Harlequin Presents: July 2022 Box Set 1 of 2 by Heidi Rice

Author:Heidi Rice
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

EPILOGUE

Ten years later, Gallinvach, summer

‘MUM, LOOK WHAT I caught! Take a picture, quick!’

Darius’s voice rang out across the small lake at the back of Sofie’s family home. He was on the back of a small fishing boat, wearing a T-shirt, shorts and a life jacket, and was proudly holding up a decent-sized fish.

Nine years old and named after Achilles’s beloved brother, he was already up to Sofie’s shoulder, clearly taking after his father, who was standing by his side and grinning proudly.

Emotion welled in Sofie’s chest when she saw their daughter Ellie, two years younger than Darius, jumping up and down with excitement on the other side of her father.

Sofie did as she was bid, and snapped a shot with her phone, very aware of the significance of this photo and the healing that it depicted in so many ways.

Sofie called out, ‘That’s amazing! Now put him back before he dies!’

Darius carefully unhooked the fish and threw it back into the water. Sofie sat back down in the wooden chair under the shade of an umbrella in the garden where it sloped down to the lake.

She checked to see that their three-year-old, Cyrus, was still sleeping, spreadeagled on the rug beside her, exhausted after a game of chase earlier. Long dark lashes fanned across his chubby cheeks. Sofie gently stroked a finger across his face, not taking this moment for granted for a second.

She turned back to the lake to watch as Achilles steered the boat back in. The shadows were lengthening, the glorious summer’s day coming to a close. Her family home, for so long a place of loneliness and palpable grief, was now full of the kind of sound and energy that her parents had craved so desperately to counteract their own lonely childhoods.

Sofie wished they could be here to witness her family. She no longer blamed herself for their sadness. She should have been enough for them, and the fact that she hadn’t been wasn’t her fault.

Sofie knew that even if she and Achilles hadn’t had children they would have been happy with each other. Not lacking for anything. But they had been blessed, and she gave thanks every day that Achilles had overcome the trauma of his past and his fear of loving again to embrace a future that had terrified him for so long.

They spent every summer here in Gallinvach, with Achilles ensuring that he could work remotely if required. And for the rest of the year they based themselves between Athens and London. It was a lifestyle that Sofie had adapted to with far more ease than she ever would have imagined, navigating the social whirl of Achilles’s life by seeking out and making some genuine friends among their peers.

They’d renovated the house on the island and extended it, adding a more modern touch. Sofie had overseen the redecoration of the interior, bringing in an understated elegance, hauling it firmly into the twenty-first century.

Achilles tied the boat off at the jetty and lifted Ellie onto the wooden platform.

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