The Greek's Long-Lost Son by Rebecca Winters

situation on their own. Stella hated to think she had such a weak character she always turned to her brother for help. How would Ari ever stand on his own two feet if he ran to Stasio every time there was a crisis? It had to stop.
    The next day Stella walked into Ari’s bedroom with some ice water for him. They’d just come back from a day’s sailing. He’d picked up a little too much sun and complained he didn’t feel very well. While the rest of the family and Dax played in the pool before dinner, she excused herself to see about him.
    He lay on his back on top of the covers with his suntanned arm covering his eyes.
    She sat down next to him and felt his forehead.
    “You’re hot. Drink this, honey. I’m going to get my phone and call the doctor.”
    She raced to her room, then hurried back to him. Relieved to see him drink part of it, she phoned information and got connected to the doctor’s office. His receptionist said he was busy. After leaving a message for him to call, she hung up and took the glass from Ari.
    “I don’t want to see the doctor. I’ll be okay.”
    “Let’s let him be the judge of that.”
    “I wish Dax could go home, but I know he can’t.”
    Dax again.
    “Of course he can. All I have to do is call Elani andshe’ll come for him.” She studied him with an aching heart. He hadn’t been the same since the hike with Theo yesterday. “Did you two have trouble again today?”
    “Yes.”
    “Want to tell me about it?”
    “No.” He turned over so he wouldn’t have to look at her.
    “We have to talk, honey. Something’s very wrong. Don’t you know how much I love you?”
    “Yes.”
    On impulse she said, “If you need to talk to your uncle about your father, then I’ll ask him to come up here after he’s through eating.”
    “I don’t want Stasi.” That had to be a first. He rolled off the bed so fast, she knew she’d touched a live wire.
    “Why aren’t you getting along with Dax?”
    “Because he wants to talk about stuff I don’t want to talk about.”
    “You mean like personal things?”
    He nodded.
    On a burst of inspiration she said, “Has he been asking questions about your father?”
    “Yes.”
    “Like what?”
    “He thinks my daddy is cool.”
    “I take it Dax got along well with him.”
    “They talked all the time.”
    She knew she was getting closer to some kind of answer. “Dax’s father is an older man and fairly quiet. Dax probably liked Theo’s attention.”
    “He keeps asking me about when I’m going to see him again so we can all do stuff together.” His eyes filled with tears. “He’s not Dax’s daddy!”
    “What do you mean?”
    He blinked back the tears to keep them from falling. “My daddy liked Dax better than me.”
    “What?”
    “I thought he wanted to be with me, but he was nicer to Dax. I hate both of them.”
    “Oh, darling!” Stella reached for him and hugged him harder while she tried to comprehend that far from feeling hostility toward his father, Ari was jealous of the attention Theo had paid to his best friend.
    In order to feel jealous, it meant you had to care.
    This meant Ari had nursed a longing for his birth father all his cognitive life, but it had lain dormant until put to the first test.
    Before yesterday she’d assumed Theo would see that it was too late to bond with Ari. She’d been positive her son would never be able to warm up to him. Ari already had a surrogate father in Stasio, the best man in the world. He didn’t need or want another one. In the end Theo would find out it was no use, but the surprise had been on Stella.
    She had to do something immediately to help Ari, but what? Only one person had the power to make this right. For once it was beyond Stasio’s ability to fix, which was a revelation in itself.
    While she rocked her son back and forth, her cell phone rang. The last thing she wanted to do was answer it, but it was probably the doctor.
    “Let me see who it is.” She let go of him long