“It is this thing again, right?”
Eva cradled her head in her hands and nodded. “Yes,” she mumbled. She looked up to find Henry’s concerned look. “I used to know things like that before, Henry.”
“I know, but it’s still shocking to find out the reason.”
“Ugh, it’s more than a shock. I can’t believe everything that has happened,” Eva responded with a shrug. She decided to focus on the good news about the baby. “So I’m going to be an aunty now?”
“Yes.” Henry grinned. “I know this is a silly thing to say, but don’t mention it to anyone yet.”
Eva stared at Henry for a long moment and then a smile spread across her face. “Yes, I will try and restrain myself from shouting it from the rooftop.”
“That didn’t come out right. You can tell Zoe, of course.”
Eva sat back in her chair and laughed. “I’ll let her know you said that.”
“Oh, no, no, no!” Henry exclaimed and smiled. “What does Zoe think of Alexandra?”
“What does Zoe think? She thinks about a lot of things, my friend, and sometimes ten things at the same time without missing a beat. You have to be fast to keep up with her. I just wait for her to slow down.” Eva laughed at Henry’s exaggerated, long suffering look. “It’s really important to you that we like her, huh?”
“Yes. You are my family and it’s important.”
“Well, as I just said, I like Alexandra, and she passed the Zoe test very easily. She passed it the minute she saw Zoe hold my hand when we met you at the door and didn’t grimace or flinch. Did you tell her about us?”
“No. All I said was that my adopted sisters had come back from Europe, and that I wanted her to meet you both.”
“Henry! You don’t just say that to someone without telling them more. It’s not fair.”
Henry took out a packet of cigarettes and offered one to Eva. “I also wanted to see how she would handle your relationship with Zoe.” He lit Eva’s cigarette and then his own. He sat back, took a drag, and exhaled before he continued. “I don’t want to get married and have her exorcise my family out of my life. I saw that happen with my father and it’s not going to happen to me.”
“I think that was different, Henry. Your mother just didn’t like his brothers.”
“I don’t want that to happen to me,” Henry repeated.
Eva nodded. “I understand. Alexandra Hilling passed the sisters’ test. Did she chastise you for not saying anything about us beforehand?”
“Um…yes, but not for the reason you think she would. It was more about why I didn’t tell her I knew Zoe Lambros, the artist.”
Eva sat back in her chair and smiled broadly at the compliment to her beloved spouse. “Is that right? What did she say about us? You know I wouldn’t ask you, but Zoe will, so I’m anticipating the questioning that will follow.”
“She said she knew artists were bohemian and wasn’t surprised at all. She was more surprised that Zoe wasn’t together with someone who was equally as flamboyant.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re too quiet, too guarded and controlled, even when you’re drinking,” Henry replied. “Oh, come on, that’s not surprising.”
“It is, a little. I am all of that, but I was trying to be more social, more relaxed.”
Henry leaned over and patted Eva’s hand. “It disturbs you because she saw through your attempts to be social?”
“Yes, a little. She just met me!”
“It’s alright. Alexandra was a mental health care nurse…”
“Oh, that’s something you deliberately left out, Henry. You could have warned me.”
“I told you she was a nurse!”
Eva wagged her finger at him and shook her head. “You didn’t say what kind of nurse.”
“I wanted to see what you thought of her without your preconceived bias against mental health care nurses, Evy. She’s not working in that field anymore. You liked her and that’s what I wanted to know.”
“Hm.” Eva brought the cigarette to her lips and took a drag. She stared at Henry for a long moment as she exhaled. “She thinks Zoe is too exuberant for me?”
“Yes.”
They looked at each other and burst out laughing. “She likes us, and we like her, but most importantly, you are going to spend the rest of your life with her. Are you in ‘heavy like’?” Eva asked. They smiled that Eva was using Zoe’s scale for falling in love.
“I was in ‘like’ mode the minute I saw her, and past ‘heavy like’ quite a few months ago.”
