Four Weddings and a Fling

by Barbara Deleo

  “Please come back to bed,” she said, tugging at his fingers. “Now that we’re both awake, it seems like a shame to not be doing something together.”

  He moved closer, and still without speaking, he cupped the side of her face with his hand. When he leaned in and their lips met, his kiss was like none they’d shared before. He kissed her hungrily, as if they’d crossed some line and he could now really show her how he felt. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t said he loved her; she could tell by the passion and force of that kiss what she’d said to him had stirred something inside him.

  He paused for a moment and then dragged off his T-shirt. The gods on his skin sprang to life as he moved his body over hers. She slid her hands over his skin, and he moaned into her hair. “You push me so hard,” he whispered. “But no matter what, I can’t get enough of you.”

  She held him close, wondering if she’d said too much too soon, but thankful that for now, at least, they were still together.

  …

  An hour later, Grace woke in Ari’s arms, and a sense of security wrapped itself around her. She’d worn her heart on her sleeve, told Ari what some of her fears were, told him what he meant to her, and he was still here.

  When he kissed her neck, she turned to face him. “I’m sorry about earlier,” she said. “But I can’t tell you how good I feel, waking in your arms and knowing you’re safe.”

  He pulled her closer and kissed her again, this time on the forehead. “Maybe I’ve found a new cure for my insomnia,” he said with a grin. He started to say something else, but his phone began to ring.

  “Mrs. Partella asking how it went last night?” Grace asked as he grabbed his phone from the nightstand and looked at the screen.

  “No, Nick,” he said as he swiped to connect then greeted his brother.

  Ari was quiet for a moment, and Grace threaded her fingers through his free hand resting on the bedcover.

  “What’s the meeting about?” Ari asked as his gaze swung to Grace. “You think they’ve finally come to a decision about what they’re going to do?”

  Grace squeezed his hand. She hoped for all their sakes that Pia and Mano hadn’t decided to split for good. They’d been visiting family and spending time at the Palace since they’d been back, but it made sense that some decisions would now need to be made.

  “Then, we all need to think about what’s going to happen to the Palace. Pop will want to keep it, I’m certain. Too much of his life’s blood is in that place.”

  He seemed to be listening intently to his brother’s answer. “Well, maybe Yasmin, then. She and Pop would work well together.” He unlinked his fingers from Grace’s and scrubbed a hand through his hair.

  “They want Grace to be there as well?”

  Her heart squeezed. They must have decided to sell if they wanted her there. Maybe they wanted to tell her face-to-face that they wouldn’t have any more work for her—not that it really mattered now that she had her own business. She was touched that they wanted to include her. Maybe they even recognized that she might play an important part in their family one day.

  When Ari had finished on the phone, she found she’d been right about the call.

  “Mom and Dad have called a meeting at the Palace at lunchtime,” he said. “They want all of us there, including you.”

  “Does Nick know what it’s about?”

  He shrugged. “His guess is the same as mine—that they’re divorcing. I know Dad would never give up the Palace, so one of us will need to step in and work with him.”

  “Would Nick and Erin do it?”

  “Nick says no,” Ari said. “Erin will go back to running O’Malley’s, and Nick still has his job. Even though Pop’s warmed to Erin now, I don’t think he’d agree to such a tight merger between the Palace and O’Malley’s”

  “Yasmin?”

  “Nick doesn’t think so.”

  He was quiet for a moment before he blew out a breath. “I really don’t know how Dad could do it on his own.”

  “Maybe they’d consider selling it?” she said.

  “Why should my father sell?” Ari’s voice was tight. “It was Mom’s idea to leave. She walked away from decades of work, and Dad’s done everything to win her back. No, my father has his pride. He won’t ever give up the Palace, and I wouldn’t want him to.”

  Grace tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Ari’s desire to see his father stay on at the Palace wasn’t surprising, but the tone of his voice gave a clue to what his parent’s breakup might mean to him deep down.

  “So, why do you think they want me to be there?” she asked, wanting to change his focus.

  “Probably to thank you for holding it all together while they went through their separation. You’ve helped build the Palace so that it can be a viable business again. I know my parents are really grateful to you for that.”

  He leaned down and kissed her, and she hoped with all her soul that he was wrong. It wouldn’t be right for Mano and Pia to split, and although she’d understand why Mano might want to stay, it just wouldn’t be the same without him and Pia together. She was just glad that she was still part of it, and she wondered if maybe together she and Ari could help his parents change their minds.

  …

  Ari pulled a chair out for Grace in the Palace’s dining room and then joined her at the table. Nick and Erin had been here for some time, and Yasmin and Lane were coming through the door.

  “Has anyone seen them?” Yasmin asked as she walked hand in hand with Lane. “We’ve been in the city checking out a new business opportunity, so I haven’t seen either of them since the wedding.”

  “So, I take it you guys aren’t interested in stepping in here?” Nick asked as he poured a glass of water for Erin.

  “It just doesn’t fit with our plans,” Lane said. “As much as we love this place, and although I really don’t want to see your dad having to work through all this on his own, I just don’t think it’s an option for us.”

