"Those are my plates."
Grunting, she looked through a drawer then another cabinet.
"Your pasta bowl?" she asked.
"Yep."
She shut the cabinet. "Have you officially moved in, Gabriella?"
Her eyes shot right to my left hand.
"I guess you could say I have since I'm here every night."
"What about your place above the bakery?" Katerina asked as she took a seat at the kitchen island.
"Charity is living there. With the baby coming, she needed the extra room."
Katerina smiled. She loved babies, and I knew she was counting the days until Kilyn had her second child. It killed her Thano and Kilyn hadn't told anyone the sex of the baby.
"How nice of you to do that. It's the Greek in you."
I smiled. "Don't you think it is strange, Katerina, that I'm ninety-seven percent Italian, and three percent Greek?"
"No. Someone in your family history had the good sense to sleep with a Greek man." She wiggled her eyebrows. "We both know how well they are in bed."
Dropping my mouth open, I gasped. "Katerina!"
She brushed me off with her hands. "Oh, don't pretend you are shy and innocent now, Gabriella. I've heard my Nicholaus and how he talks dirty to you."
I wanted to crawl under a rock. I'd never live that moment down for as long as I live.
"If my Nic makes you as happy as my Dimitris does, I know why someone in your family went Greek. You know what they say about Greek men."
Grinning, I asked, "No, what do they say?"
"Once you've had Greek, you can't walk for a week."
I could feel the heat on my cheeks as she sat there and stared at me with a deadpan face.
When she lifted her brow, as if to challenge me, I closed my eyes and wished for a time machine to go back an hour and not answer the door.
My phone beeped, causing me to open my eyes and glance down at it.
"It's Max."
Katerina chuckled. "It's always Max."
I couldn't argue with her on that.
Standing, I knew she was waiting. "Would you like to drive over there with me?"
A smile exploded on her face. "I'd love to."
Katerina and I talked a little more about Kilyn's baby shower on the way to the bakery. It was a short drive. Less than five minutes. I was lucky enough to find a parking space right out front so we walked in through the front door.
My eyes immediately went to the display cabinets.
Oh. No. She. Did. Not.
Snapping my eyes up to Charity, she was making a face like she tried to stop it, but failed.
Katerina walked in and started greeting patrons at their tables as I stood there and stared at the foreign desserts.
Leaning closer, I whispered, "Kataifi!"
Sweeping my eyes across I saw baklava, phyllo pastries, kourabiedes, and kariokes.
I turned on my heels and stormed past Katerina who was asking a lady how she liked the baklava.
"It's delicious, but I thought baklava was Greek?"
Katerina chuckled. "It is."
"I thought this was an Italian bakery."
I held my breath as I stopped and faced them.
"You know what they say about Italian cooking. It goes for baking as well. It's simply Greek food with no taste."
The older lady's eyes widened in shock before she giggled.
Ugh! This woman is going to drive me insane!
Max and Charity started walking next to me as we made our way down the hall and to my office. Once in, I slammed the door and glared at them both.
Charity put her hands up in defense. "First off, I'm pregnant and trying to argue with that woman is exhausting. I need to harness all my energy for sex. Have I mentioned how good Cole is in bed?"
Max and I both groaned.
"Seriously. Shut up, Charity." My eyes shot over to Max. "How? How did she get that food in my bakery?!"
"Stop yelling at me, Gabi! It makes me nervous."
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath before forcing a smile and looking back at him.
"Max, would you mind telling me how Katerina was able to put at least five different Greek desserts in my bakery."
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, she came in about two hours ago."
"More like an hour and a half," Charity added.
"And she carried them in, walked around the counter and just kind of . . . well she . . . she kind of . . . she . . ."
"Oh my gosh, just say it!"
"She started putting them in with the other desserts! Charity asked her if you had said she could and all she did was laugh and replied with what do you think, Charity?"
Charity nodded. "And what I really wanted to say was I think she would say fuck to the hell no, but then I got scared."