“So there’s no hope for you?”
“Jumping off the cliff and enjoy the ride,” they said in unison and laughed on Zoe’s idea of love.
“You are going to marry her, right?”
“Of course! We’re having a baby together, but I would have asked her even if we weren’t expecting.”
“See? Getting shot does get you the girl!”
“I don’t think I want to repeat that experience again, if you don’t mind. Not sure if my leg can take getting shot three times.”
“It’s not the same spot, Henry. You have a lot of leg to shoot off.”
“Yes, but I would like to keep the leg intact. Alexandra doesn’t want me working at the WCU, even though the shooting brought us together. She was very happy to hear that I’ll be working at Lambros Steel soon.”
“I’m also happy you won’t be there anymore. I like the idea of you being head of security. So when is the wedding?”
“We want to get married quickly, before she starts showing. The reason I came over here, other than to see what you thought of last night, is that I want you as my best man.”
Eva was about to put the cigarette in her mouth when she stopped. “You want me to be your best man?”
“Yes. Stand with me. You are my sister and my best friend—who else would I ask?”
Eva put the cigarette in the ashtray on her desk and got up from her seat. She walked around the desk to Henry, who also stood. She put her arms around him and hugged him. “I would be honored to be your best man.”
Eva gently patted his cheek and went back to sit behind her desk. “Will that be in a few months? Where is her family?”
“She’s an orphan, so she doesn’t have any family.”
“She does now, and what an expanded family it is,” Eva replied as she leaned forward and tapped Henry’s hand. “Remember when we were only three? Just you, Zoe, and me. Now we are acquiring family nearly every day. I want a little Henry or Henrietta running around. We’re good as babysitters too.”
“Won’t you have your hands full with your own?”
Eva’s gaze fell on the photograph of Zoe with Tommy on her desk and she sighed deeply.
“You’re hoping for one soon, right?” Henry watched Eva for a long moment. “It will happen, Evy. I know it will, and then all this waiting will be worth it. I know you are really upset about Zoe and Tommy.”
Eva screwed up her face in distaste at the mental image she had of Zoe having sex with her cousin. “I don’t want to talk about that. The less I think about Zoe with Tommy…”
“I was really surprised when you told me after you came back. I didn’t think you would agree to it.”
Eva pursed her lips. “We want children, and that’s the only way to do it. It doesn’t matter now anyway.”
“Why? Are you giving up?”
“I want us to stop trying. Zoe’s not pregnant and we’ve been trying for months now. It’s time to stop this dream about having children the normal way. We discussed adoption if she didn’t fall pregnant, and maybe that would have been better. It would have spared Zoe. ” The thought of Zoe and Tommy made Eva want to scream, but she had agreed to it. Zoe was so certain she was going to be pregnant after the first time that she didn’t think beyond that. “I don’t want to think about this now. I need to concentrate on something else.” She leaned forward and regarded Henry. “What do you think of my uncle Wilbur?”
“I was a little apprehensive when I saw him—he looks like Satan.”
Eva laughed at Henry’s name for her stepfather, Hans Muller. The nickname suited him, and she was sure he was roasting in hell after having been executed for war crimes. “Zoe had the same reaction. It unnerved her for a little while, but once she found something that differentiated him from my stepfather, she was fine.”
“Really? They look the same to me.”
Eva laughed. “We are talking about my Zoe, right? She says Uncle Wilbur is a little taller and his eyes are brighter, whatever that means.”
“Do they like each other?”
“Uncle Wilbur thinks Zoe is eccentric, and he loves her exuberance. Zoe was wary at first, but she likes him a great deal.”
“Well, Zoe is eccentric,” Henry replied as they shared a knowing smile. “He is a very good businessman. I didn’t need too much coaxing to agree to quit the War Crimes Unit and come to work for you instead.”
“No. You are not working for me. You are working with me. I’m really glad you will.”
