He stepped into a long hallway, and, as she turned to lead him down it, he noticed the swell of her belly. The way her body was rounding made him pull in a breath. An image of the baby on the ultrasound screen whispered through his mind, but he pushed it aside. He had to. The pain was too big to swallow. The thought that he was so close to losing not just Ruby but also this child was too much to think about. “Leave that a moment,” he said as she moved toward an open suitcase in a dimly lit lounge room. “What I’ve come with will change your plans.”
She clasped her small hands in front of her and blew out a breath, the sound like an arrow to his resolve. “I know what you’ve come here to say, Christo.” Determination laced her voice as she shook her head slowly, and another perfect blond ringlet escaped. “You’ve come to try and change the choices I’ve made. You’ll try to convince me that we can make the marriage work, but you’re wrong.” She sat on the edge of an armchair and hugged her body.
“I haven’t come to persuade you to stay with me. I’ve come to give you a choice for your future.” He forced calm into his voice and took the chair opposite. “And whichever option you choose, you’ll have your home back.”
Her lips parted. “What?”
“I’ve talked to my mother and we’ve both signed the house over to you. You can stay. It’ll be solely yours as you’ve always wanted.”
There was silence for a moment before Ruby’s voice wavered. “But wasn’t this all about your mother having to stay in the house? Wasn’t this all about you acquiring her home? We went through with the marriage, living in the house together because there was no other way. What’s changed now?”
Instead of the pain in his chest easing, it was burning sharper, cutting deeper. I’ve changed, he wanted to say. I’ve seen the Ruby I came so close to loving in the past, and I can’t turn my back on you this time. But I have to be sure the choice is yours. He pulled his spine straighter. No matter what she decided, what he was about to say would give Ruby a chance at the life she really wanted. That was all that mattered.
“I’ve always said that my mother would only be happy back in Greece or in your home. But in the last week I’ve realized that she felt so at home in your parents’ house because of the people in it. At first it was your family, then just Antonia. Most recently you. Now Mother wants to be where I am, and I’ve told her that depends on you.”
Ruby’s face paled as she laid a steadying hand on the back of the chair and stood. “Why me?”
His throat burned as the words bled out. “I want you to make the decision about where I’ll live. And there are two options.”
Ruby shook her head in confusion while Christo kept speaking. “The first option involves the fact that I’ve bought the house next door. It’s somewhere Mother knows well and she’ll still have her neighborhood friends. But most importantly it will mean she and I can still be in your baby’s life. We’d be there when you need us, we’d be a part of each other’s lives as we’d planned, but it would give you the space for your own life and your own relationships. That’s choice number one.”
…
Ruby put a hand across her mouth to smother her shock and her grinding disappointment. When Christo had sent the text to say he was coming she’d had the crazy, unwarranted hope that he’d come to persuade her to return to their marriage, and she hadn’t been sure she wouldn’t bend to his wishes.
That treacherous voice in her head had said he’d missed her, that he’d wanted to be with her as something so much more than a convenient wife. Deep in her heart she’d let herself hope that Christo had finally realized he could love her and her baby. She’d hoped that instead of removing himself from her as he’d always done, this time he would stand beside her, ready to face the world together.
But he hadn’t come to do that at all. Despite the look of soft strength in him, he’d come to ask her to open her heart wider. Have him so near her life and yet so far away. It was too cruel to contemplate, but not as cruel as what she guessed her other choice would be. He’d said there was only one other place his mother would be happy—Greece. He was going to move to the other side of the world, and she’d be left with the house and the memories of him in every corner.
From somewhere deep within her a sob worked its way up through her body, growing in size so that it blocked her throat, stung the back of her nose, and made her lungs desperate for breath. She pushed it away. He’d never offered her anything more than what they’d had. It was her own fault that she’d fallen in love with him.
“Ruby, what is it?” Christo stood, and the memory of being wrapped in his protective hug caused her throat to close tighter.
“I know what my second choice is going to be. It’s to have you and your mother move back to Greece, away from me and my baby,” she said as tears began to burn. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised by that. I’ve done exactly what I accused you of doing. When the going got tough I turned and ran instead of facing up to love, looking it straight in the eye and embracing it. And now it’s too late. I don’t know if I can bear living in that house with the memory of everything we shared there.”
“No, it’s not too late.” He moved toward her. His mouth curved upwards and light shined in his face.
With every ounce of strength she could muster, she steadied her voice and squeezed his arm. “Thank you so much, Christo. That you would give up the house for me means so much.” She drew a deeper breath. “I’m sure you’ll find happiness in Greece, and I hope with all my heart that you can be a father one day.” She leaned closer and placed her lips on his, one final time drinking in his marine scent, the warmth of his skin, and the certainty that surrounded everything he did.
