Her head came up. “How could you not? Your life can’t move on until this issue is resolved. To my mind the sooner the better. Ari is the most important person in this whole equation. Good night.”
Zoe walked past Andreas to reach her cabin. He didn’t try to stop her. Long after she got ready for bed, she lay there in a quandary thinking about her own life. Her birth parents had disregarded her. As for her first set of foster parents, the only thing Nancy had told her about them was that they had run into financial difficulties and the state had needed to step in to find Zoe a new home.
Though her situation and Ari’s were entirely different, she knew he would face some struggles growing up and it was vital that Andreas focus on him right now rather than Zoe.
Andreas had been so intent on being with her since they met, she wondered if it was his way of distracting himself from the stressful things going on in his life right now. Given time, he might not even want or need Zoe in his life t
he same way.
She’d thrown caution to the wind and had come back to Patras desperate to see Andreas once more. All it had accomplished was to prove how deeply in love she was with him. Meeting his son had added another layer to cement her feelings for him.
But in asking her to fly to France with him, he’d put her on a precipice. There was no safety net below. No guarantees where their relationship was headed.
To put her heart at risk again was asking too much when so much more stood in the way of her happiness with Andreas. Not knowing what was in store, Zoe was frightened to get any more involved with him. She couldn’t do it and slept poorly the rest of the night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ANDREAS SPENT AN agonizing night on deck. He doubted that he’d slept at all. Before Zoe left the galley, he should have stopped her and told her everything going on inside him. Instead, he’d asked her to go to Nice with him to face an uncertain outcome involving his son.
He thought back to the moment when Zoe had returned from Italy. When he’d pressed her, she’d admitted to having developed deeper feelings for him and had been afraid of them. But she’d had to come back to tell him.
Her honesty had overjoyed him because of his love for her. But he hadn’t said or done enough to reassure her about the future he wanted with her. With his life so unsettled, how could she be confident of anything?
Once the sun rose over the horizon, he went below to shower and shave. After putting on khaki shorts and a white T-shirt, he went in the galley to fix breakfast for them. They would eat at the table.
An hour later she appeared at the entrance dressed in pink shorts and a white T-shirt. Their tops were the same, but her feminine shape almost caused him to drop his coffee mug. Could there be a more beautiful woman?
“Mmm. Something smells mouthwatering.”
“I’ve made you my recipe for Greek coffee to start our day. The kind with the grounds on the bottom and foam on top. Sit down and I’ll serve you.”
“Thank you. After that dinner last night, I can’t believe I’m hungry again.”
“I’m glad. I’ve put out pastries and yogurt to go with the eggs.” He brought everything to the table he’d already set.
She flashed him a smile before sitting on one of the chairs. He straddled one opposite her and they both began to eat.
Halfway through their meal she said, “My compliments to the chef. This is delicious.”
“Thank you.”
“I meant it. To what do I owe this honor? Is there anything you can’t do?”
He’d finished the last of his pastry. “Let me ask you a question first. A while back you said you’d been single a long time and at this point knew who you were.”
A confused expression broke out on her face. He’d caught her off guard. “I remember.”
“Do you know yourself well enough to imagine spending the rest of your life with me?”
If he wasn’t mistaken, she lost some color.
“Zoe—it should be patently clear by now that I’m in love with you.”
She shook her head. “You think you are. It’s always that way in the beginning of a relationship, especially if you’ve just come out of an unhappy marriage.”
He could see he had a fight on his hands. “Forget that I haven’t had three years to find out who I really am. That’s not me. My big mistake was letting you leave for Venice without telling you how I felt from the start. But with certain matters in my life not yet resolved, I worried the truth would scare you off. When you came back, I knew someone upstairs was on my side.”
She couldn’t meet his eyes. “I should have gone to France with Abby.”