That's Amore! (9 page)

"Efi, listen. Your mother and I discussed this with Niko. We all think—"

"You discussed this with Nick?"

She couldn't believe it. Wouldn't believe it. There was no way Nick was in on this. He knew how much the shop meant to her.

But he also wanted ten kids.

"Well, maybe not with Nick directly. With his parents. And they agree this is what he would want."

"And what about what I want?"

Her father grinned at her and put his arm across her tense shoulders. "Ah, everything will make sense once the wedding is over, just you wait and see."

Somehow Efi got the impression that nothing was going to make much sense ever again…

CHAPTER THREE

Day three

I
t was a conspiracy
, Efi was convinced.

In three days she hadn't been alone with Nick for more than three minutes. And then only because they'd stolen the moments. The more she and Nick tried to be alone together, the more their families worked to keep them apart.

Tonight Nick's family was hosting a dinner at their monstrous house, more his family than hers, and including guests that were still arriving from as near as Toledo and as far away as Cyprus. Every time she blinked, another relative she hadn't seen in over a decade popped up, kissing her and wishing her well and spitting on her.

"Ptew, ptew, ptew."
A cousin of hers from Ancient Olympia spat on her as she entered the Constantinos home and shrugged out of her wrap.

Okay, so it wasn't a clear your throat, accumulated a thick wad in your mouth kind of spit. It was more a superstitious gesture to keep a person safe from the evil eye, especially a bride seeing as all eyes were on her now, evil or otherwise.

Still, Nikoletta seemed to put more effort into the spitting than necessary, blowing Efi's bangs slightly back from her forehead.

Efi smiled and hoped there wasn't a spit bubble on her eyebrow. "It's good to see you, Letta.
Kalos erthis."

"Kalos sas vrikamai,"
Letta said automatically, responding to Efi's Greek welcome that meant it was good to be there.

Kiki leaned closer to her. "Well, at least you won't need another shower later," she whispered as Efi discreetly checked her face for spittle before the next long-lost Greek relative greeted her.

"Shush. Your day will come soon enough."

Kiki gave a melodramatic sigh that would have put any of their tragic ancestors to shame. "With no groom in sight outside your own, I don't see how that's possible."

"That's only because you're blind." She looked around for Nick, but didn't see him anywhere. "I've got to make a rest stop."

"Efi!"

Kiki made a face. "Your grandfather,
twelve o'clock
. You want me to run interference?"

"Too late."

Not that Efi didn't want to see her paternal grandfather.
He'd played a large role in her life and her sisters' lives ever since they were young and he'd come to the States after the death of his wife. It was just that his
Grenglish
was atrocious. Oh, she spoke fluent Greek, but her grandfather's interesting mix of Greek and English meant she sometimes had a hard time communicating with the short, energetic man.

"Ah, look at you," her grandfather Kiriakos said, taking her hands and holding them wide. "You look like just your grandmother."

"Thank you,
Papou,"
she said, kissing both of his cheeks. "Where's Gus?"

Gus was her grandfather's best friend and also a widower. It was rare when the two weren't spotted together. Although judging by her grandfather's instant angry expression, she had the feeling she might not being seeing the two of them together again anytime soon.

"Ptew,
he's not fit for you to mention his name, to
kleftis,"
Kiriakos said, spitting, although thankfully off to the side rather than on her.

Efi knew the word
kleftis
meant thief, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out why her grandfather would be calling his best friend a thief. Gus owned an antique furniture store not far from the pastry shop and was an upstanding citizen. They'd been friends for over twenty years.

"No matter. We will not let him spoil your special week now, will we?" her grandfather asked, kissing her again.

"I'm sure it's nothing that can't be worked out," she said.

"Never," he said, and moved on.

Kiki took a deep breath. "Well, that was enlightening."

Efi made a face at her friend,
then
caught sight of Nick behind a short, stout woman bearing down on her and her stomach lightened. "I need to talk to Nick."

Kiki groaned. "God, I feel sick just watching the two of you. You don't mind if I go get some air?"

Efi waved her friend away. "Go for it. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for any potential grooms. I may be related or about to be related to every attractive, single male in the room, but you aren't."

"I wouldn't marry a Greek if you paid me. I have to live with them. You don't expect me to marry one, too?"

Efi gaped at her.

Kiki grinned and disappeared into the crowd.

Efi came to understand
that the difference between her family and Nick's was that the Constantinos family liked to put the
opa
into a party. Sometime after eleven, a trio of musicians set up outside on the back patio with a
bouzouki,
a
baglama
and a clarinet. Warm lanterns had been lit all around and within minutes the sound of a
tsiftetelli,
traditional Greek dance music, filled the fragrant night air. Thankfully it was warm for May, so while a few wore sweaters, the guests for the most part were warmed by drink and the promise of dancing.

By all accounts, the new focus should have allowed her and Nick the freedom to be near each other, if not the opportunity to disappear altogether for a few precious minutes. Instead, the families seemed even more determined to keep them apart. They were all bent on making it clear there would be no more secret meetings in the pantry. No more mysterious knee jerks under the table.

