Apples & Oranges (The This & That Series) (18 page)

             
My mouth dropped open. “What is this? What’s going on?”

             
“Block party.” Demo smiled proudly, and waved to someone on the sidewalk. “Which ultimately means an Antonopolous family reunion, with a couple of other families thrown in for good measure.”

             
“You all live here?” I craned my neck to search the crowd. Sure enough, most of the people had Demo’s dark, wavy hair and deep chocolate eyes.

             
“Lots of us do, yeah.” He winked at me. “I told you my family was pretty tight. We tend to see each other every day, and touch bases with each other all the time. We all know what’s going on in everyone else’s life, and eat at each other’s houses every night.” Demo chuckled to himself. “Oh wait, that’s me. I make the rounds and eat at everyone else’s house, and if play my cards right, I only have to cook for myself like once a week.”

             
I stared at him. “I eat meals with my parents once every two years.”

             
“Well, that’s got to change,” Demo said with a nod.

             
After parking at the barricades at end of the street, Demo opened my door and took my hand. “This is my mother’s house,” he said, pointing to a grey house with white shutters on the corner. “And the brick house right next to it is my Aunt Vesna and Uncle Stavros’ home.”

A group of kids zipped by on bikes, waving. “Hi, Uncle
Bobo!” one of the kids called.

“Hey guys.” Demo waved. “Two of those kids are my nephews. Nick and Steven. They belong to my sister, Cressida.”

“Is that Eleni’s mom?”

He shook his head. “No, that’s my other sister,
Athena. She lives in the other brick house with the red door.”

I peered down the street. “Which one is yours?”

“The blue and white one.” He pointed to a house in the middle of the block, where a man was grilling steaks in the front yard on the biggest iron grill I’ve ever seen. “I’m sandwiched in between my Uncle Miles and Mr. Polbert, who is not a relative, but a former postman who has made each of us nifty handcrafted welcome signs to hang above our doors.”

“I see.” I noticed a woman holding a baby watching us with a grin, and nudged Demo. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Eleni’s mother, and the baby she’s holding is her youngest, Christopher.” He took me by the elbow and led me over. “Hey, sis. This is my new friend, Marisol. Marisol, this is my sister, Athena.”

She reached out a hand for me to shake, and the baby released a scream. “Ugh. Sorry. He’s sort of a clingy baby. It’s nice to meet you, Marisol. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Glancing at Demo, I shook the three free fingers on her left hand. “It’s nice to meet you, too. I didn’t realize Demo had told anybody in his family about me.”

“Oh, he hasn’t. He’s been trying to keep you a secret.” She winked at her brother, who just rolled his eyes. “It’s my grandmother I’ve been hearing all about you from.”

“Oh, really?” I chuckled. “I have to say, I really dig your yiayia.”

“We all do. What’s not to like?”
Athena started to bounce the baby on her shoulder. “She seems to think you and my brother are dating. Is that true?”

“I think so,” I said. “But it’s new, so don’t go picking out China patterns yet.”

Athena laughed. “You got it. I like you. Demo, why haven’t you brought her around before now? She’s got sass. I like sass.”

“Did you hear that?” I looked up at Demo. “She likes my sass.”

Demo rubbed his eyes. “Don’t encourage her.”

“Who?”
Athena and I said in unison, making Christopher wail again.

“This one cries all the time,”
Athena explained, holding the wriggling baby out to me. “I’ve got to go get a bottle. Would you mind?”

“What? Me?” I blurted, looking around for someone—anyone—else more capable of holding the drooling baby. “Oh, I don’t think—”

“He should be fine for a minute.” Ahtena gave me an encouraging nod. “He’s not nearly as whiney as Demo was when he was a kid. Is he, Demo?”

“
Athena…” he warned.

“Whoa. Okay.” I grasped Christopher as
Athena dropped him in my arms and grinned. “I, uh, don’t have that much experience with babies. My friends have kids, and—” I shut up as soon as the baby started to wail again.

