She smiled. Oscar helped as well.
‘Hey, great jacket,’ Carrie said equably from the couch. ‘You swap jackets with a boy?’
Whoops. She’d forgotten she was wearing it. Or maybe subconsciously she’d known, and she liked it. She fingered the soft, worn leather and found comfort there as well.
‘Yep,’ she said.
‘A good-looking one?’
‘Yep to that as well. Really good-looking.’
‘Excellent,’ Carrie said and dumped her knitting into her carrier bag. ‘He ask you out?’
‘We did already. We ate souffle and crepes.’
‘And crepes? Wow. You going to see him again?’
‘Once is enough.’ Once in one lifetime.
Carrie’s face puckered into disappointment. ‘Why the heck?’ she demanded, seriously displeased. ‘You know I can take Nicky whenever you want. You need a love life.’
‘I’ve had one.’
‘But you’ve kept his jacket,’ Carrie said, thoughtful. ‘Smart girl. A guy’s going to miss a jacket like that. Does he know where you live?’
‘No. I’ll post it to him.’
‘Don’t post it for a couple of days,’ Carrie said. ‘Give the man a challenge.’ She pushed her more than ample self to her feet, made her way across the room and gave Athena a hug. ‘You deserve some excitement. And Nicky needs a dad.’
‘Carrie…’
‘Just saying,’ Carrie said placidly. ‘Just going.’
And she went. Leaving silence.
She sat, on cushions still warm from Carrie. She stared mindlessly at the soap Carrie had been watching. Oscar sighed, heaved himself sideways and redraped himself over her feet.
She needed comfort.
She needed to stop being angry.
Why the anger? After ten years, surely she had no right to still be angry with Nikos.
Or maybe she had. Ten years ago she’d ached for him to follow her. Just one word…something…a message to find out if she was okay. Her aunt had known her address. Nikos had known her aunt.
But it was as if the moment she’d walked off the island she’d walked out of Nikos’s life. And now…here he was, demanding she take a part in the island’s future. Demanding she think about Argyros.
And all she could think was that she hadn’t told him he had a son.
He was here. The time to tell him was now.
The time to tell him was ten years ago. For him to find out now…
It had to happen. She had to find the courage.
Maybe he’d leave without trying to see her again. Maybe she’d have to go to Argyros to tell him.
He was in New York right now. She had to get over her anger and tell him.
And then say goodbye. For to go back to Argyros…Even if Demos were to destroy the island with his greed for diamonds…
No. It couldn’t happen. She’d have to do something.
What?
Nothing, she told herself, but there was desperation behind the word.
It had to be nothing. She’d left Argyros behind. That first dreadful year, she’d coped with homesickness, isolation, fear, and the birth of Nicky, and she’d faced it alone. She’d fought to make herself a living, knowing she was all her baby had.
She’d never again let herself need anyone as she’d needed Nikos. She no longer loved Nikos and she no longer called Argyros home.
Her head hurt. Thinking hurt.
She needed to sleep, but sleep wasn’t going to come easily tonight. If she filed her story now…That’d mean tomorrow was free. Saturday-Nicky had the day off school. They could go to the park…something, anything, just to get her away from here, buy her a little time.
She should take off Nikos’s jacket.
Not yet. For just a little bit longer she’d allow herself that one small comfort.
Who the hell were Oscar and Nicholas?
Husband? Son? Sons? He was going nuts not knowing.
He’d hired someone to find her. The firm he’d hired had given him the magazine she worked for and a brief summary of her career. It was hardly personal.
Why had he never thought she could be married?
She wasn’t wearing a ring.
That could mean anything. Rings weren’t compulsory. Nor was marriage; its lack didn’t necessarily mean you were without a long-term partner.
Why had she responded to him with anger?
He’d hardly expected her to fall into his arms as her long lost friend. He’d married someone else.
Marika…He thought of his ex-wife now and fought back anger that stayed with him still. But you needed to move on.
He had.
Or he thought he had until he’d seen Athena tonight. She was every bit the girl he remembered-but now she was a woman. Her eyes had tiny creases-smile lines. Did she smile often? Did the unknown Oscar and Nicholas make her smile?
He’d forgotten how she’d made him feel-or maybe he’d blocked it out. Looking at her across the restaurant table tonight…it had taken all the power he had to keep his voice neutral, to keep his feelings in check.
She was still Athena-the girl he’d loved to the point of madness-and then she’d chosen her career over him. The woman he’d held in a corner of his heart for ten long years.
Oh, there’d been other women-of course there had. As the owner of the biggest fishing fleet in the Diamond Isles he was considered more than eligible. He was never lost for…companionship, only every woman he dated compared with Athena.
Even the woman he’d married.
Especially the woman he’d married.
The old anger gripped him, tore at him. The old hunger…
Only it wasn’t an old hunger. It was as real and as raw tonight as it had ever been.
He opened the door to the adjoining hotel room. The woman from the hotel sitting service rose to leave.
‘She’s been very good, sir. I read her the book like you said. She even undressed herself. I didn’t think…’
‘That’s great,’ he said. He didn’t want to hear what she didn’t think.
‘Goodnight, then,’ the woman said and slipped away into the night.
He stood for a moment gazing down at Christa. His daughter was sucking her thumb, even in sleep. She shouldn’t-but who cared?
He crossed to the bed and sat down beside his sleeping child. He stroked her pretty dark hair. She opened her eyes and smiled sleepily at him. ‘Papa.’
‘Go to sleep, kitten,’ he said softly.
‘N…nice.’ She closed her eyes again and was instantly asleep.
How could he still be angry? Athena had moved away but now, in his heart, in her stead, he had his little daughter.
For years he’d tried to think that. It didn’t work. It never had.
For years he’d envisaged Athena in a barren, lonely existence in a strange land. He’d almost hoped for it.
She’d left him. He should have cut off all thoughts of her. He shouldn’t care.
But it wasn’t possible. Not then and not now.
