“Yes, I am. And if my sisters are to be believed I’m very good at helping with problems.”
She was tempted. For the longest time she’d been on her own, handling her problems by herself. But she had no ideahow to handle Ari. Standing up to him just made him more belligerent. Backing down made him gloat.
“Thanks for the offer, but this is something I think I should handle on my own.”
Gui nodded. “If you change your mind, the offer is open.”
“Thank you. I hope that Christos knows what a good friend you are.”
“I remind him of it often,” he said in that teasing way of his, but she was sure that he didn’t have to.
The bond between the three men was closer than one between blood brothers. “How long have you known Christos?”
“Since we were ten.”
“That long?”
“Yes. We met at school.”
“Boarding school, right?”
Gui nodded. She took a deep breath, aware that she wasn’t fooling him by talking about the past. She sat down on the loveseat under the window that looked over the sparkling blue water of the Aegean. “I don’t know how to make Ari accept me.”
Gui sat down next to her, putting his arm along the back of the loveseat. “Why would you want to?”
She looked into his diamond-hard eyes and tried to find the words to tell him how out of place she felt here on Mykonos and with Christos. But this strong, confident man would never be able to comprehend that, and she felt even less worthy of being a Theakis bride.
Christos wasn’t havingthe best day. Two of the ships that they used to import goods from Asia were in quarantine and he couldn’t find one official who would take a call from him to tell him what was going on. Hector, the man who was supposed tobe in charge of these types of crises, was at the hospital with his wife, who was giving birth to their first child.
A text message from Theo had come in via Tristan’s phone just minutes after he was told that he wouldn’t be able to get an answer on the quarantine for another hour. So lunch with Theo and his friends was about the only thing he could do.
He pulled the Ferrari into the circle drive in front of the main house and got out. Antonio was waiting for him in the foyer with a drink and a look that said there was trouble brewing.
“Do I even want to know what’s going on?”
“Probably not,” Antonio said. “Your father is in conference with the designer he hired to make Ava’s wedding dress. From what Maria told me, Ava wants a dress that is nothing like what your father ordered.”
“Tell the designer to give Ava what she asked for.”
“Your father is refusing to pay for it.”
“I’ll take care of it. In fact, let’s get the old man out of the planning process. Please tell Ava that she is in charge of the wedding.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Where is she?”
“Upstairs. Master Theo is on the terrace with Tristan.”
“Good. Tell them I’ll join them in a few minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
Antonio walked away and Christos went upstairs to find Ava. The sitting room was empty so he went to her suite and knocked on the door. He heard the rumble of Gui’s voice.
He wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions. Yeah, right. What the hell was Gui doing in Ava’s rooms?
Christos opened the door to the room and walked in as if he owned the place. Ava and Gui both stood up as he entered. He spared a hard glare for his friend and wrapped his arm around Ava’s waist, pulling her into his body.
