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“Since I moved to London.”
“Ah! Here she is, our guardian angel,” Sister Connelly greeted Claudia with an extravagant hug and smile before lifting her eyes thoughtfully to the man beside her.
“You were on the footpath with Claudia this afternoon.”
“I was,” Stavros nodded. “Stavros Aresteides.”
Sister Connelly lifted her brows with obvious speculation. “A friend?”
“More than that,” he grinned and the Sister’s smile widened.
Claudia’s cheeks flamed.
“You know then what Claudia has done for us,” Sister Connelly linked one arm through Claudia’s and one arm through Stavros’s as they made their way up the steps of the church. “Without her generosity and fundraising efforts, we’d be hard-pressed to offer the services we do.”
“Which services in particular?” Stavros asked conversationally, but there was an undercurrent to the question that had Claudia’s feet stumbling slightly.
“Oh, everything, dear. From feeding the homeless and poor, which we do every Sunday lunch, to the children’s gifts we hand out at Christmas,” she gestured towards a large green tree ahead of them, covered in gifts at its base. “She won’t let me thank her publically, of course, but a good friend of hers should know what a unique soul she is.”
Claudia cleared her throat. “Thank you, Sister.”
Sister Connelly grinned. “Thank you, dear.” She pressed a kiss to Claudia’s cheek and then disappeared into the crowds.
Claudia watched her bustling rear and then turned, with a bemused expression, towards Stavros. “It appears she’s decided to play matchmaker.”
But the look on his face stole whatever else she’d been about to say.
“All the money you spend at Christmas… that’s on these gifts?”
Claudia’s face paled for a moment and then she tilted her chin defiantly. “Yes. I know it might seem like reckless spending but…”
He lifted a finger and pressed it to her mouth, his eyes sparking with hers.
“It seems,” he spoke softly, the words husked with emotion, “nothing like it.”
They stood like that for a moment, surrounded by people arriving, without realizing there was anyone else present at all. It was just the two of them, and the truth of their feelings clicking into place.
It was just a moment.
Someone recognized Claudia and came to speak to her, and then another person arrived, and then the service was beginning. They took two seats at the back.
The whole time, Claudia was conscious of Stavros beside her. Though she loved the Christmas service, she barely heard it this year.
There was no room left in her heart or mind – every part of her was absorbed by Stavros. By their afternoon. By what he’d said.
By trying to analyse what it meant, and what it meant for her future.
So many things in Claudia’s life had been out of her control. Her mother and father’s disinterest in parenting, and each other. Her mother’s death. Her father’s death.
Stavros becoming her guardian. Her eyes flicked sideways and a whole kaleidoscope of butterflies rampaged her stomach at the sight of him, staring straight ahead, so watchfully intent on the sermon.
Her dyslexia had been out of her control.
She’d made the best of her life regardless, learning the important lesson very early on that worrying about what she couldn’t control was a waste of energy. She didn’t have the energy to bemoan her failings or the fact she didn’t have the close-knit family she’d always wanted.
But now? Stavros claimed to love her. To have always loved her. This was in her power. She could reach out and grab the only thing she’d ever wanted in life. If she could just let go of her fears.
The service ended and Claudia blinked as though waking from a dream. Usually, she would stay afterwards and socialize, but a sense of urgency had her standing as soon as it was polite to do so.
