by Amy Andrews
He nodded. “In the flesh.”
Yes. She could see that. And man...he had great flesh.
“You’re looking well,” he said.
Kelsey’s lips twisted. What he meant was, you’re looking well - considering. Considering all that had happened. “Well, we commoners don’t have the luxury of wallowing in our misery. We have to pick ourselves up and make a living.”
It was harsh and a little cruel but, right now, she was too flummoxed to check herself. And she didn’t owe him anything.
He grunted, his mouth grim. “I guess I deserve that.”
Damn straight he did. “What are you doing here?”
It was supposed to be a demand but it came out all shaky and breathy and that really pissed Kelsey off. She needed her anger now. She really needed it. Because it was patently freaking obvious to her that she’d gone and done the worst thing possible. She’d fallen in love with the man.
Shit. Damn. Fuck.
When he’d been on the other side of the world, it had been easy to fool herself she felt nothing other than some very understandable resentment towards him. But with him here and so close she could take three steps and touch him, she couldn’t deny what her gut, her soul, her heart already knew - she was in love with Ari Callisthenes.
Double, triple, quadruple fuck.
“I live here now.”
Kelsey blinked. Oh dear Lord – this day was just getting wackier. “What!?” she squeaked. She actually squeaked. “But... what about your job?”
She didn’t know where that had come from considering it was way down on the list of what-the-fuck questions crowding her mind. Maybe it was just the least fraught?
“All I need is a laptop and an internet connection.”
He shrugged dismissively as if that’s all anyone required in life. “I...don’t understand.” She didn’t understand any of it. Her brain seemed to be broken.
“Look...I know I screwed things up between us and that you probably don’t trust me and I don’t blame you. But I’m not that guy. I’m not Eric. And I want a second chance. I’ve thought about nothing but you in the past few months and I want a chance to make it up to you.”
Oh god. This was all too much. Kelsey was still stuck back at the beginning to unpack the rest. “Wait...you live here.”
He nodded. “At the caravan park.”
The caravan park? Aristotle Callisthenes, Greek gazillionaire was slumming it in a caravan park? Sure, it was a great little amenity but...it was no villa on Mykonos.
“I...” Kelsey, vaguely aware the hose was still running and she was now standing in a puddle, shook her head. “I don’t know what to say.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You don’t have to say anything. Not yet. I’m going to go now, let you...absorb it all. I just wanted you to know that you’re not transition woman and I’m going to stay here until I prove it to you. Christe, I’ll stay here forever if that’s what you want.”
He walked towards her then and Kelsey shrunk closer to the house but he didn’t stop until he was standing in front of her.
Close enough to hear the frantic beat of her heart, surely?
Pulling his hand out of his pocket, he opened a blue cocktail umbrella and handed it over. Blue. The same colour umbrella that has started it all.
“Thank you,” he said, “thank you for breathing life into me again.”
And then he turned and left, leaving her open-mouthed and confused, standing in a grassy puddle with a cheap paper umbrella.
She wasn’t transition woman. He wanted a second chance. He lived here now. He’d live here forever if that’s what she wanted.
Hot tears scaled her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. Tears she’d kept in check for three months. But now she loved him and he was living here.
God damn it. How dare he? Things like this didn’t happen to someone like her. She wasn’t Cinderella. How dare he wave ridiculous possibilities in front of her face - now.
When she was settled and happy. When she was content with her life and her lot.
How dare he come here and fuck with her head.
It took about two point five seconds for all of Pelican Cove to know about the rich, Greek shipping magnate living at the caravan park. The whole town was alive with gossip and Ari put her right in the centre of it the next day.
Striding into the Pelican’s Belly he looked bronzed and sexy and so damn exotic with his, “Kalimera,” greeting that everyone stopped what they were doing and gaped.
“Oh my,” Janice whispered under her breath as Kelsey glanced up from cursing the ancient coffee machine that had more quirks than evolution.
