by Jackie Braun
He wanted her. Had since that first glance in the airport. But he was treading carefully for reasons that he couldn’t quite explain, since nothing about their relationship called for permanence. Darcie was newly single, finding her way, spreading her wings. He admired her for that. She wouldn’t be looking to settle down so soon again. Especially with a man who lived so far away. Besides, Nick had no personal capital to invest in a relationship. He hadn’t since Selene.
So why was he finding the idea of sleeping with Darcie and then saying goodbye less appealing by the day?
They were taking things slowly, more slowly than he’d ever moved with a woman. Nick supposed Darcie’s candor where her ex-fiancé was concerned was among the reasons he was treading with care. She had been marginalized, made to feel unimportant by the man who was supposed to love her. Recalling the conversation at the restaurant, Nick could admit she had been painfully honest about her past relationship, whereas he had not divulged much at all when it came to Selene. The only secret he’d shared was that he missed his brother.
Admittedly, the revelation had come as a surprise to Nick. But it still didn’t come close to all of the soul-baring Darcie had done, and he regretted that.
Meanwhile, he and Darcie continued to play it safe, flirting with abandon, even as they tiptoed around the land mines of their pasts. Safe. Sure. As long as he didn’t recall how heated their flirtation turned at times.
On a groan, he got up and took a shower—the cold variety—before wandering to the kitchen. He came up short when he saw Pieter seated at the table. Nick had managed to avoid him since that evening at Yiayia’s.
“What are you doing here?”
“Do I need a reason to visit our parents?” Pieter shot back. “Besides, the better question is what are you doing sleeping here when you have a bed elsewhere?”
“It’s occupied at the moment.”
Pieter smiled. “Precisely my point.”
“Is there more coffee?”
Nick motioned to the briki. His mother had been brewing coffee in the traditional, long-handled pot for more than three decades. He had a briki at his house, too. The copper pot was as bright and shiny as the day it was made since it never saw any use. The same could be said for his electric coffeemaker—both the one here and the one back in New York. What did it say about him, Nick wondered, that he owned a house and an apartment, but neither felt like home?
In answer to his question, Pieter got up and poured the last of the coffee into a demitasse cup and handed it to Nick.
“Thank you,” he said stiffly. Although he was tempted to leave, he took the chair opposite his brother.
“It looks like you had a rough night.” Pieter didn’t bother to hide his grin.
Until just a few years ago, such good-natured teasing between the brothers had been common. Nick didn’t want to miss it. He didn’t want to miss Pieter. But, just as he’d admitted to Darcie, he did. He sipped the coffee. It was strong and very sweet. That was how their mother always made it, but it did little to improve his sour mood.
Head bent over his cup, he grumbled, “I don’t remember that mattress being quite so lumpy.”
The mattress wasn’t why he’d slept so poorly, though, and they both knew it.
“I never realized how chivalrous you were. Yiayia even commented on it.”
Nick grunted and took another sip of coffee.
“She is sure this is a sign.”
“Yiayia and her signs,” Nick mumbled. “Everything is a sign to her.”
“But is she right in this case?” Pieter set his cup back on its saucer. He was no longer grinning when he asked, “Have you found someone...special?”
Nick stared into his coffee. “Darcie is special.”
“Is it serious?”
“It is...complicated,” Nick replied truthfully, uncomfortably.
The evasive answer had his brother nodding. “Love is always complicated.”
“And you would know!” Nick challenged.
Pieter didn’t take the bait. Instead, he replied, “I am happy for you. All of us are. Mama and Yiayia can talk of nothing else.”
That should have pleased Nick. It was why he had introduced Darcie to them, after all. With his supposed girlfriend as the topic of their conversations until the wedding, he would no longer have to worry about them trying to set him up. But he felt uneasy.
“What are they saying about Darcie?” he asked.
“It’s not so much what they are saying about her, although obviously they like her. It’s more the effect Darcie has had on you. You seem like your old self again. Mama and Yiayia are happy you have found someone. As am I.”
Emotions crowded in. Nick pushed away all but anger. Arching an eyebrow, he said sarcastically, “So we can be one big happy family again? Do you really think that possible, Pieter?”
His brother swallowed. “It is what I hope, what I want.”
“And you get whatever you want. Or you take it, as the case may be.”
Pieter looked gut-punched. “You are not being fair.”
“Fairness, brother? Really?” His voice rose. Nick rose along with it. Palms planted on the tabletop, he demanded, “You want to talk about fairness?”
Pieter was on his feet as well. “You made your choices, Nick. You are the one who decided to leave Greece, to set up a business in New York, far away from family. Far away from Selene.”
“And you were here to offer comfort and company,” he added caustically.
But Pieter didn’t back down. “You chased your dream without bothering to ask her what she wanted. You just expected that she would drop everything, leave everyone behind and follow you.”
