Stay With Me (22 page)

“Okay, well, let’s go. We have a huge group of rowdy women out there. I think it’s some kind of party.”

My smile grew to a sincere one. “Oh, how fun.”

As we made our way back to the kitchen, I glanced over to the small group of women and smiled. Then my heart stopped. One woman looked directly into my eyes and I swore I’d seen those eyes looking at me before.

I closed my eyes and shook my head to clear my thoughts. I bumped directly into Claire. “Oh, sorry,” I said as my face heated.

Giving me a probing look, I held up my hands and said, “I’m fine. I thought I saw someone and I wasn’t paying any attention.”

Claire lifted her eyebrows and tilted her head as if she was trying to size me up.

Leaning closer to her, I softly said, “Can we just get this going? I’m fine.”

“You’ve been crying!” she said louder than she meant to.

I let out a nervous laugh and looked out as twelve pair of eyes stared at me.

Scanning them, I couldn’t help but notice the one lady with the familiar eyes giving me a concerned look.

Okay, well, I could try and play this off or I could be honest. Shrugging my shoulders, I let out a gruff laugh. “I opened my heart to a guy and he broke it. There. I said it. Now let’s get to cooking!”

I reached over and hit play on my iPod. My favorite song by LOCASH started and I did a spin and danced while Claire laughed and the rest of the ladies gave me a clap.

The only one who wasn’t clapping was the older woman. I did my best to avoid her eyes as Claire began to tell everyone what we would be cooking today.

“We always start with a healthy smoothie to make for us to drink while we cook.”

I picked up the pre made smoothie Claire must have made before she came searching for me, and took a drink. Choking, I curled my lip and gasped. “Holy crap! What’s in this thing? It’s awful!”

Claire glared at me as the room erupted in laughter.

“I won’t be making that,” one of the older ladies said from the group.

Covering my mouth with my hands, I shrugged.

Plastering on a smile, Claire began speaking. “For those of you who would like to make this immune boosting smoothie, ignore Kilyn. It contains Swiss chard, mustard greens, avocado, papaya and rolled oats. Oh, and pumpkin seeds!”

I stared at Claire. And it wasn’t just me . . . everyone was staring at her. “Yeah, I think I’m going to side with Kilyn on this one.”

Turning, I noticed it was the older lady who said it. She looked at me and winked.

Returning her smile, I mouthed, Good choice.

Claire put her hands on her hips. “Does anyone want to make it?”

No one said a word.

Clapping my hands, I said, “I have two bottles of a Merlot I’ve been dying to share! Wine is good for your heart . . . right, Claire?”

She wore a scowl on her face but soon let out a chuckle. “Fine, a glass of wine for everyone.”

I quickly ran and grabbed three bottles, I said two, but I had a feeling I would be polishing one off on my own.

“Now, this evening we have a wonderful group of women who said they were referred to us. They are here spending the day with each other as they celebrate Katerina’s fifty-fifth birthday!”

Everyone clapped, me included. Katerina was the woman who had the familiar eyes. She almost looked like . . .

My eyes widened. No. There was no way.

“Since they are all of Greek heritage, I thought we would do a Greek entrée and dessert.”

My head snapped over to Claire as I felt my chest tightening.
Oh, holy shit. This is not happening.

I stared down at the food Claire had put out. What in the living hell was this shit?

“Today we’ll be making spanakopita, which is a Greek spinach pie. For dessert, it will be Greek honey cake. We’ll start with the cake so it can bake while we make the spanakopita.”

I’m almost positive I was staring at Claire with a
what the fuck
expression. When she gave them instructions on how to start the cake, she walked over to me and pulled me to the side. “I’m sorry. I wanted to give you a heads up but you got here last minute, and then when I saw you in the hall, well, it slipped my mind.”

“It slipped your mind! It. Slipped. Your. Mind? Thano’s Greek. He destroyed my heart. Did I mention he is Greek? How many Greek men have I gone out with? Oh, let me think.” Lifting my eyes up, I acted like I was thinking before shooting her a look. “That’s right. There’s only been the one!”

She nodded. “I know this, and that’s why I was trying to give you a heads up. But Katerina called and said it was a group thing. I don’t know what I was thinking. I thought it would be fun to make something Greek for them. Plus, the other people in the class will love this!”

I peeked over my shoulder and watched as Katerina and the other Greek women corrected the other students on how they were mixing the ingredients. “She looks like Thano,” I whispered.

Claire looked at her. “There is no way. Don’t all Greek people look the same?”

I shot my head back and looked at her. “What? That’s so rude!”

“Well, I don’t know! Come on it’s ruder to be over here whispering off to the side.”

I followed her hesitantly. Taking a deep breath, I headed down to see who needed help as Claire stayed at the front and went over the instructions. The next thing I knew, Katerina was up with Claire. She had taken over the instructions and I couldn’t help but laugh when she took complete control over everything.

