“That would be great.” Galen grabbed his layout sheet and squeezed by him. “Suzane and I will get out of your way.”
“What’s the point in looking at your new layout when you’re just going to change it again? You won’t stop playing around with it until everything is in place.” Suzane leaned over to study the doorknob and lock on the storeroom door. “It doesn’t look like it’s been tampered with.”
“Why would anyone break in just to leave art behind instead of stealing it? I’m sure we’ll find the paperwork once it’s all cleared away.” He handed Suzane his layout and she took it with a sigh. “You have to admit, it’s missing something.”
“Yes, only I doubt this trouble-waiting-to-happen is going to fill that void.”
Galen’s eyes fell on the uncovered first statue. A sense of reverent awe filled him and his jaw dropped. The man stood with his legs spread slightly apart, his arms outstretched and curled as if he had been in the midst of an embrace. Sunlight streamed through the window, giving the metal a burnished, glowing quality. The aged bronze with a nice warm patina made Galen’s fingertips itch to caress it. “Oh wow, will you look at him? He’s perfect.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty hot.” Knox carried out the sections of crate and the shreds of wool. “I’ll be right back to get the rest.”
Galen moved closer and ran his hand over the man’s muscled arm. The metal was smooth and strangely warm. His hair lay in a shaggy mess about his head, which was tilted to one side, his lips parted and pursed. He made Galen think of kissing. It had been too long since he’d been kissed just right. He only had himself to blame. He’d been the one to put a temporary moratorium on casual flings. That was after he’d broken things off with Nick only to wonder what if too many times when he was alone at night.
“I think you’re crazy if you intend on actually making this a part of the exhibit.” Suzane came up beside him and gave his shoulder a shake. “You don’t even know if it’s authentic or not, or how old it is, or why someone would just give it to you with no information or explanation. It’s going to come back and bite you in the ass, I just know it.”
“Bites on the ass can be fun.”
Suzane smacked him with the folder. “You’re incorrigible. I’m serious. You’ve sunk your entire inheritance into this museum. I’m not going to let you ruin all your hard work because someone dangled a statue of a half-naked muscled man in front of you.”
“The authenticity can be researched.” Galen flashed a smile at her. “That’s what you’re good at. I want you to find everything you can about him. As for who our mysterious donor is and why they were so generous, I don’t care. If I ever meet them I’m going to kiss him or her.”
“People don’t give things for nothing.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure? Besides, the upcoming exhibit is new homoerotic interpretations on the ancient world, so even if it isn’t old it’ll still work.”
Suzane groaned. “You don’t even know if it’s homoerotic or not. Remember the theme for your museum? Gay love, sex, and life? You can’t have a centerpiece for a new exhibit that runs counter to what you’ve established. Not after all the work we’ve put into making a name for it.”
Galen knelt down to examine all the glorious little details, the ridged lines on the man’s legs indicating scars, the realism in his hands as they gripped someone who had disappeared long ago. “I’m not sure about erotic; maybe the second half is in another crate,” he mused, though for the life of him he couldn’t figure out how they’d fit together, much less how they’d come apart in the first place. “But there are definite gay overtones.”
“And what makes you think that other than wishes and a dirty mind?”
Galen twisted and looked up at her as he pointed to the base of the statue. “There are two discarded helmets, which makes me think two men are involved.”
“Damn, you’re right.” Suzane sighed and pulled out her phone. “Okay, I’ll look into it. I have to admit, he looks Hellenic in style.”
Knox returned and began working on the second crate. The nails screamed in protest when he pulled apart the top and it fell apart. Galen gave Suzane a grateful smile. “Did I tell you that I like your new brunette do?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m immune to your sad attempt at flattery.”
“Go do whatever you have to do to prove me right. Please, prove me right. Get whatever tests and research you need. These statues are to stay on site. Whatever funding or overtime you need, it’s approved. You’re the best; I’ve told you that, right? I’d be lost without you.”
Suzane made an exasperated sound, though her eyes lit up with pleasure. “Yeah, I know. You need me. I’ll work on getting this big boy dated.” A wicked smile crossed her lips. “Hey, maybe you should call what’s-his-name who you refuse to mention. That wreck diver. ’Cause these statues look like they came from one, and he might have some insights.”
“You’re an evil woman.” Before Galen could say anything else, the second statue was revealed, the same man, now naked in every glorious detail and fully aroused. “Oh my God, just look at him. Can you freaking believe it, Knox? People are going to come here in droves just to see him.”
“You have to put these statues in your exhibit.” Knox came to stand beside him. “Don’t let her talk you out of it. You’re the owner, right?”
“Galen!”
“I’m the owner, she’s the boss.” Galen tore his eyes away and pulled out his cell phone. “Looks like I have some calls to make. Shout when the rest are uncovered.”
“Will do, Mr. K.”
Galen climbed to the top of the tower to his office. He loved this small square room, the highest point in the old firehouse that he’d bought and renovated. A huge half-circle window dominated two sides of the room and the other sides contained two more windows next to each other so he had an almost panoramic view of the Seattle neighborhood. He’d left the exposed brick walls alone, and, with the polished wood floors, they gave the room a homey feeling.
