But when the door opened it wasn’t Yiannis standing there.
It was another gorgeous man, a little taller than Yiannis, a little younger, his lean frame still a bit coltish, probably about her age—twenty-six. His black hair was damp, his smile was stunning, his chest was bare, his hips were clad in a pair of low-slung board shorts. His grey-green eyes studied her appreciatively as the smile broadened.
“You must be Cat,” he said, opening the door wider and drawing her in with the mere force of his personality. “Come on in. I’m Milos. Savas,” he added.
Not that she’d had any doubt. The resemblance was striking.
“Yian’s cousin,” he said, shaking her hand warmly and not letting go. In fact he was drawing her right into the kitchen. “Yiannis is changing the kid. You’re Harry’s aunt?”
“Er, yes. Sort of.” Perhaps not legally, but certainly in terms of how she perceived family. “His mother is my cousin. Sort of.”
Milos just grinned and nodded. “Yeah, families are like that. How about a beer? Or—” he opened the refrigerator and peered in “—iced tea? I’m sure he’s got wine somewhere.”
“Iced tea,” Cat said, and as soon as she had, realized that she’d lost the opportunity to plead a headache.
Milos poured her a glass of tea, handed it to her, then popped the cap on a bottle of beer for himself. “Want a beer, Yian?” he yelled.
There was no immediate answer. But seconds later Yiannis ambled into the room with Harry on one arm. He’d obviously been to the beach. He still wore a pair of board shorts and a T-shirt with the neck torn out and his hair was damp and spiky. Cat’s traitorous heart kicked into double-time.
“You’ve met Milos,” he said gruffly.
“I have,” Cat agreed. “I’m sorry. I would have picked Harry up sooner, but I didn’t realize you were having company.”
“Neither did I.”
“Hey.” Milos grinned. “Neely rang you to say I was coming.”
“Which doesn’t constitute an invitation,” Yiannis pointed out.
Milos shrugged unrepentantly. “You can come and stay with me,” he offered, opening a second beer and handing it to Yiannis.
“On some god-forsaken coral atoll. Not likely.”
Cat listened to the grumbled exchange enviously. With no siblings—and no cousins except the difficult Misty—she was enchanted by all such conversations.
Yiannis, however, abruptly changed the subject. “How’s Maggie?”
“Um … doing well,” Cat said, trying to drag her attention back to that. “So they say at least,” she added. “She looks very pale. Very … small. I’ve never thought of Gran as small.”
“I have,” Yiannis said. But then he was a good eight inches taller and seventy pounds heavier than Gran who barely topped one hundred pounds fully dressed. Plus, he’d never known the truly strong and powerful woman Gran had once been. “But I know what you mean,” he went on. “She seems bigger than she is. She’s a force.”
So maybe he did have some notion of the real Gran. Cat nodded. “Yes.”
“Sorry I didn’t get to meet her,” Milos said. “And I probably won’t as I’m just here for a few days.”
“Not few enough,” Yiannis muttered as he tipped the drink to his lips.
Milos grinned. “He’s just mad because he didn’t get the phone message that I was coming. He doesn’t get any hospitality awards.”
“Because I’m not hospitable.”
“His mother is. She told Seb and Neely—that’s my brother and sister-in-law,” he explained for Cat’s benefit, “that Yian would be glad to have me stay with him when I was passing through. I’m on my way to the South Pacific,” he explained to Cat. “Two years working in a clinic on one of the islands.”
“He’s a quack,” Yiannis said.
“I’m a doctor. Just finished my ENT residency.”
Cat’s eyes widened. A doctor? He looked about eighteen.
“You don’t have to be impressed,” Yiannis said. “He’s going so he can bask in the sun, go surfing and pick up girls.”
“That, too,” Milos said, unoffended. “He’s just jealous because he didn’t think of it.”
“I puked dissecting a frog.” Yiannis was matter-of-fact. “Put an end to all my medical aspirations. Here, hold Harry while I put on the steaks.”
