Page 58 of Undercover Billionaire

That was who he’d been thinking about since returning from the cruise. Hell, to his shame, he’d barely even thought about Talia.

‘Ari.’

It was his grandfather this time, slipping in to stand beside him, shoulder to shoulder. He might be in his eighties, his hair snowy instead of the jet black of Ari’s memories, but he still stood tall and strong, his mind as sharp as a steel trap.

Yanis Callisthenes had inherited Oceanós fromhisgrandfather and taken it from a small, ailing line to an international juggernaut.

‘Pappou.’

‘It’s a beautiful day.’

‘It is,’ Ari agreed.

‘Makes a man grateful to be alive. To be surrounded by his family.’

Ari didn’t respond. His grandfather didn’t expect it. Family was a given.

‘You are troubled,paidí mou. Thinking about Talia?’

Startled, Ari glanced at his grandfather. He saw hispappoumost days but they rarely spoke about Talia.

‘No.’ He sighed. Thinking of Talia would be easier. He blinked at the peculiar thought. When had it becomeeasierto think about Talia?

His grandfather turned wise, old,assessingeyes on his grandson. ‘Ah.’ It was a smug kind ofah. ‘I know that sigh, my boy. It’s the sigh men have been sighing for centuries over women.’

Ari turned back to the view, silent for a few moments. ‘I… met someone… a couple of months ago.’

He wasn’t sure why he was confiding in hispappou. Maybe it was the age and wisdom thing, or maybe it was the empathy always lurking in his dark, old eyes. ‘That’s… good,’ his grandfather said, also returning to the view, his words considered, careful.

‘Is it?’ Ari didn’t feel good.

Pappou said nothing for long moments. ‘You’re in love with her?’

Ari glanced sharply to his right, to the proud cut of his grandfather’s jaw. ‘No.’ Absolutely not. He was done in the love department.

A small smile touched the old man’s face, but he kept his eyes on the boat traffic making the most of the glorious summer weather. ‘Why not?’

‘I’ve had my turn.’

‘Ari, Ari.’ His grandfather shook his head. ‘You think we only get one go at this?’

Ari didn’t have a fucking clue how it all worked. He just knew he’d been one and done a long time ago.

There was more considered silence from his grandfather, and Ari’s skin itched waiting for him to continue. Because there wasdefinitelymore coming. His grandfather just didn’t like to be rushed.

‘I had a fiancé, when I was twenty. Before your grandmother. Her name was Alenka and she was…’ He shook his head and smiled, his eyes fixed on the horizon. ‘She was a beauty.’

Ari blinked.What the hell?He glanced over his shoulder at his grandmother holding court with the grandkids before turning back to stare at his grandfather.

‘It’s okay, she knows,’ he assured him, patting Ari’s hand. ‘One day, about two months before we were to marry, Alenka didn’t feel well. She had a cough, a sore throat, a bad headache. The light hurt her eyes. A cold, we thought. Maybe the flu. She went to bed. The next day her parents couldn’t rouse her and she was rushed to the hospital. Meningitis. Three days later she was dead.’

Ari’s stomach almost dropped out of his abdomen.Theé!‘Pappou…’ He slid a hand onto his grandfather’s shoulder. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s okay.’ His grandfather shrugged. ‘It was the times. They didn’t have the drugs, the expertise they do today.’

‘It must have been terrible.’ Ari knew intimately how deep and dark were the depths of grief.

‘It was. And I thought that was it for me too. But youryiayia…’ He smiled. ‘She came into my life a year later like Thor’s hammer and turned it upside down. She wasn’t an ethereal beauty like Alenka. She wasn’t placid and content to just sit at home and let a man look after her. She was a total ball breaker who knew exactly what she wanted. I thought my life was over, that I could never love again, never laugh again. Not the true deep down belly laugh, you know?’

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