“Oh my god! Let’s renovate it together! That would be so much fun. Oh let me in on this, please! I could come to Greece, and we could work on the hotel by day and drink ouzo all night. We would kick some serious ass together I know it.”
“Whoa, calm down. I haven’t even seen the numbers. I don’t know what the place is making and I definitely don’t know what it would cost to fix it up. Like I said, I don’t know anything. I’m still wrapping my head around this secret relationship my mom had and never told me about.”
“What?”
Joanna told her about the letters and what she knew.
“And you’ve only been there a day? You must be exhausted.”
“No actually… well I did take a nap, but I feel great, but I’m probably just on a vacation high. I’d better get going, though. I’ve got to get ready for a wedding.”
“OK, I’m serious. I’ll come to Greece and help you renovate. I don’t care about numbers. Whatever they are, we’ll increase them.”
Laughing at her friend’s enthusiasm, Joanna said goodbye to Donna and finished getting ready.
She had already given Nick a glimpse of her boobs, so now time to give him a taste of her legs.
Tonight, she was going to turn some heads.
Chapter Sixteen
The look on Nick’s face when he met her in the lobby to take them to the church, was enough to tell Joanna that she could have him eating out of her hand if she wanted.
Hair pinned up, she had on a sleeveless, black A-lined dress that could be worn on a red carpet. With an open back, the top was fitted more so than the bottom, but with her legs on full-out display, it was her toned, tanned legs that would make men speechless— Nick included.
“You are stunning,” he said in a whisper.
But she wasn’t alone. He too was quite the looker.
Navy blue sports jacket, white dress shirt, leather brown shoes that only a true European artisan could have made, and a maroon bow tie expertly tied, he was quite dapper.
Instead of a belt, he wore grey suspenders with bronzed metal clips that shimmered in the light. If it weren’t for his devil-may care mussed up hair, he would look right in place in a Rat-Pack movie. You could put him on a runway and no one would think twice when they saw him. He would fit right in.
Nick held his arm out for her and she took it. She was accustomed to walking in heels, but if he was going to offer her his muscular arm she was going to make the most of it.
Chris yelled out, “Have fun you, two. See you back here later.”
In the car, Joanna asked, “Where’s the church?”
“A few minutes north of here. Through several thick pine forests and climbing, dirt roads and just before the land drops again and descends to a rocky beach. It’s an old church, so old that a bunch of wild cats see no difference between it and nature and have declared it to be their sanctuary. Monks feeding them fish might also have something to do with them being there too.”
The air had cooled since their fishing excursion, but had now taken on a flowery, ambrosial quality. Maybe it was where they were driving and the flow of wind currents across the island, but the air grew steadily more perfumed the higher they drove.
It took them about ten minutes to get there. There was no parking, and so everyone parked on the road and walked the hundred meters or so to the church.
Nick was right. The place did seem to have a cat problem. Several were sleeping lackadaisically along the stone walls and regarded them both with indifference as they walked by. One stretched and playfully attempted to hook a claw into Nick’s hair, but for the most part they acted like tamed wildlife at a park, and not, as most foreigners would assume, pets.
At the stone entrance people were lining up, waiting to be seated inside.
Joanna noticed several women looking at Nick, and almost subconsciously she squeezed his arm tighter.
A broad-chested man with short, black hair turned around and greeted Nick in Greek.
Nick placed his hand on her bare back and replied, “Joanna Nelson. Aftí eínai i kóri tou George.”
The man looked at Joanna, and then back to Nick before saying something else in Greek.
Ever the gentleman, Nick shook his head. “Let’s speak in English for her, so she knows what we’re saying.”