And before Cat could respond, she had Harry deposited in her arms and Yiannis was opening the refrigerator. Harry looked instantly doubtful. But when Cat managed a genuine grin and began to talk to him, his expression cleared.
She was sure that hers did, too. She’d have been mortified if he’d burst into tears. In fact, he seemed to like her. At least he twisted in her arms and patted her cheek and said something in babyese to her.
“What’s that?” she asked him.
“He wants to go outside and watch the steaks grill,” Yiannis said. “Come on.” And he shouldered open the door and carried a plateful of steak outside to where he already had a fire going on a small grill. He was holding the door for her, waiting. So Cat tried to edge through it, Harry on her hip and the glass of iced tea in her hand. She was careful to keep her distance, but she couldn’t help remembering when they had been dating and she hadn’t hesitated to brush against him.
“I’ll hold the door,” Milos said and pushed it open further so that Yiannis could move on and she could get out more easily.
“Thank you. I should just go on home,” she said when she got out there. “You have company and Harry and I will be fine.”
“I bought you a steak,” Yiannis said flatly. He was slapping three on the grill even as he spoke and, of course, once he had, she couldn’t politely beg off. Thank God, and Yiannis’s mother, that Milos was there.
They were going to eat at a table on the brick patio between Yiannis’s house and the garage and Gran’s apartment. The small garden was full of Gran’s flowers and greenery and reminded Cat of all the years she had spent playing right here under the watchful eye of her grandmother. Now it was she who watched as Harry crawled about and put things in his mouth.
“Oh, Harry! Don’t!” she exclaimed and removed first a twig and then a stone and then wood shavings undoubtedly left from some building project of Yiannis’s. She scooped Harry up and distracted him, playing pat-a-cake, and trying not to let her gaze fasten on the man who was grilling steaks across the patio.
Milos set the table and chatted with her, asking about her work in San Francisco, drawing her out about the fabric puppets she made and the fabric art pieces she also sold. Yiannis didn’t say a word, but she suspected he was listening so she made it clear how happy she was there. Then she asked Milos about why he had really applied at the clinic, where the island was, where he’d gone to medical school, what had made him decide to specialize in ear, nose and throat issues.
Neither of them included Yiannis in the conversation. He could participate if he wanted. He wasn’t shy, so Cat figured he’d include himself.
But he didn’t. She caught him watching her when she glanced his way. But he didn’t speak, just focused on the grill.
When the steaks and corn on the cob were ready, he went into the house and brought out deli cartons of coleslaw and potato salad, then went up to Gran’s and brought down Harry’s portable collapsible chair.
“I’m sorry. I could have done that,” Cat said.
He shrugged. “You had your hands full.” He attached it to the picnic table, then scooped Harry up off the patio and plopped him in. “Let’s eat.”
They ate. Milos talked. Harry smeared butter in his hair. And Cat sat across the table from Yiannis and remembered the last time she’d sat here.
They’d eaten dinner with Gran. Yiannis had grilled salmon that night. And when they’d dished up the meal, he’d sat down across from her and slid a bare foot beneath the table and run it up her calf. Cat had jumped, then blushed furiously.
“Something bite you?” Gran asked.
“N-no. I mean, yes.”
Yiannis had grinned and talked easily to Gran just as if he hadn’t been seducing her granddaughter right before her eyes. And Cat had gone to her seduction willingly. No, eagerly.
Gran had gone up to her apartment after the meal, but Cat had lingered. “To help Yiannis with the dishes,” she’d said. “Then maybe go for a walk.”
Gran was no fool. She had seen the smouldering looks that had passed between Cat and Yiannis, but she hadn’t grabbed Cat by the arm and said, “No! You’re coming with me!”
Of course Cat had been an adult. And Gran had never been the sort of person who commandeered.
It might have been better if she had been, Cat thought now. But she didn’t blame Gran for her own mistake. She knew better now. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
She stole a glance at Yiannis and found him watching her. Quickly she averted her gaze and tucked her legs under her in her chair. Then she turned to Milos and began asking about his time in med school.
