Page 46 of Footprints in the Sand
Dimitra rolled her eyes. “How are you?”
“Alone. Alienated. Worried about you.”
“Great answers,” Dimitra said. “Any others to add?”
“Annoyed.”
Dimitra laughed, missing her sister despite how jagged she so often was. “And how is Eva? Have you heard anything?”
“I heard she kissed my Nico,” Athena said. “I heard she made a fool of herself.”
“Don’t you remember being that young?”
“At her age, I already had kids.” Athena scoffed.
“I didn’t,” Dimitra reminded her. “I wasn’t even married. I was all over the place, and I enjoyed myself. It was freedom. Let Eva be as free as Nico always is.”
“I don’t want Nico to be free, either.”
“But you have to admit, people are much harder on men than women,” Dimitra said.
Athena groaned. “I wouldn’t have answered the phone if I’d known this was going to be a lecture.”
Dimitra laughed and pestered Athena for more island gossip. They talked deep into the morning, until Athena admitted she had to go. They said they loved each other. They always would, no matter how much they annoyed one another, no matter if Dimitra ran as far away as she could.
That night, Dimitra put on her most expensive new dress—an Alexander McQueen gown with a turtleneck top and a sophisticated pattern. It was swanky and sultry and, according to Meghan and Oriana, made her look mysterious and foreign.
“I am foreign,” Dimitra reminded them with a laugh.
“Then I guess the dress is working!” Meghan said.
Together, they drove over to the harbor and parked not far from William Cottrill’s massive yacht. Dimitra remembered how much she’d detested yacht people around Paros, how they’d come in to flaunt their money and their English accents and then leave a stream of oil in the water behind them. Now, she was joining them? It didn’t feel right.
Kostos would have leaped at the chance to own a yacht, she knew.Do it for your husband, she told herself. But it didn’t feel powerful at all.
Before they got out of the car, Dimitra checked her phone to find a message from Harry, inviting her out for a glass of wine later that night. All Dimitra wanted was to rip her way out of this expensive dress, put on a loose island dress, and join him and Cash. But she texted back that she couldn’t.See you soon?He said okay.
But “soon” felt like such a difficult word with them. Harry would be back in South Carolina soon, and Dimitra would beback in Greece, and this gorgeous time between them would be no more.Enjoy it while it’s here, she reminded herself.
A speaker system on the yacht played an electro mix that made Dimitra think of sophisticated European clubs. When they entered, someone in a white tux greeted her by name and handed her a flute of champagne. She walked slowly behind Oriana, joining a group of elite Martha’s Vineyard vacationers, most of whom already knew Oriana. By contrast, Meghan was nervous, whispering in Dimitra’s ear about how out of place she felt.
“I need to stop saying yes to these things,” she said.
“Don’t be silly,” Dimitra told her. “I need you here!”
Meghan smiled, and the two traced their way to the edge of the boat, where they stood and watched the sunset for a little while. Dimitra wondered how much of Eva’s current situation Meghan knew about but didn’t want to tattle on Eva.
“How’s our girl doing in Greece?” Dimitra asked instead.
Meghan furrowed her brow. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her in a few days. I think she said something about going to Naxos with that marble carver. I worry.”
“Naxos is a gorgeous island filled with wonderful people,” Dimitra assured her. “I’m sure she’s having the time of her life.”
She hoped the trip to Naxos explained why Eva wasn’t answering her phone.
“Finn keeps trying to contact me,” Meghan said. “It’s horrible to ignore him because he really was part of the family. For years and years, I thought he’d be the father of my grandchildren. But I can’t take it. He was horrible to my baby girl. Whatever he did, he chased her out of the country.”
Meghan still didn’t know how much money Finn had lost Eva, but she seemed to know it was a life-changing amount.
