Chapter Five #3
“Yeah, well, you and me both,” she said, pushing a bug floating in the water over the edge of the pool.
They waded silently for a few moments, the chirps of the birds and lapping of the waves the only sounds around them, before Dani finally spoke again.
“God, Theo…what are we going to do?” she asked.
Great question. One that he’d been pondering since the minute Maurice and Louis took them on the boat.
“We’ve got to get you out of here.”
She frowned. “We both need to get out of here.”
“Let’s worry about me once we get you out.
Once you’re gone, you can tell the authorities about what’s happened to me.
Tell my parents. Tell anyone who will listen.
Here,” he said, bringing his hands around to the back of his neck to unclasp the chain he always wore around his neck.
“Show them this, then they’ll know you found me. ”
But Dani put up her hands to stop him, wrapping them around him and twisting his hands away from the clasp. “No, that was your grandpa’s. I can’t take it.”
She left her hands around his neck, kicking up the heat a few notches. She was so close. So beautiful.
“He’s dead. I don’t think he’ll care.”
“Well, I do,” she said, taking her arms back and leaving Theo with an emptiness. “And what if this Pierre guy does something to you for letting me get away before we find you again?”
“I’ll deal with it.”
This time she didn’t frown. This time she scowled. “Theo, I’m not leaving you here. What if I escape and they take it out on you? What then?” she asked.
“Dani,” he said, taking her hands and getting closer.
He noticed a hitch in her breath. “I need you to trust me. You’re so worried about what’s going to happen to me, but if I put your life in danger and something happens to you, Vautour is going to be the least of my worries when Eddie comes to murder me. ”
She laughed, and finally he felt like they were on the same page again. “He would murder you, wouldn’t he?”
Seeing as Eddie threatened to kick his ass if Theo ever even dated Dani, death was definitely on the table.
“I mean, I don’t really care to find out, but probably. How is Eddie, by the way?”
“Aside from missing his best friend?” She stared at him with those big, beautiful brown eyes full of sorrow.
Obviously, it wasn’t Theo’s fault that Eddie was left without a best friend, but it sure did hurt to hear it.
“Aside from that,” Theo said.
“Oh, you know,” Dani said in a singsong voice. “Living his bachelor life in his bachelor pad. Though he did bring someone to Thanksgiving last year.”
“No way!”
“Way. You should have seen my mom when they walked in. She almost dropped the turkey.”
Theo started laughing, picturing the scene in his head.
“Were my parents there?” he asked.
Dani nodded. “They hadn’t moved yet.”
That sickening sensation gurgled through his stomach again. “Where did they go?”
“Cleveland. To be closer to Ophelia’s family. Since they no longer needed to be in the middle.”
“I can’t believe they left,” he said aloud, but to himself.
“I know,” Dani answered anyway. “My parents are leaving, too. Next month.”
“What? Where are they going?”
“Florida.”
“Wow, so they’re finally going to do it, huh?”
“Mm-hmm.”
There was a sullenness to her voice, which Theo understood full well. Once her parents were gone, no one would be left.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Great question. Stay, I guess,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Though they’re selling the house.”
“Are you serious?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Yep,” she said, with an emphasis on the p.
It was hard to imagine Grand Rapids without his parents or the Guiterrezes. Carlos and Maria were some of his parents’ oldest and closest friends. They spent every holiday together. Every graduation. Every birthday. It was why Theo had initially viewed Dani as a little sister or cousin.
Until he didn’t.
Dani sighed.
“I suppose I knew someday I’d have to move out of my parents’ house. Spread my wings and all that shit,” she said, demonstrating her arm span in the water. She sighed again and looked over her shoulder at the sea in front of them. “It really is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Theo stared at her silhouette, illuminated by the moon’s glow. It didn’t really matter if Eddie would kill him—Theo would never forgive himself if he let anything happen to her.
“Sure is,” he responded.
“I know you’ve seen it a million times, but is it always this beautiful?”
“Absolutely.” His eyes remained transfixed on her.
She looked over at him, and he quickly turned his gaze to the Mediterranean. “How many times have you been to Greece?” she asked.
Theo ran a hand through his hair and thought back. “Oh, I don’t know. Fifteen? Twenty? Something like that.”
“Do you ever get bored seeing the same place over and over?”