As her lips began to tremble, she pulled back and looked deep in his eyes. “You’ll make an incredible father. You have so much to offer a child and so much to offer a woman that you love.”
She looked away, knowing she couldn’t hide the tears that were about to fall. Could her mother have imagined this scene when she’d written her will? That Christo would be giving her the house, or that Ruby’s heart would be breaking for the second time in her life over the loss of Christo Mantazis?
Christo gripped her hand, and she lifted her misting gaze to his. “I feel like the father of your child. And for that reason the second choice is not Greece. I’m not going to turn my back and run from you the way I’ve done in the past. Ruby, I want to be a part of your baby’s life forever.”
Her heart stopped, and she searched his face. “What do you mean?” she whispered.
He squeezed her fingers more firmly. “When I saw my lawyer today, I not only signed my share of the house to you, I also changed my will. This baby will be my sole beneficiary.” He picked up her other hand. “When I saw that baby on the ultrasound screen, when I realized the love you had for him, I realized I loved him, too. Because you’re his mother. And today I realized that I can’t be apart from him or from you. You’ve moved me, Ruby, to look deep inside and face down my hurt pride of ten years ago, and in doing that I’ve found the sort of love I never knew existed.”
“Oh, Christo.” She pulled him close so that his heart beat next to hers, and she buried her face in his neck. “You don’t know what that means to me. For so long I’ve wanted to hear you say you’d love this baby.”
Christo lifted her chin and with aching tenderness kissed her lips. It was the sweetest kiss they’d ever shared, full of trust and understanding.
“What’s the second choice?” she whispered.
“Your second choice is to give me the chance to be everything you want in a husband and father. I want us to be a family, Ruby. I want to grow with you, learn with you, be with you. I want to love you and our baby, but whichever option you choose I want to be near this child forever. I’m done running from love. I’ve found it in you and I’m here to stay. I love you, Ruby Fleming.”
Ruby closed her eyes and let Christo’s beautiful, genuine, heartfelt words wash over her, and then she leaned
closer and kissed him on the mouth. “You came here today to give me what I wanted most in the world,” she said through trembling lips. “And now I have it. I see that you love our baby and me. I see that you trust me, that you’ll stay around, that you’ll face love head-on, and that you want to build a real relationship with me. I love you, Christo. For all you do, for everything you believe in, and for the way you’ve made me feel, I love you. I’ll take the second choice.”
“I love you, too.” Christo wrapped her in his arms and pulled her into a passionate kiss that took her breath away.
Epilogue
Ruby squeezed one eye shut and looked through the camera lens with the other. For a moment, objects in the small square were a fuzzy jumble, but she twisted a ring on the barrel and everything jumped into crisp focus.
A warm glow began inside her as Christo’s rugged jaw, darkened from weekend stubble and damp from pool water, filled the frame. Then, as she moved slightly to the right, the image changed, and her heart swelled in her chest.
Now that strong, masculine face was cheek-to cheek with another—the sweetly grinning face of their beautiful son, Niko. For an exquisite moment she was transfixed by the image of father and son in the water as Christo whispered something in the little boy’s ear, and they both chuckled.
Touched by the unforgettable beauty of the image, Ruby placed the camera on the table beside her, wanting to seal this vision deep in her memory.
“Ela, Niko,” her mother-in-law, Stella, said as she moved to the side of the pool, arms draped in a towel. “Come to Yiayia. I’ve made you some tiropites for tea.”
Ruby smiled as her son lifted his arms to his grandmother, and Christo passed him out of the pool.
“Have a swim, Ruby,” Stella said as she cuddled the little boy tight in the towel. “You must be exhausted after everything you’ve done with Niko today. I’ll tell Diana to serve dinner when he is asleep.”
“Thank you, Stella.” Ruby blew a kiss to her little boy. “Bye-bye, sweetheart. Enjoy your cheese pies. I’ll come and tuck you in.”
Niko planted a kiss in the middle of his chubby palm and threw the kiss back to her. Then he took his grandmother’s hand, and they walked toward the terrace.
Ruby padded barefoot to the side of the pool, basking in the warmth of her husband’s gaze on her bikini-clad body. Christo moved slowly through the water until he reached her at the pool steps. He tilted his chin, and a sexy smile painted his face. “Have I told you how beautiful you look?”
She smiled at the words he’d used every day of their new life, and as had happened each time he’d said them, her body ached to be close to him.