Henry sat back in his seat. “You are now heiress to the AEMullerStahl fortune, you are head of Lambros Steel here in Australia, and there is that gifted thing. We used to worry only about you getting shot by Zoe, and now all of this! I’ll be head of security, like in the old days when I was your only security.”
“We were worried about a lot of things back then, and Zoe was one of them,” Eva replied and picked up Zoe’s photo. “So much has happened to us since then.”
“Good things have happened, if you don’t include Satan coming to visit and trying to kill us, or one of your former girlfriends wanting to win you back.”
“I have only one former girlfriend and there was no winning back; she would have had to get through Zoe for that to happen. The woman has experience with shooting my former lovers,” Eva grinned. “You won’t have to worry about deranged ex-girlfriends or insane stepfathers. It won’t be as exciting. I think you are the perfect man for the job.”
“Good. Now that we got that sorted out, tell me why you are still working here?”
“I like helping people. It makes me feel good and it’s normal. Nothing is going to happen that hasn’t happened before. You know I don’t like change. I want to do this for as long as I can before I am forced to quit.”
“That will happen soon once the renovations are finished.”
Eva nodded and looked around her office. “My life is insane, isn’t it? It has always been strange and complicated.”
“Your life was complicated, but I wouldn’t say insane.”
“Henry, the whole trip was just one revelation after another. It was like someone had opened their big bag of secrets and dumped it on my head. I wish you had been there with us.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Everything sounded like some fairy-tale gone bad.”
Eva sighed. “If only it were a fairy-tale. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it. I didn’t want to burden you with all the messy details after you got shot. You had your own worries.”
“I think I could have used the distraction. It’s all over now so…”
“That’s the problem. I don’t think it’s all over.”
“Really?”
“Zoe calls it my Pentasense. You know how she is, giving a name to everything.”
Henry smiled. “Pentasense. So what do you think will happen?”
“A whole lot of no good,” Eva replied. “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like an itch.”
“Let’s find where that itch is and scratch it.”
“I would love to, but I don’t know where to look,” Eva responded. They looked at each other and shook their heads.
CHAPTER 2
“Where do you want this, love?”
An oppressive blast of heat rattled the screen door from the back yard to the kitchen making Zoe wince. The unseasonal hot, humid weather had barely raised a breeze all day and the first sign of any wind was hot, which didn’t make for a pleasant afternoon. Zoe stood in the living room fanning herself with a magazine in a useless attempt to cool herself down. Summer was supposed to have long disappeared and autumn should have arrived, but not in Sydney. Autumn had decided it didn’t want to arrive just yet regardless of the normal order of things. The heat wave had lasted for five days with no sign of it releasing its grip on the city. This didn’t go down very well for Zoe.
A redheaded man was re-organizing the boxes that were littered around in the living room, trying to find more space in the already crowded area. The local delivery man had just placed yet another box in the room and had gone out once again to haul another crate from his truck.
“Zoe, I think we won’t have enough room in here. There’s another three crates in the truck.”
Zoe wiped the sweat that trickled down the side of her face with the back of her hand. She was feeling more than a little exhausted by the sapping humidity. Her long curly red hair was tied up in a ponytail to try and cool her down a little. Her green eyes danced around trying to work out how the crates would all fit into the living room. Zoe was a petite woman and just squeaked in at five feet five inches. She was lost in a sea of crates that were nearly as high as she was. Dressed in a very light green cotton shirt and long shorts, Zoe watched her brother, Theodore, trying to organize the crates. Unlike his sister, Theodore was over six feet tall with a sturdy, muscular physique. He effortlessly managed to organize the crates that he and the delivery man had unloaded from the truck.
“How much does this woman own?” Theo asked when he had at last maneuvered the latest crate.
“Here you go, Mrs. Lambros,” the delivery man said, handing over a piece of paper and a pen for Zoe to sign.
