Page 197 of Love Among the Ruins
“It doesn’t matter who he is. It’s what a man does that matters.” Even she was surprised when those words flew out of her mouth.
“Will you boys stop with the business talk?” Susan got up. “Let me see how the dinner's coming along, excuse me.” Eleni got up too, ready to follow her, to help. She wasn't used to sitting around doing nothing.
“No dear, you stay. Dinner's almost ready to be served.” Her husband followed her.
Alexander came over to them and sat beside Eleni. “How about you tell me how you and my brotherreallymet?”
She glanced over at Dominic, saw the gnarly knot form between his brows. She wanted to get on with Alexander, didn't want any rivalry or bad blood between them. She didn't have any siblings, and it had been only her and her mother for the longest time, until Jonas had come along. Now she had the chance to belong again, to be a part of something, and she didn’t want things to start off badly. “We met in a taverna.”
Alexander raised an eyebrow. “Sounds groovy. Care to embellish?”
“Dinner is ready,” Susan announced, and in the next few seconds, Dominic was tugging her to standing, his arm in hers.
Alexander got up. “Feeling possessive, Dom?”
“You came alone?” Dominic threw back, his eyes twinkling with mischief as they walked over to the table. “What happened?”
“You didn't hear?” His father sat at the head of the table. His mother at the other end.
“Robert, not now. Alexander doesn’t want to talk about it.”
Alexander sat down, facing Eleni and Dominic. “I don't care. Talk about it, but there's not much to say. We split. Me and Mia are no more.”
“Huh,” said Dominic. “I didn’t even know. Whenwereyou and Mia a thing?”
“Zanzibar. Summer. Not that you would know, seeing that you were busy with your .. ahem...housekeeping.”
“Now,thatwas fun,” Eleni said, remembering that time.
“But you must have been in pain, pretending to walk around even though you’d just sprained your ankle.” Dominic’s thumb rubbed the side of her hand. She loved his little touches, his endearments, the way he looked at her.
“I tried to get out of there as fast as I could,” she said.
Alexander shook his head, then sipped from his champagne glass. “I knew something wasn't quite right. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.”
“And here we all are,” Susan said, looking around the table with a huge smile on her face. “My boys have come home.”
“Not for long, Mom.” Dominic put some food on his plate and passed the serving plate to Eleni. “We’re back in Greece next week.”
“But this is nice.” Alexander took the plate from Eleni.
“Why don’t you come skiing with us?” Eleni asked Alexander.
Dominic groaned loudly. “I’m sure he has better things to do.”
“I would love to, but I’m busy.” Alexander eyed Eleni with surprise. “But thank you for asking me. Do you ski?”
“No. This is the first time I’ve seen snow.”
A chorus of shock went around the table.
“Then you’re going to have a lot of fun, even if it’s with Dom.” Alexander lifted his glass to his lips.
“I always have fun with Dominic.” She stressed the rest of his name on purpose.
“Let’s eat.” Robert ordered.
The rest of the dinner went surprisingly well. The boys talked, and when it wasn’t business related, they got on. It was a competitive rivalry between them, the need to outdo one another in their father’s eyes, as far as she could tell, but one she wanted to put an end to if she could.
