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She snorted. “Obviously you don’t know your family.”
“They’re a little pretentious but never rude.”
“Your sister wanted to rip me into tiny, irreparable little pieces.”
A frown covered his features. “You didn’t even try to get to know them.”
“It’s been nearly four years,” she whispered sadly. “Why does it matter?’
“It matters because we were in love!” he cried in exasperation. “And since your brother is still my closest friend, I’d like to get everything out in the open once and for all. I’m going to be here for the next two years, which means I’ll be seeing a lot of Apollo and most likely you too. The only way we can bury the hatchet is if we set the record straight. It’s okay if you didn’t love me… but I have a hard time believing that. There’s no way you faked the way things were between us.”
Lena felt tears prick her eyelids as memories flooded back. She’d made a terrible mistake four years ago. Several of them, actually. She couldn’t tell him, though. Not yet. Not in the middle of this crisis at the job site. Not before Sophia knew what was happening with her divorce. No, the time wasn’t right yet. “I was young and it was complicated.”
He didn’t say anything for a while, merely stared out at nothing before he finally spoke. “I was getting ready to tell Apollo about us.”
She turned in surprise. “You’d always said you wouldn’t tell him to protect your friendship.”
“That was in the beginning,” he said. “When we first hooked up that’s all it was—a hookup. Then we got serious and I wasn’t going to sneak around anymore.”
Regret shot through her. “Maybe we were just too young for something that intense, you know?”
He frowned. “It didn’t feel that way. It still doesn’t.”
She met his gaze in confusion. “What still doesn’t?”
“Us. This.” He waved an impatient hand. “Maybe the timing wasn’t right then, but now we’ve been thrown together again. I don’t believe in coincidence—so this has to be fate, Lena. Maybe we’re getting a second chance to figure out what went wrong.”
Not hardly, she thought miserably. “Mick, it’s too late for us. You’re in the middle of a big mess here and my sister is about to go through a really ugly divorce that will involve me as well.”
“What does her divorce have to do with you?” he asked.
“Her husband blames a lot of their issues on me. I’m the one that convinced her not to marry him at first and go to college in the U.S. with me. That’s how she met Grant—her college boyfriend—and Giorgios says he’s the reason they don’t get along now. He’s always hated me for getting her to go.”
“He sounds like a prick.” Mick took a breath and looked away as he whispered, “Can we be friends again, Lena?”
His voice was soft, almost shy, and she studied the look on his face carefully. “We can try,” she whispered, trying to rein in her frustrating and out-of-control emotions. “But I’m not the girl you knew in college.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself more than me.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond so she didn’t say anything.
“You’re hiding something,” he said after assessing her for what seemed like a long time. “And I’ll be damned if I can figure out what it is. You should probably just tell me so we can move past it.”
She was quiet again before slowly getting to her feet. “I’m going to try to get some sleep,” was all she said. “You should too.”
Mick was up early, despite how little sleep he’d gotten the night before. His conversation with Lena had been disconcerting and he was more convinced than ever she was either up to something or hiding something. Unfortunately, he had too much going on to dwell on it. Raegan was getting copies of blueprints and a few other vital documents printed and overnighted from San Francisco, while Lena would be on the phone with the local government offices trying to arrange for copies of their permits. The site was still closed but the lead investigator was supposed to meet with him at noon to discuss progress on the case and a potential re-opening date.
After a lengthy phone call with one of the founding partners at the firm—since it was still just after nine in the evening in San Francisco—he felt better about the delays and potential hits to the budget. Hank Dawson was his godfather as well as his mentor. He’d been an architect for more than 40 years, so he knew every trick in the book and had a clear understanding of delays, budget overages and even dealing with foreign governments. Mick wished he reported directly to Hank but since Hank was his godfather and they were extremely close, there’d been some concern he would play favorites so he worked directly for Pat instead.
Mick’s grandfather had started the firm, and now his father, Michael, ran it with his partners, Pat and Hank. It had been a given Mick would join the firm and it was a good thing he actually loved architecture and had an affinity for it or his life would have been hell. Working with his father wasn’t all that much fun, but since he reported to Pat and had a great relationship with Hank, he didn’t mind most of the time. He was making great money, he’d met incredible people all over the world and had been able to visit places he’d only ever dreamed of. It had been a lot of fun until now.
This project was already turning into a bear and being around Lena again had him out of sorts. He couldn’t put his finger on what was going on with her, but after last night’s chat, he had no doubt there had been more to their breakup than she’d let on. It had been the fall semester, just under four years ago. Lena had been a senior and they’d been seeing each other on and off for nearly two years. Since no one knew, they’d kept things casual but the summer before their relationship had heated up. It had been a romantic, sexy couple of months, with him staying with her almost every weekend. That was when he’d realized he was in love with her and had started thinking about how he would tell Apollo.
Her change in attitude came after Thanksgiving. They’d flown to his home town of San Francisco because he wanted her to meet his family. It had been an awkward weekend, as he’d known it would be, but he’d thought it would be better to get it over with and let his family know he was serious about Lena. Unfortunately, his parents hadn’t been welcoming and his sister had been downright bitchy. Lena had been a trooper, but there was no doubt something broke in their relationship over those four days. He just had no idea what it was. No matter how hard he tried, she wouldn’t tell him what, if anything, had upset her. His mother and sister had been equally closed-mouthed about it, leaving him with no answers. Six months later, Lena moved back to Greece and he hadn’t seen her again until last month.
Shaking off his melancholy thoughts, he spent the rest of the morning exploring the job site. Hank had suggested he do a thorough inspection personally, taking pictures and making his own notes. That way he would have detailed answers to any question about the current situation and the investigator could provide information about the fire itself. The firm was sending an insurance adjuster to Santorini next week and until then, Hank suggested Mick take some time for himself to relax, explore Greece and prepare to work as many hours as possible once they were up and running again. The sad part was, though Lena was providing a substantial distraction, it was in no way relaxing.
“Okay, if there’s no work to do, I think someone needs to take me to the beach,” Raegan announced that afternoon. “The doctor said I can swim now, and I can take off the boot for several hours a day, but I can’t lug towels and a bag and all that down there. Who’s going to take me?” She looked from Mick to Lena and back again.
