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"You said you would like to say that was the reason…" She already knew it wasn't entirely valid, not for all the trips, and he was smart enough to realize it.
"The truth is all those trips were me being stupid again. You were right, I was not entirely ready for the commitment of marriage, but not for the reasons you thought. I had committed to you in those ways from the first time we made love, but you have more power over me than anyone ever has."
"And you are used to absolute control."
"Yes."
"How was being apart supposed to make that better?"
"I thought I could keep a lid on it if I did not get too dependent on you. This thinking began when we were lovers and continued after our marriage, but every trip I took was harder to go on. Every time I left I wanted to come home more. Surely you noticed how short my trips had become."
"I was too busy being miserably certain you didn't love me and never would."
"I called you all the time…do you think I did that with any other woman? I do not even call my mother as often."
She laughed at that. "I didn't consider multiple phone calls evidence of life-long loving devotion."
"You should have."
She almost laughed, but he seemed so serious. "Maybe I should have, but you didn't introduce me to your family the whole time we were lovers."
This time the red in his cheeks was dark and anything but subtle. "I knew if my mother or brother knew of you, they would disapprove."
"They would think I wasn't good enough for you? Because I wasn't Greek?"
"Because it would be obvious to anyone after ten minutes in our company that I had seduced you into anticipating our wedding vows. My mother would have been ashamed of me. You should have seen her with Sebastian over Rachel. It was not pretty. At first I was not ready to get married and then I was too content keeping you all to myself. I knew as soon as I married you, I would have to share you with everyone…not just my family. And I knew if I shared you with my family, we would end up married very quickly."
"That's—"
"Heinously selfish, I know."
"Sweet, I was about to say."
He seemed to relax a little. "I am glad you see it that way." He took a deep breath. "I talked with Dr Lewis for over an hour when I called the hospital. I know why I forgot you."
Scared—even though her heart and the way he held her told her she shouldn't be—she asked, "Why?"
"I woke beside the road, after the accident. I was really out of it, but I overheard the paramedics saying something about not being able to do anything for you… I thought you were going to die."
"They were talking about the baby."
"That is what Dr Lewis said."
"How could Adam know? He wasn't there."
"He surmised from their report."
"Oh…"
"I do not like you calling him Adam."
She stifled a grin. "American doctors are not as formal as Greek doctors."
"So I noticed."
"So you forgot me because you thought I was going to die?"
"Doctor Lewis thinks that on top of the trauma of you asking for a divorce, that belief triggered my mind into forgetting in self-protection."
"You told the doctor what I said in the car?"
"Yes. I had to know why I would forget you and he insisted on knowing everything before helping me figure it out."
"Wow. You really did love me."
His eyes filled with deep, dark emotion. "I could not face life without you…I still cannot."
"You should have said."
"I will spend the rest of my life saying it a hundred times a day."
"At least."
They both smiled, the love between them so tangible she had to ask herself how she could have been so sure it did not exist before. But she knew.
"Remember, I told you my dad had had affairs."
"Yes. He is not the most devoted of fathers either. Business always comes first."
"I thought it did with you too, but I see now how I was coloring you with his behavior."
"I made mistakes, but you and our family mean more to me than anything, yineka mou."
"I'm glad. You mean more than anything to me too." She snuggled into Aristide's lap. "My dad said he loved my mom and then had multiple affairs. She died of cancer when I was thirteen. He nursed her so carefully, so lovingly through it all, but all I could remember were the nights I could hear her crying when he was out with one of his women."
"You did not trust men."
"No."
"I am not your father."
"No, quite the opposite. You have been as faithful as a man can be, but did not tell me you loved me. I should have been okay with that, you know?"
"My refusal to say the words made you insecure. Kassandra's innuendos did not help."
She leaned back to look directly into his eyes, her own wet with happy moisture. "I'm sorry I ever accused you of having an affair."
"I am sorry for so much I cannot begin to say it all, but it will be different from now on."
"Yes, we'll both be smarter."
"We will love each other forever." He kissed her and they sealed their very personal vows in a very personal way.
They opened gifts Christmas Day, the children going first and then playing with their new toys on the floor amidst a pile of colorful paper while the adults opened theirs.
Phillippa and Vincent loved their trip of the most famous gardens of the world that the men and their wives had arranged.
"Eden did most of the arranging, I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear," Rachel said laughingly.
Phillippa's look of loving joy made Eden blush and duck her head before anyone saw the tears in her eyes. Pregnancy hormones were the pits sometimes.
When she opened her gift from Aristide, she didn't understand what she was looking at. "You bought me a plane?"
He shook his head and laughed. "I had one of the Kouros jets outfitted for family travel."
She looked more closely at the pictures in the flat gold box and sucked in a breath of joy. "You really aren't planning to leave me behind anymore, are you?"
"No. We will have to stop traveling the last month of your pregnancy, but other than that, nothing will hold us back."
The room erupted with news of the baby and it was a long time before she and Aristide had a moment alone with their son. They were tucking him into his crib for his nap and Aristide had his arms around Eden while she soothed their son to sleep.
"We are a family, agape mou."
"A loving family," she affirmed.
They quietly crept from the baby's room. He suggested taking a walk down to the small church and she gladly went, loving this new open rapport they shared…the security she felt in his feelings for her.
They stopped in front of the altar where many candles burned.
He turned to face her, his eyes suspiciously bright. "The first Christmas after we met, I came here and thanked God for the gift of the woman who would become my wife."
She opened her mouth, but nothing would come out.
He kissed her softly.
"That was only a few days after we met."
"Yes."
"You knew then that you wanted to marry me?"
"I knew then that I would marry you, that you would be the mother of my children. I made mistakes, but never doubt that you have had my love all along."
"I won't. I won't ever doubt you again, my love."
He took her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers, the smell of Christmas greenery surrounding them in the small church that had hosted their marriage born of true love.