He propped his feet up on his desk as he stared at his cell phone. He should call his lawyer, have him look into any insurance claims, see what it would take to keep the statues in-house. He would keep them no matter what it took.
Nicholas Charisteas. Galen’s thoughts drifted right back to the man who refused to get out of his head. He hadn’t spoken to him in months. He doubted Nick would want to hear from him now, even if he had left him an open invitation to contact him when he got his head out of his ass.
Galen smiled and tapped his phone against his cheek. He’d deserved that. And a fired-up, passionate Nick took his breath away. He scrolled through his contacts until he came to Nick’s name—the only one of his flings that he’d programmed in there.
This wasn’t the first time he’d looked up his number, and once again he hesitated. There would be no way around things getting complicated. He didn’t know if he was ready for complicated. And it wouldn’t be fair to come bursting back into Nick’s life if he wasn’t. Of course, there was always the possibility he was being too arrogant. Nick might have zero interest in him after all this time.
Galen hit Send before he could change his mind and his stomach jumped when the phone rang. What was he thinking? To his consternation and relief, a young man answered, and it took Galen a moment to unscramble his brain long enough to realize that he’d accidentally called Nick’s work instead of his cell.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Charisteas is in a meeting. May I ask who’s calling?”
“Just tell him Galen Kanellis called.” He paused and his stomach sank further. He was an idiot. This was stupid. And Nick was going to laugh his ass off if he knew how much he had tied himself into knots over a simple phone call that Galen would’ve shrugged off six months ago.
“Hey, Mr. K.” Knox’s excited voice came up through the hole in his office floor that still contained a fireman’s pole and cut through Galen’s circling thoughts. “You have got to come see these dudes.”
/>
NICK CHARISTEAS ducked into his office and dumped the stack of files on his desk. He was in hell. Absolute, literal hell that involved endless wait times on the phone and reams of papers that kept getting higher every day. Financial security was not worth this bullshit.
He flung himself in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off the incipient headache. If he could just clear his mind of insurance forms for ten minutes, he’d be golden for the rest of the day. He took out his darts and swiveled his chair around to the small dartboard he’d stuck onto the bookcase.
The first dart landed next to the outer rim and Nick winced. He did not want to explain to management how another book got punctured. He took careful aim and the second hit dead center. By the time he ran out of darts, the tension in his shoulders had started to ease and the knots in his stomach had unraveled. Nick rose to grab the darts for another quick round when his eyes fell on the poster of Santorini he had tacked to the wall.
Six more months. Then he would have three blessed weeks on a charter boat in the Greek Islands, diving, getting back in touch with his roots, and hopefully this time, bringing back the prominence to his family’s name. That’s why he worked this job. It gave him the pay, the insurance, and the vacation time for these twice-yearly jaunts around the world. He came in sick, saved up every scrap of leave just for these little escapes. If he was the one to find the Dexios Collection, it would be his ticket back home. Finding the Collection would fix everything.
Nick’s phone rang and he peered at the display with a grimace for the name there, Jessica Blandford, no doubt calling to bitch again about staffing. Nothing made her happy. Nick ignored the ringing and turned back toward the dartboard. He threw the dart harder than he intended and it sank all the way up to its shaft into the workplace safety sign he had hanging next to the bookcase. “Crap.”
A brisk knock at the door made him jump and cast a quick glance at the offending dart. Before he could answer, the door opened and his assistant Sean walked in with several message slips in his hand and two paper cups of coffee.
“You have a meeting in ten minutes, and you might want to call Jessica back before it starts.”
“I do?” Nick sat up at his desk and pulled up his calendar. “I thought I was free to catch up on paperwork for the rest of the afternoon.”
“You were, but this came up regarding you-know-who, and they want it addressed immediately.”
Nick scowled and shuffled through the files on his desk. “Got it, thanks. Any other messages I should know about beforehand?”
“No, I think they can wait. The barista you’ve been ogling wrote his number down for you.” Sean handed him one of the coffees with a number emblazoned on the side without batting an eyelash.
Nick took it with a slight flush and a cough. “Thanks, sorry about that.”
“Not a problem.” Sean handed him the slips of paper. “Jessica called twice, Hodson’s Funeral Home sent a fax about the insurance papers for McCleary, that teller in the Market Street branch, oh, and somebody named Galen called. I didn’t quite catch his last name, sorry.”
“Galen Kanellis?” Nick dropped the message slips on his desk unread as thoughts of work and considerations of a hot barista disappeared right out of his head, all because of the power of one name. He had made such a fool out of himself over Galen.
“Yeah, that’s it. He didn’t wait on the line long enough for me to get the spelling of his last name. He didn’t leave a number either.”
Nick’s heart twisted, and he squashed the burgeoning hope inside of him before it could take root. He’d been down that road with Galen, and he’d crashed hard right into the wall of reality. “Okay, thanks.” Nick waved him off and stared unseeing at his desk as he remembered the last time they’d been together.
Wow. Galen Kanellis. Nick had written him off as a lost cause. It seemed like the only things they had in common were an interest in art and some fabulous sex. He had been such a sucker for those dark eyes that had held secrets Nick had never been able to get him to reveal, secrets and pain. Galen had been running from something and running hard.