“Always crying about something.” She rolled her eyes as her brother turned red as a beet next to me. “I can’t find my GI Joe doll. Mom said I could have two sodas today. Where’s my Superman cape?
Day in, day out with the incessant whining. Makes Christopher here seem like a monk with a vow of silence.”

I felt Demo’s hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for the trip down memory lane, sis. That was great.”

She grinned, looking just like Demo and Yiayia all at once. “Shall I tell her about how you wet the bed until you were thirteen?”

Demo’s mouth pulled into a defiant line. “I was
twelve
.”

“Touchy.”
Athena patted my other shoulder. “I’ll be right back with the bottle. Take my brother over to the food and make him eat something. He gets a little cranky when he’s hungry.”

Snorting, I turned towards the smoking grill in front of Demo’s house. “You fast often, I presume.”

“Har, har. Come on, I smell goat.” Demo made a beeline for his front yard.

“I, uh, what?” I had to walk quickly to keep up with him. He was a man on a mission, as he plucked two paper plates off of a table and started loading them with meat. “Did you say goat?”

Demo nodded, a proud smile splayed on his face. “Marisol, this is my cousin, Pirro. He’s the best cook in the whole family.”

The balding man wielding a giant pair of tongs waved. “Don’t tell
Yiayia he said that.”

Demo shook his head. “She’ll kill me.”

“It’s true,” his cousin agreed.

“It’s nice to meet you.” I watched as Demo filled my plate with more Greek delicacies than I ever realized existed.
Dolmades, feta, mousakka, taziki, souvlaki. All piled high and dripping over the edges. “Whoa. Slow down. I’m not going in the electric chair.”

Demo nudged
Pirro. “What do we think of women who refuse to eat, cousin?”

Pirro
waved his hand. “No good. Find a woman who will eat with you. Nothing’s sexier than a woman who eats.”

A laugh bubbled up in the back of my throat. I could get used to that kind of attitude. “Well, then throw another baklava on. Did
Yiayia make those?” They both nodded. “Make it two.”

“Atta girl,”
Pirro said.

Demo looked at me with a wide, happy gaze. “You’re really
somethin’, aren’t you?”

“That’s what they tell me.” I winked.

We ate. And ate, and ate, and ate. Athena brought me a bottle for Christopher about halfway into the amazing food, and I fed him until he’d fallen asleep on my shoulder, with a string of drool dripping into my hair.

I didn’t even care. Demo and I danced to the music until the moon was high in the sky, with Christopher between us. Every few minutes or so, we would be interrupted as a relative came over to be introduced to me, and I’d had to step back to allow Demo to dance with his mother and
Yiayia a time or two. But I didn’t mind. It was great to watch him in his element. With his family around, Demo was witty and fun, smiley and jovial. He played with his young nieces and nephews, giving them horsey rides on his back on the grass, and chased the older ones on the dance floor until they were adequately humiliated doing the jitterbug with him.

And as far as Demo’s family go? Well, I was sunk.

They were by far some of the nicest people I’d ever met. Each and every relative at the block party—I’d lost count after thirty-eight—came up to me, hugged me, and welcomed me into the fold. Many of them said they were relieved to see Demo had finally stopped acting like a middle-aged playboy. I didn’t share the fact that until I’d kissed Demo, I’d been quite the player myself. They didn’t need to know that. Or the fact that my uterus contracted every time Demo bent down to press a kiss to Christopher’s head, making his now messy brown hair tickle the side of my face.

I wanted him. And not just in the usual
do me against a wall and make me scream obscenities in Spanish
sort of way (though I
did
want Demo that way, too.) But rather, in a
when can I move onto Lincoln Lane and wake up next to you every morning
way. And I couldn’t keep it to myself anymore. I felt like a teapot filled with boiling water, on the verge of blowing the whistle. I wanted to tell Demo what I was feeling. No, I actually
had
to tell him, otherwise I was going to burst… and leave a giant mess all over the pavement.

