Page 32 of Love Among the Ruins
“I’ve barely seen him. He’s busy and keeps himself to himself.”
“Do you don’t have any photos of him?”
“Are you insane?” She looked at him as if he were a three-year-old asking for a cigarette. “How,why, would I have any photos of him?”
The man was an enigma. He’d been so different on the island to how he was now. She cringed thinking about the way she’d treated him. How disrespectful she’d been. But now she was so much more … careful. Guarded. And he was being nice. Seeing him in his suit had put her on alert.
It was the first time she’d been attracted to a man since Jonas died. Dominic Steele was the epitome of a young, hot, sexy billionaire, and this was wrong. And weird, and complicated. She lowered her eyes, underplaying the warm and fuzzy feeling sprouting inside her.
She said nothing about him, in case Stefanos noticed anything odd about her and figured that merely talking about Dominic had a peculiar effect on her. She changed the subject. “We’re going to have fun next week.”
“Can I meet you at work, for lunch or something?”
“No.” It wasn’t lunch or her he wanted, as much as a glimpse of Dominic.
* * *
The sun warmed her skin, and this view from the terrace, overlooking the water, would have been wonderful, for anyone else.
Eleni wondered if she’d ever be able to look at the sea and not think of Jonas. It was hard to chew, even harder to get her food down and with her mother sitting across the table from her, this lunch was turning out to be as difficult as she’d feared.
But she wasn’t the only one struggling. Her mother was moving her food around her plate. She was always dieting, going with the latest fads, moving from one new thing to another.
Turning twenty-one today should have been a happy, joyous occasion, for Eleni but it was far from what she felt as she struggled to eat. Ending the misery of the silent meal, her mother set down her fork, then fished around in her bag for something.
“Here.” She placed a small box on the table. It wasn’t wrapped up and it didn’t look brand new. Eleni could see the scuff marks on it. “What’s that?” She set down her fork, curious, but wary. This was most unlike her mother. Eleni hadn’t expected a physical gift. Her mother paying for lunch and slipping some money into her birthday card was all she had expected.
But not this.
“Open it and find out.”
A tinge of unbridled excitement fluttered inside her, and her fingers hovered over the box. She opened it and looked confused as she stared down at a long thin glittering ...something.It wasn’t a ring, or a necklace or anything recognizable. “What is it?”
“Take it out and see.” Her mother’s voice was weighted by weariness. Eleni did as instructed. “A hair slide?” She held it up and the sun glinted off the small gems studded into the swirly shaped clip, spraying a myriad of colors into the air.
“It’s for your hair. When you put it up, if you ever do. They’re real.”
“Real what?” Eleni stared at the tiny gems and the sparkling light dancing off their surface.
“Diamonds.” Her mother nodded and Eleni’s heart stopped.
“Mama,realdiamonds ...but how did you—” She jumped up and threw her arms around her mother’s neck, a move unfamiliar, and bold, and alien. Her mother’s body went rigid, her arms still on the table, as if she’d been frozen in time. “Don’t do that, Eleni.”
“But Mama ...” She wished her mother would open up to her, at least today of all days. Even this, a birthday lunch, had been hard, but giving her this expensive gift had confused her. Eleni didn’t need anything from her mother, especially not anything as extravagant as this. All she wanted was for her mother to love her and show her that she cared. “This is too much, Mama. You didn’t need to do this. I don’t need gifts; I just want you—”
“Your father gave that to me on my twenty-first birthday.”
Eleni’s face froze. The chill spread to her limbs and torso, like ice cracking on a river. The cold turning her body rigid. Her mother had never spoken about Eleni’s father before. Once, when she’d been about seven or eight, Eleni had asked her about him, but her mother had shouted at her and made her cry, then bought her an ice-cream to make up. Eleni had never mentioned him again.
Ever.
This unsolicited piece of information was welcome if shocking. “My father?”
“He was an extravagant man,” her mother said, softly. Eleni stared at the hair slide with new eyes, watching dazed as the diamonds glistened in the midday sun. “He was the love of my life.” Her mother snorted and picked up her fork again. “At least I thought he was, but I was young and foolish. What did I know?” She pushed her food around the plate again and with her fork stabbed a sundried tomato.
“Mama—” Eleni had so many questions. All this time she had listened to her mother and not asked, but now she couldn’t keep quiet. “Who was he?” All her life she’d had a faceless nameless image of a man, but now she was so close to getting some answers and filling in all the blanks.
“He’s not important. He deserves to be forgotten.”