  “Same here,” said Erin. “My sister Kiera wants to have a bigger role at O’Malley’s, and as Nick and I hope to start a family soon, we don’t really want to be getting into something new.”

  The four of them turned to him, and Ari shrugged. “No point looking at me,” he said. “Mom and Dad would rather give the Palace away to charity than have me running things.”

  The others laughed, but beside him Grace cleared her throat. “I can’t see why Ari couldn’t help your dad run a place like this. He’s certainly worked well with me in the past few weeks.”

  Yasmin and Nick began to chuckle, but a noise at the door caused them all to turn. First his mother walked into the room. She seemed years younger than when she’d told everyone she was leaving months before, and although it hurt Ari to admit it, he wouldn’t want to see her go back to her tired and stressed self, no matter how much he wanted his parents to stay together.

  “Hello, my darlings!” Pia said as she came in. Ari stood to pull a chair out for his mother, and when she lifted her cheek to him, he kissed her.

  “I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see you all here,” she said. “It seems like only yesterday that I was feeding Aristotle in his high chair while Nick read out the back of the cereal packet and Yasmin crawled around on the floor.”

  “You have a lot of memories in this place, Ma,” Ari said as he reached for her water glass. “Too many to just throw away on a whim.”

  His mother’s mouth formed a straight line, and when he turned to Grace, there was a small frown on her forehead.

  “Yiasou ola!” Mano shouted as he came in. Unusual for him, he was dressed in a formal shirt and tie, and his normally unruly hair had been groomed into a tidy style.

  Momentarily, Ari wondered if they’d misunderstood the reason for this meeting. Maybe his parents were going to stay here. Why else would his father have such a beaming smile?

  Instead of sitting at the head of the table as he normally would, Mano indicated to Nick that he should s
wap seats. When everything had been rearranged, everyone was seated but Mano. Ari’s mother was sitting to his father’s right, and she was looking around at each of her children.

  Mano nervously cleared his throat. Ari’s heart went out to his father, whose hair seemed grayer than he remembered. It wasn’t right that a man who had worked so hard for something all his life should be made to struggle on alone at his age.

  “You will be all guessing why I have brought you here, and I thank you for taking the time.” Mano’s hands gripped the back of the chair, and his knuckles were white. “It is certainly a wonderful time in his life when a father can see his children all together, as well as their partners, all under the same roof.”

  Pia nodded and smiled, and Ari realized that this could be the last time they were all in the same room together.

  “Today I want to tell you that Pia and I have made a decision which is going to affect the lives of all of you.”

  He took in the serious faces of his brother and sister, and then turned back to his father.

  “We have decided, after forty years, to make a change. It’s a big change, and one that I hope you will support us in. Whatever happens, I want you to know that our love for you will never change.”

  Grace reached for Ari’s hand and squeezed it. She, as much as anyone, would know what it meant for his father—losing his mother and having to carry on here alone.

  Mano pulled a large handkerchief from his pocket and wiped it across his eyes. When he had finished, he cleared his throat and then placed his hand on Pia’s shoulder. “After much discussion, your mother and I have decided to put all our attention and energy into healing our marriage, and for that reason, we have decided to go back to Greece together for an indefinite period so that we can focus on each other alone. We need to be away from distractions and the wants and needs of others. For too long we have put others before ourselves, and now we want to focus on nothing more than our marriage.”

  A chorus of gasps went up from around the table, and then there was a scraping of chairs as first Yasmin, then Nick and Erin left their seats to come and hug Mano and Pia.

  Ari stayed where he was and tried to absorb the news.

  “Isn’t that fantastic!” Grace whispered in his ear. Her voice wobbled and when he turned to her, she had tears brimming. “That has to be one of the most romantic things I’ve ever heard.”

  For a moment, Ari said nothing, just surveyed the scene before him and wondered if everyone had gone mad. Then he couldn’t contain himself any longer.

  “Are you kidding me, Dad?”

  There was silence as everyone turned to him. His heart drummed deep in his chest, but he couldn’t halt the tide of words that burst from him. “After forty years you’d give up everything you’ve worked for because Mom gave you an ultimatum?”

  Mano smiled broadly. “There was no ultimatum, son. Your mother and I have been discussing this since we came back for Nick’s wedding. While we were in Greece, we realized that we still had the future of the Palace hanging over us. But when we had time back here and could see the way you were all happy with your own lives, only then did we realize we needed to let this place go.” He put his hand on Pia’s shoulder, and she smiled up at him. “And in letting it go, we can spend time and energy on each other, which is the way it should be.”

  Ari addressed his mother. “Is this what you really want, Mom? You’d ask Dad to give up the most important thing to him for only the possibility that it might save your marriage? Even after he dropped everything and followed you to Greece?”

  Pia’s face had softened. “It is your father’s choice, Ari. I have not made him choose me over the Palace.”

  “Well, I think it’s wonderful,” Yasmin said, glaring at Ari. “You’ll certainly have the support of Lane and me.”

  “And we’ll be sad to see the Palace go, but if that’s what both of you really want,” Nick added.

