Page 102 of Modern Romance July 2025 #4-8

As he walked by Carmel’s room, he glanced in the open door to see her laptop was on the end of the bed next to some strewn clothing.

He wanted to be angry at her defiance, but his reaction was more a sense of relief.

Downstairs, Lethe asked if he wanted lunch served by the pool.

“That’s fine, thanks.”

“And will Miss Davenport join you?” she asked in a wary voice that told him she had heard their shouting.

“She hasn’t eaten yet? I’ll text her.”

He did and heard a faint ping from upstairs.

He went back to her room to see her phone was charging on her nightstand. Her bathroom door was open and the room empty. So was the balcony. Her yoga mat was rolled up in the corner so she wasn’t doing that.

He could have texted his grandmother’s caregiver to ask if Carmel was there, but he wanted to see Zoia anyway. He walked over.

“I haven’t seen her since our morning constitutional in the garden,” she said, from her rocker. “She’s probably out looking for you. She brings your lunch, doesn’t she?”

“She didn’t show up so I came back to look for her. I saw her in the office a little while ago.” He had yelled at her, exactly as he’d promised he wouldn’t. “She said you’re afraid to have the surgery.” He sat down to face her. “Is that true?”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

He sighed.

“I’m not afraid for me, Damian. Your mother and grandfather are waiting for me whenever I pass. No, it’s you I’m worried about. As long as you have Carmel, though, I’m comforted.”

He looked out the window toward the upper hills, wondering where she’d gone. “We argued.”

“About my surgery?”

“No. I caught her looking for my father online.” To be fair, she’d confessed to it, otherwise he never would have known. He was still angry, though.

“You’re upset? Why? It would be nice to know something about him, wouldn’t it? Especially once you decide to have children?”

“That is not going to happen,” he said firmly. “Not with her.”

“Not at the rate you’re going, arguing with her when she’s only trying to help.”

“How does finding a complete stranger help anyone? Mamá didn’t want you to know who he was. You never wanted him to know about me.”

“I didn’t want him to take you from us. That might have been your mother’s reason, too. Australia is a long way away.”

“There’s nothing I need from him. There’s no point in finding him,” he muttered.

“Carmel said the other day that it was sad there’s a man out there who doesn’t know what a good son he made. I’ve been thinking about that a lot. I don’t think she meant any harm in trying to find him.”

It’s still harm , he wanted to bite out. But what harm had she caused? She hadn’t actually reached out to his father, only made Damian feel threatened and defensive at the prospect of it. Why?

Because he didn’t want to be rejected again.

“You don’t think she left, do you?” Zoia asked with concern. “How bad was your argument?”

Bad enough he had ordered her to leave. “Her things are still in her room.”

“Good. Go find her and patch things up.”

“Me?” Carmel was the one who had crossed a line.

“Be proud then,” Zoia said with a sniff.

“That’s how your mother and grandfather dealt with things.

They held their obstinate positions and I suffered, barely seeing my grandson for the first six years of his life.

What was I supposed to do? Leave Eurus here alone and live in Athens without him, so I could see my daughter and grandson?

What was the point in their being so stubborn? What did it accomplish?”

“I see your point.” Damian used a mild tone, trying to calm Zoia’s temper, not wanting her to grow agitated.

“ I was the stubborn one when it came to finding your father.” She pointed at herself.

“Eurus didn’t fight me on it, but you know he had strong feelings about how a man should behave.

It didn’t sit well with him that your father wasn’t part of your upbringing.

I know you think he didn’t want you, Damian, but that’s not how it was.

We were blessed to have you. We knew that.

But you were a puzzle to him. We always believed your mother’s wanderlust would wear off and she would come home, but you wanted bigger things than we could ever give you.

And the way your mind worked, so mechanical…

We knew that must come from your father.

It wasn’t fair of me to hold you back from knowing him. ”

“You haven’t,” he said firmly. “I’ve been a grown man a long time. If I wanted to find him, I would look for him myself.”

“You really don’t want to? Not even for the memories of your mother he could give us?”

The pang in her voice was a sharp blade in his chest. He had lost his mother twice and still had very mixed feelings that prevented him from being sentimental about her.

He would give Zoia anything within his power, though, especially at this stage of her life.

Even if it was only the hope of a single fresh memory of her daughter.

“I’ll see what I can find out,” he promised in a voice that turned to a rasp.

“I’d like that.” She reached out to pat his hand. “And don’t be so hard on Carmel. Marriages have rough patches. Working through your issues makes your relationship stronger. You don’t burn down the orange grove because you have a few aphids, do you?”