“Thank you,” Zoe said as she took the paperwork and glanced at the man’s name on his shirt. “Thank you, Joe,” she added and signed her name.
“It’s a hot one, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I’m sorry you had to bring all those boxes in today.”
“No worries, love, they had to come at some point. Thanks, Theo, so glad you were home,” Joe stuck out his hand and shook Theo’s hand before he took his trolley and walked out of the house.
“Did we just haul Eva’s entire house out of that truck?” Theo asked as he passed Zoe to go to the kitchen.
“No, I think she left some at Aunt Marlene’s house,” Zoe replied. She entered the kitchen and turned her attention to the large watermelon sitting on the table. She picked up the butcher’s knife and grinned. “It’s time to die.” She laughed wickedly as she lifted the knife and cut into the thick layer of skin.
“It’s already dead, Zo.” Elena Jacobs, Zoe’s best friend, walked into the kitchen, took a seat at the table, and fanned herself with a magazine. She was a slight woman with shoulder length wavy brown hair and caramel colored eyes that crinkled as she watched Zoe’s attack on the watermelon.
Zoe raised the knife. “I know it’s dead, but that’s what my papa used to say when he cut up a watermelon.”
“Ah, a Lambros family tradition.” Elena chuckled.
Theo leaned against the kitchen bench top and laughed. “I remember that,” he said in faltering English. He smiled apologetically at Elena.
“Do you want some?” Zoe held up the watermelon piece to Theo.
“No, can’t. I’m going back to the estate. We’re stabilizing the walls in the second cottage and the painters are coming in this afternoon to paint the first and third cottages.”
“When are they going to be ready?”
“Patience, Zo.” Theo chuckled and put his arm around Zoe’s shoulders. “The Lambros Estate will be ready when it’s ready.”
“That doesn’t tell me anything. Don’t forget you have to build the bird nest for Aunt Tessa. When are they coming home?”
“Well, they were supposed to come back next Monday, but Aunty Tessa liked the mountains so much they decided to stay another day.”
Zoe nodded as she c
ut through the watermelon’s tough exterior. “It must be a Mitsos family trait, because Eva loves that mountain as well.”
“I’ll see you later.” Theo kissed Zoe on the cheek and smiled his goodbye to Elena, and then left out of the back door.
“It’s also a Lambros family tradition that you are all so nice,” Elena said as she watched Theo leave. “Was Theo always a builder?”
“Theo and Thieri were builders. My eldest brother, Michael, was a farmer like my father.” Zoe said munching on the cool watermelon. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and smiled. “I’m really glad he’s not back in Greece all alone. I don’t think I could bear the thought of him over there without me.”
“You both look so much alike. Were Michael and Thieri also red-headed?”
“No, they had dark hair and brown eyes like papa. Theo and I took after our mother.”
“There is a major difference between you and Theo, he is a bit quieter than you,” Elena quipped, making the two friends laugh.
“You are so funny!” Zoe put her arm around her best friend and whispered into her ear, “Forget about my brother. So what’s the baby news?”
Elena pulled away and laughed. “Well, Aunty Zoe, we have another one on the way!”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Zoe exclaimed, and exuberantly jumped around the room with a slice of watermelon in her hand. The watermelon juice trickled down her upturned hand making Zoe lick her arm. Elena laughed at her friend’s silliness.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! You can wake up in the early hours of the morning to feed the little miss or mister.”
Zoe grinned broadly as she turned, picked up the uncut watermelon and rocked it in in her arms like she was holding a baby. “I don’t mind at all. Just deliver the little bubba and we will do the rest!”
“Would you like to give birth instead of me as well? That watermelon is just about the right size.”
“Um…no. You are on your own with that one!” Zoe giggled. “So when are we due?”
Elena shook her head, leaned over, and kissed Zoe on the cheek. “You are crazy and I love you. We are due late October.”
[Intertwined Souls 05.0] No Good Deed Page 2