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He said tightly after that, “I am to blame.”
“No.” Her voice was very gentle. “You’re not, and I think deep down inside you know that no one in your family blames you for it either. If I had to guess, I think it was a combination of things like old age, stress over the elections, and sure, your racing was a factor too, but it wasn’t theonlyfactor.”
“I don’t want to talk about my father.”
“And we won’t talk about him any more after this. Or anything else for that matter.”
His head jerked up at that. “Bobby, dammit, if you could just let me—-”
“Let you what? Change my mind? Because we both know you could, but I’m asking you not to. You see, I've had a lot of time to think about this, and here’s what I came up with. You weresoguilty about your father’s illness that you exiled yourself here, hoping to start anew. But you got bored and you saw me as a challenge.”
“It’s not like that.”
“It is exactly like that, and Leandro—-” Her voice caught, having realized that it was her very first time to call him by his name.
The way he was looking at her told Bobby he was just as aware of the fact, and that he, too, found it significant.
The knowledge made her swallow and square her shoulders simultaneously. She had no doubts that Leandro Christopoulos was fiercely intelligent, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before he figured out why the fact that she had called him by his name was very telling.
Well, she did not want to be there when it happened and he realized what a big fake she was.
She said gruffly, “All I’m saying is that I don’t want you to see me as a challenge because I don’t need that kind of complication in my life. You had your fun. Good for you. But can we please leave it at that? I don’t think it’s a good idea we’re in each other’s lives.”
Chapter Seven
“You should have askedme for advice, you know,” Priscilla Strathmore said sagely as she fed herself another forkful of organic salad. She considered Leandro Christopoulos’ tense profile thoughtfully. Her dear second cousin was normally as fun loving as she was, but she supposed one changed after witnessing a parent battle with death.
The thought had her nearly shuddering. She prayed no such drama would occur in her life. She just wasn’t cut out for stuff like that. She preferred her life to be as easy as possible and wasn’t shy at all about admitting it.
Leandro didn’t talk, but she expected that. Like the other children in the clan, Priscilla had spent her childhood summers in Greece and even in those days, Leandro had been very moody. One moment he would be friendly and then something would happen to make him aloof, almost offensively so.
Maybe, she mused idly,it was because he was adopted. His real parentage was no secret. It was pretty hard to keep something like that a secret since Elena had been well past child-bearing age when he had joined the family.
“Are you listening to me?” she asked finally when he still hadn’t said a word. In fact, he had barely said a word the whole time they were in the restaurant.
Leandro made himself look at Priscilla. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
