by Jennie Lucas
“Darius—”
“No.”
Disappointment filled her heart. Clenching her hands, she told herself she’d just have to be patient. She forced herself to take a deep breath and change the subject. “I loved spending time with your family. Maybe your great-aunt could come visit us in New York.”
His expression relaxed and he smiled. “Theia Ioanna hates planes. She thinks of them as newfangled machines, a dangerous fad. She’s waiting for everyone to come to their senses. But after our baby’s born we could go back to Heraklios.”
“I’d like that.” Outside the window, the plane was descending through clouds that looked like white cotton candy. “In the meantime, I’m going to start learning Greek.” She looked at him coyly beneath her lashes. “You’d like to teach me your native tongue, wouldn’t you?”
His eyes darkened with interest. He started to rise from his seat, but as the plane broke beneath the clouds, the pilot announced over the intercom that they should buckle their seat belts for landing. Letty smiled.
Then she looked through the porthole window. “That’s not Teterboro.”
Now he was the one to smile. “No.”
Staring down, she suddenly recognized the airport. Long ago, her family had landed here every time they went on a trip. She looked up with a frown. “Long Island? Is there a problem?”
“Wait and see.”
After the plane landed at the small airport, the two of them came down the steps. A town car waited on the tarmac, and his driver and bodyguard swiftly loaded their suitcases from the plane.
“But why are we here?” she asked Darius helplessly in the backseat of the car a few minutes later as it pulled away from the airport.
“You’ll see.”
“You’re really vexing.”
His dark eyebrows lifted. “Vexing?” he teased, then moved closer as he whispered, “Is that what I am?”
Then he kissed her senseless in the backseat, until she was forced to agree rather unsteadily that he did have one or two good qualities, as well.
But she tensed when the limo turned onto the coastal road that she’d once known very, very well. Her suspicions were confirmed as they drove down the same country lane that she knew led to the massive 1920s beachfront estate that had once been her home. She turned on Darius angrily.
“Why would you bring us here?” she choked out. “Just to torture me? You can’t see the house from the road.” She felt a sudden ache in her throat as she looked out toward the gray-blue bay that led to the Atlantic. “The gate is guarded. That tech billionaire is serious about privacy. So if you’re hoping to get a peek of the house, it won’t happen.”
“You tried?”
“A month after it was sold at auction. As I told you, I just wanted a picture of my great-grandmother’s fresco. His guard did everything but set the dogs on me.”
“That won’t be a problem today.”
Letty pointed at the road ahead. “See? I told you—”
Then her eyes went wide.
The gate was wide open. Their limo drove right past the empty guardhouse, up the wide driveway to the glorious windswept oceanfront manor that had been built by Letty’s great-great-grandfather, a steel baron named Edwin Langford.
Fairholme.
Letty’s breath caught in her throat as she leaned out the car window, and her eyes were dazzled as she saw, for the first time in ten years, her beloved home.
Tears swelled in her eyes as she looked up at the gray stone mansion with its turrets and leaded glass windows soaring against the sky. Looking back at her husband, she breathed, “What have you done?”
He was smiling. “I’ve given you what you want most.”
The limo had barely stopped before she flung open her car door and raced eagerly into the house. Pushing aside the stately front door—unlocked!—she hurled herself into the foyer where she’d played as a child.
“Dad?” she cried out. “Dad, where are you?”
Letty ran from room to room, calling his name, overwhelmed with happiness that somehow, while pretending he was never going to forgive her father, Darius had seen the desperate desire of her heart.
I’ve given you what you want most.
“Dad!” she cried, moving from one elegant, empty room to the next. Memories followed her with every step.
There she had played pirates with her father.
There she had slipped down the marble floor in socks as the two of them competed to see who could slide farthest and make her mother laugh loudest.
There she’d played with the gardener’s kittens.
There she’d played hide-and-seek with Darius when they were kids...
There—every Saturday in summer—she’d tucked roses into the priceless Ming dynasty vase to make her mother smile.
But where was her dad? Where?
As Letty finished going through the main entrance rooms, she ran up the sweeping staircase toward the second floor. She stopped halfway up the stairs, realizing she was hearing only the echo of her own voice.
Her dad wasn’t there.
Letty’s shoulders sagged with savage disappointment. Turning back down the stairs, she saw Darius standing in the front doorway, watching her. The happy, smug expression had disappeared from his handsome face.
He said tightly, “Why do you think I would invite your father here?”
“You said—you said,” she faltered, biting her lip, “you were giving me what I wanted most.”
“This house.” His expression now could only be described as grimly outraged. “Your childhood home. I arranged to buy it for you. It wasn’t easy. I had to pay the man a fortune to leave before we arrived. But I wanted you to have all your dreams. Everything you’d lost.”
Everything she’d lost...
Gripping the banister for support, Letty sagged to sit on a stair. Heartbreaking grief was thundering through her, worse than if she’d never gotten her hopes up at all.
She struggled to hide it. She knew she was being churlish. Her mother would be ashamed of her. Here Darius had given her the stars and she was crying for the sun.
She should be overjoyed.
Fairholme.