“Hey, Sean. If he calls back give him my cell number.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them and reconsider. Oh, what the hell, what did it matter? It wasn’t like Galen would call twice. Of course, Nick could do it first.
Nick snorted and picked up the fax from the funeral home. No, if Galen really wanted to hook back up with him he had to show Nick. He wouldn’t accept dribbles anymore. Not after he’d already lost his heart once and had it handed back to him. Not after Galen had walked away without looking back.
He should have been used to it by now. His mom left. And she’d contacted him and his brothers later on too. Nick still didn’t understand what her motivation had been, because it hadn’t lasted a whole year before she was gone again.
He rubbed his temple when the headache threatened to return. At least Galen had given him the courtesy of honesty. He hadn’t lied and pretended to love him, then walked away after he’d gotten what he wanted. Better to lock the door on his past. Nick didn’t have the time or energy to waste on people who didn’t stick around. He wasn’t that little kid anymore to set himself up with false hope. His mom and Galen made their choices, and they had to live with them. Not him.
Nick glanced at his watch. He had enough time to call the funeral home back to give them what they needed so the family could scratch one worry off their list. That was something he could do, that and dream of Santorini with its sunsets, caldera, beaches, and wonderful food. He could almost taste the roasted leg of lamb and the pita bread slathered with taramasalata.
It was a long shot, but maybe the Dexios Collection had made its way back home somehow. All of his other leads had dried up. It wouldn’t hurt to start at the beginning, and at least he’d be doing his diving in a picturesque location this time.
Galen would look scorching hot laid out on the charter boat’s deck.
Nick growled to himself and picked up the phone. He was not going to think about him anymore.
CHAPTER TWO
“WAIT, a little more to the left. On the third one, the angle’s off,” Galen said as he studied the arrangement of the statues again.
Knox blew out his breath and straightened as he gestured to the other workmen. “You know, Mr. K, the first twenty times I looked at his ass I was all for this. Now, I’m too tired to admire it.”
“We’re almost done. This is the only one that’s still bugging me.” Galen watched with his arms crossed, worrying his lip as they adjusted the angle again. Knox knew what he was doing, but telling himself that didn’t make the adjustment any less nerve-racking. Nothing could happen to these statues.
Four unfinished statues, all seeming to be caught in a miderotic moment, one man who waited for his other half to complete the embrace. The bronze gleamed with a life of its own over taut muscles that looked as if they were just waiting to move again. In his head, Galen had already given the statues names: The Kiss, Fellatio, Copulation, and Afterglow.
Galen stood back after the statue was shifted and looked over the arrangement again. “I think we’ve got it this time. That’s perfect.”
Knox began picking up his equipment with a look of relief on his face, and Galen walked the room from the beginning of the exhibit to the end. He’d set up cones to take the place of the pieces that hadn’t arrived yet. Suzane would kill him when she discovered he’d gone ahead and set up the statues as the center point. She hadn’t finished her research, and the dating on the statues would take some time, but he had to see what it would look like in the room.
And he was in love.
“What do you think?” he asked Knox as the young man coiled the straps that had steadied the statues when they’d been moved.
“Oh, you already know my opinion. I just wish they’d been finished. It seems a shame to go to all the trouble to make four halves of a statue instead of four whole ones.”
“What about you, Ella?” Galen called to the only other occupant in the room, a young woman in the process of painting an Asian-themed Daughters of Sappho mural along three of the walls. Galen had been captivated by her initial designs that mixed traditional Asian style with a vibrant modern palette. To see her sketches penciled out on the walls brought a satisfied smile to his lips. He couldn’t wait to see them completed with a roomful of people admiring her hard work. This exhibit would lead to good opportunities, and not just for the museum. He just knew it.
Ella Zhu came toward them, wiping her paint-spattered hands on a rag hanging from her belt loop. She stripped off the bright cotton kerchief that protected her long links of dark braids and stuffed it in her pocket. The unusual combination of a broad nose in a round face with dusky skin and long, narrow eyes gave her an exotic look. “I think I’d like it more if they were naked women instead.” She examined the statues, walking around them with a thoughtful expression. “They’ll be popular, though. I agree with Knox, they look a little odd as they are. What was going through the sculptor’s head when he came up with these?”
“I believe they were made this way on purpose, to make people think.” Galen looked over the progression of statues, all of the same man, and most of them in naked, erotic poses that left much to the imagination.
He paused before each statue, drawn to the solitary figure and unable to explain why he evoked such an emotional response from him, aching loneliness and yearning. At times it reminded him of what he’d gone through after Bryan had died. Other times it made him remember all the good things about being in a relationship, made him long for another one.
He couldn’t seem to stop tending to the statues and fussing over them. He had to have them in his museum even if it turned out they weren’t as old as he suspected or if they were created as somebody’s idea of a joke. They were beautiful and just what this room needed. He could now picture the whole exhibit finished and ready for patrons with the smaller items ensconced behind their glassed enclosures, the statues on the low platforms, with Ella’s brilliant murals finished.
Make Me Whole Page 2
