Stay With Me (37 page)

“No! No! No! You do not make the spanakopita with frozen spinach! Are you insane?” Katerina called out as Dimitris moaned.

Shaking his head, Dimitris walked by and said, “Here we go again. I’m going to watch the football game over at Athanasios and Kilyn’s house.”

I giggled as my father-in-law stomped out of the kitchen. Phoebe stood next me mixing something up for a dessert she was making.

Bumping my arm, she asked, “Kilyn, how is everything going with your parents’ house?”

Nodding, I replied, “Good. Thad has been so amazing with helping to clear stuff out of the house. I don’t think Thano and I will ever be able to repay him.”

She huffed. “Don’t even mention his name.”

“Why?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes. “We broke up.”

All conversation stopped as seven other women turned and looked at her as they all gasped. I stopped stirring the salad I was making and looked around the kitchen. It still baffled me how they could all be talking to each other, yet know what other people were saying in a totally different conversation. Katerina told me it was a Greek thing.

“What is this?” Aunt Maria said as she pushed Cousin Maria out of the way. Walking up to Phoebe, she pointed to her.

“Did he do something stupid? I’ll kick him in the—”

Katerina moved across the room, holding up her hands. “Okay! Okay! Step back, this is my son we are talking about.”

I tried to ignore the sharp pain that radiated down my back, but I gasped. Everyone turned and looked at me.

“I um . . . I forgot to add the olives to the salad.”

Yiayia made a tsking sound. “Again? When are you going to have that baby? I could die before I get to see my great-grandchild. Don’t forget the oregano, like you did last time.”

With a forced smile, I secretly grabbed the oregano. Gesh. Would I ever live it down that I forgot to add oregano and Greek olives to the Greek salad?

Katerina turned back to Phoebe. “What happened? I’ll kill him if he did anything to hurt you.”

“Oh, no, it wasn’t anything like that. I asked him about marriage and he said he wasn’t ready for it. I told him I was. I want to have a baby.”

All the women nodded their heads while some even commented about how old Phoebe was getting. Even though she was almost twenty-four.

I was currently the only person still making my dish, while everyone else tried to figure out why Thad was afraid of commitment.

Dumping the olives that I bought at the market into the salad, I said a prayer I had the right ones this time. I bought the ones that were clearly marked Greek and even asked a woman who to me looked Greek, but was actually Italian. We both agreed they were Greek olives.

Finally, they all went back to their cooking and Phoebe stood next to me again. Peeking over to her, I asked in a hushed voice, “So, if you and Thad are not together, does it bother you being here at his house?”

She gave me a weak smile. “A little, but I’ll sneak out before dinner. I really love being here with everyone, though. I’m going to miss this.”

My heart broke for her and all I really wanted to do was hit Thad in the balls for being so stupid.

Looking down at my beautiful creation, I grabbed a handful of feta cheese and began sprinkling it over my salad. With a satisfied smile on my face, I picked up my wooden spoon and started to mix my cheese in when the pain hit me again.

“Oh, God,” I whispered as I dropped the spoon and grabbed onto the counter.

“Kilyn?” Phoebe asked as she bent down and looked at me.

I was breathing slowly.

My eyes darted over to her as I mouthed,
contraction
. I knew she would most likely be the only one in the room to stay calm and go get Thano.

“What?” she screamed out. “It’s time! It’s time!”

Closing my eyes, I shook my head. “So, I was wrong on that one.”

Lifting my head, I tried to smile as Katerina yelled out, “Dimitris! Athanasios!”

“No! It’s okay, we don’t have to—”

It was too late. Thano ran into the kitchen like something was on fire.

“What! What’s wrong?”

“She’s in labor!” someone shouted out.

Thano’s expression turned to one of pure fear.

“Ohmygawd! What?”

I tried to laugh and make light of it. Of all the places to go into labor, why was it at the Drivas’ house with seven other family members there?

I swear, Thano leapt over the table to get to me. When he swept me off my feet, Phoebe yelled out, “Opa!”

Glaring at her, I shook my head. “No!”

“Yes! You’re having a baby! We need to celebrate!”

“I’ll finish making the food! You go to the hospital,” Aunt Maria said to Katerina.

I started hitting Thano on the shoulder. “Thano!”

He quickly made his way through the kitchen and living room. “Dad! Kilyn’s in labor. Her bag is at our place, can you go get it?”

“No! No! Claire can get it!” I cried out.

“I don’t mind getting it. I’ll pick up Thaddeus and Nicholaus on the way.”

Oh. Lord.

Hitting Thano again, I said louder, “Thano. Remember what we talked about . . . for when the baby was born?”