She took the hand he held out to her, and when he squeezed her fingers, a feeling of completeness swept over her. Moving down the pool steps, goose bumps raced across her skin but were banished as Christo drew her close, his strong arms enveloping her. “It’s been too long,” he whispered into her hair.
She placed a kiss at his throat, the tang of chlorine mixing with the warmth of his skin on her lips. “What’s been too long?” She leaned back to look into his face.
“Since I could hold you this close and tell you how much I love you.”
“We made love this morning, sweetheart,” she whispered. “You held me close then. Have you forgotten already?”
“Forgotten?” A smile touched his mouth. “I can remember every single time we’ve made love in the last two years.”
She widened her eyes in pretend surprise. “Every time?”
He leaned down and laid a kiss at the corner of her lips. “From our first time, right up until today. Every place, every minute. Every sensation.”
“That’s a lot to remember,” Ruby teased. She kissed him back while his hands caressed the skin at her shoulders. She decided to tease him further. “Can you pick a favorite time?”
Christo lifted his chin, his eyes narrowed in mock concentration. “The most memorable?”
Ruby held her breath, the joking suddenly forgotten as she wanted to hear which time he’d felt the closest to her, experienced the greatest feeling of love. She wanted to give him that feeling all over again.
“I think it would have to be the time beside the pool,” he said.
Her heart sank a little but she stroked the firm muscles along his arm. “We’ve never made love by the pool.”
“Of course we have.” He pulled her close so her own heart began beating with the rhythm of his. “Don’t you remember that evening when I laid you out on the grass and told you I was the happiest man in the world?” He slid a finger under the strap at her shoulder. “The time you wore that sexy black bikini.”
“No,” she said, and then she saw the glint in his eye grow brighter. “Unless you’re talking about the evening when our beautiful son was inside with his grandmother eating cheese pies.” She slid her own hand around to the top of his swim shorts. “The time you wore those tropical design shorts I love so much.”
“Yes, that was the night,” he said. He cupped her face in his hands and looked deep in her eyes. “That night and every night after.”
With his kiss warm and firm on her mouth, Ruby melted into his embrace, the beauty of their life together filling her soul.
Acknowledgments
When I’m sitting at my writing desk each day I’m never alone. In the background is an incredible team of supporters, cheerleaders and, quite often, bottom kickers, who keep me constantly inspired.
My heartfelt thanks go to:
My editor, Ann Kopchik, whose endless patience and ability to make me dig deeper into my stories is matched only by her very cool hair styles.
Alethea Spiridon-Hopson, for loving this story and waving her wand to grant my publishing wish.
My agent, Nalini Akolekar, whose guidance, skill, and belief in me is appreciated every day.
Mum and Dad, Sally and Leo, who gave me the priceless gift of believing there really are no limits to the imagination. And to Tim and Rose for helping me explore it.
Hayson Manning, Rachel Bailey, and Melissa James, my precious CPs and beautiful friends who have lived and laughed and labored through this writing journey with me.
Robyn Grady for her wisdom, smiles and gorgeous cover quote.
The “Blenheim Girls”: Emily, Iona, Margie, Deborah, Sue, Kate, and Louise, for being there week in, week out.
And finally to my hero-husband, George, and my four beautiful children, thanks for everything you’ve done to help me live my dreams. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze!
About the Author
Barbara DeLeo’s first book, co-written with her best friend, was a story about beauty queens in space. She was eleven, and the sole handwritten copy was lost years ago, much to everyone’s relief. It’s some small miracle that she kept the faith and now lives her dream of writing sparkling contemporary romance with unforgettable characters.
Degrees in English and Psychology, and a career as an English teacher, fueled Barbara’s passion for people and stories, and a number of years living in Europe gave her a love for romantic settings.
Discovering she was having her second set of twins in two years, Barbara knew she must be paying penance for being disorganized in a previous life and was determined to get it right this time. It’s amazing what being housebound with four preschoolers will do for the imagination, and she decided it was time to follow her writing dream. Funnily enough, those first manuscripts had not a single child in them.
Married to her winemaker hero, Barbara’s happiest when she’s getting to know her latest cast of characters. She still loves telling stories about finding love in all the wrong places, but now without a beauty queen or spaceship in sight.
Look out for Barbara’s next book, Last Chance Proposal—coming soon!
Barbara loves to hear from readers. You can find her at:
Website: http://www.barbaradeleo.com
Blog: http://www.barbaradeleo.com/blog
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/BarbaraDeLeoAuthor
Goodreads:http://www.goodreads.com/barbdeleo
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BarbDeLeo
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Contract for Marriage Page 17