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Stricken, he stared down at his mother. “I have no intention—,”
“I don’t doubt your intentions,” she said, pressing a finger to his lips then dropping it away. “Only your ability to be with a woman for any period of time and not have her fall in love with you.”
“Spoken with a mother’s rose-tinted glasses in place.”
“We’ll see,” Maggie said, looking towards the garden, where the table was now vacated. “Take care, won’t you, darling?”
Leonidas was replayinghis conversation with his mother, taking a moment’s reprieve to untangle Maggie’s observations, when his phone rang. He recognized Grieg’s number instantly.
“It took a lot of man hours, but I think we’ve got him.”
Leonidas straightened. “Youthink?”
“I’ll know more once he’s finished with the police.”
Leonidas stared at the wall opposite. He should have felt elated at this news, or at the very least, gratified, but instead, something sank inside him like a lead balloon. “Tell me absolutely everything,” he commanded, moving absentmindedly to a window and looking out. In the distance, he heard the very faint, very familiar peals of Mila’s laugh and the balloon got heavier, dropped faster, so he had to press his arm against the wall, to brace himself for the inevitable. “Everything,” he repeated, closing his eyes, as he stared down the barrel of the fact that soon, Mila would leave him. Just as he wanted.
“You’re very similar to Leonidas.”
Thanasi’s lips pressed hard. With amusement? “Are we?”
“You must know you are.”
“There are times when I feel it, others I don’t.”
“Do you see each other often?”
“We work together,” he said, gesturing towards the shoreline. She moved with him on an ankle that was slightly painful. Then again, she’d pushed it a little today, acting as though nothing was wrong.
“That’s not an answer—another gift you share with him.”
“Oh?”
“Leonidas has a talent for not answering questions.”
He grinned. “I imagine that can be quite infuriating.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re doing it again.”
“Guilty as charged.” He held back the branch of a tree for her to pass beneath. “We’re family,” he said, frowning, rubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw.
“That doesn’t tell me very much.”
“No, I suppose it doesn’t. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
She blinked up at him, shaking her head. “None.”
“Lucky you.”
“Not really. I always wanted a bigger family. After my mother died, I felt very alone.”
He was quiet, considering that.
“Families are strange beasts,” he said finally. “We love one another. We would each of us do anything another asked. But that doesn’t mean we always like to spend too much time together.”
“And yet, you seem to get on so well.”
“We do.”