Nick’s conscience stung. Was that what he’d done? Darcie came to mind. She’d sacrificed her dream of feature writing for her fiancé, settling for a fact-checking job at a small trade publication instead. Ultimately, what she’d given up had only fed her dissatisfaction and resentment. Had Nick done the same thing to Selene? If she had followed him to New York, would their relationship have survived?
Because he did not care for the face staring back at him from the mirror in his mind, his tone was harsh when he told his brother, “That is not what I expected, dammit!”
“Then what?” Pieter challenged. “What did you expect?”
Darcie, Selene—both women were forgotten now. Nick saw only Pieter, his brother and, at one time, his very best friend.
“I did not expect you to betray me!” He pounded his fist on the tabletop with enough force to rattle their coffee cups. There it was, the crux of the matter. The one big stumbling block Nick could not surmount, regardless of the number of times he’d tried. “While I was gone, I asked you to look after Selene for me. I knew she would be lonely. I did not think—”
Pieter’s fists were clenched at his sides. “How many times must I tell you that is not how it happened? Selene and I did not betray you!”
The brothers glared at one another across the table.
“I do not care about Selene.” And it was true, Nick realized. His feelings for his childhood sweetheart were over. “But you! My own brother. I trusted you.”
“I did nothing to betray you or your trust. God knows! I fought the attraction I felt for her, and I felt it since we were all teenagers. Do you know what it was like to have her choose you?”
Nick blinked. He hadn’t known. Had not even suspected. Would he have cared if he had? His anger now, however, was greater than any concern he felt for Pieter’s feelings in the past. “So, you got even? Is that it?”
“No.” The fight had gone out of his brother. Pieter slumped down in his seat. His voice was quiet, but his words were no less potent when he said, “I love her, I have always loved her, but I never imagined...I never dared to hope... You have to believe me t
hat it was long after the two of you had parted ways that anything developed between us. Even so, we both tried to deny it.” Pieter shoved a hand through his hair, his eyes bright with pain, frustration and resignation when he added, “Some things cannot be denied.”
The door opened and their mother rushed into the kitchen from the yard. Her face was flushed, her expression one of worry.
“What on earth has happened? Your raised voices can be heard all the way to the coast!”
“Nothing happened,” Nick told her, feeling more shaken than he wanted to admit. He crossed to the sink and tossed the remainder of his coffee down the drain.
As he stalked from the room, he heard Pieter say wearily, “He cannot forgive me.”
* * *
Darcie was at the computer in Nick’s home office working on some research when she heard a car pull up the driveway. Her mouth curved into a smile as she recognized the purr of the Jag’s powerful motor. Then she glanced at the clock, puzzled. He was almost two hours early for their drive to Trikala. They had an afternoon meeting with a potential buyer for the Porsche he’d been driving the day they met.
Was that really only a week ago? It was hard to believe given all that had occurred since then. Indeed, over the past two weeks Darcie’s entire life had been turned upside down. She’d gone from being an uncertain and disenchanted bride-to-be to a single woman who was determined to hammer out a new future for herself. And having a fine time doing it, thanks to Nick.
Her heart skipped a beat when she heard the door open. She turned, intending to tease him about being so eager, but her own smile died upon seeing his dire expression.
“Are you ready to leave?” he asked.
“I, um...” She glanced back at the computer, where she had several files open. “Can you give me another fifteen minutes? I just need to check a couple more things and print this out.”
He nodded. “I will be on the terrace.”
When she finished, she joined him there. He was so preoccupied that he didn’t even hear her approach. When she laid a hand on his shoulder, he turned abruptly, almost as if he expected to find someone else standing there.
“Nick, is everything all right?”
“Yes. Of course.” But his eyes remained dark and fathomless and at odds with the smile that turned up the corners of his mouth. “I am looking forward to our trip.”
After Trikala, they were going to continue on to Meteora, where they would stay the night in a hotel. Even though Darcie had not asked him to, Nick had booked separate rooms for them, and of course he had insisted on paying for both. First thing in the morning, the plan was to tour a couple of Meteora’s remaining six Greek Orthodox monasteries that were built atop rocky sandstone towers. Then the two of them would head back to Athens.
She had been looking forward to the trip as well. But now...?
“What’s wrong?” She laid a hand on his arm. “And please don’t tell me ‘nothing.’ I want to help.”
“I thank you for your concern. But you cannot help me.”
“Nick,” she pleaded.
“I had an argument with my brother this morning.” He waved one hand in dismissal. Even so, Darcie’s stomach took a tumble.
“Selene?” she suggested.
Nick’s gaze returned to the sea. In profile, Darcie watched his jaw clench. “It is an old wound, but it has not healed properly.” He sighed wearily then. “I do not know if it ever will.”
“Sometimes talking to a neutral third party helps. I’ve been told I’m a good listener.” When he turned, she offered an encouraging smile. Even so, it was a full minute before Nick said anything.
