Page 104 of Hold Me Today

“I’d like for you to read this.” At my curious stare, Mina’s honey eyes grow like saucers and she throws up a hand. “Notallof it, obviously. We don’t have the time—okay, we do, but it’s really not necessary. A lot of it is redundant, actually, though I guess that’s like saying thatI’mredundant, which honestly . . . I’m not putting any of this well. Sorry.” She huffs out an awkward chuckle before mumbling, “I can point out the right dates to read. If you want.”

I take the notebook from her grasp, letting my fingers purposely brush hers. Holding the book close to the fire, I watch as the words flicker across the lined page. “If this tells me anything aboutyou, Ermione, then I want to read it. Trust me.”

Her whispered, “I do,” stokes the heat curling around my heart. This woman could tell me to put on a unicorn costume and dance in the middle of Copley Square and I wouldn’t think twice. Or maybe I would, but only to make sure she’s dressed as a unicorn right along with me.

Partners-in-crime and all that.

Lifting the notebook, I skim the edge with the pad of my thumb. “Tell me where to start.”

And she does.

Once I find the first entry, I angle the notebook to catch the moonlight filtering in through the window. I barely manage to read the first line before Mina’s voice diverts my attention. She speaks softly, like she’s uncertain if I’ll be willing to listen, and keeps her gaze rooted on her socked feet.

“I didn’t know that I was any different as a kid. I’m sure my teachers told my parents that I was a late bloomer or something, but at some point, the excuses wear thin.” Those honey eyes of hers flick up to stare into the crackling flames, with a look so heartbreakinglylonelyetched in her features that it nearly destroys me. Muscles flexing at my need togo, hug her, love her,I gather every shred of discipline to sit my ass still and give her room to pour her heart out. “I was six whenBabalet it slip that I wasn’t his. I didn’t understand, obviously—genetics aren’t something a six-year-old really gets. I sure didn’t. Mamawas crying and apologizing tohim,because he was angry and yelling at me, and somehowherinfidelity was my fault. I stood in the center of the living room, still wearing my school uniform, and all I remember is feeling confused.”

The notebook’s pages crinkle in my grip.

I wasn’t his. I wasn’t his. I wasn’t his.

Mina’s words loop around like a broken record in my head. How did I miss it all these years? How did I not notice Yianni Pappas’s reluctance to show any hint of affection for his eldest daughter?

Except that Minaisn’this eldest daughter.

Christ.

I study her features, the notebook all but forgotten in my hands, and mentally compare her to the Pappas clan. Warm brown eyes instead of cool seafoam green like her siblings. Darker sun-kissed skin than Yianni or Katya or Dimitri. Mina is downright beautiful, but it doesn’t change the fact that—

“You see it now, don’t you?”

At her pointed question, I hold her gaze, unwilling to sever the connection between us. The heat from the fireplace warms my skin to a feverish temperature. Or maybe it’s the fact that I’m seconds away from losing my finally wrought control. And all because—“He’s a fuckin’ bastard.”I bite out the words. Fast, sharp, completely unapologetic. “You didn’t deserve learning about your mom like that. You don’tdeserve any of their bullshit at all—not for one second.”

Her chin comes up. “But do you see it?”

What I see is a woman who’s stolen my heart.

Knowing that she’s waiting for an answer, I give her the bitter truth. “Naí.”

Yes.One simple word—and she visibly curls up in a ball.

Mina bends her knees, drawing them up to her chest. She wraps her arms around her shins, then settles her chin on her knees. She looks young, resigned, and God help me, but all I want to do is hold her.

“Once it was out in the open, there was no pretending otherwise.” She licks her lips, but nothing about it is sexual. “Bababrought up Mama cheating all the time. He did it front of me, in front of Katya and Dimitri. He did it when we were out to dinner and she happened to look at another man a little too long. I realize now that it was classic manipulation and how he kept Mama in check. Back then, though, it felt like a thousand arrows landing in my already open wounds.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, her shoulders draw up to her ears. “If I had been like Katya and Dimitri, maybe he would have let bygones be bygones. I was eight the first time he called me stupid. I didn’t have a good grasp in many of my classes and we both know I struggled in Greek school. Every bad grade, every failed test, was like open season for him to belittle me.”

Fury thrums through my veins. It’s a miracle that I manage to keep my tone flat at all when I edge out, “You have dyslexia.”

She shrugs stiffly. “I wasn’t diagnosed until I was twenty. By then I was in hair school and determined to never go back home. I’m sure the counselors in grade school may have done something to help me, but I was always home, helping my siblings with whatever they needed. My dreams took a back seat.”

Fuck it.

I drop the notebook to the threadbare carpet and crawl to her on my knees. Like we did when she helped me with the church spire, I assume the spot behind her. My legs spread wide, with her nestled in the V of my thighs. Fingers grazing the waistband of her leggings, I settle my hands on her hips. She shudders when I kiss that delicate spot she loves so much, right where her neck and shoulder meet. “Spill it all,” I tell her, as she reclines back in my hold and my lips slip up to her soaring-wings tattoo. “I’m not goin’ anywhere,koukla.”

Strong woman that she is, Mina does nothing but allow her chest to expand with a deep inhale. “Your parents want you to get married because they want to see you happy. Even youryiayiahas good intentions.” I feel, rather than hear, the angry hum that reverberates in her chest. “That’s not my life. One day, my parents think I should let a man take care of me. The next, they’re telling me that no one will ever want me—that I might pass on my dyslexia.”

“So what if you do?” The words burst from my mouth like bullets discharging from a rifle. “So,what? It’s not the plague.”

“That’s what I told my mom.”

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