Chapter Fourteen
Chapter
Fourteen
Dani
Dani stood out on the patio overlooking the city with the Acropolis lit up in the distance. They sure didn’t have places like this in Grand Rapids.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she let it out. She’d hated how she left things with Theo earlier. One second, they were laughing and horsing around like old times. The next, she was reminded of the cold hard truth of their predicament.
And now she had to pretend everything about their situation was normal. Laughing. Drinking. Socializing with people who had no clue that she and Theo were still in deep, deep caca.
She sighed and then shuddered. Theo was right, not that she’d ever give him the satisfaction of knowing that—it had gotten a little chilly. But she wouldn’t ask for a jacket like she’d proclaimed she’d do earlier. Now that Theo had called her out for flirting with Andreas, well, she felt guilty.
Even though she wasn’t even the one who’d been flirting.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Theo said, sidling up next to her at the railing.
His presence startled her, and she jumped. How did she not hear him open the patio door?
“It’s incredible,” she said, pushing the other thoughts out of her head. “Now I really see why you come here so often.”
Theo smiled, and he had a look in his eye that she couldn’t place. He seemed…relieved. Happy, even. A glimpse of the Theo she rolled around in bed with this morning. Which only made her feel worse about their argument over Andreas.
“Theo, about earlier—”
“We don’t need to talk about that now,” he said, holding his hand up to stop her. “Or ever. I was a jerk.”
“But I was a brat.”
“Yeah, what’s new?” he said, grinning.
She brought up her fist to punch him, but he shielded his shoulder and turned away. “I’m injured, remember?”
Oh, she remembered. Her cheeks flushed, picturing him in the bathtub again. But the heat was instantly overtaken by a cool breeze, and she shivered.
“Cold?” he asked her.
“Are you going to say ‘I told you so’ if I say yes?” she said.
His mouth twisted, clearly in an attempt not to tease her for her outfit choice, and then he pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her body. She immediately warmed up, in more ways than one.
“What’s gotten into you?” she asked, playfully.
“Andreas. I think he…I think we might be related.”
Dani furrowed her brow and brought back her head so she could look up at Theo. “How?”
“Remember Lydia saying I reminded her of someone?”
She nodded.
“Well, it turns out she once had a lover from Perdika, where my papou was from. And Andreas’s father’s name is Zeno.”
Her eyes widened as she thought back to Papou Zeno. “So what does that mean?” she asked. “That your papou had an affair with Lydia?”
Theo shrugged. “I don’t know. Or he knew Lydia before he met my yayá. It’s not like I can ask him. But, it’s quite a coincidence, don’t you think? And how else would he know about the eye?”
She let that ruminate for a moment, but when she opened her mouth to ask more questions, Theo spoke first. “Juicy, there’s something else I want to talk to you about—”
But there wasn’t time for that. Phoebe popped open the door, calling out that it was time to eat, and waited for them to enter. Whatever it was that Theo wanted to talk about would have to wait.
They went back into the house and took two places around the long table. As everyone was settling into their seats, Theo leaned in and whispered in Dani’s ear, “We’ll talk later.”
Christos and Phoebe brought out the food—moussaka, salad, lemon potatoes, tzatziki, and gigades—bringing the brightly colored dishes out family style onto the table.
The food got passed around the table, and she initially took small portions. But once they started eating, the food reminded her of home. Or rather, the Galanises’ home. God, she’d missed this. This was what she had wanted out of this trip.
Good food. Laughter. Adventure. Life.
Theo.
He’d relaxed since the morning. The news about Andreas really seemed to loosen him up. For most of the evening, she almost forgot they were still on the run.
After they’d eaten, they sat around the table as Andreas and Theo swapped stories about growing up in Greece versus the United States.
It was funny how she’d always thought of Theo as so Greek, yet Andreas and Christos teased him for being so American.
But despite the tension between Andreas and Theo earlier, they joked and ribbed each other like they were old buddies.
It reminded her of his relationship with Eddie.
“What about you, Daniela?” Phoebe asked. “What is your family like?”
“Oh, also loud,” Dani joked, causing everyone to laugh. “Though not as loud as Theo’s family.”
“Yeah, but Juicy makes up for it by being the loudest out of all of us,” Theo said, earning an elbow to the ribs from Dani.
“Ow, I’m bruised, remember?” he said yet again, grabbing his stomach with one hand while the other rested on the back of Dani’s chair.
“You’re such a baby. How long are you going to milk that one?” she teased.
Christos reentered the room carrying a plate with cake. “Who wants dessert?” he asked, setting the platter on the table.
“What is it?” Theo asked, eyeing it from a few seats down.