“I have been so angry. And I have felt entitled to that anger.”
“But now?”
He swallowed and shoved a hand through his hair, leaving it as messy as his emotions. The expletive that followed—and she didn’t doubt it was an expletive—was spoken in Greek.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened between you and Selene?” Maybe by taking a step back in time, he would be able to move forward.
“Selene and I had been seeing one another for a couple of years when I went to New York for the first time. I had saved up some money, and my uncle had a contact in the United States. I planned to attend a few auctions, gain some understanding of the business and return to Athens to build my company here.”
“But you stayed.”
“Not at first, but eventually. The market for classic automobiles is so much larger in America. It made sense!” He was less emphatic when he added, “Selene did not see it that way.”
“Were the two of you engaged at the time?”
He shook his head. “I never proposed, but I thought we had an understanding.”
“And moving to another country, was that part of the understanding?”
He frowned. “She did not want to leave Athens.”
“Of course not. Everything familiar to her is here,” Darcie said. “It was a lot to ask.”
“I know.” He pinched his eyes closed. “We argued about it more than once, each trying to sway the other. I tried to find a solution. The best I could manage was a compromise. I came back to Greece as often as I could.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug.
“Did she ever come to New York?”
“Once. It was right after I took an apartment there. As much as I love Manhattan, that is how much she hated it. Still, I told myself that eventually...” His words trailed off and he shook his head.
“How long have Pieter and Selene been together?”
“Officially, they have been engaged for the past year. They dated for a year before that. Unofficially? I do not want to know, although they have both assured me repeatedly that I was long out of the picture when they started seeing one another.”
“You don’t believe them?”
“I am not sure what I believe.” He sighed heavily.
Darcie glanced out at the harbor. The water was calm now, as was Nick, but when storms blew in, she imagined that the surface would turn choppy and become dotted with whitecaps that could wrest a small boat from its moorings and swamp it. That must have been how Nick had felt when he’d returned to Athens to find his brother courting Selene.
“You feel betrayed.”
“Pieter and I are—were—more than brothers. There is barely a year between our births. We did everything together. We were always the best of friends. There was no one I trusted more.”
“That must make this situation all the more difficult,” she said softly and rested a hand on his arm. “You lost your best friend and...and the woman you loved.”
“Did I?” Nick uttered the question softly. His dark eyes were full of pain when he added, “Did I truly love her? Did Tad love you? Is that how love works?”
Darcie frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Real love would not take more than it gave. It would not be selfish,” Nick said. Darcie thought of the Bible verse from First Corinthians that she’d asked one of her brothers-in-law to read at her wedding. Love is patient. Love is kind...it is not self-seeking.... She always felt it underscored love’s many good qualities.
“But Tad was selfish with you. From what you have told me, he put himself, his needs and his wants first. And I was that way with Selene. I knew from the beginning that she did not want to move to America. I knew that she wanted a life here, a life like the one she now will have with Pieter.”
“Are you sorry?” Darcie swallowed.
“I hurt her. Yes, for that I am very sorry.”
But that wasn’t what Darcie meant, so she tried again. “Knowing everything that you know, do you...do you wish you had made a different set of choices?”
“I cannot rewrite history.”
“Tad wants to.” She h
adn’t meant to say that.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Darcie,” he pleaded.
“He’s left several messages on my cell.” She shrugged.
“And?”
“There is no and. I’m just saying that even if we cannot rewrite history that doesn’t mean we don’t have regrets. So, do you?” She returned to her original question, afraid of what the answer might be.
“No.”
But his expression remained so pained that she wondered. Could he still love Selene? The possibility left her uncomfortable, but why? She had no claim on Nick. No right to expect exclusivity when it came to his affection. They hadn’t slept together, even if Darcie could admit that was the direction they were heading, albeit at a slow and measured pace. And when they did, she knew it would be casual. Mind-blowing, but casual. So why did it matter?
Because Darcie feared she was trading one emotionally unavailable man for another.
NINE
Nick swapped his Jag for the 1963 Porsche 356 that was parked in the garage and they were on their way. If all went as planned in Trikala, his client would buy the Porsche and they would drive away in a 1956 Austin-Healey roadster that, depending on its condition, would knock off most of the Porsche’s asking price. The Austin-Healey, meanwhile, would be featured in Nick’s next auction.
It took them just over three hours to make the trip to Trikala. Nick remained preoccupied and introspective the entire way, even though Darcie tried to draw him out in conversation. It was a relief when they finally arrived at their destination, but they were more than two hours early for their meeting.
“We can take a walk through Trikala’s scenic old town, if you would like?” Nick said.
Since it would kill some time and might just help shake him from his mood, she readily agreed.
Fifteen minutes into their stroll, she was fanning herself. The heat was stifling and the light breeze’s effect on it negligible. They stopped at a café and he bought her Kliafa, a refreshing orange drink that was perfect given the day’s heat.