the olives growing on the island in the Ionian Sea that had once belonged to his ancestors and that he had bought so it once more was owned by a Mikhalis.
He couldn’t help his snort of disgust at her comment. ‘So does “clean food” mean that all other food is “dirty”? I don’t like the idea of that. Especially the traditional Greek foods I grew up on.’
‘I think that term is debatable too,’ she said. ‘I wonder if—?’
Adele’s grey-haired companion chose that moment to pick up her cup of herbal tea and make to move away. ‘I want to say again how much I love your blog,’ she enthused. ‘My daughter told me about it. Even my granddaughter is a fan, and she’s still at school.’
Adele flushed and looked pleased. As she should—it was no mean feat to have her site appeal to three generations. ‘Thank you. I hope I can keep on bringing you more of what you enjoy.’
‘You’ll do that, I’m sure,’ the other woman said. ‘In the meantime, I’ll leave you two to chat.’ She departed but not without a speculative look from Alex to Adele and back to him again.
Alex groaned inwardly. He recognised that gleam in her narrowed eyes. The same matchmaking gleam he’d seen often in the women of his extended Greek family. This particular lady had got completely the wrong end of the stick. He had no romantic interest whatsoever in Adele Hudson. In fact he had no interest in any kind of permanent relationship with any woman—in spite of the pressure from his family to settle down. Not now. Not ever. Not after what he’d endured. Not after what he had done.
Besides, Adele was married. Or she had been three years ago. He glanced down at her left hand. No ring. So maybe she was no longer married. Not that her marital state was of any interest to him.
Adele had obviously not missed that matchmaking gleam either. When she looked back at him, the undisguised horror in her eyes told him exactly what she thought of the idea of anyone pairing her with him.
Alex had taken worse insults in his time. So why did that feel like a kick to the gut? He decided not to linger any longer at the tea station. Or to admit even to himself that he would like lovely Adele Hudson to look at him with something other than extreme distaste.
THE NEXT TIME Alex saw Adele Hudson he’d beaten her to their mutual destination—the dolphin-themed Bay Bites café that overlooked the picturesque harbour of Dolphin Bay. The café was buzzing with the hum of conversation, the aromas of fresh baking—and that indefinable feeling of a successful business. Alex missed being ‘hands on’ in his own restaurants so much it ached. That world was what had driven him since he’d been a teenager. Even before that. As a child he’d spent some of his happiest hours in his grandfather’s restaurant.
Here he could sense the goodwill of the customers, the seamless teamwork of the staff. All was as he liked it to be in his own establishments. And Adele had been right, the café did have excellent coffee. He was sitting at a table near the window, savouring his second espresso, when he looked up to see her heading his way, pedalling one of the bicycles Bay Breeze provided for guests.
She cycled energetically, a woman on a mission to get somewhere quickly. Her face was flushed from exertion as she got off and slid the bike onto a rack outside the café. She took off her bike helmet and shook out her auburn hair with a gesture of unconscious grace. Her hair glinted with copper highlights in the morning sunlight, dazzling him.
This woman was nothing to him but an old adversary. Yet Alex found it difficult to look away from her fresh beauty. Since he’d been living in Greece, getting back to basics with his family there, he felt as if he were seeing life through new eyes. He was certainly seeing something different in Adele Hudson. Or maybe it had always been there and he’d been so intent on revenge he hadn’t noticed. There was something vibrant and uncontrived about her, dressed in white shorts and a simple white top, white sneakers and with a small multicoloured backpack. She radiated energy and good health, her face open and welcome to new experience.
Alex didn’t alert her to his presence; she’d notice him soon enough. When she did, her first reaction on catching sight of him was out-and-out dismay, quickly covered up by another forced smile. Again he felt that kick in the gut—quite unjustifiably considering how he’d treated her in the past.
She stopped by his table and he got up to greet her, glad she hadn’t just walked by with a cursory nod. ‘So you took my advice,’ she said. Her flushed cheeks made her eyes seem even greener. Her hair was tousled around her face.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I become a raging beast without my coffee.’
It was a bad choice of words. The look that flashed across her eyes told him she found the beast label only too appropriate. And that not only did she dislike him, but it seemed she also might fear him.
A jolt of remorse hit him. That was not the reaction he ever wanted from a woman. He thought back to the court case. There’d been some kind of confrontation outside on the day the judge had handed down his decision—although surely nothing to make her frightened of him.
‘I’m not partial to raging beasts,’ she said. Beasts like you were the words she left unspoken but he understand as well as if she had shouted them.
Against all his own legal advice he’d gone after her and the major Sydney newspaper that had published her review. He’d been furious at her criticism of Athina, his first important restaurant—the one that had launched him as a serious contender on the competitive Sydney market. He’d had a lot to prove when he’d closed his grandfather’s original traditional Greek restaurant and reopened with something cutting-edge fashionable. The risk had paid off—and success after success had followed. And then she’d published a bad review of Athina, detailing how the prices had gone up and the quality gone down, along with the levels of service. It had seemed like a personal assault.
So much had happened to him since then. His fury at her review now seemed disproportionate—a major overreaction to what the court had found to be fair comment. In light of what had happened during the hostage scenario and its aftermath it seemed insignificant. She had nothing to fear from him. Not now.
He looked directly at her. ‘I told you this beast has been tamed,’ he said gruffly. It was as much an explanation as he felt able to give her. He didn’t share with anyone how he’d had to claw his way out of the abyss.
But her brow furrowed. ‘Tamed by the coffee?’
She didn’t get what he meant. But he had no intention of spelling out the bigger picture for her. How devastated he’d been by Mia’s death. The train wreck his life had become. He’d been a broken man, unable to deal with the public spotlight on him—the spotlight he’d once courted. There had only been the pain, the loss, the unrelenting guilt.
His father had intervened, packed him up and sent him back to the Greek village his grandfather had left long ago to emigrate to Australia. At first, Alex had deeply resented his exile. But the distance and the return to his family’s roots had given him a painfully gained new perspective and self-knowledge. He’d discovered he hadn’t much liked the man he’d become in Sydney.
The presence of Adele Hudson was like an arrow piercing his armour, reminding him of how invincible he’d thought himself to be back then when he’d been flying so high, how agonising his crash into the shadows. He forced his voice to sound steady and impartial. ‘The magical
