THE NEXT TIME Alex saw Adele Hudson he’d beaten her to their mutual destination—the dolphin-themed Bay Bites café that overlooked the picturesque harbour of Dolphin Bay. The café was buzzing with the hum of conversation, the aromas of fresh baking—and that indefinable feeling of a successful business. Alex missed being ‘hands on’ in his own restaurants so much it ached. That world was what had driven him since he’d been a teenager. Even before that. As a child he’d spent some of his happiest hours in his grandfather’s restaurant.
Here he could sense the goodwill of the customers, the seamless teamwork of the staff. All was as he liked it to be in his own establishments. And Adele had been right, the café did have excellent coffee. He was sitting at a table near the window, savouring his second espresso, when he looked up to see her heading his way, pedalling one of the bicycles Bay Breeze provided for guests.
She cycled energetically, a woman on a mission to get somewhere quickly. Her face was flushed from exertion as she got off and slid the bike onto a rack outside the café. She took off her bike helmet and shook out her auburn hair with a gesture of unconscious grace. Her hair glinted with copper highlights in the morning sunlight, dazzling him.
This woman was nothing to him but an old adversary. Yet Alex found it difficult to look away from her fresh beauty. Since he’d been living in Greece, getting back to basics with his family there, he felt as if he were seeing life through new eyes. He was certainly seeing something different in Adele Hudson. Or maybe it had always been there and he’d been so intent on revenge he hadn’t noticed. There was something vibrant and uncontrived about her, dressed in white shorts and a simple white top, white sneakers and with a small multicoloured backpack. She radiated energy and good health, her face open and welcome to new experience.
Alex didn’t alert her to his presence; she’d notice him soon enough. When she did, her first reaction on catching sight of him was out-and-out dismay, quickly covered up by another forced smile. Again he felt that kick in the gut—quite unjustifiably considering how he’d treated her in the past.
She stopped by his table and he got up to greet her, glad she hadn’t just walked by with a cursory nod. ‘So you took my advice,’ she said. Her flushed cheeks made her eyes seem even greener. Her hair was tousled around her face.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I become a raging beast without my coffee.’
It was a bad choice of words. The look that flashed across her eyes told him she found the beast label only too appropriate. And that not only did she dislike him, but it seemed she also might fear him.
A jolt of remorse hit him. That was not the reaction he ever wanted from a woman. He thought back to the court case. There’d been some kind of confrontation outside on the day the judge had handed down his decision—although surely nothing to make her frightened of him.
‘I’m not partial to raging beasts,’ she said. Beasts like you were the words she left unspoken but he understand as well as if she had shouted them.
Against all his own legal advice he’d gone after her and the major Sydney newspaper that had published her review. He’d been furious at her criticism of Athina, his first important restaurant—the one that had launched him as a serious contender on the competitive Sydney market. He’d had a lot to prove when he’d closed his grandfather’s original traditional Greek restaurant and reopened with something cutting-edge fashionable. The risk had paid off—and success after success had followed. And then she’d published a bad review of Athina, detailing how the prices had gone up and the quality gone down, along with the levels of service. It had seemed like a personal assault.
So much had happened to him since then. His fury at her review now seemed disproportionate—a major overreaction to what the court had found to be fair comment. In light of what had happened during the hostage scenario and its aftermath it seemed insignificant. She had nothing to fear from him. Not now.
He looked directly at her. ‘I told you this beast has been tamed,’ he said gruffly. It was as much an explanation as he felt able to give her. He didn’t share with anyone how he’d had to claw his way out of the abyss.
But her brow furrowed. ‘Tamed by the coffee?’
She didn’t get what he meant. But he had no intention of spelling out the bigger picture for her. How devastated he’d been by Mia’s death. The train wreck his life had become. He’d been a broken man, unable to deal with the public spotlight on him—the spotlight he’d once courted. There had only been the pain, the loss, the unrelenting guilt.
His father had intervened, packed him up and sent him back to the Greek village his grandfather had left long ago to emigrate to Australia. At first, Alex had deeply resented his exile. But the distance and the return to his family’s roots had given him a painfully gained new perspective and self-knowledge. He’d discovered he hadn’t much liked the man he’d become in Sydney.
The presence of Adele Hudson was like an arrow piercing his armour, reminding him of how invincible he’d thought himself to be back then when he’d been flying so high, how agonising his crash into the shadows. He forced his voice to sound steady and impartial. ‘The magical powers of caffeine,’ he said. ‘Can I order you a coffee?’
Adele gave him a look through narrowed eyes that let him know she realised there was something more to his words that she hadn’t grasped. But didn’t care to pursue. She peered towards the back of the café to the door that led to the kitchen. ‘No, thank you. I’ve popped in to see Lizzie.’
‘Lizzie Dumont?’
Jesse’s wife was a chef and the driving force behind the exemplary standards of the Morgan eateries. Alex had tried to poach her to work for him on a start-up in Sydney, a traditional French bistro. That was before he’d realised she’d been engaged to Jesse Morgan. That had stopped him. Back then he’d let nothing stop his quest for success—except loyalty to friends and family. That had never been negotiable.
‘She’s Lizzie Morgan now, well and truly married to Jesse,’ Adele said. ‘They have a beautiful baby boy, a brother for her daughter Amy.’
‘Yes,’ he said.
Lizzie had a child from her first marriage. Alex had admired Jesse for taking on a stepchild. Had admired him the more because it wasn’t something Alex himself could ever do. His feeling for family and heritage was too deeply ingrained to ever take on another man’s child. He would never date a woman who came encumbered.
‘Here she is.’ Adele waved at a tall woman with curly, pale blonde hair who had pushed her way through the doors from the kitchen.
‘Dell! It’s so good to see you.’ Alex watched as Lizzie swept Adele up in a hug. ‘It’s been too long. We’ve got so much to catch up on.’
‘We certainly do,’ said Adele, giving Lizzie the full benefit of her dazzling smile. Politely, she turned to include him in the conversation. No smile for him. ‘Lizzie, I think you know Alex Mik—’
‘Of course I do,’ Lizzie said. She greeted him with a hug and kisses on both cheeks. ‘He’s a good friend of Jesse’s. When we heard he was going to be in Sydney we invited him down to Bay Breeze. Long time, no see, Alex.’ Her smile dimmed and her voice softened. ‘Are you okay?’
He nodded. ‘As okay as I can be,’ he said. ‘I’ve appreciated the support from you and Jesse. It means a lot.’ He didn’t want to talk about his loss any further. Displaying vulnerability clashed with all the ideals of manhood that had been imbued in him by his family. ‘I didn’t know you two knew each other,’ he said. How much did Lizzie know of his history with Adele? No doubt he’d been painted as an ogre of the first order. A beast.
Lizzie beamed. ‘Dell was one of our first customers. Her glowing reviews of Bay Bites helped put us on the map. The bonus was