  “Of course, it would be our greatest joy if one of you would like to take over the Palace,” Mano said, “but we would also like the freedom of a nest egg while we rebuild our lives, so we think it best that we sell.”

  Ari shook his head, incredulous at what he was hearing. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said.

  He pushed his chair back and walked out of the room and into the courtyard. He wasn’t surprised to hear Grace’s footsteps behind him.

  “Ari, what is it?” she said as she came toward him. “Why are you so upset? You must be pleased that your parents have decided to give their marriage another shot.”

  He sat on a bench by Monty’s cage and shook his head. “You just don’t get it, do you?”

  …

  “What don’t I get?” Dread and understanding swirled through Grace’s body.

  “That Dad has given up on his dream!” He swept an arm out. “Look at all of this. My father built this over years. Decades.” He pointed to a row of trees. “I remember how he tended those stupid trees, put covers on them in winter, stood out here in the early morning and watered them. My father doesn’t want to leave this place and go back to Greece with my mother, but he has no choice.”

  “Of course he has a choice,” Grace said, hoping if she kept her voice low, Ari would, too. “He could walk away from his marriage, he could put money and buildings and things before your mother, but he hasn’t.”

  “He didn’t because he can’t,” Ari said, his jaw tight. “He’s lost the ability to stick up for himself, lost the ability to really know what makes him happy.” He held his hands wide. “For God’s sake, he doesn’t even know who he is anymore.”

  “I don’t understand why this upsets you so much,” Grace said. “Your father is his own person. He’s responsible for the decisions he makes in his life.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Ari said. “Trust me, I know what it’s like for people to try and change you, try to get you to be good in school, or go to university. Sometimes those things are impossible.”

  He was making this about himself, thinking about how much he didn’t like it when people tried to change him. A sneaking dread crawled through Grace’s thoughts. Was this a warning for her? Was this about what had happened between them early this morning?

  She sat beside him on the bench and took his hand in hers. “I think what you’re discounting here is that your father is doing this for love. He’s putting his wants and needs aside for your mother because he loves her so deeply.”

  “If she loved him enough she would never have asked him to do it.” His tone was hard and cold, and she could sense him pull gradually further away from her.

  The worry became a tightly knotted ball in her stomach.

  “Are we still talking about your parents or about you and me?”

  Ari was silent for a beat, and then two. He slowly turned to her. “I don’t think it’s real love when you try to change someone.”

  Her heart thudded in her throat as she tried to compose herself. “Love is all about compromise,” she said tightly. “Working on new ways of doing things as a couple is part of being in a relationship.”

  “Compromise is about going to one person’s family for Christmas one year and the other the next. It’s not asking for someone to give up a core part of themselves.”

  “That’s not what I was asking you to do,” she said as she bit back tears.

  He turned so he was facing her and then touched her arm. “You deserve so much more than someone like me,” he said. “Someone who can give you the wedding of your dreams, someone who can be reliable and steady. I’m none of those things.”

  No, he wasn’t going to do this to her. He was the one who had spoken about people who lose themselves in relationships, and she knew from her deepest heart that wasn’t what had happened to her.

  “None of those things are reasons why we shouldn’t be together,” Grace said, fighting the tremor in her lip. “They’re minuscule problems compared to the real reason a relationship between us would never work.”
/>   He seemed surprised for a moment, then his face softened.

  “I could not bear to spend my life with someone who can’t recognize an act of love when they see it.” She pulled in a breath, shocked at her strength as she said all of this aloud. “You know what I think? I think you’re just too afraid to love. You’ve put up walls and barriers to people since you were a teenager, and as soon as anyone gets under your skin, you head for the hills. Well, I’ll tell you something, Ari Katsalos—that’s not good enough for me. I want to be with a man who celebrates love and celebrates me. Not someone who’s so insecure that he can’t compromise and grow as a couple. I get that you’re scared, and I understand where that came from, but a life without the ability to deeply love someone and to recognize when someone feels that way about you is a life half lived.”

  “I just couldn’t offer you everything you want,” Ari said.

  She scoffed so hard she hurt the back of her throat. “You think all I want is a big white dress and ‘here comes the bride’? Then that tells me how little you really know me. I don’t believe in marriage because of the wedding ceremony. I believe in marriage as a partnership, a deep and trusting friendship where two people compromise every. Single. Day. Just as your mother and father are doing in that dining room.”

  Touching her hand to her face, she was surprised to feel tears. She didn’t want him to see her cry. Didn’t want him to think that his words made her sad. They made her angry—angry that after all they’d gone through, after every secret she’d shared with him, all he could think was that she would try and change him.

  She stood and brushed her damp hands against her skirt. “Please say good-bye to your family for me. I’m sad that the Palace will be sold, but I’m overjoyed that your parents are working together to find their happiness again. I hope that happens for you one day, too.”

  She turned and stumbled toward the path that led out to the road. She could hear him calling her name, and for a short time heard his feet hitting the pavement as he followed her. When the noise died away and she realized she was on her own, she let her tears fall in body-shaking sobs.