“Nah. It’s never the same trip, and I don’t always go to the same spots. Sometimes I’m here for work. Sometimes to see family. Sometimes a stopover when I’m heading somewhere else. There are so many things to see in Greece. Stories to uncover. People to meet. Foods to eat.”
“Oh my God, the food!” she said.
Theo could practically see her mouth watering. His was nearly watering, too, watching her in the moonlight.
“It felt dirty eating Pierre’s food,” she continued, “but it was so fucking good.” She closed her eyes and licked her lips, bringing her hands up to her mouth, which had the unfortunate effect of pushing her breasts together. Unfortunate for him.
What felt dirty was thinking about all the different ways that swimsuit was turning him on despite the predicament they were in. He should not be thinking about those things right now.
“You never told me why you’re here,” he said, trying to change the subject. “In Greece, I mean.”
She turned around so her back was against the edge of the pool, and she was facing the house.
“You talked about this place all the time,” she explained. “It was special to you. So after everything that happened with thinking you were dead and all, I wanted to see it for myself. Plus, I’d never been to Europe. I mean, I’ve never been anywhere. I figured this was a good place to start.”
He liked that she’d chosen to visit Greece because of him. As if it connected them in some way.
There’d always been a connection between the two of them, even though he was supposed to be Eddie’s best friend, not Dani’s.
Dani was the one who forged his mom’s signature on a sick note on the day he skipped school after his papou died.
Dani showed up for his doctoral graduation.
Dani sent him a handwritten copy of her favorite cookie recipe when he was craving a taste of home—along with a tin full of a batch she whipped up just because.
But his parents had told him, it was time to grow up. Settle down and find a wife. Stop trying to relive his youth by galivanting around Michigan with Daniela Guiterrez. How was he supposed to show commitment to someone else with little Dani always in the background?
Not that his parents didn’t like Dani. They loved her.
But she wasn’t a Triple G. And her penchant for breaking the rules and brazen personality, while amusing for everyone at the dinner table, weren’t exactly what his parents pictured for a future daughter-in-law.
Plus, her tendencies leaned toward bad boys in leather jackets, not archaeology nerds like Theo.
But after that drunken Saturday, he couldn’t dance around his feelings any longer.
He also couldn’t—no, wouldn’t—continue dating Giorgina when his heart belonged to someone else.
It wasn’t fair to either of them. The problem was, however, that he didn’t know if Dani had even meant those words.
They’d both been smashed. The fact that moments later she’d thrown up on him didn’t exactly instill confidence.
But the way she held him that night…the way she’d brushed her finger over his skin…
well, it felt real. He owed it to himself to take a chance.
So after giving himself some distance, he’d finally planned to tell Dani how he’d felt. Rip off the Band-Aid and put it out there. Fuck that stupid pact he’d made with Eddie. Fuck the Triple Gs. He was in his midthirties, goddammit. It was time to stop letting others dictate his love life.
It’s always been you.
If only he hadn’t been too late. If only she hadn’t already moved on.
The vision of the last time he’d seen her in Grand Rapids flashed through his head. Dani at the bar with him.
She’s with her beau at the brewpub, her father had told Theo when he’d called their house the night he’d pulled into town for a surprise visit.
Her beau.
Those two little words had gripped his heart and given it a tight squeeze.
Theo had needed to see for himself, though he regretted it the minute he showed up at the karaoke bar.
There they were, singing on the small makeshift stage in the corner of the room, singing a duet and holding each other in their arms. Singing “I Got You Babe,” the song Theo and Dani had sung only a few weeks earlier.
He’d felt like he’d been punched in the stomach by Sonny and Cher themselves.
The night they’d spent together had meant nothing.
It’s always been you.
Dani would never settle down.
It’s always been you.
There would always be someone else. Someone cooler. More exciting. Less nerdy. Better.
It’s always been you.
Theo hadn’t bothered going into the bar after that. Instead, he dropped off her book at her place, then drove straight back to Chicago, and less than a week later, he was on the plane to Greece.
So where was her boyfriend now? Why wasn’t he with her on this trip?
“Why didn’t you come with anybody?” he asked, looking at his hands gliding through the water, trying to be as nonchalant about it as he could.
“I wanted to do this alone. For myself, you know?”
He knew the feeling well. He’d been doing things like this on his own for the entirety of his adult life.