His sister’s declaration felt egregious against his ears, the idea of not living in Greece again something he couldn’t imagine. He didn’t want to be there yet, didn’t want to deal with the business and the tourists yet, but for her to say never? That seemed so rash and unfair…so wrong.
“You’ve been gone for so long,” she said softly. He closed his eyes, listening to the quiet lilt of her words. “If you’re not ready to come home yet, then I doubt you ever will be.”
“Aeliana.”
“It’s fine.” Aeliana sniffled.
“Are you crying?” Leonidas scrubbed his free hand down the front of his face and let out a rough breath.
“I just miss you,” she said by way of explanation, “Mama misses you. We all do.”
“I’ll come home,” he told her. “For a visit, for a few days.”
“You just want Mama to do your laundry.” She made an undignified snorting sound on the other end of the line.
“Do you think I’ve lived in dirty clothes this whole time?”
“Yes.”
He laughed, and his sister echoed the sound, a watery attempt at happiness.
“Really?” she asked. “You’ll really come home?”
“I’ll come back to Greece,” he said, her earlier words still heavy in his mind. What if Greece wasn’t his home anymore? What if he’d been gone too long and seen too much and wouldn’t ever find a place where he wanted to settle and stay? Suddenly, the prospect of traveling until he no longer could felt like a curse on his shoulders. He realized then, he couldn’t continue chasing the best of both worlds. Leonidas had to pick a path and stick with it, one way or the other.
“Then…” he swallowed, making his decision. “In September, I’m going to America.”
His sister shrieked and the phone clattered onto the ground, then her excited voice in his ear. “Really?”
“Yes,” he sighed. “I’ll see you in a few days, Aeliana. Tell Mama.”
“Oh, God, Leonidas. Thank you.Filia. Filia.”
She hung up the phone before he could say anything back to her, and he disconnected the call from his side, setting the phone down on the table in front of him. He leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs, crossing them at the ankle and lacing his fingers together to rest on his stomach.
Regardless of what he wanted, the facts remained.
He hadn’t gone one single day where he hadn’t thought of Andy since he’d slipped out of Andy’s hotel room with the sunrise. He hadn’t fallen asleep one night on this whole pilgrimage where Andy’s blissed-out face hadn’t been the last thing he’d seen.
As for what his sister had asked of him, he didn’t know which was which, but he suspected it might be both. Even as absurd as it was that he could be in love with a man he’d spent less than a week with, it could be true. They’d spent more time together naked in bed than they had out of it, and so he doubted his heart because he didn’t think it possible to love someone he knew nothing about.
But he did know things.
He knew the way Andy’s face twisted when he came, and he knew the way Andy shivered every time he took his shirt off and presented himself for Leonidas. He knew what it sounded like when Andy’s breath caught in his throat whenever Leonidas lowered himself to his knees. And now, in the warm Spanish summer wind, he knew he shouldn’t have left without saying goodbye. He knew whatever existed between him and Andy, whether it was love or lust or a potent mixture of both, it was real and vital and he wanted more.
He deserved more.
He would take more.
Leonidas didn’t know everything, but he knew he was going back to Greece, and he knew Andy Motel would be in Cherry Creek, Colorado.
He hoped that was enough.
15
Andy
Andy showedup in Cherry Creek unannounced. It was a Sunday night and although the lobby was open, no one was at the front desk, and the familiar raucous sounds of his brothers sharing a dinner together flitted though the wide open space from behind a propped open door. He hesitated, listening to James chide Cameron for something, and he could have sworn he heard Eddie—Cameron’s best friend—in there as well.
