Page 40 of Footprints in the Sand
But Eva found that she genuinely didn’t want to change Jean-Paul. She adored his quiet persona, his reflective attitude, and the fact that he could spend twelve hours or more in his studio without speaking to a living soul. She also loved his cats and dogs, his pack of them, who seemed just as independent as he was. They’d left them food and water when they’d come to Naxos, but Eva had the sense that they didn’t really need it.
“He’s unlike anyone I’ve ever known,” Eva finished. “I never want him to be different from that. I don’t want him to become more of the same.”
“Girl, you need to make something happen before you leave Greece,” Valerie said. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
Eva shrugged. “Sometimes I think the most beautiful romances in the world involve two people who never make a move. It all exists in the mind, you know?” She tapped her temple.
Alyssa, Winona, and Valerie glanced at one another with a mix of confusion and something else, something like annoyance. Did they think she was naive? Probably.
But before Eva could say anything to try to fix the mood, someone rang the gate.
“There he is!” Winona threw her hands up.
Eva was stricken. “You didn’t invite Jean-Paul, did you?”
“What? No. We don’t know him,” Alyssa said, rolling her eyes. “He seems boring anyway. No offense.”
Winona skipped her way from the pool to the gate, eager to welcome whoever it was.
That was when she called out his name. “Nico! Is that you, doll?”
Eva’s blood ran cold. She listened intently to hear that, sure enough, it was the Nico she knew calling back.
“Hey, baby! Open the door, huh?”
“Did you bring our stuff?” Winona asked sweetly, toying with him.
“I got it all here,” Nico said.
Eva was on her feet, trying not to make a big show. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Alyssa pointed a lazy finger toward the back door. “Down the hall and to your left.” She didn’t even look at her. “Hurry back. Nico’s fun.” She said it like Nico was much more fun than Eva was, which was probably true.
Eva hurried to the house just as the gate began to open, bringing Nico into the backyard. Her heart was pounding. What “stuff” had Nico brought for them? And how had they met? She knew that Nico disappeared for days, if not weeks at a time. He said he did odd jobs, here and there. But she was getting the hint that something more was at play here.
Why had she been so naive?
She took a moment to feel relief that she hadn’t driven Jean-Paul’s truck out to the villa. Nico would have recognized it immediately.
Eva waited in the shadows of the hallway, watching as Nico approached with a black suitcase. He bounced along jovially, as though meeting beautiful women like Alyssa, Winona, and Valerie was all in a night’s work for him.
“There he is! Our favorite Greek,” Alyssa said.
“My favorite Americans!” Nico said. “Tell me. How did you spend your day today? More drinking by the pool? More wasting your precious lives?”
“We aren’t wasting anything, Nico,” Valerie said. “This is the good life!”
The bartender approached with a drink for Nico. In Greek, Nico had a brief conversation with the bartender, and then his face transformed for an instant.
“What did you guys talk about?” Alyssa asked.
“He said there’s another girl here. Another American girl,” Nico said.
Eva thought she was going to throw up with fear.
“It’s just this lame girl we met today downtown,” Valerie said. “I don’t even think she does drugs.”
“No way,” Winona agreed. “Actually, we should finish this up before she comes back outside. I wouldn’t be surprised if she called the cops.”