Their issues were a little bit bigger than aphids and yes, he was planning to burn his marriage to the ground in about ten days, but he appeased Zoia with a bland, “Of course not.”

“Go make up with her, then.” She nudged him.

He went back to the villa and texted Pirro to ask the workmen if they’d seen her, then called his lawyer to ask for a discreet inquiry.

By the time he got off the call, Pirro had reported back that no one had seen Carmel anywhere on the grounds.

Damian frowned. There were small hazards all over the estate. Outcroppings and gullies and low hanging branches. It didn’t escape him that his need to know where she had gone bore an uncomfortable similarity to her drive to find a stranger online.

What a burr in his sock. And why had he thought he should give up drinking while she was here? He would love a shot of something to take the edge off right now.

Annoyed beyond measure, he walked out to the terrace to scan the grounds, trying to think where she might have gone.

His gaze snagged on the stairwell to the beach.

Carmel heard a clang, but she was reading so she stayed on her stomach on the straw mat where a tall rock blocked the sun from her bare back and legs.

In her periphery, Damian approached, but she stubbornly kept her eyes on her book, hiding beneath the brim of her hat.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

It seemed obvious, but she said, “Sulking,” to dispel any doubt.

“Lethe wants to serve lunch.”

“Shh. The hero is deflowering the heroine. Let them finish.”

“Seriously?”

“I don’t know how to answer that. Is he being serious about it? Yes, he is very earnestly attending to this virgin’s pleasure.”

“You are the most infuriating woman who has ever walked this earth.”

“We’re all good at something.”

He swore and walked toward the water.

She looked over her shoulder, then closed the book and sat up to retie her bikini top and adjust her hat.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Felt like a skinny-dip?”

When he said nothing, she stood and wrapped her sarong around her hips, then crossed the warm sand to wade into the water alongside him, stopping where ripples lapped her knees.

“I really am sorry, Damian. I—”

“Stop apologizing for who you are,” he said flatly. “Most people are sheep. You’re a leopard.” He looked down his nose at her. “You ambush out of nowhere and have claws that shred a man to pieces if you feel threatened, but you’re powerful and graceful and necessary to the ecosystem.”

“Do go on,” she said with heavy irony, but he was liable to make her cry. Stop apologizing for who you are. She drew a breath that felt salty and fulfilling.

There was another long silence while he looked out to the water.

“When I was very young, when I thought she left me here, I couldn’t understand why she didn’t want me. I thought she might have gone to live with my father,” he said quietly. “To my mind, he was the one who didn’t want me. That’s why she left me behind, so they could be together without me.”

Oh, Damian. She didn’t speak, didn’t touch him, only waited while an ache squeezed her from head to toe.

“The older I got, the more I realized that wasn’t likely, but what if I did find him?

What if he made me go to Australia? I didn’t need a father.

I had Pappous. I was sixteen when he died.

Yaya couldn’t manage alone. Caring for her was my responsibility.

It felt disloyal to even consider looking for my father.

They had sacrificed a lot to give me as good a life as they could manage.

I’ve never seen any way that finding my father would enhance or improve the life I’ve made for myself.

And what about his life? You, of all people, should understand what a shock it could be for him and his family to learn of my existence. ”

“You’re right,” she murmured. “I should have asked you first.”

“Tell me about a single time that you’ve asked first instead of begged for forgiveness later.”

She stared balefully at him. “As soon as I can remember it, I will blurt it out.”

“That’s what I thought.” He was still gruff, but he was begrudgingly letting go of his anger.

“Do you want my notes?” she offered. “Or should I drop it?”

“I’ve asked my lawyer to look into it. Zoia wants me to find him in case he has memories of my mother. I would like to give her that, if I can.”

“Oh, Damian.” She couldn’t help curling her hands around his upper arm, which was solid as iron and filled with tension.

She pressing her forehead there, knocking her hat askew as she absorbed how much he loved his grandmother.

She had shouted at him about how scared Zoia was, but it hit her how afraid he was to lose the most important person in his life.

His arm moved. For a second, she thought he was going to scoop her close and hold on to her.

She would have hugged him. She wanted to.

He angled to pull his arm from her grip, expression still withdrawn, but his tone was dry as he asked, “Are we swimming with clothes on or off?”

“If that’s a dare, you know I’m going to take it.” She started to reach for the string on her top.

“God, you’re a nuisance.” He broke away from her and dove into the water, still in his shorts and T-shirt.