“Ari.” She glared at him. “I’m busy. What do you want?”
Janice, the owner of the Pelican’s Belly, frowned at Kelsey’s rudeness but Ari just smiled. “Coffee. Black. Strong. No sugar.”
She tipped a chin at a table by the window. “Sit.”
He didn’t detain her, just took the seat she’d indicated and inspected the view. Janice and the three women in the line behind Ari, tracked his path. Kelsey rolled her eyes. She’d barely slept a wink last night knowing he was in town – for her - and here he was after a night in a caravan looking cool as a freaking cucumber.
Paula was up next and Kelsey served her. “Hi Paula, the usual?” The harried woman nodded as Kelsey wrote down the order for a cappuccino. “How’s Jaidyn?”
“He’s just gone on the public waiting list for a proper wheelchair with all the bells and whistles. Modifying the car wiped us out. Fingers crossed it won’t be too long but it could be up to two years.”
Jaidyn had been born with cerebral palsy. He couldn’t walk or talk but was a happy little boy, always smiling despite the difficulties caused by his disability and the pain of his severe scoliosis. His current wheelchair was a basic model, not the highly specialised, very expensive contraption he needed.
“Still, we’re luckier than some,” she said, giving a bright smile and happily standing aside for the next customer.
Kelsey gave a more than willing Janice Ari’s drink to take over. He cocked an eyebrow at her across the room but he chatted pleasantly with Janice who arrived back rosy cheeked.
“So,” she said, her voice sotto voce. “He says he’s here to woo you.”
“Oh really.” Kelsey threw another glare in his direction.
“He’s pretty dreamy.” She nudged Kelsey. “I’d let him woo me.”
A grunt pushed against Kelsey’s vocal chords but she suppressed it. She didn’t know why he was here but one thing was for sure - rich Greek billionaires did not woo small town Aussie women from buttfuck nowhere. She wasn’t that woman on the ship and Pelican Cove was not Mykonos.
They’d been in a bubble and it had well and truly burst.
When he was finished, he brought his cup over and handed her another cocktail umbrella. This one was yellow.
“I give you a month,” she said even as a little corner of her heart melted.
He just smiled and walked away.
Much to her dismay, the man lasted a month. Then he lasted two. Two months of coming into the cafe every day, leaving her umbrellas, running into her on the beach or at the grocery store.
But it was worse than that. In two months he’d paid for Jaidyn’s wheelchair, had a new coffee machine installed in the cafe and given the local council the money to erect a completely new jetty.
Not only was he everywhere but he was a bloody hero to everyone. They’d be throwing him a goddamn parade soon.
Worse still was the speculation. About her and Ari. The whispers and the nudges and the advice. She’d heard they were even running a book on how long it would take for them to get together at the local pub.
It was madness and it had to stop.
He needed to go back home. She wasn’t in the market for a guy or for screwing her life up again. Yeah, she loved him. But she didn’t trust herself or her instincts, anymore. And she’d rather be alone the rest of her li
fe than go through another soul crushing disappointment.
She was done with love. And rich, sexy Greek men could just move along.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ari was on the beach. It was windy and a line of thundery clouds swelled up from the horizon. He’d just completed a meeting with the mayor over the new jetty and was passing time skipping stones while he waited for the Pelican’s Belly to open.
He had to be back at the beach in half an hour to meet with the head of the company that had been engaged to build the jetty. By the time the cafe opened he should have just enough time to slip in for his daily coffee fix and get back to the beach in time for the meeting.
Actually, who was he trying to kid? He was going for his daily fix of Kelsey.
It had nearly killed him to take this slow. He knew she didn’t think he’d last. That he’d get sick of the chase and give up. And that was his fault because his actions – his lying - had only compounded her trust issues. So, he was taking it slow. Rebuilding her trust. Proving to her he wasn’t like Eric. That he didn’t want anything from her and he wasn’t going to cut and run.
