Chapter 18: Eighteen

Xanthos didn’t hold himself anymore when he saw her tearful face. He didn’t care for the people surrounding them. He reached for her as if on autopilot.

“Okay, guys, the show is over. Give her some space to breathe!” The miserable, watery look on those denim-blue eyes set a stone on his chest, and once more his hands balled into fists. Vicious thoughts poured in his mind towards the man who caused her to weep. “Are you ok, Mrs…” Concern dripped from his voice.

“The way things are going, I believe it will be Miss Balcázar from now on…” The heavy shrug and loud sigh reached places where his fantasies about Melina never did. “I’ll be fine. Please, call me Catalina.” The crimson taking over her cheeks didn’t go unnoticed by him. She wiped her face and averted her gaze. He felt his pulse beating at his throat, and a warm sensation spread all over his tanned skin. What was wrong with him? He felt like a teenage boy around his first crush!

Melina didn’t identify if the woman was blushing out of shame because of the incident, or to be in front of Xan. A smug smirk came to her lips when she heard him introducing himself to her. He was too concentrated on the beauty sitting in front of him to pay attention to her or anybody else. The brunette really got under his skin, and it was funny to watch him acting like a knight in shining armor to her.

“Do you need anything?” Melina asked, and when Catalina shook her head, looking coy at him, she decided it was her cue. “Xan, I have to go. Lots of things to take care of. Why don’t you walk her home?” She patted his shoulder and didn’t give him the chance to refuse. Melina made her way out of the coffee shop, going back to her house. Maybe now he would get out of her hair.

***

It was late afternoon, and heaviness made its way to her heart as in a few hours her hell would break loose. The first time after five years she would fall asleep alone. Terrible alone. Tears came to her eyes, and she blinked them away. She had to be tough for both of them. It would be only two weeks to endure and compared to an entire life, it should be an easy peasy feat, she hoped sincerely.

Melina was sitting at the table on the terrace when Henry appeared with Eve by the hand. Eve blabbered non-stop in a mixture of Greek-English, making it hard for him to understand, but she knew he was having fun with her. She took the opportunity to observe him as he was coming at the little girl’s pace.

Melina was on the petite side about 5’3, and he was at least a foot taller than her, probably around 6’, his thick thighs were strained on a pair of washed boot cut jeans, and she could only imagine how snuggled his butt would be in them. Broad chest and shoulders hidden under a blue pinstripe shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbow, and two open buttons at the collar. Her fingertips tingled with desire to finish unbuttoning his shirt until she had a nice, full view of his chiseled chest. He was almost doubling over Eve, trying to give all the attention to her chit chat. He wasn’t bulky, but he was fit and looked like a walking sin.

On his side, besides the dress she was in, was his mini him. She was serious about her earlier remark. Love was an interesting and complicated feeling. Sometimes it confused her how she could love Evangeline so much to the point of giving her own life for her, even though she was her father’s little clone, and most of the time she didn’t even remember that, only these days when they were together, it caught more to her eyes. It was funny to watch the cats following them not so far behind, a little unsure of the new intruder.

“Mommy!” Eve detached herself from Henry’s grasp and ran to her opened arm, and Melina received her with a warm and tight embrace. “Mommy, air, I need air!” She giggled, and Melina would never tire of listening to it. She noticed Henry observing them.

“Did you have fun, muffin?”

“I did. Daddy told me about all the monsters he slayed, and we played, too, he made a room for me in his house, there are a lot of fun toys there.” So that’s how it works? He bribes everyone around him?

“Daddy is buying you with nice things, I see!” She gritted out, grilling him on the spot and to her dismay, he didn’t even blush, staring at her with a raised eyebrow and a naughty smirk. “I was waiting for you, so I could say bye-bye. Mommy has to go, muffin. I’ll be back soon, ok?” she whispered to the girl’s ears.

“No! I don’t want you to go!” The little arms tighten their hold on Melina.

“Eve, we discussed it already. The kitty needs mommy’s help, honey. If everything goes well, I’ll bring it home to you. How about that?”

“No! Mommy, please. I wanna go with you, then.” Tears filled Melina’s eyes, and he saw her struggles not to let them fall. He was a jerk, an insensitive douche. But he wouldn’t back away now. All farewells were hard. Then things get fine again, and he wasn’t about to give up his time with his daughter, not after he had spent an amazing afternoon with her. No, not in a million years. The whole commotion was going on in Greek. He must learn the damn language, if it wasn’t so hard!

Melina glared at him, her gaze murderous. He was playing with a wasp nest; he was aware of it. In front of him was a furious mother, listening to her child’s cries and could do nothing about it, because he lied to her. He made her believe he would take her baby away. No, he wouldn’t do that, not so much for her, but for his daughter. She didn’t deserve all the stress.

Listening to Evangeline’s whines made Melina pissed. “Listen to me, muffin.” She held the girl to her and when she spoke, she did in English. He knew whatever she was going to say it was meant for him. “I want you to be a brave girl. Mommy has to travel, but when I come back, I will never go away again, it’s a promise. And you know why?” Eve looked at her, shaking her head, her face tearful. “Because when we love someone, we don’t hurt them, we do everything to see them happy. And mommy wants you to always be happy!” The promise of retaliation was there in her eyes when she finished to smooth things out.

“Fine, mommy…” Eve trailed off, sniffling.

“Eve, when daddy is around we have to speak English, okay. You understand the language, now you have him to practice with you.”

“But I don’t want to.” She was getting fussy, and that wasn’t good. “When are you coming back?” she asked, still in Greek.

“Soon, love. Soon. Now while I’m away, I want you to take care of Giagiá for me, ok? Don’t let her do anything wrong. Pinky promise?” The lump in Melina’s throat grew by the second. She needed to divert Eve’s attention. So she came up with a plan, putting the girl in charge of the family. When Eve nodded and stuck the pinky out to her, she continued, “I had a great idea! Why don’t you take daddy to see Santorini, and you two could go to a pet store to buy some stuff for the new kitty?” She breathed when Eve’s face brightened.

“Can we, daddy?” she asked with pleading eyes and the whine still in her voice.

“Of course, love. I’ll be happy to take you. And I can’t wait for you to show me where you live.”

“Okay…” It was her only answer.

“Muffin, I want you to go inside now, and show daddy all your favorite books. Can you do that?”

“But mommy, I want to listen to your stories.”

“I know, but daddy also must have a lot of stories, and how about you tell him some of yours? He doesn’t know them.” Eve got all excited, going down from her mother’s lap. Then she looked at him and went back to Melina.

“Can I tell him the story about the prince charming, mommy?” Her big and expectant eyes glinted.

Melina raised her eyes to Henry, and flushed red from head to toe when she saw the sly grin plastered on his wicked lips, and those pools of honey boiling with contentment. Worst, by the hot flush spreading through her body, a tomato would look pale in comparison. She could have gone away without this one. Why did her daughter have to be such a blabbermouth little girl?

“Sure…” she croaked, averting her gaze after Eve hugged her and ran inside.