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When Mira sighed, Yana and Nush walked past him, the younger one squeezing his hand in an encouraging gesture.
“She adores you. And once Nush gives her heart, she’ll stick with you no matter what.”
He nodded, glad that she was talking to him. It took him a while to break the awkwardness building up. “Caio is very lucky.”
“And he knows it,” she added softly. There was no rancor or complaint in her words.
“Yana has asked me if I want to have the babies in California. They both promised they’d be there the entire time, if I’d like.”
Aristos covered the distance to her between one breath and the next, terror stealing words from him. Lowering to his knees, he bent his forehead against her thighs.
“I said no,” she said, running her fingers through his hair. “That I was done running. That I didn’t need to be chased by you anymore.”
“So sure,thee mou?”
“But if you—”
“I love you, Mira. I have loved you from the moment I saw you when we were thirteen. You wore a denim skirt and loose T-shirt and you told me you had recently found a new sister and now, a new friend in me and did I want to join you for a picnic near the pool?” He fought the sob rising through his chest, attempting to steal his words. “I fell in love right then,yineka mou, and I knew my happiness lay with you. I swore to myself that I’d have you in my life forever. That I’d prove myself to you over and over again. No one had ever looked at me with such...open welcome and artless affection.”
Mira laughed and then cried, and scooting forward with an awkward grunt, threw her arms around Aristos’s neck. “I’m sorry it took me so long to see it. That I didn’t trust you back then. I was an immature, foolish, terrified girl, Aristos. I...couldn’t believe that you’d want me that much, that you could truly love me like you did.” She wiped her hands over her cheeks. “It wasn’t you so much as I was so scared of love, of—”
“Shh... Mira. No more tears. No more,thee mou. It is my turn to apologize, my turn to admit to my own fears. I spent most of my adult life needing to be worthy of you, Mira.”
“But there’s no deserving when it’s love, Aristos. I loved you from the moment you offered me that pink frosted cake even though you were ravenous. You put me before you and it was...everything to me.” She clasped his cheeks and kissed his temple. “Thank you for coming after me, for binding me in that contract, for not giving up on me. For choosing me.”
“I’ll always choose you, Mira. I’ll always love you. You gave me happiness when I didn’t know what it was.”
Under his palm, one of the babies kicked and they stared at each other and then burst into laughter.
He took her mouth in a warm, hard kiss then and Mira knew she’d reached home. That there was never going to be a doubt again. That she and Aristos had found their way back to each other, despite everything. That they and their love could not be stronger.
That no matter what, they would always find their way back to each other.
Rubbing herself against his chest, Mira gave herself over to the magic of their kiss, knowing that this time, it would still be there when the kiss was over.
Eira and Eros Carides were born two months later, exactly on time, without causing their mother any further complications. Though their father, their exhausted but exhilarated mother whispered to them, had collapsed in exhaustion in the armchair next to her massive bed two nights after they were born after being awake straight for two nights, and turned into a complete basket case by the time they had arrived.
The mighty, nearly invincible and thoroughly reckless Aristos Carides had been reduced to a walking, talking, sleepless bundle of excitement and fear alternately, in the weeks leading up to the birth.
They had fought a lot in those last couple of months, given Aristos’s overprotective instincts after Mira’s fall.
Mira had borne them with as much forbearance as she could muster, at least for a little while. Not that she’d needed a reason to be irritable in those last few weeks. Her back had ached constantly, her pelvis had felt like there was ten times more gravity constantly pulling on it. And she’d pretty much waddled everywhere, giving up any pretense to a normal gait.
Aristos’s incessant hovering hadn’t helped. So much so that her sisters had commandeered Caio for one weekend to steal Aristos away to Athens to release her for some much-needed girl time.
Of course, the moment he had left, Mira had missed him like a hole in her heart, had been miserable about how tetchy she’d been with him not an hour ago.
Her sisters and Stella had been gob smacked when she spent two hours of their planned movie binge marathon time chatting with Aristos on a video call.
The one thing they had agreed on, though, was that they wanted the sex of the babies to be a surprise. They had also fought about names for the babies. So of course, that meant they both had to come up with two names each—for a girl and a boy. Her husband’s competitive, almost ruthless instincts had taken over almost immediately. He had been adamant that he wanted to name both his children because he’d claimed he already loved them more than she did.
Mira had not given an inch, though she’d thought the entire thing so adorable that she kept kissing him every time the issue came up. In the end, they had compromised and were each allowed to name one child, whatever the sex.
Mira had known the minute she stared at the little girl who had jostled her brother for position and come out first.
Large brown eyes and a thick mane of jet-black curls had instantly reminded her of her grandmother. “Eira... She is Eira,” she had said, tears running down her cheeks. His own gaze large and wide and full of undisguised terror and wonder, her husband had reached for their daughter, buried his nose in her chubby belly and simply whispered, “I love you, Eira. Papa loves you so much,koritsi mou.” To which, their daughter had given him an adorable half smile as if she understood him perfectly.
And just like that, Aristos swore, he’d fallen in love all over again.