Milos was happy to talk. He lazed back in his chair, sipping his beer, his hooded gaze never wavering from her as he answered her questions. He was obviously happy to bask in her attention. And if he wondered why she never turned her gaze on Yiannis, he didn’t make any effort to include his cousin, either.
For his part, Yiannis might as well not have been there. He ate stolidly through his meal without saying a thing.
The sun dropped lower in the sky. The garden was totally in shadows now, hiding Yiannis’s expression and the direction of his gaze. But Cat didn’t need to see it to feel his eyes on her. Every time she glanced his way now, though, he was forking another bite of steak into his mouth or making faces at Harry who was giggling and eating bits of finger food that Cat had set out for him.
Maybe it was just her imagination making her the center of his attention. Surely he wasn’t interested. He knew what she wanted—and she knew what he didn’t want.
Doubtless he had had plenty of women since she’d moved away. He probably even had one—or more—in his life now.
And she had a man in hers. The right man.
She rubbed her thumb over her ring, and Milos said, “Heck of a stone. Mean something?” His grin glinted in the light above the door.
So she told him about Adam. She tried not to lay it on too thick, but she felt she needed to make sure Yiannis knew she was in love with another man.
Milos listened politely, then grinned and said, “He’s not here, though, is he?”
Cat blinked, then tapped her heart. “He’s here.”
Milos nodded, then stretched his arms over his head. “You’re welcome to bring him along then.”
“What?”
“I thought we could go out for a while. There has to be some night life hereabouts.” He looked inquiringly at Yiannis who gave a wordless shrug.
Milos looked at him for a long moment, then pushed himself forward to sit on the end of the chaise, ready to move. “Of course there is,” he went on confidently and stood up. He looked down at Cat.
“Come with me,” he invited. “Save me from the unattached women of Balboa Island. Yian can watch the kid.”
“Thanks,” she said, “but I need to take care of Harry.”
“Yiannis is a great babysitter,” Milos insisted. “He babysat me.”
“Still am,” Yiannis said.
Milos laughed, but his gaze stayed on Cat. “You sure …?” He let his voice trail off enticingly.
Cat nodded, not even glancing at Yiannis. “Very sure. But thank you.”
“Too bad,” Milos said as he gathered up plates and condiments and prepared to carry them into the house. Cat got to her feet, too, and began cleaning up the rest of the things on the table.
“Thank you for dinner. I need to get Harry up to bed, but I’ll help with the dishes first.” They were the first words she’d spoken to Yiannis since before dinner.
He looked up at her, then slowly stood. Cat felt her breath catch as their gazes locked. “Leave them,” he said. “Harry needs to go to sleep.” As he spoke, his eyes left hers and he unstrapped the little boy from the chair, swung him out into his arms, then carried him into the house where he washed Harry’s very messy face and hands and hair.
Cat followed silently with the last of the dishes.
“Put them on the table. I’ll take care of them,” Yiannis instructed as he dried Harry’s hands and face, then tickled his belly and made faces at him for a moment, saying, “See you tomorrow, buddy.” There was a pause. Then abruptly he thrust the little boy into Cat’s arms. “Good night.”
He couldn’t have made her dismissal any more clear if he had opened the door and held it for her—which moments later he did.
Cat clutched Harry so tightly that he squirmed and let out a yelp of protest. Feeling foolish, she loosened her grip.
“Good night, then,” she said tersely and walked past him without a glance. She didn’t need a glance. He was so close that she could feel the heat from his body as she passed.
“Thank you for the dinner,” she added. No one was going to say she’d forgotten her manners.
She was halfway across the patio when the screen door banged shut behind her and she heard Yiannis yell at Milos, “We can go to Tino’s if you want to meet women.”
Tino’s was hopping.
Even on a week night, the noise was deafening, the bodies were pressed close, and the drinks were flowing freely. Milos plunged into the crowd, heading toward the bar. “I’ll buy the beers,” he called over his shoulder.
Yiannis let him, choosing to lean against the stucco wall just outside the door. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. There had been a time when he’d first come to Balboa, that Yiannis had spent nearly every evening at Tino’s or one of the other local watering holes.