He gave me the goofiest smile. “Yes, the bag. I’m on the bag, baby.”

Closing my eyes, I calmly said, “No. Not the bag.”

“Dimitris, you drive separate and get the boys; Maria, Sophia, Phoebe, and I will take my car.”

My head fell forward as I moaned.

“Are you okay, Kilyn?” Thano asked as he quickly walked to the front door. I had to admit, I was somewhat turned on he was carrying me like I weighed nothing. Of course, lately all he had to do was breathe on me and I was turned on.

Good Lord, look at the man. Handsome as sin. I’d love to feel his scruff on my thighs right now making me—

“Mama, can you call Gus for me?” Thano called out as he stopped at our new Honda Pilot. Gently setting me down, he opened the passenger door. “Shit, I hope your water doesn’t break in the new car.”

I was halfway in when I turned and shot him a dirty look.

Seeing I was not happy with him, Thano smiled. “Right, who cares if it does!”

He shut the door and ran around to the driver’s side and jumped in. Reaching for his phone, he hit a number and handed the phone to me while he pulled out to the street.

“Who are you calling?” I asked.

“The doctor! We have to let him know you’re in labor.”

When the doctor’s office answered I let them know my name and that I was having contractions. By the time I ended the call, Thano had about ten voice messages.

“How does news travel so fast in your family?”

He chuckled but kept his eyes focused on the road.

Clearing my throat, I squeezed my eyes shut and worked through what felt like another contraction. It wasn’t as bad as the one before so it was easy to hide it from Mario Andretti.

“Thano, you need to slow down or you’ll get a ticket, baby.”

“Nah, I’m not speeding.”

Rolling my eyes, I rubbed my hand over my stomach. “Hey, just curious if you happen to remember the conversation we had a few weeks back about when the baby was due? You know . . . the one where we both agreed it would just be us at the hospital?”

He took his foot off the gas and mumbled, “Oh, fuck.”

“So, when I asked you to talk to your mom and dad about it, I’m going to safely assume by everyone’s reactions, you never had that talk.”

Thano put on his signal and pulled over into a gas station parking lot.

With a huge smile on his face, he looked at me and proclaimed, “I’ve got this!”

Shaking my head, I looked straight out the window. He didn’t have it.

It was time to put plan B in motion.

M
Y HEART DROPPED
when Kilyn looked away from me. The only thing she asked me to do was tell my parents we didn’t want the family there for the birth. And I failed.

“I swear, baby, I’ll fix this.”

She shook her head and wiped a tear away. “Thano, I love your family, you know that. But I want this to be our time. Just you and me. There is no way you can stop them from coming to the hospital now.”

Letting out a frustrated moan, I dropped my head. “I fucked up. I’ll call them now and tell them not to come.”

“No. That will just hurt their feelings. It’s time for plan B.”

I pulled my head back in shock. “Plan B? You had a plan B you didn’t tell me about?”

Hitting Claire’s number, she simply said, “Yep.”

“Claire, hey . . . oh, dear God. Yes, I’m in labor—who told you?”

Kilyn slowly turned her head and glared at me. “Aunt Maria, huh?”

“Oh, man,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, you guessed it. Plan B is in full swing. Right, you’ve got my bag? Perfect. Yep, I already called them. Right. Sounds good. See ya soon.”

I shook my head in confusion. “Wait. Claire knew about plan B?”

She chuckled. “Please, Claire came up with plan B. We need to head to Memorial Hospital instead.”

“What?”

She hit another number, “Yes, hello, this is Kilyn Drivas calling again. We need to invoke plan B of the birthing plan. Oh, good, he hasn’t left yet. Perfect.”

My mouth dropped open. “Wait. Who all was in on this plan B?”

Kilyn turned and looked at me. “Me, Claire, and Dr. Hopkins’ office.”

“Yet you didn’t feel like you could tell me?”

She continued to stare at me and then a look of sheer pain swept over her face.

“Shit! Another one. Drive, Thano! Drive!”

I had purposely left my phone in the car. I knew my parents would be calling me and wondering where in the hell we were. It wouldn’t take long before one of them tracked us down here at Memorial, especially with Kilyn still only five centimeters dilated.

Knowing what I needed to do, I told Kilyn I was running down to get coffee. She’d been given the epidural thirty minutes ago, and I could already see how much more relaxed she was.

With a deep breath, I reached in the car and looked at my phone.

One hundred twenty-six missed calls.

Shit.

My father was the safer bet. “Athanasios! It’s Athanasios, be quiet! Where in the world are you?”

Clearing my throat, I replied, “We didn’t go to General. There was a change of plans.”

“They’re not at—”