Chapter 13
13
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 before his next meeting.
The Pelican’s Belly should open soon, allowing him to grab his coffee fix and be back in time to meet with the head of the company that had been engaged to build the jetty.
Coffee fix… Who was he trying to kid? He was going for his daily Kelsey fix.
It had nearly killed him to take it 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 backstory.
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 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 café 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 hips. ‘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 café 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 concerned 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 halfway. 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 and 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.’
‘Except he was a fraud.’ Ari’s eyes glittered as he pointed at his chest. ‘I’m the real deal.’
Kelsey gave a hysterical laugh. ‘Exactly,’ she yelled. ‘I don’t know how to be a rich guy’s girlfriend. All I know is how to work hard and scrimp and save. I know how to struggle.’
She wasn’t lying. She had no idea how to rub shoulders with the wealthy. And it terrified her.
‘Jesus, Kelsey.’ Ari shoved his hand through his hair, driving some calm into the wind-blown mass. ‘I’m sorry I’m rich. Most women would see that as a plus.’
‘Not this woman.’
He smiled grudgingly. ‘I’ve noticed.’
‘What if your family thinks I’m some kind of gold digger?’
Surely they cared about her pedigree? Kelsey had googled Talia, and her grandfather had been knighted by the Queen for services to Her Majesty. Her father had been high up in the British intelligence services.
Kelsey’s father had been a truck driver.
‘My family are going to love you. As much as I do. Because you brought me back to life. And that’s all they’re going to care about.’
As much as I do . Kelsey blinked, the air in her lungs suddenly as heavy as the sand beneath her feet. Oh God . ‘You love me?’
His hand fell to his side and he took a couple of paces towards her. Kelsey knew she should take two paces back, but her legs wouldn’t move.
‘Yes,’ he said, his voice just above a whisper, but she heard him loud and clear. ‘I love you, Kelsey Armitage.’
She shut her eyes, shut him out as her body reeled. It couldn’t be true. ‘Why?’ she demanded, her throat raw as tears threatened.
Why would he fall for her when he could probably have just about any woman in the world?
‘I don’t know – dopamine, endorphins? Whatever crazy chemical reactions happen in a body when it falls in love. And because you’re you . But I know this feeing, Kelsey.’ He took another pace forward and his hands slid onto her upper arms. ‘I’ve been here before and I know exactly what is. And it’s not a transition thing. It’s the real deal. Don’t you remember it too?’
She shook her head. She may have loved Eric, but not like this . She’d been nineteen and it had been fun and exciting and, she realised now, totally superficial. She’d been in love with being in love and he’d been dashing and older and he’d picked her .
This thing with Ari was bone deep and… she’d picked him .
Which was what probably scared her the most. She’d never recover if he suddenly got sick of her quaint peasant charms. And how would it even work? He surely couldn’t stay here forever, and she couldn’t leave her mother again – not after seven years away and her eyesight deteriorating so rapidly.
Kelsey shrugged out of his hold and his hands slipped away as she took a step back. ‘I don’t want this, Ari. I’m sorry.’ She blinked rapidly to dispel the pressure she could feel building behind her eyes. ‘I just don’t.’
He stared at her for long moments, his jaw growing tighter. ‘ Malakies ,’ he said. ‘I don’t think that’s true.’ His voice was taut with control. ‘I think if it was true you would have asked me to leave Pelican Cove two months ago. You know the one word I haven’t heard from you, Kelsey?’ He gave her a beat before he enlightened her. ‘ Leave .’
Kelsey frowned. That couldn’t be true, surely? She’d been putting him off and pushing him away since he got here. She must have told him to go. She racked her brain for that memory.
But… she hadn’t. She hadn’t asked him to leave .
‘If you don’t love me then all you have to do is tell me to leave. Send me away. Because I won’t ’ – he growled the word – ‘do it voluntarily. You want me to leave? Then you have to tell me to go.’
Kelsey’s legs trembled as they fought to hold her up. It all seemed so simple – why hadn’t she just told him to leave?
Because she didn’t want him to. She couldn’t even bear the thought. Seeing him every day had been a special kind of hell. But not seeing him every day was going to be worse.
Oh God.
The urge to cry rode her like a demon, but Kelsey hung on to her pride with her fingernails. This was for the best. Pulling in a ragged breath, she fished in her pocket and pulled out the cocktail umbrella, her hands shaking. ‘Go,’ she whispered, slapping it against his chest. ‘ Leave. ’
Then she turned on her heel and walked away.
* * *
Kelsey was weary to her bootstraps by the time they shut up the Pelican’s Belly for the day. Emotional exhaustion hung around her neck, dragging her down as heavy as the storm clouds overhead. She’d decided to walk home, the weather matching her mood perfectly, the wind cool and welcoming against her too-hot, too-tight skin.
