“Did you…did you know what you were going to do if you were?”
“No. But the fact that I didn’t know was how Iknew,you know?”
“I think so,” he said, looking so perplexed that she couldn’t help laughing.
He told her about Grey’s post, the sudden rush of interest in his art, how his sister Alex had offered to help him set up his social media and an online platform to run his business. It would take him a while to figure everything out—how long he would keep taking handyman and small contracting jobs before he could fully support himself that way—but Merritt practically glowed with pride hearing him talk about it.
His hand stilled on her hair. “Is it a problem that I can’t…I don’t know. Provide for you?”
She shifted her head, meeting his eyes. “Like, financially? No, not at all. Is it a problem foryou?”
He inhaled, her head gently rising with the movement. “I don’t want it to be,” he admitted. “But it’s been pretty ingrained in me for most of my life that that’s my job as a man. Not that I care about traditional roles, or having a traditional relationship, or anything like that. But…there’s something about the idea of being able to take care of someone, I guess.”
She tightened her grip on his hand. “Youdotake care of me, Niko,” she said quietly. “In every way that matters.” He smiled softly and brushed her hair away from her face, his palm lingering against her cheek. She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. “And I want to take care of you, too. This is all really new for me. Loving someone like this. I don’t…I’m not…I can’tpromise it’ll always be easy. ThatI’llalways be easy. But I promise to never stop trying.”
“I’ve heard that trying is half the battle,” he said, echoing her words from the first night they’d spent together, her body warming at the memory.
“I don’t want it to be a battle.” Her voice was half a whisper.
“Even if it is sometimes,” he said, “we’re fighting on the same side. Always.”
She’d thought she’d already cried out every tear she had, but it turned out she was wrong.
They spent the next two days keeping close to the hotel, but on the third day, Merritt felt well enough to make the drive to see his family, all of whom had gathered in his grandmother’s village.
As they sped down the winding two-lane road through the mountains, Merritt barely took in the scenery, her stomach knotted with nerves.
“Do you think they’ll like me?”
Niko nodded emphatically. “They’ll love you.” He shot her a sideways glance. “You’re not Greek at all, are you? Like, even a little bit? That would go a long way.”
She shook her head. “I think I’m mostly Eastern Europe. Sorry.”
He shrugged. “That’s okay. It’ll probably be fine. Although, sometimes I think my grandparents were more upset that my dad wasn’t Greek than anything else.”
She whipped her head at him. “Wait. Your dad isn’t Greek?”
“Italian.”
“But you have a Greek last name.”
“It’s my mom’s. They never married.”
Merritt’s eyebrows shot to her hairline, her jaw hanging open. “You’ve only beenhalf-Greek this whole time? Wow.Sorry, not interested anymore.” She put her hand on the door handle, like she was about to fling it open and barrel-roll into the road. Niko laughed, sliding his hand to the back of her neck and giving her a light, affectionate squeeze.
When they pulled up to his grandparents’ cottage, Merritt quickly lost count of the number of cousins, aunts, and uncles she was introduced to, all swarming her and Niko, laughing and talking in rapid-fire Greek. She hugged his mother, a petite woman with the biggest eyes Merritt had ever seen, and his grandmother, who looked almost identical, but twenty years older.
As soon as his grandmother greeted Merritt, she turned and asked Niko a stern-sounding question. In response, he shrugged, saying something evasive.
“She just asked if I was Greek, didn’t she?” Merritt muttered into his ear. He laughed, slinging an arm over her shoulder and kissing her temple.
Niko had filled her in on the situation with his mom and grandparents, warning they might be walking into a war zone, but whatever had transpired between them before they got there seemed to have gone well. Still, there was a hesitancy between them, a stilted politeness, the deference of relearning one another after so long apart.
Watching them gave Merritt a strange ache. Jealousy, maybe, for an estrangement that could be repaired.
WatchingNikowatch them, though, was almost enough to neutralize it.
After several days of what felt like one continuous family party, they departed for Santorini for their last two nights before they headed back. They spent most of the next thirty-six hours in bed, occasionally throwing clothes back on long enough toswim, sightsee, and eat some of the most unbelievable meals of Merritt’s life.