Standing in the middle of the group of Greek women, I totally forgot about Thano. Which was weird since I was submerged in all things Greek. These women were powerful, strong-minded, beautiful women. And funny as hell.

“So, Katerina, what made you pick these dishes?” Claire asked.

With a huge smile, she replied, “Oh, that’s an easy question to answer. They are my youngest son’s favorite dishes.”

Claire smiled as another girl in the crowd asked the next question. “I’ve heard about Greek men! What’s his name and is he single?”

Everyone laughed, including me. When I looked back up, Katerina was staring directly at me. Her green eyes seemed to be penetrating right to mine.

“His name is Athanasios, and you’d have to ask him if his heart is taken or not.”

It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. The glass dish I’d been holding in my hand slipped and fell to the floor.

Shattering everywhere as I felt my legs go weak and I whispered, “Thano.”

“S
O, HOW LONG
are you going to walk around pouting?”

Glancing over to my brother, Nicholaus, I screwed my face up. “What are you talking about?”

With a roll of his eyes, he pushed out a frustrated breath. “Thano, it’s been a month since you and your little Irish girl hooked up.”

“Don’t call her that.”

“Is she not Irish?”

Blowing out a breath, I watched as the cold air made it look like smoke.

“So are you ignoring me now, Thano?”

Turning to him, I replied, “No. I thought we came up here to hunt. I haven’t been elk hunting in forever and all you want to do is talk about if Kilyn is Irish or not.”

“Is she?” Nicholaus asked in a hushed voice.

With a frustrated moan, I put my gun down. “Yes. Yes she is Irish, Nicholaus.”

Trying to hold in his laughter, he replied, “Mom’s going to be pissed!”

My heart felt shattered thinking of Kilyn. “I don’t care what Mom thinks. It doesn’t really matter anyway; I fucked things up with her.”

“So, make it right.”

I stared out over the mountains. It had snowed a bit and everything was covered with a light powder of white. It was so peaceful and beautiful. A part of me wanted to stay up here, hidden from everything. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Do you love her, Thano?”

Not even having to think about it, my response was natural. “Yes. I mean, I don’t know how fast you can fall in love with someone, but I know I was falling in love with her. All I think about is her. When I close my eyes I see hers. Hell, I don’t even feel complete knowing I won’t see her each day. It’s like something is missing.”

“Jesus, dude. You’ve got it bad. Must be that luck of the Irish thing.”

With a light chuckle, I shook my head. “None of that matters to me.”

“So go after her. What’s the problem?”

Looking at my older brother, I frowned. I’d always been close to both my brothers. They may act like jerks sometimes, but they had hearts of gold. “She thinks I’m in love with Savannah and that she’ll always be second best to that.”

“Is she right?”

The guilt was still there, but it was slowly slipping away day by day. “No. It’s the opposite. When I was with Kilyn, she brought out emotions I’d never felt before. My body craved her in a way I’d never experienced before.”

Nicholaus nodded his head. “Not even with Savannah?”

“Nope, not even with her. Hell, I even found myself saying things to Kilyn in Greek. I never once uttered a word to Savannah in Greek.”

Nicholaus chuckled. “Damn, dude, that was the first thing I discovered with women. You speak to them in another language and those panties are falling to the floor.”

I wasn’t going to argue with him on that. By the look in Kilyn’s eyes, I knew it turned her on even more.

“So, what are you going to do?”

With a shrug, I looked back out as I grabbed the gun. “At first I thought I would give her time. But yesterday I found out she left the gym we both worked out at and her business partner and best friend let it slip that she was also moving. She’s doing whatever she can to put distance between us.”

“That sucks, dude.”

It did suck. But I knew in my heart Kilyn was the one. I felt it deep in my soul. “I don’t want to rush with this. I need her to know that I’m one hundred and ten percent committed to her and that Savannah is my past.” With a slight smile, I nodded my head. I was going to fight for her. Fight with everything I had in me. “My future only belongs to Kilyn.”

My brother stared at me for the longest time before he scrunched his face up. “What the fuck dude . . . when did you turn into a pussy?”

With a chuckle, I pushed him on the arm. “Fuck off, asshole. You’re jealous because I have not only the good looks but the words for the ladies.”

“Please. I’ve gotten more pussy in the last year than you have in your lifetime.”

Narrowing my eyes, I asked, “And that makes you happy?”

“It certainly makes my dick happy. Who wants to argue with a happy dick?”

“Uh . . . your unhappy heart?”

Lifting his gun, he aimed and smiled. “At least I’m not the one who has to tell Mom you’re in love with an Irish girl.”

When he fired the rifle, I turned and watched the elk drop right on the spot. I wasn’t sure how in the hell that thing didn’t hear us talking . . . or maybe it did and couldn’t of cared less.

Glancing my way, he flashed me a smile and winked. “Looks like it was my lucky day.”