“That’s not lust, then.”
Leonidas rolled his eyes and stood up, crossing to the corner where his sister sat. He knelt down beside Alexandros and rested his hand on top of his nephew’s chest. He breathed strong and steady, tiny little snores tumbling out of his nose on the exhale. They all smiled down at him, and Leonidas sat down on the floor, crossing his legs. He dropped his forehead onto Aeliana’s knee, and she took her hand from her husband’s head to pet him like she had when they were younger.
“I think he’ll be mad with me,” Leonidas said.
“Because you dismissed him like he didn’t matter.”
He shifted, poking his chin into her knee and scowling. “What makes you think I did that?” he asked.
“Because I know you.” She patted his cheek. “I know how you are. I know what this trip meant to you.”
“The trip meant everything,” he reminded her.
And it had. His time spent in Paris, before and during his relationship with Andy, had been everything he’d wanted, and walking the camino really had been everything he’d hoped. It had been beautiful and spiritual, so fucking spiritual, and he’d reached the end…
He’d reached the end and all he wanted to do was tell Andy about it. Which was absurd. Because why him? Why that man who didn’t even understand or know him?
“And so will the next one,” she assured him. “Because that’s how you are. You pour your heart into your life, Leonidas. You’d just premeasured it out when you met this man you’re so gone for. You have it back now, so you can go on as you would have.”
“You think I should give him my heart.”
“I think you’re a grown man and you know better than me what you should do with your heart. But you have a flight booked to America in less than a week and I can feel you tremble through my own bones.”
She smiled, rolling her eyes at him.
Leonidas stood up and looked down at Yiorgos, still sleeping in his sister’s arms.
“Will he grow fast, do you imagine?” he asked.
“I’m told they do,” she answered. “You did.”
“How fast?”
“Before I knew it, you had teeth and were biting me when Penelope tried to put glitter bows in your hair.”
He pictured his sleeping nephew with a mouth full of teeth.
“That’s not a good visual.”
“I know,” she agreed, not really knowing. “I lived it.”
“It happens fast,” Alexandros spoke up from beside Aeliana’s knee. He held out his hand and Leonidas pulled him up. They both stretched, older than they’d ever felt before with this fresh, new life before them.
“He will walk in a year. Eat his own food.”
“When do they stop shitting themselves?” he asked with a smirk.
“A few years yet,” his sister answered.
“Then I’ll see you in a few years.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek and she smacked him as he pulled away. He covered his mouth to stifle his laugh, then hugged Alexandros, and quietly let himself out of the room.
His mama sat on his sister’s couch, knitting away at something, a cup of coffee on the table beside her.
“There you are,” she said, patting the cushion beside her. “Come sit.”
“The walls are thin, I’m sure you heard it all.”
“I heard you’re leaving me so soon and that you’re in love with an American.”
