The Greek Tycoon's Secret Heir by Katherine Garbera Page A

them.
    “Mr. Theakis, it’s good to see you again.”
    “Ms. Monroe, I see you are back.”
    She tried to smile, but that wasn’t exactly a Welcome to Mykonos. “Yes I am. Theo and I are very excited to be here.”
    “It is good that you brought the boy. He needs to learn to be a proper Theakis.”
    He turned his wheelchair around before she could respond and headed toward the limo, attendant hurrying in his wake. Clearly he wasn’t interested in developing any kind of friendship with her. In the past he’d treated her as a servant…which, as the nanny for Althea and Venni, she had been. But she’d hoped…ah, who cared what a cantankerous old man thought.
    “Mama, Grandfather said he’s prepared a special room just for me to play in.”
    “That will be nice, won’t it?” Ava asked her son, wondering if she was going to find herself, like Nikki Theakis, relegated to the status of an observer in her own child’s life. She shook her head, vowing not to let that happen.
    “Yes.” Theo curled his hand around hers, holding it tightly in his grip.
    As Christos and his father talked next to the waiting limo, she stooped so she was on Theo’s level. “What’s up?”
    “He held me really tight, Mama.”
    “He’s just happy to see you.”
    “That’s what he said. I’m glad he likes me.”
    “Of course he likes you. Everyone likes you.”
    “Is everything okay?” Christos asked, striding back from Ari.
    “Yes,” she said, standing up.
    “Please, come. I have a meeting at the office in a little over an hour. You can ride back to the house with my father.”
    “You’re not coming with us?”
    “Not right now. I’ll see you both later.”
    Ava tried not to feel that she was being abandoned, which was a silly feeling anyway. But she didn’t really know Ari and he didn’t seem to be looking forward to getting to know her better.
    Christos lifted Theo in his arms, said something that only the two of them could hear and gave him a hug and kiss. When he set Theo on his feet her son ran over to the limo and climbed into the long black car.
    “I’ll see you at dinner.”
    She nodded.
    He turned to walk away then paused. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    “I will be. It’s just…”
    “What?”
    “I don’t have many fond memories of my last glimpse of this airport. It’s like…” She shook her head. She wasn’t going to tell him that everything was coming back to her. The overwhelming anger and fear. She had been so afraid when she’d realized she was pregnant and on her own.
    “Everything’s different this time,” Christos said.
    “You’re right. I’m being silly. I think I’m tired from all the traveling.”
    “I expect you are,” Christos said. “You have my mobile number?”
    “Yes.”
    “Call me if you need anything,” he said.
    “But your meeting…” she said.
    “Today I can make time for you. If I’d planned our arrival better I would have saved the day for you and Theo.”
    The chaotic feelings from the past started to melt away as she realized that things really were different this time and Christos was going to be by her side. She’d been alone for so long; it was hard to accept that she wasn’t anymore, especially when what she usually saw of Christos was his back as he walked away.

    The room that Ari had prepared for Theo was every child’s dream. It was actually a suite of three rooms, the sleeping quarters sumptuously painted so that it seemed you were in the middle of the Aegean Sea with the bed a big sailboat in the middle. The mural on the wall started with the sunrise, continued around the room to the big bay windows that overlooked the lushly landscaped back garden and then, on the other side of the window, night fell and stars filled the sky.
    “This room is…”
    “Fitting for the Theakis heir,” Ari said from the doorway.
    “Yes it is. Thank you for doing so much for my son.”
    “I didn’t do it for your son, Ms. Monroe, I did it for my