Page 26 of Greek's Temporary "I Do"

He crossed the living area to the wet bar in quick strides, wanting only to feel the burn of the alcohol in his throat rather than the aching hot twist of shame that had sprung the moment he’d realised where he’d heard Helena’s words before. When he’d heard them.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he demanded, unable to look at her, staring at his white-knuckled grip around the glass.

‘Tell you what?’ Helena asked from behind him.

He clenched his jaw and turned, pinning her with a stare. He hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on when they’d got back, but the gentle glow of the solar-powered garden lights lit the room through the floor-to-ceiling windows, picking out the glittering sequins on her dress and the sparks of defiance in her eyes.

‘Why didn’t you tell me that you overheard our conversation that day?’

He watched her expression change into something like incredulity. She let out a burst of air that sounded alarmingly like a scoff, but he could still see the pain she was valiantly trying to hide from him.

‘What?’ he demanded.

‘You’re angry because I didn’t tell you?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ he slammed back. Knowing that it was a lie. That wasn’t why he was angry at all. He was angry because he’d been in the wrong that Christmas Eve. He should never have said those things to Mina about Helena. And he should never have allowed his girlfriend to say such things. But being in the wrong didn’t fit the story that he liked to tell himself about what happened back then—that every wrong thing was Leander’s fault and that he had been the innocent victim.

‘Why on earth would it have been my responsibility to let you know that I’d overheard you and your horrible girlfriend comparing me to a dog?’

Shame was a hard slap across the face that might as well have left red palm prints across his cheek, the fierce blush there was just the same. He braced himself against the sight of the tears welling in her eyes. He deserved every minute of her pain. And that wasn’t even the worst thing he’d said.

‘I wasn’t... I didn’t. Ever.’ Not the way she’d made it sound.

‘A puppy following you around? That was what you said. Those were your words, Leo,’ she returned, and he couldn’t deny it.

‘I was twenty-one years old,’ he defended.

‘And I was fifteen! I looked up to you!’ she cried.

‘But I didn’t know what to do with that! You looked at me like I hung the damn moon and I didn’t know why.’

The confession burst out of his chest from a place he’d never looked at, never wanted to see. Because Leander had turned his back on him only three years before, and he’d still been searching for a reason why. Helena had openly adored him and it had been confusing and painful and joyous all at the same time. He’d relished those moments, he finally allowed himself to remember now. But then, Mina had noticed.

‘Our families always joked about us getting married. And I didn’t even care that they teased me about your crush. But Mina did. And when she did, I just...needed to keep you at arm’s length.’

‘Oh, so you treated me like a stranger for my own good?’ Helena demanded. ‘Do you think that I didn’t realise you weren’t interested in me in that way?’

‘Lena, you were a child,’ he said, his stomach twisting. ‘I never once—’

‘I know that!’ she yelled. ‘I know that you and Leander saw me like a sister. And yes, I may have had some silly crush—’

‘You barely saw us two months out of the year, Helena,’ he dismissed.

‘Don’t do that. Please don’t do that,’ she all but begged. ‘Don’t undermine what having you and Leander in my life at that time was like,’ she said, and her words struck him hard. Her words conjured the past he had kept hidden behind a locked door because he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge what he’d lost—Leander and Helena.

Those summers had been endless and idyllic in a way that seemed remarkable now. Lazy days spent out on the Aegean, the sea breeze and sounds of laughter, the seagulls flying overhead and the simplicity of eating fish caught from the back of the boat.

But then he remembered why it was that he and Leander would take Helena with them.

Because her mother had been too busy focusing on her own interests, and her father had been more interested in business. Yes, they’d entertained her in a kind of absentminded way, but while her father had softened Gwen’s coldness, both brothers had felt their rejection of her and tried to protect her from that.

‘It devastated me, losing your friendship,’ Helena said, unaware of the blows that she was landing on his heart. ‘Losing what I looked forward to the whole way through the crappy school year at that god-awful boarding school. No, Leo, I didn’t have schoolgirl fantasies of kissing in the rain or something stupid like that. I had dreams of coming to the island and playing on the beach. Lighting fires and swimming in the sea with you and Leander. But when you two fought, all that stopped. There was nowhere to hide from the tension between you, and no way to avoid the heated conflict that would come any time you were in a room together. Which meant that there was nowhere to hide from the fact that...the fact that...my parents didn’t treat me the way that Cora and Giorgos treated you. Didn’t treat me as if...they wanted me there.’

His heart twisted and turned to see her eyes glistening at her confession. He’d always wondered how much she’d been aware of her parents’ casual neglect. He’d hoped that he and his brother had countered it in some way, but now he was realising that the consequences of his fight with Leander had stretched beyond his family. Her emotional confession was raw in her eyes, as if admitting their fighting had cost her too. And he hated seeing that in her, the price she’d paid for their mistakes.

‘Lena—’

She shook her head, as if trying to navigate around the emotional boulder that must have been far too heavy to bear. And watching her pull herself together was both remarkable and painful at the same time.

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