he had no interest in pursuing them. Only her.

      What made her different?

      He didn’t know, but he wanted to find out.

      He searched for the right pick-up line but came up blank. What was the matter with him? He’d had no trouble knowing what to say to charm the opposite sex since he’d turned twelve.

      “What? Do I have something on my face?” Annalise wiped away a non-existent blemish.

      “How about sharing a bottle of wine tonight?” Nothing glib or witty or clever there. Just a straightforward request. “I thought, as colleagues, we could discuss medicine aboard ship. Strictly professional curiosity.”

      She was shaking her head before she even started to turn him down. “I don’t really think …”

      That’s when he heard them coming. No one could ever say a Christopoulos didn’t give you fair warning before arriving. From the sound of it, the whole family was in the medical suite’s anteroom.

      Annalise looked alarmed.

      “Not to worry. It’s not a mass emergency. Just an invasion of family.”

      Family. Wasn’t that what he’d wanted when he’d planned this elaborate ruse, to spend time with family? Why was he even trying to strike up a shipboard romance with a woman who obviously had no interest in him?

      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.

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