Letty took a deep breath, looking up at the high painted ceilings, at the oak-paneled walls. Home. She was really here. Darius had given her back the home that had raised generations of Langfords, her mother’s family.
What an amazing gift.
Wiping her eyes, Letty looked at Darius and tried to smile.
His handsome face was mutinous.
She couldn’t blame him. He’d gone to a lot of trouble and expense to give her this incredible surprise, and she’d been completely ungrateful.
Rising unsteadily to her feet, she walked down the stairs to the foyer where he stood with a scowl, his arms folded.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I love your wonderful gift.”
He looked distinctly grumpy. “It didn’t look like it.”
Feeling ashamed at her bad manners, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“I love it,” she said softly. “It’s a miracle to be here.”
Looking mollified, he accepted her embrace. “I’ve also hired Mrs. Pollifax to come back as our housekeeper.”
“You have!”
He smiled, clearly pleased by her reaction. “Along with as many of the original staff who were available. Giving them a big raise, naturally. I’ve also established a bank account in your name.”
“Whatever for?”
Darius gave her a sudden grin. “You obviously haven’t seen the stripper pole the last owner put up in the library. I knew you’d want to oversee the remodeling personally. Perhaps the fresco can be repaired? I’ve instructed the bank to give you unlimited funds. Use the money however you please.”
“For the house?”
“Yes.”
“The baby?”
“Of course. And you, Letty. Anything you want, jewelry, cars, furniture. You don’t ha
ve to ask me. Buy anything you desire.”
Biting her lip, she blurted out, “Could I send some money to my father?”
She knew immediately it was a mistake.
His expression turned icy. “I weary of your constantly bringing up this topic. We have an agreement.”
“I know, but—”
“Your father already has far more than he deserves.”
“If I could only just see him, so I could know he’s all right...”
“He’s fine.”
Letty searched his gaze, hoping for reassurance. “He’s fine? You know for sure?”
He paused. Then he finally said, “Yes.”
He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“I miss him,” she whispered. She took a deep breath, reminding herself of everything she had to be grateful for. Taking Darius’s hand, she pressed it to her cheek and looked up at him with gratitude. “But what you’ve done for me today, buying Fairholme back... I’ll never forget.”
For a long moment, the two of them stood together in the foyer, with sunlight pouring in through the open door. She breathed in scents she’d craved so long, the tangy salt of the ocean, the honeyed sweetness of her mother’s rose garden. The salt and sweetness of a lifetime of memories.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For bringing me home.”
He cupped her cheek. “You’re worth it, Letty,” he said huskily. “For you, I would pay any price.”
Lowering his head, he kissed her, claiming her lips as he’d already claimed her body and soul. Words lifted unbidden to her throat. Words she hadn’t tried to say since that horrible night in February. Words straight from her heart.
“I love you, Darius,” she said softly.
He gave her an oddly shy smile. “You do?”
Smiling back through her tears, she nodded. Her blood was rushing through her ears, pounding through her veins, as she waited for what he’d say next.
Without a word, he kissed her.
As she stood in the Fairholme foyer, her heavily pregnant belly pressed between them as her husband kissed her so tenderly, miracles seemed to be spinning around her like a whirlwind.
They were married now. Expecting a baby. He’d paid off her father’s debts. He’d just brought her home. She loved him.
And someday, he would love her.
Letty was suddenly sure. They’d already had so many miracles. Why not more?
Darius would soon forgive her father and let him back into their family. He was too good a man not to forgive, especially when it meant so much to her. It was the only thing he hadn’t given her. That, and those three little words.
It was the same thing, she realized. When he forgave her father, that was how she would know that he truly loved her.
When he finally pulled away from their embrace, she looked up, still a little dazzled. “Is there really a stripper pole in the library?”
Darius gave a low laugh. “Come with me.”
Taking her hand, he drew her down the long marble hallway to the oak-paneled library. When she saw the gleaming stripper pole set in the brand-new white shag carpeting, she burst into horrified snorts of laughter.
“I told you,” he said.
“I’ll get it removed. Don’t worry. I’ll make this house just like it was,” Letty said. “Just like we remember.”
“All those memories.” He pulled her against his chest, his dark eyes intense as he whispered huskily, “But as I remember, there’s one thing we’ve never done in this house.”
And as her husband pulled her against him in a hot, fierce embrace, Letty knew all her deepest dreams were about to come true.
CHAPTER TEN
HOME. LETTY LOOKED around with satisfaction. Was there any sweeter word?
The remodel was finished just in time, too. The former owner’s monstrous decor had been removed—the shag carpeting, the stripper pole, the “ironic” brass fixtures and all the rest of it—and everything at Fairholme had been returned to its former glory.
The sitting room felt cozy, especially compared to the cold November weather outside. A fire crackled in the fireplace. Polished oak floors gleamed beneath priceless Turkish rugs. The sofas and chairs were plush and comfortable, the lamps sturdy and practical. Family photos now decorated the walls.
Letty snuggled back against the sofa. Her husband was sitting at the other end, tapping away on his laptop, but periodically he would rub her feet, so she made sure they were strategically available. Earlier, they’d had a delicious hearty meal of lamb stew and homemade bread, her favorite meal from childhood, prepared by Mrs. Pollifax.
