"She has trust issues and I have no intention of adding to it." His hands came up to clasp her shoulders. "I will send Lori in to talk to her and then I want to be with her. If it takes the rest of my life, I'm going to show her what it is to be completely and irrevocably loved."
Leaning down, he brushed his lips on her cheeks. "If I haven't said it enough, thank you for loving us the way you and dad do. It's a privilege."
Tears burned her eyes. "How can we do anything else?" She laid a palm on his cheek. "We will love her because she belongs to you, but we're starting to love her for herself. We will also show her what it means to belong to a family."
"I know." He said softly.
*****
Leanne's eyes flickered open and she stared in surprise at the woman seated at her bedside.
"Hi."
"Hi. You look a lot better."
Leanne laughed wryly and eased herself up on the pillows. "You're a lousy liar. I look like hell."
"A little bit. I brought you a bar of chocolate. I don't know if I told you the horrible craving I had for it. I used to wake Andreas up in the middle of the night to forage in the kitchen." Lori laughed as she handed it to Leanne. "Poor thing. His eyes would struggle to open, but he was very careful not to complain."
"Mine ranges from grapes to pickles and the oddest thing, peanuts. Honey, I never liked peanuts normally. Now I'm over all of that. Now I want ice cream. Double chocolate chip, which is bad, because I already look like an elephant." She bit into the bar and closed her eyes in delight. "Thanks."
"So, where is Christos and why did he send you?"
"I came of my own volition. I wanted to see how you were doing." She smiled at Leanne. "And to tell you a story."
The pleasure in the chocolate bar waned. "He told you about my crying jag."
Lori nodded. Stretching her legs out, she rearranged the chic cashmere sweater dress over highly polished boots.
"I was like you when I started going out with Andreas. There I was trying to ignore the fact that I was wildly attracted to my boss, my very rich boss. I was from a very dysfunctional home. Mother died when I was three and father a habitual drunk and a very unpleasant one."
"I left home when I turned eighteen and scraped and lived in my car for a few months. The job at Kostas meant a lot to me because of the compensation package and I wasn't going to do anything to spoil it. I was finally independent, finally digging myself from that hole."
She smiled whimsically. "But the attraction became stronger and it wasn't one-sided. Oh, he fought valiantly too, but it was more than us. When we realized it was inevitable, he took me to meet his family and I panicked." She chuckled wryly.
"My father was a drunk and had started to come around asking for money. I finally told Andreas, expecting him to end things with me, but he didn't. And he told his family everything. I expected them to encourage him to leave me, but they rallied around me."
She leaned forward. "My dad was a pretty nasty piece of work, and he embarrassed me over and over again. But the Kostas stood by me. He came to my wedding and caused a scene, but they took it in stride and took him into a room to cool off and get sober."
"When he was diagnosed with liver cancer, they foot the bill and paid for the nursing home. They did all of that for me." Tears glistened in her beautiful eyes. "If I never loved them before that day, it would have been hard not to love them then."
She took Leanne's hand in hers. "They will fight for you my dear. As long as they know their sons love you, they will fight with their very last breath. Family is not only blood and sometimes the ones we marry into are better than our biological ones."
"He loves you. I've seen the way he looks at you. Christos has never looked at another woman that way." She squeezed Leanne's hand. "It's a gift, one you should embrace."
Leanne turned her head away, the tears burning the back of her eyes.
"I never used to cry. It was never allowed in my household. I was expected to suck it up and soldier on. Not even when I broke my arm climbing a tree in the back yard. I had to bite back the tears."
She turned to look at Lori, her smile tremulous. "Since meeting him, I've cried more than I ever did growing up. I'm not used to all of this. The support from family, the obvious unfettered love. I was never hugged; they never ever told me they loved me."
She bit her lip. "I convinced myself that it didn't matter, but it did." She pressed her free hand over her stomach. "I was afraid that I would make a lousy mom, but I won't." She shook her head. "Not with a man like Christos."
"I know he hurts for me; I can see it on his face. But I don't want him to bear that burden on my behalf."
"He will because that's what they do." Lori squeezed her hand again. "Just put him out of his misery and marry the poor sod."
Leanne grinned, feeling lighter than she had in days. "I already decided to."
