Page 32 of Loving the Greek Billionaire

“We’ll need quite a bit of sand. Let’s get digging.” Rose stepped several feet away to dig, while Nefeli hauled pails of water to mix with the dry sand.

The body was halfway built when the boys came to join them.

Adonis liked mixing the sand the best, with digging coming in a close second. He and Stavros took over those duties, while Rose and Nefeli worked on shaping the sand into a turtle’s recognizable features.

Rose relished the feel of the dry sand mixing with the wet, the grain sifting through her fingers, sticky and exfoliating at the same time. The artist in her awakened with a sigh of satisfaction. She missed the completion her soul craved when she painted a landscape or worked on a particularly tricky bit of makeup for a film. She decided to include art into the children’s daily life. Nefeli would certainly appreciate learning new skills. Rose could see the budding artist when she watched her draw. Nefeli had potential to grow her gift, possibly even to the professional level, but Rose would withhold judgment on that idea. The girl was only seven.

With the carapace complete, Rose taught Nefeli how to draw the design using the side of a broken shell.

“Like this?” Nefeli marked out a section.

“Exactly.” Rose stepped back to let Nefeli complete the work.

The tip of Nefeli’s tongue peeked out from between her lips as she concentrated.

“Adonis, will you help me with the head?” Rose asked.

The boy raced around the turtle, nearly squashing one of the turtle’s feet, and spraying them all with sand.

“Hey!” Nefeli chided.

“Sorry.” Adonis sank to his knees. “What do I do?”

“We need to shape the sand like this.” Rose guided Adonis’s hands to form the head. “You have the most important job,” she said to him. “You get to give him eyes.”

The little boy grinned at her. “Really?”

“Really.” She plucked another nearby shell and made a little dash in the sand. “That’s all you need to do. One on each side toward the top of the head.”

Adonis put an eye on one side and then on the other. He frowned. “They don’t match.” His lower lip trembled.

One eye was higher than the other.

“Do you want them to match?” Rose asked. She wanted to know his intentions.

“Yes. Otherwise he won’t be able to swim straight.” Tears glistened in his eyes.

“Then, let’s fix it.” She pulled him next to her to look at the head. “Which eye is where you want it?”

He pointed to their right. “That one.”

“Okay.” She erased the other eye and patted the sand back into place. “Try again.”

Adonis was deliberate with his stroke. His eyebrows knit together, and he threw down the shell. “It’s still wrong. I can’t do it. I keep messing up.” He wiped at his eyes with a sandy arm.

“Adonis, we all mess up, and it’s okay to make mistakes.” Rose brushed the sand from his cheeks with her thumbs. “We learn more from them than from our successes most of the time.” She erased the eye once more. “Try again. We can do his eye over and over again until you say it’s right.” She handed him the shell once more. Rose felt eyes on her and looked over.

Nefeli worked on the carapace design, ignoring them in her deep concentration.

Stavros was watching her interact with Adonis when he should have been forming the tail of the turtle.

Rose dropped her head from the intensity of his gaze and wondered what his thoughts were. She was doing her best to be a good nanny to these semineglected children in her limited time with them. Were his thoughts of admiration or judgment? She hoped they were of the former.

“How are the eyes this time?” Rose asked Adonis.

He moved his head back and forth, opening and closing one eye at a time to determine if the eyes were to his satisfaction. “I think they’re good.” A slow smile graced his face.

“Will he be able to swim straight and keep up with his turtle friends?” she asked.

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