Page 15 of Footprints in the Sand
“Maybe after this, you can meet and compare notes,” Aphrodite suggested. “She can tell you what was so magical about your life, and you can tell her why she should never leave us again!” Aphrodite laughed.
“She needed it,” Nico said firmly. “You know how she’s been.”
Aphrodite squeezed Eva’s shoulder and gave her a look. “We should go swimming soon, you and me. I want to know everything about America. You have to give me news of what’s out there!”
Eva promised she would. And just like that, she felt welcomed into the fold of Dimitra’s family, her heart open to the next few months of her life.
Chapter Nine
Martha’s Vineyard - June 2025
Dimitra couldn’t figure out what to wear on the night of the reading. Splintered with anxiety, she tore through what she’d brought—mostly sweeping blue-and-white outfits that seemed better suited to Greek living than anywhere else—and finally opted for a dark blue dress that made her look slightly mysterious and slightly glamorous, but hopefully, more than anything, approachable. She needed to feel a part of the community, sooner rather than later. She didn’t want to drive herself crazy with loneliness.
Dimitra’s rental car glinted in the driveway in front of Eva’s house, bright white and far too clean for Dimitra’s liking. She’d rented it that morning from a small shop near the port and been surprised to find the automatic was far easier to drive than her one back on Paros, but with less control. She knew Americans started on time, and sometimes even earlier, which boggled her Greek mind. Because of this, she got in her rental car and parked outside the bookstore a full forty minutes before the start time.
This was overkill.
When Dimitra entered the bookstore, she found only a middle-aged man behind the front counter and another woman in her fifties, writing notes to herself on a pad of paper and drinking a cup of coffee. Thirty-plus chairs were set up in the corner, but nobody else was there.
“Hello!” the man behind the counter said with a smile. “Welcome to the shop.”
“Are you, um, Daniel?” Dimitra asked, surprised that she remembered the name of Meghan’s best friend.
“I am.” Daniel stepped around the front corner and extended his hand. “And this is my girlfriend, Margorie.”
The woman writing notes waved and smiled broadly.
“Dimitra,” she introduced herself. “Meghan is a new friend of mine, sort of. We just met. I’m staying in her daughter’s place this summer.”
Daniel’s jaw dropped. It was clear he’d heard all about her. “You’re from Greece! Of course. Yeah. Meghan said you were like nobody she’d ever met around here.”
Dimitra’s heart swelled at the compliment (at least, she hoped it was a compliment). She hadn’t thought Meghan liked her, not at first. But ever since they’d gone swimming together yesterday, Meghan had texted several times, reminding her that she was just down the road.
“She’s been very welcoming,” Dimitra said. “Everyone has been.”
This wasn’t entirely true, of course. A woman at the grocery store had yelled at her because she hadn’t bagged her vegetables in plastic. The car rental agent had treated her like just another tourist, which she was, she supposed.
She was an island girl on the wrong island. She didn’t have any of the benefits of being “from here,” the way she did back home.
“You’re here for Estelle’s reading?” Margorie asked, getting up and walking over to them. “She’s really wonderful.”
“Margorie’s doing a reading of her own after Estelle,” Daniel explained with a smile. “They’re both romance novelists.”
Dimitra said she was really excited about it. “I hope I can follow your English well enough. Sometimes it can be difficult to hold all the words in my head at once.”
Margorie nodded in understanding. “I tried to learn Spanish for a while, but I was helpless. I’m impressed with anyone who speaks even a little bit of another language, and your English is fluent.”
Dimitra felt nervous and timid. She smiled. “I can see that I’m early. “I might walk around the block for a bit until the shop fills up.”
“There’s a fantastic ice cream place just up the road,” Margorie told her. “It’s the one with the red roof right next to the sailing bar. You can’t miss it.”
Dimitra thanked her. “See you later!”
Dimitra wandered toward the boardwalk, where she got in line for ice cream and ordered herself a strawberry with chunks of frozen fruit. She then leaned against the boardwalk railing, eating her ultra-creamy ice cream and watching the sailboats as they shifted gently in the breeze. It was a scene she knew well from Aliki, but with a different set of characters.
She wondered about Meghan having said she was unlike anyone she’d ever met and wondered how many islanders were gossiping about the “strange new Greek woman” who’d come out of nowhere. She knew for a fact that plenty of Paros islanders were gossiping about Eva, too.What does she think she’s doing? A young woman like her, traveling halfway around the world? What is wrong with her? Why doesn’t she have a husband?
Suddenly, a new boat came toward shore, its sails shifting and tightening as the sailor aboard willed it to slow. She lookedup to see a handsome guy with sandy hair and broad, tanned shoulders, moving easily and athletically. Nobody else was aboard with him save for a golden retriever, who padded around happily, his tongue lolling in the wind.