“Milopita,” Christos responded.
Theo waved his hands. “None for me. I’m allergic to apples.”
“Daniela?” Christos asked. “It’s an apple cake.”
She held her hands over her stomach. “Oh no, thank you. I’m stuffed.”
Christos began slicing the cake and passing plates around the table, when Phoebe turned her attention back to Dani.
“Juicy? What’s Juicy?” Phoebe asked.
“Oh, it’s just a silly nickname he gave me when we were teenagers,” Dani responded, wiping her mouth and placing her napkin in her lap.
“But what does it mean?” Christos said.
Dani and Theo looked at each other, and he smiled. Dani covered her face. “Oh God, no. It’s so embarrassing.”
“Come on! Tell us the story,” Andreas said.
“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head.
“Fine, I’ll tell them,” Theo said, and Dani reached over, putting her hands over his mouth and laughing as she tried to keep him from telling the tale.
“If you don’t tell us now, we’ll keep plying you with ouzo so you’ll eventually spill later,” Christos said.
“Thankfully, I’m not drinking ouzo,” Dani said.
“No, but he is,” Phoebe said.
Theo lifted his glass and took another shot of the clear liquid.
“Traitor,” Dani joked.
“Come on, Juicy. Just tell them.”
He smiled at her with that smile that would make her do almost anything he asked, despite him being so irritating earlier.
“Gah!” she yelled, throwing her arms in the arm. “Fine. But I will need a shot first.”
Phoebe leaned across the table and poured Dani a shot of ouzo. Taking a deep breath, Dani quickly tossed back the drink and shook her hands out to the side. Yuck, she hated the taste of licorice.
“Okay,” she said, placing her palms on the table, “so, we had this neighbor growing up. Ma Barker. She was a mean old witch. Always yelling at us if we so much as set a toe on her lawn.”
“Whose neighbor was she?” Phoebe asked. “Yours or Theo’s?”
“Mine,” Dani said.
“And where did you live?” Christos asked Theo.
“I lived a few blocks away,” Theo responded.
“Though he might as well have lived with us he was over at my house so often,” Dani said, teasingly.
“Oh, whatever. You liked it,” Theo said back.
Yeah. She did. Even if she’d never admit it.
Dani playfully sneered at him, then continued her story. “Anyway, Theo and my brother, Eddie, were on the softball team together when we were all in high school. And one day, they were out in our backyard playing catch and one of these idiots threw the ball into an open window at Ma Barker’s.”
“Accidentally,” Theo added.
“Hey, am I telling the story, or are you?” Dani said.
“Sorry,” he said, smiling and putting up his hands like he was about to be arrested. “Go ahead.”
“Like I said, they threw the ball through the window and wanted to get it back before Ma Barker got home. That’s when I caught them trying to climb inside and they got the brilliant idea to have me go instead, since I was the smallest. So they hoisted me up to the window, and I barely made it inside because the window was stuck halfway open.
I got in the house, grabbed the ball, but when I was heading out, Ma Barker had come home.
I was hurrying to get back out, and my shorts got caught on the window. ”
Everyone was watching her with an intensity she hadn’t experienced since back in her high school days. No one was ever this enraptured by her stories anymore, probably because she rarely had stories like this nowadays.
She liked it.
“Theo and Eddie pulled and pulled at my arms, but eventually, I had to ditch my shorts. And…God, I can’t believe I’m telling this story,” she said, covering her eyes with her hand and shaking her head. “And the underwear I was wearing said ‘Juicy’ across the ass.”
“Like Juicy Couture?” Phoebe asked.
“Yes, exactly like that. Hot-pink bikini panties with giant white letters spelling ‘Juicy.’ ”
“And it stuck?” Christos asked.
“Yep, just like her shorts in the window,” Theo added, taking a bite of the potato still on his plate.
The entire group erupted in laughter, and Dani good-naturedly scowled at Theo. He tossed her a roguish wink, smiling as if he was proud of himself for the nickname.
I hate you, she mouthed at him.
“No, you don’t,” he said aloud back, smirking.
She rolled her eyes, unable to contain her smile.
“So do you have a nickname for him?” Phoebe asked.
“Of course she does. It’s God’s Gift, right, babe?” Theo teased.
“Ugh,” she said, nudging him in the side, “you’re unbearable.” Though her laugh said otherwise.
“Babe?” Phoebe asked, tossing them a suggestive look and waggling her finger between them. “Are you two an item?”
“They’re engaged,” Andreas said very matter-of-factly, casually glancing at Dani and then returning his gaze to his food.
Dani tensed. What the…?