The housekeeper had just left, saying that she needed to go visit a friend at a Brooklyn hospital. She’d had a strange expression when she said it, causing Letty to reply with a sympathetic murmur, “Please take all the time you need for your friend.”
“I just might,” the housekeeper had replied tartly, “since his own family can’t be bothered to go see him.”
“Poor man,” Letty had sighed, feeling sorry for him. She couldn’t imagine what kind of family wouldn’t visit a sick man in the hospital.
That reminded her of how much she missed her father after more than two months of not seeing him or talking to him. Darius still refused to forgive him. But surely, after their baby was born, his heart would be so full, he would have a new capacity to forgive? To love.
Letty looked at her husband hopefully. With the departure of Mrs. Pollifax, and the rest of the staff in their outlying cottages on the estate, the two of them were now completely alone in the house. The room felt snug and warm with her afghan blanket, the crackling fire and Darius’s closeness as outside the cold November wind blew, rattling the leaded glass windows.
She was getting close to her due date, and happier than she’d ever imagined.
The nursery was ready. She’d been overjoyed to discover that her great-grandmother’s precious fresco hadn’t been completely destroyed. A well-known art restorer had managed to bring a good portion of it back to life. The ducks and geese were far fewer in number, and the Bavarian village mostly gone, but the little goose girl no longer looked so sad. It was a joy to see it again, and though Darius pretended to mock it and roll his eyes as he called it “art,” she knew he was happy for her.
The nursery was the most beautiful room in the house, in Letty’s opinion, the place where she’d slept as a baby, as had her mother and her grandfather before. It was now freshly painted and decorated, with a crib and rocking chair and brand-new toys. All they needed was the baby.
“Soon,” she whispered aloud, rubbing her enormous belly. “Very soon.”
“Talking to the baby again?” Darius teased.
Holding up a tattered copy of a beloved children’s book, she responded archly, “I’m just going to read him this story.”
His dark eyebrows lifted. “Again?”
“The pregnancy book said...”
“Oh, have you read a pregnancy book?”
Letty’s lips quirked. Her constant consultation of pregnancy books and blogs was a running joke between them. But as a first-time mother and an only child, she had little experience with children and was anxious to do it right.
“It’s been scientifically proven,” she informed him now, “that a baby can hear, and therefore obviously listen to stories, from the womb.”
He rolled his eyes, then put his large hand tenderly on her belly. “Don’t worry, kid,” he said in a whisper. “I have something to read you that I know you’ll find way more interesting than the bunny story.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” she said, amused.
“Absolutely.” Turning back to his laptop, he clicked a few buttons and then started reading aloud, with mock seriousness, the latest business news from overseas.
Now she was the one to roll her eyes. But she found Darius’s low, deep voice soothing, even when he was describing boring tech developments. Sipping orange spice herbal tea, she nibbled on the sugar cookies she’d made earlier that
afternoon. She’d been eating so much lately she felt nearly as big as a house herself.
But Darius didn’t seem to mind. Her cheeks grew hot as she recalled how he’d made love to her all over the house. Even the bathrooms—those with showers, at least. Almost forty rooms.
“We have to make this house ours,” he’d growled, and she’d loved it.
Now as she felt his gentle hand resting on her belly, she grew drowsy listening to his low voice reading news stories to their baby and punctuating them with exclamations when he felt the baby kick.
“Letty,” Darius said in a low voice, “are you awake?”
“Barely.” She yawned. “I was just going to head up to bed. Why?”
He was quiet for a long moment, then said quietly, “Never mind. It’ll wait. Good night, agape mou.”
The next morning, she kissed Darius goodbye as he left for lower Manhattan, as was his usual schedule Monday through Thursday. He’d set up an office for a new business he was excited about, to create software that would teach math and coding skills. Each day, Darius hired more employees, paying for their salaries out of his own pocket. There hadn’t been any profits. “And there might never be any,” he’d confessed sheepishly. But he wanted to make a difference in the world.
She’d never been so proud of him. He had a new spark in his eyes as he left Fairholme for his ninety-minute commute to the office.
Letty went up to the nursery, her favorite room, to fold all the cute tiny baby clothes one more time and make sure everything was ready. She’d had a dull ache in her lower back all morning. She went down to the kitchen, intending to ask Mrs. Pollifax if she knew of any natural remedy for back pain.
Instead she found the housekeeper crying.
“What’s wrong?” Letty cried, going up to her in the enormous, gleaming kitchen. “What’s happened?”
“My friend.” The woman wiped her eyes with the edge of her apron. “He’s dying.”
“I’m so sorry,” Letty whispered.
Mrs. Pollifax’s eyes looked at her accusingly. “You should be. Since it’s your own father.”
Letty stared at her in shock. For a long minute, she couldn’t even make sense of the words.
“I’m sorry—I can’t be silent any longer,” the housekeeper said. “Whatever caused you to be estranged from him, you’re wrong to let him die alone. You’ll regret it the rest of your life!”
