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“Who are you and what have you done with Alexandros Kristalakis?”
He laughed, the sound booming and masculine and altogether alluring.
But she hadn’t been joking. She really didn’t understand what was going on. “How did you even think to look for that clinic?”
“I told you, I did some research.”
“Because you realized I was in pain?”
“I wish I had realized sooner, or that you had told me.”
“But why would I tell you?” she asked in honest bewilderment.
Anytime she’d complained during her first pregnancy, he either asked his mother to advise Polly, which had never been a pleasant experience, or he’d quoted some lowering thing his mother had said. To this day, Polly herself wasn’t sure if Athena said the things she did to undermine Polly, or because she really believed them.
Athena was of a different generation, not to mention a completely different socioeconomic background.
The worst had been when Alexandros had fallen back on his standby that women had been enduring the inconveniences of pregnancies since the beginning of time. He always couched it with how strong and resilient Polly was, so of course she would be fine.
Only she hadn’t been fine. First, she’d be nauseated to the point of throwing up several times a day, all day long for the first four months. Then a month of relative bliss and then the pain in her pelvic floor had started, followed quickly by lower back pain and finally pain in both hips had stacked on top of that for her final month with a return of her nausea.
This time around, the nausea had clung on past the fourth month, but she was no longer throwing up, so that was an improvement.
He stared at her like she was the one being incomprehensible, but when had her husband ever invited her to share her complaints with him? He was a dynamic workaholic who powered through lack of sleep and physical infirmity with a strength of will that used to intimidate her.
Because she’d felt the need to be worthy of that kind of dynamism. She didn’t anymore.
Polly accepted that while that was who her husband was, it was not her.
And she accepted the fact that he expected those around him to deal with their own challenges. So, she did, even if she gave herself more of a break than he ever would have done.
Or tried to anyway, within the parameters of her job description.
Socially conscious wife to Alexandros Kristalakis.
“Perhaps because if you had told me, I would have made changes sooner.”
Change would be a fine thing. “What changes?” she asked anyway, wondering what he considered concessions made to her condition.
“I have informed my mother and sister that until further notice, our once a week family get-togethers will happen here and they will be lunches, not dinners.”
“What? Why?” Did she want to host the family meals? Wouldn’t that just give Athena, and more likely Stacia, even more reasons to criticize Polly?
But she could not deny that a lunchtime get-together would be much easier for Polly to manage from both a physical and schedule perspective.
“It is a change that should have happened when you first got pregnant. I forget that other people do better with more sleep than I get, and my pregnant wife should be getting even more sleep than her usual.” He gave her a self-deprecating smile that sort of took her breath away.
Her husband did not do self-deprecating.
“You don’t believe that. You don’t believe in giving in to infirmity.”
His smile slid away to be replaced by an expression that almost looked hurt. “Am I really that arrogant? That lacking in compassion?”
“Yes,” she answered immediately and without a shred of desire to lie.
His strong features showed consternation. “I am sorry you believe that, but trust me when I tell you that your pain and discomfort do affect me.”
“Since when?”