“Hey,” I said, pulling Demo’s neck to bring his face closer to me as we danced to a slow song. The night was winding down, and most of the neighbors and family members had gone home to put their kids to bed.
Athena had taken Christopher inside, leaving Demo and I to dance closely for the last few songs before the deejay packed it up for the night. “I need to tell you something.”

Demo looked at me, the wrinkles on either side of his eyes deepening. “Want to go inside my house?”

Mother of God, YES.
Pressing my lips together, I smiled coyly. “Sure.”

He led me up the walk and into the front of his house. It was decorated exactly like I’d expected it to be. Not much color, minimal furniture, and a giant flat screen the size of a ping pong tabletop hanging on the wall. But the dark woodwork shone, and the floors creaked delightfully underneath our feet as Demo led me from room to room.

“And this is my bedroom.” He flicked on a light, illuminating a large room with French doors that led out to the backyard. His bed was big, and covered in a thick blue and white quilt I was pretty sure had been designed to resemble the Greek flag. Demo shrugged embarrassedly. “Yiayia makes them for each of her grandkids.”

I suppressed a smile. “I see.” Walking over to the bed, I perched demurely on the side and put my hands on my knees. “Come and sit with me.”

Demo stared at me with eyes that could only be described as hungry. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and furrowed his brow. “Are you sure?”

Grinning, I patted the quilt next to me. “Come on. I won’t bite.”

He tilted his chin upward, his stature defiant. “What if I want you to?”

I swallowed. Hard. “Then you wouldn’t have to ask twice.”

“I want you, Marisol.” His voice was rough around the edges. “Make no mistake of that.”

Demo was so beautiful, standing there in the doorway with a narrow stripe of light running across his face. I had to remind myself to blink. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Sit. Stand. Fold my arms. Tear off my shirt?

I used to say things so bold and crass, men almost swallowed their tongues. Now I couldn’t get the simplest of terms out.

Finally I cleared my throat. “I want you, too, Demetr
ious.”

“I want to make this right,” he told me, his chocolate brown eyes shining. “I should be honest with you.”

The cloud of sexual tension thickened between us as straightened my back and faced him. “Okay. Hit me.”

“I want to stay on this street, near my family. Forever. My mother’s getting older, and needs us kids around. And
Yiayia—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted him. “They’re amazing. I… I wouldn’t want to leave them, either.”

He smiled. A small, tiny smile that lit his face up like Christmas morning. “I want kids.” When I raised my eyebrows, he added, “Someday. I mean, I know I’m going to be an older parent, but I don’t care. I’ve always wanted them. And I don’t care if they’re mine or somebody else’s. I just want to raise a family someday.”

My eyes filled. “I do, too. I mean…” I sniffled. “I don’t want a family band, or anything. I don’t want to have a whole soccer team. My vagina’s not a clown car.
But one. Or two… would be nice.”

Demo laughed. “Has anybody told you that you’ve got a way with words?”

One of my shoulders rose and fell. “Maybe. Once or twice.”

“I was engaged once.” His mouth turned down in the corners. “She left me the night before the wedding. I beat a guy up and went to jail.”

“I know. Yiayia told me.” I stood up and stepped closer to him. “My father left my mom and me when I was a little girl. I was raised by nannies after that. That’s why I’m such a cold bitch.”

Demo reached out and stroked my cheek. “Not so cold to me.”

I shuddered when he touched me. Yes, I said shuddered. And I was aware of how pathetic that was. But holy crap, Demo’s touch was otherworldly. “I have another confession.”

“What’s that?”

Here goes nothing.

“I think I’m falling in love with you.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. It felt like ten minutes, but in all actuality, it was probably closer to ten seconds. But when Demo drew a long breath, then let it out slowly, I prepared myself for the worst.