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“To see my wife and daughter.”
She didn’t say, But you just saw me last night, because though that was true, their daughter would be thrilled to see her beloved papa.
“We’ll see you then. Only if you want me to wait lunch for you, that’s fine, but Helena goes down for her nap at one o’clock.”
If he was expecting their daughter to skip her nap to play happy families, Polly was going to have to rearrange their schedule if she didn’t want to deal with a super cranky toddler for the rest of the day.
“I will be there by noon.”
“All right.”
The sound of a helicopter landing at five minutes to twelve brought Polly’s attention up from the plans Beryl had given her to go over for an upcoming fundraiser. Helena was coloring at her little desk beside her mother’s in the room Polly had appropriated for her use after moving into the mansion.
Besides the nursery, it was the only room that had any stamp of Polly’s personality and preference for comfort and warm colors in it. The rest of the mansion they called a home looked like a high-end modern hotel. Even their bedroom felt like she should be calling for a late checkout on the rare occasions she slept in.
“That will be Papa. Shall we go meet him?” Polly put her hand out to her daughter.
“Papa is here?” Helena squealed, jumping to her feet.
Alexandros was crossing the lawn from the helipad when they got outside, a big smile on his face for his daughter. Helena pulled away from Polly and ran to him, her papa lifting the little girl and giving her a hug and kiss while listening with rapt attention to her baby chatter.
The sight of the super virile man holding the little girl made Polly’s heart clench like it always did. This man might not be the husband she’d dreamed of, but he was it for her.
If she could have stopped loving him, she would have. But she’d learned that shutting off her emotions was a lot harder than pretending for the sake of her pride that she didn’t have any.
Alexandros had wanted to know the night before why she had stayed married to him, and she’d withheld the most relevant answer. She had fallen head over heels in love with him five and a half years ago.
And she still loved him. He wasn’t perfect, but there was so much about him to love.
It came out over lunch that Helena wanted to go to the zoo, but instead of looking at Polly like he expected her to tell him when that was going to happen, Alexandros gave her a worried frown. “Wouldn’t th
at be taxing for you right now?”
She wanted to snap that everything was taxing for her in that minute, but Polly didn’t do waspish comments anymore. She’d grown up. Or so she told herself.
So she shrugged instead. “I can hardly expect our daughter’s life to go on hold simply because her mom is pregnant.”
“If we had a nanny, she could take her.”
It was an old argument. Polly had refused to hire a full-time nanny, preferring instead to have two different nursery maids working different shifts. Dora, a middle-aged widow, was on hand from six in the morning until two in the afternoon. And Hero, a local girl who had been attending online university while helping her parents on their farm, covered the hours from six to midnight.
Both had rooms in the mansion, and Polly was sure Hero found her studies much more manageable than she had as a farm laborer, especially as Helena was usually asleep by eight.
And neither woman had primary responsibility for Polly’s child. Polly was and always would be a hands-on, dedicated mom. “Dora could take her, come to that,” she told her husband. “But I’m Helena’s mom. Our outings together are important.”
“And when you are feeling better, you will be able to go on them again,” he said, his tone oh, so reasonable.
“If this pregnancy is like my last one, my discomfort isn’t going anywhere.”
“Call it what it is, pain. And since I realized you were suffering from it again, I’ve researched possible remedies.”
“I am not taking painkillers.” They’d had that discussion when she was pregnant with Helena, and Polly had thought he’d agreed with her.
“Naturally not, but have you considered chiropractic and acupuncture? I have the name of a reputable clinic staffed by two doctors that have only rave reviews from their patients.”
“You want me to try alternative medicine? You do?” Mr. Conservative, only the Greek way is the best way, and only the really rich Greek way of doing things met even that mark?
“It is not alternative medicine. It is perfectly valid holistic medicine. Thousands of years of success cannot be discounted as merely alternative.”