Proving he was a stayer. Proving himself worthy.
He had to try anyway. Because she may look at him like whatever they’d shared was dead but she hadn’t asked him to leave, either. She hadn’t told him to forget it and ordered him back to Greece and he was clinging to that, hoping it meant something.
Like maybe there was still a spark. One he could fan with his patience and his presence and his persistence. Because he’d already lost one great love, he wasn’t going to lose another. Not because he hadn’t tried hard enough, anyway.
He was here for the long haul. For whatever it took.
“Ari?”
Ari turned at his name and smiled at Gail, Kelsey’s mother. They’d already met and spoken on a few different occasions. She’d been cool but polite and Ari was in no doubt Gail knew all the sordid details of his and Kelsey’s back story.
Naturally she was on team Kelsey, which meant he had to woo Gail, as well. And he was totally here for that.
“A storm’s coming,” she said as she approached with her cane.
“Looks like it,” he agreed.
“I don’t usually see you about so early.”
“I’m meeting with the mayor and the builder.” He tipped his chin at the jetty. “About the new plans.”
Gail smiled. “You’ve been very generous.”
Ari shrugged. “What’s the use of having money if you can’t spread some joy with it?”
“Plenty wouldn’t.”
He grinned. “They don’t know what they’re missing.”
Seeing Jaidyn’s mother cry with happiness and his father break down had been incredibly humbling. Not hearing Kelsey curse as she made coffee was an added bonus.
“You must miss home?” Gail asked. “It’s been a while.”
Ari wasn’t sure if this was a test but he wanted to pass it anyway. “Home is where the heart is.”
“And your heart is here?”
He nodded. “It is.”
“You love her?”
“I do.”
Ari hadn’t been sure when he’d hightailed it out of Greece. He hadn’t even dared to hope. He just knew he had to see Kelsey, had to find out. It had taken him a week to track her down and a couple more weeks to organise and manage his absence, but the second he’d laid eyes on her, her feet in a puddle, her hair in a messy, windswept ponytail, he’d known.
Like he had with Talia.
It was like all the pieces of his heart that had been ripped apart suddenly all clicked back into place.
He was in love with Kelsey.
Ari knew what love felt like. He knew the deep, abiding constancy of it, the certainty of it, the rightness of it.
He’d just been too burned, too destroyed by it three years ago to trust its embrace again.
You think we only get one go at this?
His grandfather’s question had ripped the blinkers from his eyes and the chains from his heart. He had thought that, yes. Despite every well meaning friend and relative telling him love would come again. Despite the evidence all around him that people loved more than once.
Maybe he’d just needed to hear it from someone who understood grief. Or maybe he’d just been ready to hear it this time.
“You hurt her.”
Ari heaved in a heavy breath. “I did. And for that I am eternally sorry. But I promise you, Gail, if she gives me a second chance, I will spend the rest of my life making it up to her.”
Gail nodded slowly, her lips pursed. “She’s been hurt before. She doesn’t trust easily.”
“I know. And I haven’t helped the situation. But...I’m not Eric, Gail.”
Ari didn’t want to sound desperate or try and ingratiate himself with Kelsey’s mother behind her back. He just wanted to assure Gail that his intentions were honourable.
She nodded slowly. “I know.”
A wave of relief washed over Ari. He knew what other people thought of him shouldn’t matter. But this was Kelsey’s mother - the most important person in the life of the woman he loved. Of course it mattered. “Thank you.”
“Don’t make me regret it.”
Ari put his hand on his heart. “I won’t.”
“Shall we go and get coffee?”
Ari smiled. “An excellent idea.” He held out his elbow like he’d seen Kelsey do and Gail grabbed hold, following a pace behind.
Kelsey breathed a sigh of relief as Ari took his coffee, bade everyone goodbye and left. Seeing her mother walk in on his arm had been a real punch to the gut. Kelsey knew he was just assisting her but they were laughing and chatting like old friends and she’d felt a sudden spike of jealousy at their ease with each other.