Now, as he finally stepped inside the room, he wondered if he would even stay until Milos got back with the beers. He looked around at the girls on the make and the guys on the prowl and knew why he spent most of his evenings now hard at work in his shop sanding and sawing and refinishing furniture. He felt old.
Also annoyed. As he watched Milos, beers in his hands, stop working his way back across the room to chat up a pretty young thing who looked barely older than Harry, Yiannis ground his teeth.
Not because of the girl. Hell, Milos could have the girl.
His annoyance was that Milos was here at all. He’d been grinding his teeth since he had opened the door this afternoon to find his cousin standing on his doorstep.
“Hey,” Milos had said. “Remember me?”
Yiannis wished he could say no.
“Aunt Malena said she sent an email,” Milos had offered when Yiannis hadn’t immediately drawn him in. Then when Yiannis still didn’t open the door any wider, Milos had sagged a bit, then rubbed a hand over his rumpled hair. “I suppose I could sleep on a street corner.”
Yiannis had been tempted to let him. It wasn’t that he begrudged his cousin a place to sleep. It was the unspoken assumption made by everyone in his family that they could drop in whenever they wanted with no thought to what he wanted. It was why he had had enough of family. Why he didn’t need any more of them messing up his life.
Besides, tonight he’d had other plans.
He’d been going to have dinner with Cat.
They’d had dinner together, he supposed. But it was hardly the meal he’d imagined. She’d spent the whole damn time talking to Milos. And his cousin had spent the whole damn evening flirting with her. Yiannis had spent his meal cutting and chewing his steak with far more ferocity than absolutely necessary.
Then Milos had invited her to go out with him. Yiannis had very nearly gone straight across the table and grabbed his cousin by the throat. He refused to examine the reason for that. She was engaged, of course. She shouldn’t be going out with anybody, least of all his lady-killer cousin.
Now Yiannis shrugged his still tense shoulders against the wall behind him and tried to get into the moment. There were
plenty of attractive, vibrant girls right here. One of them, over by the bar, had red hair just a shade darker than Cat’s. And there were a couple who had the same long legs and tall, willowy frame. But the sight just reminded him of how she’d looked in the T-shirt and panties he’d seen her in last night. Remembered how his body had reacted—how it always reacted around Cat MacLean.
Irritably he shoved away from the wall. Milos was making no progress getting back with the beers. In fact, he’d stopped trying and had offered one of the beers to the blonde girl and stood with one arm braced against a pillar as he leaned close to hear what she was saying.
A soft hand brushed down Yiannis’s forearm, and he looked around to see a brunette smiling at him. She batted her lashes. “Hi. I’m Marnie. Are you just visiting?”
“Seems like,” Yiannis said.
“Me, too.” She moved closer, and her breasts brushed against him. “Let’s get out of here.” Luminous blue eyes looked beseechingly up into his.
They left him cold. Every one of these women was going to leave him cold. He knew it. He glanced at his watch. “Thanks, but I’ve got to run.” And without a backward glance—he had no doubt Milos could take care of himself—he turned and went out the door.
He walked back to the house the long way, making a detour to walk along the sidewalk by the shore. It was quiet away from the main business street. He could hear the waves lapping against the sand, and in the distance caught the ring of a buoy. Somewhere overhead he heard the engines of one of the last evening flights taking off from John Wayne.
He’d walked this pavement with plenty of women. But in the silence memories of only one walked with him tonight. The memories made him edgy and out of sorts. It wasn’t just those of Cat in bed with him or on the beach with him or snuggled up against him on the sofa as they read the papers on a lazy Sunday morning. It was the Cat he’d seen this afternoon—the one who fretted over her grandmother, the one who held Harry as if he were a bomb she wasn’t quite sure how to defuse, but she wasn’t going to admit she couldn’t.
He walked all the way around the island. Twice. Then he went home and worked on the old lawyer’s glass-fronted bookcase he was taking apart and refinishing. He tried to lose himself in it—or let it free him to think about whatever his mind wanted to explore.
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