Over time the fact that Athena made no effort to hide her disdain for her daughter-in-law in her granddaughter’s presence, that attitude eventually affected the amount of trust Helena gave Athena and how much pleasure she found in her yia-yia’s company.
Still, Polly did what she could to facilitate the relationship because ultimately, her daughter deserved it.
Polly put her hand to her lower back, rubbing a little. “I’m tired, even if our daughter isn’t. I wouldn’t mind watching you all play.” Though she felt much better since her chiropractic appointment, playing croquet had maybe not been her best choice.
She did not expect what happened next. How could she?
But Alexandros passed their daughter over to Petros and then swept Polly up into his arms. “Of course you are tired. What were you doing playing croquet in your condition?”
Avoiding his mother and his sister.
“I’m pregnant, not an invalid,” she said as millennia of women no doubt had been saying before her to their macho, overprotective spouses.
Not that she would have ever described Alexandros as overprotective before, but apparently this pregnancy was bringing out his more basic nature.
“Papa is carrying Mommy,” her daughter pronounced in shocked delight and then let loose a peal of laughter.
Polly found herself smiling at her daughter’s clear amusement and noticed that Alexandros was smiling as well. He looked down at her, and their gazes caught, his smile turning sensual, hers growing intimate.
“Watch where you are going, brother, or you are going to trip and drop your pregnant wife.” Petros’s voice was laced with overt amusement.
Alexandros stopped, giving Polly a heart-stopping look. “He is right, but I find looking away from you a challenge.”
“I could always walk on my own,” she teased, when she had not felt like teasing him in a very long time.
His arms tightened around her. “No chance.”
“You’ve grown very protective all of a sudden,” she said just a little breathlessly.
“I have always wanted to protect you.”
She winced and looked away. What was she supposed to say to that? He’d done a rotten job practically from the beginning, and for a man who prided himself on always getting it right, that had always said something to her. Something very negative about any chance that the man she married had really loved her and not just her body.
He cursed under his breath. A really basic word he never said in her presence much less his mother’s.
Polly’s gaze flew back to her husband’s face.
“I failed utterly. That is becoming clear to me.”
She shrugged. He had.
“Keep watching this space, agape mou. Failure is not in my nature.”
CHAPTER FIVE
NO. AND BEING compared unfavorably to his younger brother in the husband stakes was not something Alexandros would take lying down.
Polly wasn’t going to complain. Even if his reasons weren’t the ones she wanted, her husband was finally treating her like she was important, and that was something she’d always wanted.
She’d built a life since her marriage without the need to have that desire filled, but it had always been there.
He carried her onto the terrace and settled her on a lounge chair, bringing her a glass of juice before sitting down at the nearby table to play the matching card game with his daughter, his mother, Petros and Corrina.
Uninterested in the child’s entertainment, Stacia went inside with a comment about how hard her phone was to read outside.
Why her sister-in-law needed to be on her phone during what was supposed to be Kristalakis family time, Polly did not know, but she did not mind at all that the young woman wasn’t expecting Polly to entertain her.
Polly found herself dozing, the sound of her daughter’s and husband’s voices a pleasant buzz in the background of her mind.