She still felt awkward around him, a squall of feelings descending upon her every time he was near. Hot and itchy. Angry and sad. And so damn horny she could barely see straight.
Honestly, the man oozed sex wherever he existed and it was getting harder to deny just how much she wanted to tear his clothes off.
He’d handed over another paper umbrella and smiled at her as he’d left like he knew exactly how horny she was and that made her even itchier. She tossed the umbrella in the rubbish but Janice, as per usual, fished it out. Apparently her boss had taken a liking to kitschy crap if the number of umbrellas taped to things in the cafe was any indication.
Janice sighed as they all watched Ari cross the road and greet three men. “If you don’t say yes to that man, I will.”
Three other women in the café said, “Me too,” in unison.
“And me,” her mother agreed, chiming in just after.
Her mother. “What the hell, mum?”
“What? I’m not that blind. And besides...I like him.”
Kelsey shoved her hands on her hip. “You liked Eric.”
Her mother opened her mouth to reply but Janice got in ahead of her. “Honey, it’s not like you’ve got any money the man can steal.”
Kelsey’s jaw clenched. She loved living in Pelican Cove but the disadvantages of being in a small town – like everybody knowing your business - were sometimes glaring.
“Hell, that man doesn’t need to steal money,” one of the customers piped up, “he’s been throwing it around ever since he got here.”
Yes, he bloody well had.
Red lashed Kelsey’s vision. Okay. Enough. This had to end. She whipped her apron off, snatched up the cocktail umbrella and said, “I’m taking five.”
No one stopped her, in fact nobody said anything, but Kelsey knew without having to look there’d be several noses pressed to the window of the cafe as she stalked across the road to the beach.
“Ari,” Kelsey snapped as her feet hit the sand and she stomped towards the four men standing in a huddle about ten metres from the old jetty. They were peering at what appeared to be architectural plans but all four heads turned in her direction.
Kelsey wasn’t concerne
d that three guys she’d never seen in her life were going to be bystanders to her fury but she did make a mental note not to kill Ari in front of witnesses.
“Kelsey?”
Ari excused himself from the group and met her half way. At least with the wind blowing in from the ocean, his companions might not hear the half dozen F words that were already forming on her tongue. Her mother and everyone at the Pelican’s Belly behind her, however, would hear them loud and clear.
“Stop it,” she hissed at Ari as he drew to a halt. “Just stop it.”
The wind whipped her hair back and plastered her t-shirt against her breasts and, as suspected, snatched her words away. He heard them though, she could tell from the set of his jaw.
“Kelsey.”
His voice was calm and reasoned and the itch under her skin intensified. He looked so goddamn cool. But also really freaking hot in his standard Pelican Bay uniform of board shorts and t-shirt - fitting him in all the right places.
She wanted to push him down in the sand and impale herself on him.
Jesus. Her hormones were out of control.
“Stuff like this doesn’t happen to women like me,” she said, lowering her voice as far as she could but still be heard over the noise of the wind.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Stuff like what?”
“Like Greek billionaires moving into caravan parks for me. I don’t fit in to your world, Ari.”
“When we were in Mykonos, you said you could live there.”
Kelsey blinked. Was he mad? “It was wishful thinking.” She yelled this time but...Jesus, was he serious? She’d never in a million years have thought it was possible. “It was a fantasy. Wishing for something and having it actually come true are two very different things.”
“Why not?” he demanded. “Why can’t it happen?”
“Because I’m not fucking Cinderella and this isn’t a fairy tale. It’s real life.”
“You don’t believe in happily ever after?”
After Eric? No. And how did he, after Talia? “I believe in not punching above my weight. I’ve already had one guy promise me the world. Promise to make me rich and spoil me with first class trips and diamonds. I’m perfectly okay with not getting on that train again.”