She wished she could shed it. Shed everything from these last few months and become a whole new person. Start again.
Start anew.
Ari would be leaving. If he hadn’t already. She’d seen it in his face when he’d goaded her to say the words. And seen it in his eyes when she’d said them. And felt it in his stare as she’d turned and walked away.
She took a deep breath. It was okay, she could do it. She had been doing it. And this feeling, this ache, got better. Eventually. She just had to get past those first horrible days and weeks and months all over again. Restart the clock on the emotional work she’d already done when she’d first returned to Australia.
It would ease. It just took time.
Her head and her heart were so full of turmoil, Kelsey actually strode straight past the access to the cottage and she had to backtrack a little. Walking through the track between the Casuarina trees, Kelsey made a detour to the hammock tied between two sturdy gum trees in the yard. The threatening rain was holding off and it gave good swing and a great view of the water through the tree trunks.
And it was preferable to going inside and talking to her mother. Sure, she’d been very circumspect and supportive at the café when Kelsey had come back after her confrontation with Ari. But Kelsey had known she was busting to say something and she just didn’t want to deal with it right now.
It lasted about five minutes before her phone rang. Kelsey sighed and answered. ‘Hi, Mum.’
‘Are you on your way home? We need milk.’
‘Sorry, just got home. I walked. I’m in the hammock.’
Her mother hung up and Kelsey watched as she came out of the house and picked her way carefully across the grass. She was familiar enough with the yard not to need her cane, but her steps were careful.
‘You okay?’ her mother asked as she groped for the edge of the hammock.
‘Yeah.’ Kelsey nodded. ‘Or I will be, anyway.’
‘Oh, darling.’ Her mother’s hand slid on to her leg. ‘I’m sorry.’
Kelsey shrugged. ‘ Que será, será .’
Her mother didn’t respond for a moment and they were both quiet as a kookaburra laughed in the distance. ‘He’s not Eric, you know.’
‘Yeah.’ Kelsey nodded. ‘I know.’ And she did know.
‘Eric left and didn’t come back. This guy travelled halfway around the world for you. Stayed for you. Fixed up your town for you. Don’t blow something good because of something that happened a long time ago.’
Kelsey rolled her head from side to side. ‘It’s not that, Mum.’
‘Then what is it? You’re in love with him. And I know he’s in love with you so what’s holding you back? And you better not say me.’
‘No.’ Kelsey glanced at her mother. ‘It’s not you. But… can you imagine him wanting to live here, with us? Forever?’
‘So go and live there.’
‘Mum…’ Kelsey sighed. ‘I’m not going to take off and live in a palace in Greece while you go blind in a tiny cottage with a leaky roof, banging around with your cane.’
Her mother laughed. ‘What a delightful picture you paint.’
Kelsey shoved a hand through her hair. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean?—’
‘It’s okay, Kels.’ Her mother smiled. ‘I know what you meant. But I absolutely cannot be a consideration here. All that stuff about where you’ll live and what to do with your old blind mum are all bridges that can be crossed. But giving up because of them? Using them as an excuse ? Kelsey… when did you start believing you didn’t deserve to be loved by a man like your dad loved me?’
Hot tears scaled Kelsey’s eyes. She didn’t remember her dad very well. But she did remember the love. ‘But Mum… He’s the prince and I’m?—’
‘Cinderella?’ She made a dismissive gesture. ‘You know she got the prince, right?’
God no, if only . ‘No, Mum. I’m the stable mouse who gets turned into a horse. And guess what? It’s after midnight.’
Her mother made an impatient noise. ‘Do you love him, Kelsey?’
She nodded, more miserable than she’d ever been in her life. ‘Yes.’ Her throat burned with the truth of it.
‘Then that’s all that matters.’ She shook her daughter’s leg. ‘Kels, don’t you know you’re the author of your own fairy tale? You get to write the ending.’
Sniffling, Kelsey glanced at her mother. ‘Is it really that simple?’
Her mother smiled at her gently. ‘If you want it to be, yes . Why not? You were hurt. But so was he. The man lost a wife and yet he’s still willing to put himself out there again. For you .’
A hot rush of love for Ari swelled in Kelsey’s chest, twisting and lodging in her throat. He loved her. Ari, who had been through a tragedy far more wounding than her own, loved her. Wanted to be with her.
‘I ask again,’ her mother said. ‘Do. You. Love. Him?’
Kelsey couldn’t speak so she nodded, her face threatening to crumple from the emotion. Despite all the pain Ari had been through, he wanted to take the leap. With her.
