“You’re welcome. If you’re ready, I’ll walk you to the hotel and say goodbye for another week.”
Another seven days away from him. How would she be able to handle it?
He accompanied her as far as the hotel foyer. “I plan to come for you when you’re through here. I’ll call you.”
“I know you can’t wait for tomorrow to see Ari. It makes me happy just thinking about the two of you together.”
“Good luck with your research.”
They were talking around each other. She could see a little nerve throbbing at the corner of his mouth before he turned on his heel and walked out of the hotel.
Zoe hurried up to her room on the second floor and burst into tears. This had to end.
For the rest of the week she did as much research as she could. On the sixth day, she packed up and rented a car to drive back to Patras. From there she made a plane reservation for a night flight to Venice. For the rest of the day she got her laundry and packing done.
She couldn’t stay in Greece any longer. Zoe had been the first woman Andreas had turned to since filing for his separation. It was possible he and Lia might even reconcile given a little more time and no outside distractions. He’d told Zoe that Lia still wanted him back. Zoe didn’t doubt it and couldn’t help but wonder if that knowledge didn’t work on Andreas. If he wanted to try again with Lia, Zoe knew it would kill her.
Even if that didn’t happen, in time there would be more women when Andreas was finally free. Nate had found another woman before they were ever divorced. It was inevitable the same thing would happen with Andreas. Zoe wasn’t the kind of a woman to hold a man like him for long, not after she couldn’t keep even Nate interested.
No matter where they went, every female eye followed Andreas because of his looks and sheer charisma. Her legs went weak whenever she saw him waiting out in front of her apartment.
Here she was at twenty-six, on the verge of being swept away by the sheer male beauty and magnetism of Andreas Gavras. She’d learned he was the renowned hotelier of Gavras House Properties and an influential, fabulously wealthy business tycoon from the powerful Gavras family. Their name figured heavily in the economic future of western Greece.
Though she was madly attracted to him, she had to get away while she still could. It would be impossible to go on remaining just friends with him, not when deep down she wanted him in all the ways a woman wanted a man. And when his interest turned to someone else, then what?
After paying the bill, she left at eight that evening and sat in the airport waiting for the call to board her flight. That’s when her phone rang. She checked the caller ID. A moan escaped when she saw Andreas’s name. With a pounding heart, she clicked on. This was it.
“Andreas? How are you?”
“Looking forward to seeing you. It’s good to hear your voice. I thought I’d better call now to find out how soon you’ll be ready in the morning.”
She started to tremble. “I’m so glad you called when you did. I have something important to tell you.”
There was a definite pause before he said, “Does this mean you need to stay there longer?”
“No. I just received news from my two friends. They’re both in Venice right now and are begging me to come. One of them, Ginger, is being married to a Venetian on July 5, which is in less than a week. The three of us want to spend some time together before the wedding, so I’m on my way there now.”
“What do you mean you’re on your way?” His voice sounded fierce.
She gripped her phone tighter. “I’m at the airport and they’re calling for my flight right now. I have to go.”
“When will you be coming back?”
Heaven help me.
“I’m flying straight back to California after I leave Venice. I’ve been away a long time and need to get my affairs in order before I start teaching again this fall.”
“You can’t leave yet. There are things you don’t know. Things I need to tell you.”
“Andreas—I’m so sorry. I have to board the plane. But let me say this one last thing. You’ll never know what meeting you has meant to me. I’ll always be grateful to you for everything. You’re the finest man I’ve ever known. I guarantee that in time your life is going to be happy again. Take care, my good friend.”
ZOE STOOD NEXT to Abby and her husband, Raoul Decorvet, in front of the fabulous Palazzo Della Scala in Venice. Together with the other wedding guests, they watched Vittorio kiss a radiant Ginger before helping her climb in the flower-laden gondola in their wedding finery.
Off on a honeymoon and a heavenly future, and Zoe couldn’t have been happier for her, or for Abby, who’d also recently married her titled Frenchman and now lived in Burgundy.
Abby and Raoul had invited Zoe to stay with them until she had to fly back to California. That was her plan. But later in the day when she went up to the guest room in the palazzo, she ended up calling her friend.
“Abby? There’s something I have to tell you. If you can’t talk now—”
“Raoul is still downstairs with Vittorio’s family discussing the lawsuit being waged against him. What’s wrong?”
Zoe broke down and told her about Andreas. “Do you think I’m crazy to want to go back when nothing can come of it?”
“You’re asking me a question like that? The woman who left for France with a virtual stranger who might or might not have been on the level about showing me a poem of Lord Byron’s?”
She laughed through the tears. “But Raoul wasn’t just working his way through a troubled separation. I don’t know any details about Andreas’s marriage and don’t want to, but I’ve seen the pain in his eyes. Sometimes he seems miles away. Whatever he’s holding back, he hasn’t shared it with me. I can’t handle it.”
“At least this Andreas told you up front he was separated from his wife and had a child, but it sounds like he’s being careful. I’m sorry you left before he could explain more. It might have been important.”
Zoe wiped the moisture off her cheeks. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter because I’m afraid to get in any deeper. Like Nate, he’s no more ready for a lasting relationship than a fly. That’s the only kind I want and probably won’t ever experience. I’ve been through one divorce and have no desire to be used or hurt because he’s looking for temporary comfort.”
“It doesn’t sound like he’s using you, Zoe. Quite the opposite, in fact, considering his attention to you and the help he’s given you.”
“I’ll admit he’s been incredible.”
“That’s honest at least,” Abby murmured. “Look—I hear what you’re saying, but I can tell you’re really torn up at leaving him. I never thought I’d see you in this condition. Driving off into the sunset with Raoul after what Nigel did to me was close to lunacy, except that I felt something for him I had to explore. Now look what’s happened!”
“Your story is like a fairy tale.”
“Ginger’s is, too. She’d adored her husband who’d died and thought she could never find that happiness again. Then she met Vittorio, who won her heart. Now she’s the wife of a fantastic, important Venetian. Maybe it’s your turn.”
My turn for more regrets.
“Much as I’d selfishly hoped you would