Efi watched the guests spill out onto the back patio and tried to make her way toward where Nick was chatting with one of her uncles when Kiki grabbed her arm.

"Not you, too," Efi complained.

Kiki flashed a smile. "I'm just saving you from dealing with your mother."

Penelope indeed was a couple of feet away closely watching her daughter. Efi fought an eye roll. You'd think she was sixteen and a virgin the way her family was carrying on. Then again, they were probably trying to save themselves from embarrassment. After all, it was hard to host a proper wedding party if the bride and the groom were off somewhere squeezing in a little nooky time.

Efi allowed Kiki to lead her to a corner of the patio. The band launched into their first tune, an old one that almost always got everyone up to dance. Efi laughed as her uncle Iakavo took her hand and led her to the makeshift stage, encouraging her to lead in the traditional line dance.

There were many things she loved about being Greek and this was one of them. She had plenty of non-Greek friends and marveled at the way they celebrated events. Never would you find a bouzouki band at her friend Teresa Galwart's house. Or a lamb roasting over a pit in the backyard of Janice Collingwood's place. There had been a period in her teens where she'd loathed being so different from other families. But somewhere down the line she'd learned to celebrate it.

She looked to where Nick was being pulled into the line and grinned at him, happier than she could ever remember being.

"Jesus. Who in the hell is that?" Kiki asked next to her after cutting into the line.

Efi blinked. "Who's who?"

"Tight red dress at
two o'clock
."

Efi looked and saw one of her plump aunts kicking up quite a dance.

"I
said
two o'clock
, not four."

Efi shifted her gaze. And as she did she felt her heart drop to the vicinity of her feet.

A breathtakingly beautiful woman of about her own age with long black hair, ruby-red lips and a slinky body Efi had always dreamed of having but never would had her arms held high and was shimmying in a way that marked the end of the line and the beginning of the individual
tsiftetelli
or belly dance portion of the dance where everyone broke off and danced solo.

And it was clearly Nick she was dancing for.

"Aphrodite looks very nice tonight, doesn't she?" she heard her mother ask from her other side where they had moved from the patio and were standing off to the side, as the woman in red took center stage, every man in the place clapping in support of her seductive dance.

Efi gaped.
"That's
Aphrodite?" The same skinny Aphrodite they had all laughed at when they were kids in
Greece
? Poor thing, they used to say, named after the Goddess of Love and she had the looks that only a mother could love.

The unfamiliar woman in red began to bend backward in a way that required someone to spot her so she wouldn't fall. Efi watched as Nick offered to be that someone. Aphrodite slithered and shook, taking full advantage of the close contact, the V of her dress deep, her breasts full,
her
hips all too lush.

Efi had watched Nick do the same thing for countless others, Kiki included, but she had never felt the stab of jealousy that twisted in her gut watching him with Aphrodite. Of course, it could have something to do with the way Aphrodite was looking at him seductively,
suggestively,
as if she was the direct descended of her namesake and was putting him into some kind of erotic trance.

Thankfully the song came to an end and the couple in the middle of the patio earned roaring applause.

Unfortunately Efi was afraid the knife in her gut wasn't going anywhere.

"I
say we exchange her
for the lamb and tie her to the skewer," Kiki said a little while later, in the large upstairs bathroom Efi had gone to. She'd meant to be alone, but her best friend seemed uncannily tuned in to her mind-set and had followed, toying with a tray full of guest soaps in the shape of seashells on the counter while Efi tried to repair her makeup in the softly lit mirror.

She sighed. No matter what lighting she was in, she'd never be as appealing as Aphrodite was.

"And Nick. Okay, he'd danced with her once. He didn't need to dance with her again. And yet a third time…"

Efi stared at her. "Shut up, Kiki."

Her friend was all doe eyes and shoulder shrugs. "What? If I were you, I'd have let him know in no uncertain terms that his attention was a little over the top."

"She's my cousin, for God's sake."

"She's a sexpot."

That Aphrodite was.

And as one dance led into three, with Nick gladly playing to her cousin's apparent need for extra attention, Efi had felt as if her heels were growing shorter and her clothes too big until she feared she might disappear altogether.

She swiped a bit of eyeliner from under her lashes and sighed. "I don't know why I'm wasting my time. I'll never look as good as Aphrodite."

"I wasn't aware that's what you were trying to do."

Efi put away her makeup and leaned against the counter, away from the mirror next to her friend.

After a long silence, Kiki asked, "You know her well?"

"Who? Aphrodite?" She nodded. "Yeah. I spent a couple of summers with her in
Greece
. The other kids used to call her Scarecrow and she wore glasses and had the biggest nose that side of the
Atlantic
. My father used to joke you could see her nose coming five minutes before the rest of her arrived."

"Well obviously she grew out of all that."

And then some. "I used to feel sorry for her. Used to stand up for her. Kept her company when the other kids would leave her behind."

"And she thanks you by monopolizing your groom at your wedding party."

They both thought about that for a moment. Then Kiki moved so that she was standing in front of Efi. She gave her a quick once-over, then a more thorough one.