‘Then go.’ Her mother patted her leg. ‘Write the ending.’
A sudden feeling of absolute certainty descended. Her mother was right. If Ari could take the leap, then surely so could she. She didn’t know how it was all going to work but she needed to take the first step.
Scrambling out of the hammock as quickly as it was possible to scramble out of a fabric cocoon, Kelsey dashed away tears.
‘I’m going to do it.’
Her mother pulled her in for a hug. ‘Good for you.’
‘I hope I’m not too late.’
‘Then run,’ she said. ‘Go get your prince.’
* * *
Kelsey was not a runner but the tide was going out and the sand was packed hard beneath her feet closer to the water, and she ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the caravan park at the far end of the crescent-shaped beach.
She was desperately afraid it was already too late, so much so she barely even registered the rain starting to fall. What would she do if he wasn’t there? Old Kelsey would have taken that as a sign from the universe and left defeated.
This Kelsey, this running Kelsey, would get in her car and do that mad romantic movie airport dash if she had to.
Her heart was hammering and she was a sodden mess and seriously out of breath by the time she stumbled through the beach gate into the caravan park. Despite the town not being very big, the van park was a decent size and Kelsey had no idea where to start.
‘Ari Callisthenes,’ she puffed out to a couple who were drinking wine under the shelter of their canopy.
‘Number twelve,’ the woman said without hesitation, pointing to the left.
Of course the first person she asked would know. His notoriety was such that even visitors to the town knew his name.
Stumbling along to the left, it took Kelsey a few seconds to work out the numbering system but, before she knew it, she was standing outside a small white caravan parked on site twelve. The door was shut and she feared the worst as she bashed on the door and called, ‘Ari! Ari! ’
Bending at the waist and planting her hands on her thighs, Kelsey tried to catch her breath. She was dizzy with exertion and almost sick with dread. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to faint or throw up.
When the door opened to reveal Ari mostly naked apart from a towel – of course – swooning became the obvious choice.
‘Jesus.’ Kelsey stood, her entire body flooding with endorphins, pulsing at the sight of him. He hadn’t left . ‘Do you always answer the door in a goddamn towel?’
He stared at her incredulously, his gaze roving over her sodden clothes and her hair hanging in wet strips and plastered to her face beaded with raindrops. ‘Kelsey? You’re soaked. What are you doing here?’
She didn’t say anything for long moments, mostly because she was still out of breath. ‘I’m writing the ending to my own fairy tale.’
If her statement confused him, he didn’t show it. ‘Am I the prince in this fairy tale?’ When she nodded, he smiled a little. ‘That sounds good.’
It could be. God, it could be . But… love didn’t erase the practicalities and for better or for worse, life had made Kelsey pragmatic. ‘I just… don’t know how this works.’
‘This?’
‘Us.’ His smile got bigger at the us , but she shook her head. This was important. ‘Do we live here, do we live there? I can’t just abandon my mother, Ari. We just got set up here and she loves it and its?—’
‘Kelsey,’ he interrupted, ‘of course, you and your mum are a package deal. And I don’t care where we live. We can live here and I can travel when I need to or we can live in Greece or the UK and your mother can live with us if she wants or only part time if she wants, or we can all go back and forth and live all over the place. I know you’re a package deal, Kelsey. I’ll take the deal. I love you. I want the deal.’
Kelsey smiled. She was still out of breath but she didn’t feel like she was going to throw up any more.
‘I love you too,’ she said, and God… it felt good to say those words. Like something had let go inside her and she was floating free from everything that had tethered her to a life of practicalities and pragmatism. ‘I’m sorry I’ve been so…’
‘Stubborn?’
She gave a half smile. ‘I was going for cowardly.’
‘It’s okay. Good things are always worth the wait.’
His slow grin warmed her all over and for a beat or two they just stood smiling at each other, Kelsey getting wetter and wetter as every little niggle and worry she had about Ari’s wealth and how it was going to work between them melted away.
‘So…’ He cocked an eyebrow. ‘I should stop packing?’
She laughed, feeling positively giddy now. ‘Yes. You should definitely stop packing.’
‘And you should get out of the rain.’
He held out his hand to her and Kelsey moved on wobbly legs to stand in front of him – that towel knot at eye level. With his other hand, he reached for something on the bench near his hip and produced another cocktail umbrella, offering it to her. ‘You ever make love in a caravan?’
Kelsey lost her breath again. Make love . She’d never thought of sex as making love . But she knew without a doubt she was going to spend the rest of her life making love to Ari. She took the umbrella like it was a sacred offering, her heart practically floating out of her chest.
‘Nope,’ she said as she placed her hand in his.
‘Neither have I.’
And he dragged her inside, shut the door and kissed her.