“Ava, I don’t like this distance between us.”
“I didn’t put it there.”
“How can I make it up to you?”
“You can’t, Christos. There was only one way to prove you trusted me.”
“Mama?”
“Yes, Theo?”
“Watch this.”
“I am watching.”
She looked away from Christos to stare at Theo. But what she saw was the fact that her son used to be afraid of the water and being here with Christos had changed that. Being with Christos had changedthem.She’d always been afraid of who she was, but Christos had given her the strength to be herself.
“Theo, enough for today. I have to go back to work.”
“Ok,Baba.”
Theo swam to the side where Christos was and hugged him. Ava lifted him out of the pool. Theo hugged her and then ran to the poolside table where Maria had placed lemonade and snacks.
Christos got out of the pool and stood next to her. It was the closest they’d been since their fight. “I can teach our son not to fear water,moro mou, but I don’t know how to teach you to trust me. I know that you can’t see past what I did, but the reasons were more complex than just your trust.”
“Your father told me. Tried to take the blame for the test.”
Christos shook his head. “I ordered the test, I did that. But I haven’t looked at the results, and I won’t.”
Ava felt the first chink of doubt in her resolve that his forcing the test was a bad idea. She watched him walk away, seeing for the first time that they both had to trust each other. She had to believe in him when he made promises to her, and she hadn’t.
Christos spentthe next two days at the office trying to tell himself that he didn’t need a close relationship with Ava to be happy. But he missed her. He wanted her back in his bed. At night when he came home to tuck Theo in he’d prompt the boy for stories about his mother so he could find out how she was doing.
God, he was pitiful.
The love he wasn’t sure he felt for her was now seeming more and more real. He ached to have her back in his bed, not just so they could make love, but also so they could talk about the day.
He knew only one person who’d been in love, who knew what real heartbreak was. And though he’d always been careful to keep his emotions private, he had nowhere else to turn. Life with Ava couldn’t continue this way.
He left Theo’s room and walked down the hall to his study. The room was filled with items he’d collected and had at one time been a sanctuary for him, but no longer. Now it just seemed so much emptier than it ever had before.
He dialed Tristan’s number before he could change his mind and without calculating the time difference from Mykonos to Manhattan.
“Theakis, it’s the middle of the day here.”
“I’m sorry, this couldn’t wait.”
“What’s the matter? Is it Theo or Ava?”
“It’s…ah, hell, Tristan, I’ve screwed things up with Ava. You said something on our wedding day about women’s dreams…and I’ve never really understood what she wants from me.”
“Ask her.”
“What?”
“Ask her. She’ll tell you what her dreams are and then you can fulfill them.”
He knew what Ava wanted and realized he’d backed himself into a corner. “She wants me to love her and trust her.”
