‘Did you see? We won!’ his friend exclaimed the moment that Dimitri answered.
‘Yes, it was a great race,’ replied Dimitri, his voice controlled and belying the momentary pleasure coursing through his veins.
‘Where are you?’
‘Dealing with something.’
‘Something? That sounds intriguing even for you, my friend.’
‘It’s nothing I can’t handle on my own,’ he said, hoping to God that he was right.
‘You know we’d help. Anything.’
Dimitri felt a smile grace his lips. ‘I know you’d try to move mountains, Sheikh, and think yourself capable of it, but...’
‘You only need ask, Dimitri.’
‘Actually there is something. I’d like you and Antonio to come to Greece.’
‘You know we wouldn’t miss the charity gala—’
‘It’s not that. It’s...for my wedding.’ It was the first time that Dimitri had said it out loud. He might not have told Anna yet, nor got her agreement, but he would on both counts. He didn’t miss the shocked silence from the other end of the phone. And it took a lot to shock this sheikh.
‘Of course we will come. When?’
‘Soon. The moment I know, you’ll know.’
‘Does she have a name?’
‘Anna. It’s...complicated.’
‘You once said nothing would cause you to take a wife, unless...’
Dimitri cursed his friend’s quick mind.
‘It happened just before I was arrested. My daughter, Amalia, she’s twenty-seven months and—’ he couldn’t prevent the sigh from escaping his lips ‘—she’s incredible.’ For the first time, the first real time, he let it sink through his skin, into his bones, deep: he was a father.
‘Congratulations, Dimitri,’ his closest friend replied, the sincerity in his tone soothing some of the fears he’d had about sharing the news of his new-found family. ‘I cannot wait to meet them.’
He nodded, unable to shift the thanks from his mind to his mouth, instead changing the subject. ‘How’s Mason doing?’
There was a barely perceptible pause before his friend replied, ‘She’s fine. She’s planning to return to Sydney tomorrow.’
‘Already? I don’t think she’s even left the back of the horse yet,’ Dimitri said, scanning his tablet for the current footage of the racecourse.
‘She’s...quite determined.’
Dimitri let out a huff of air, thinking that the description could equally be applied to Anna.
‘Good luck with that,’ he said to Danyl as much as himself.
‘Why would I need luck? Mason is nothing to me, other than our jockey.’
Dimitri wasn’t so sure of that and signed off not too long later. He switched off his tablet and listened for a moment to the pounding of the rain, wondering how it was that he could still hear his own heartbeat ringing in his ears. In just a few more hours, Anna and Amalia would be on Greek soil. And then he’d have everything he’d need.
* * *
It was late by the time they eventually arrived at Dimitri’s island home just off the coast of mainland Greece. Anna had spent the last hour putting a fractious, overly excited Amalia to bed and walked through the adjoining door into the considerably larger room that was to be hers. Was this what Dimitri’s life was like? In Ireland one day, Greece the next?