Page 28 of Modern Romance July 2025 #4-8

Five minutes later the door was flung open and a white-faced Adonis rushed in. His eyes widened when he saw his grandfather standing there. ‘I was told you were dying.’

‘Theos!’ Spyros bemoaned. ‘These people take everything so literally. Well, we are all dying, some of us sooner than others, but not today.’

‘What is wrong?’

‘You, if you let that woman run away.’

Adonis’s expression froze. ‘She has work commitments.’

‘You are an idiot, you know that? You can’t see what is right under your nose, what everyone else in the house can see.’

‘And what is that?’

‘The woman is in love with you. If you don’t love her back, let her go. She deserves more.’

‘Our marriage, as I am sure you have worked out, is an arrangement. Love is not part of the deal.’

The old man folded his arms across his chest and raised a bushy brow. ‘If you say so.’

‘I do say so,’ Adonis shot back, clinging to his restraint in the face of his grandfather’s interference.

‘Ah, well, you know best,’ he said in a tone that implied the exact opposite. ‘You told her about Deb dying with her lover, did you?’

‘That was not relevant.’

‘I can see why you feel a bit of a fool.’

Adonis clamped his jaw.

‘She thinks you still love the other one, and, the way I see it, that suits you. It means you don’t have to admit to your own feelings because, well, basically, you are—and I hate to say this about my own grandson—a coward.’

His face reflecting the tangled mess of emotions in his head, Adonis sank into a chair. ‘She has deserted me.’

The old man smiled. He could hear the lack of conviction in his grandson’s voice.

‘I’m worried about her flying. She’s not been looking too good most mornings for the past couple of weeks.’

Adonis’s questioning gaze flew to his grandfather’s face.

‘Are you saying…?’

‘I’m not saying anything. It’s not my place.’

Adonis shot to his feet and nodded. ‘It’s mine, and you are a manipulative old bastard,’ he observed, slanting a half-smile at his grandparent.

‘Good to know I’ve still got it. Nurse!’ he bellowed. ‘I need my meds.’

‘You’ve already had your medication.’

‘This boy is upsetting me,’ he said, missing plaintive by a country mile as he added, ‘Your mess, you fix it, own it, or you are not the man I thought you were. Oh, and the plane will take a long time to refuel today.’

‘Excuse me, but I really think your grandfather needs his rest.’

Adonis ignored the woman, tipped his head in respect towards his grandfather, and hit the ground running.

Own it. The words went around in his head on a loop as Adonis made his way to his car.

He had spent the night telling himself that when she was gone he was free and good riddance.

His satisfaction was marred by the mocking voice in his head that said, Free or maybe just scared . And that voice was the truth. He could see he was a man who had been too chicken scared to invest in a relationship in his life.

Would she be there when he arrived or would he be too late? The question tormented him as he floored the accelerator.

Lizzie sat with Mouse plaintively meowing as she waited in the warm morning sun beside the runway.

With a hissing sound of exasperation, she pulled off her sun hat and put it on top of the cat carrier. ‘All right. I’d ask someone if I could but there isn’t anyone here!’

There was.

She hated that her heart swelled at the sight of him.

‘What are you doing sitting in thirty-five-degree midday sun? You want to get heatstroke?’

‘I’m leaving.’

‘How? Sprout wings and fly?’

‘The jet is refuelling. Your grandfather said…’

The anger and doubts suddenly fell away as he looked into her eyes, red-rimmed and bloodshot from crying. He wanted to wrap her up and keep her safe. ‘My grandfather says whatever suits him but he isn’t important right now. I’m an idiot,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ she agreed.

‘And I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you.’ She stared at him, wanting to hear him say it again, not letting herself believe that this was real… She had been in the sun a long time.

‘You love Deb. I understand.’

He gave a hard laugh. ‘I don’t love Deb.

I never loved Deb. I was marrying her because I didn’t love her and she didn’t love me, less a marriage and more a spreadsheet,’ he mused, mocking himself.

‘But it turned out she wasn’t as clinical as it seemed.

When the helicopter went down there were not two fatalities, there was a third, her long-term lover, a married man.

Spyros buried the story, God knows how.’

‘Is that true? Oh, God, why didn’t you tell me? Why did you let me feel like second best?’ she wailed.

‘It was a pride thing. Deb had taken me for a fool, which I have been,’ he admitted readily.

‘I have never ever been in love with your cousin and you could never be second best to anyone or anything. I knew that, I think I always did, but I’ve spent my life staying in control.

I know now that what I feel for you bears no resemblance to my parents’ toxic love.

You have no idea how liberating it is to know that I am nothing like them. We are nothing like them!’

‘Of course we aren’t.’

‘Lizzie, I’m trying to tell you I love you and I want to stay married because my life without you in it looks like one dark empty road, smooth, no bumps or twists or turns.

Boring. I know I’ve been an idiot and I hope you can forgive me…

And if this PR thing is important to you, your career matters. You should do it.’

‘You’d be OK with me being away for six weeks?’

‘I will come with you.’

His response made her laugh. ‘I forgive you, Adonis, and it’s lucky you love me because you’re going to be a father.

’ Holding her breath, she watched the emotions move across his face before settling into an expression that banished any lingering doubts about his reaction.

‘Also your feelings are totally reciprocated.’

‘You love me?’

‘I do.’

He exhaled deeply, his eyes sliding to her flat middle, before repeating, ‘You love me?’

She nodded. ‘And, yes, I really am pregnant this time,’ she teased as she fell into his open arms and felt them close around her.

When the long, deep, draining kiss ended he rested his forehead against hers. ‘The old man was right.’

‘Spyros?’ She gasped, drawing away a little to angle an astonished look up into his face.

Adonis nodded, smoothing his hand around her face and gazing lovingly into her eyes. ‘He implied you were pregnant. The old reprobate doesn’t miss a thing.’

‘I would have told you about the baby. I just needed some space to sort it in my own head first. I would never have kept the baby from you, but I didn’t want to stay with you because of the baby.’

‘I know that, and I know we will not be like my parents. We will always be there for him or her.’

‘It’s a deal.’

It seemed appropriate to seal the deal with a kiss, which was interrupted by loud cat cries.

They broke apart, Lizzie laughing at his expression. ‘Just accept it. Mouse always has the last word.’

‘I know my place in the scheme of things. Perhaps you can train her to carry your ring when we renew our vows here.’

‘I think that might be beyond… Renew our vows? Are we going to do that?’

‘I think our family deserves to have the wedding we cheated them out of, don’t you, yineka mou ? Besides, I want to show the world how beautiful my bride is.’

She sighed. She felt beautiful. ‘I’m so happy I could explode.’

‘Kiss me instead.’

‘I can work with that!’