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On her way back to the ER, she went to the restroom and was horrified to see how bad she looked. She needed to shower and wash the sand out of her hair. But all that would have to come later after she’d driven him home.
She freshened up the best she could and went back to look in on Stavros, pleased to see he was no longer hooked up to the drip. To her surprise, he was awake. One of the staff must have helped him to dress in his jeans and polo shirt. His penetrating gray eyes centered on her.
“I wondered when you were going to come back. I’m good to go home. They’re bringing a wheelchair.”
“In that case, I’ll go out to the Jeep and pull it around.”
“If you want to know the truth, I’m glad this happened.”
Andrea sucked in her breath. “How can you say that after being in a life-and-death situation?”
“Because before I got stung, I knew you were going to ask me to send for the helicopter so you could leave for Thessaloniki tonight.”
She looked away. He knew her better than she knew herself. “I’ll see you out in front.”
Her heart was at war between the two most wonderful men in the world. She loved both of them, but owed her dad everything. Her desire to be with Stavros for as long as he still desired her was selfish. When her dad had worked so hard for them all his life, how could she say goodbye to him and stay in Greece knowing he was facing the future alone? He had no one else.
Andrea walked out of the clinic to the Jeep, oblivious to her surroundings because a sadness had taken hold of her, one she couldn’t throw off. It wasn’t like the pain after Ferrante’s death. That had been final. She’d finally gotten over it because she knew he’d never come back.
But Stavros was vibrantly alive despite that awful stingray’s sting.
No matter how many thousands of miles separated them, she’d be tormented by the knowledge that he was here and she’d walked away from him. Not because she’d wanted to.
But because she had to.
A few minutes later she saw a male staff member wheeling him out of the ER exit in a wheelchair. After the vision she’d had of him lying in the bottom of the boat writhing in pain, to see him looking this good caused her heart to skip a beat. You’d never know his jeans covered a potentially serious wound.
After helping him climb in the Jeep, the orderly came around and handed her a plastic bag. In a whisper, he said, “He’s a little dizzy.” She nodded. Inside the bag was a packet of dressings and two kinds of pills. She thanked the orderly and put it on the backseat.
Turning to the man she adored, she said, “Ready to go home?”
“As long as you come with me.”
Now her pulse was racing. “I won’t abandon you. I promise.” She pulled out of the ER driveway, onto the road, and headed for the road that would take them past Panagia to his villa.
“I’m going to hold you to that.” His vaguely fierce tone sent a shiver through her.
“Try to relax against the seat and sleep until we get there.”
“I’ve been sleeping on and off for hours. Tell me how you learned to do everything so well.”
“What do you mean?”
“You drove us away from that beach without a hitch and you handle this Jeep like you’ve been driving one all your life.”
“My father’s work meant he lived in some pretty remote, out-of-the-way places. He needed a four-wheel drive to get anywhere on unpaved roads. I had to learn fast. When we took little vacations, we usually headed for water anywhere we could find it. Dad loves to fish. We rented a lot of different kinds of boats. I drove while he looked for the best spots.”
His hand squeezed her shoulder. “Because of your expertise at everything, you saved me from going into irreversible shock. I don’t know another woman who would have your quick thinking in a crisis and sense instinctively what to do.”
“Sure you do, but you’ve never given them a chance. You’re so self-sufficient, you’re not the kind of man who gets himself into trouble he can’t get out of. I just happened to be there at the exact moment you actually needed help, not that you’d ever ask for it.”
“Am I that bad?” he teased.
“Worse! I guess that stingray got so mad at being foiled the first time, he came after you out of revenge.”
Laughter broke from Stavros, the deep male kind that thrilled her. “How do you know it was a he?”
“I don’t. It was a figure of speech, but men do love a challenge, don’t they.”
