The Return of Antonides: Christmas at the Castello(30)

CHAPTER NINE

THE GALLERY OPENING was a resounding success. All because of Holly.

Lukas was delighted and justified. He'd hired her, after all.

Holly, of course, credited everyone else. Lukas knew better. She might  have got the names of useful people and lists of things that needed to  be done from other more knowledgeable people, but Holly had done them.  She had made it happen.

And she was the one who moved effortlessly among the guests now,  smiling and talking with them, extolling the virtues of this artist and  the vision of that one.

She had taken the time to get to know each one of them, both as artists  and as people. As he watched her introduce Charlotte to the mayor,  Lukas grinned. Normally painfully shy, Charlotte had blossomed under  Holly's nurturing support.

"She's fantastic," his sister-in-law, Tallie, murmured into Lukas's ear  as she followed his gaze. "A good choice, Lukas," she added with a  smile.

"Yep." Lukas leaned against the wall, knowing he should be out there,  too, glad-handing the visitors, schmoozing with journalists and  hobnobbing with the bigwigs. But for just a moment he took a step back,  let himself watch, let himself dream.

It wasn't too far-fetched to imagine doing this with Holly again. Doing this with Holly forever.

Forever? As in...what? Ask her to marry him?

He waited for the notion to feel like a punch in the gut. The idea of getting married had always felt like that before.

When Tallie had mentioned marrying Grace, the very thought had him  envisioning a life sentence, a noose around his neck. Grace was a great  person. Terrific girl. Smart. Capable. Beautiful. Not one he could ever  imagine spending a lifetime with. Nor was any girl he'd ever dated.  Marriage in the abstract he believed in. Antonides men married.

Except sometime in the past couple of years he'd begun wondering if he  wasn't the exception who proved the rule. He'd reached the age of  thirty-two and he hadn't had the least inclination to propose to spend  his life with anyone.

He watched as Holly, having got the mayor and Charlotte talking, turned  away, already looking around to see what else needed doing. Her gaze  traveled the room, lit on him, and when their gazes connected, she  smiled.

No, in his entire life, Lukas hadn't ever wanted to propose to anyone.

Until now.

* * *

In December, when she'd agreed to a two-year stint in the Peace Corps,  Holly had begun counting the days until her training began. And she'd  marked them off with increasing enthusiasm as time passed.

Two weeks ago she had stopped counting.

She wasn't even aware she had done so until the Wednesday after the  gallery opening. Lukas had left the bed before dawn, going to meet Elias  and sail a boat with him out to Greenport for one of Elias's customers.

It was one of the rare mornings since she'd moved here that she'd  awakened alone, without Lukas's arms around her or her burrowed into his  side. Refusing to lie there and focus on the awareness of how much she  missed him, Holly jumped out of bed and went to shower.

It was while she was making herself a bowl of cereal that she noticed  her calendar and realized for the first time that several days weren't  marked off. More than several. Two and a half weeks' worth of days. The  last day she'd marked off was the day she had moved out of her condo.

The day she and Lukas had begun their affair.

Affair. It meant temporary. Shallow. Meaningless. Nothing more than an  itch to be scratched. Obviously the attraction wasn't going away by  ignoring it. She'd tried that. So do something about it, she'd told  herself. Have a fling. Discover that Lukas Antonides is everything you  ever thought he was-gorgeous, sexy, talented, energetic- but also  impetuous, inconstant, egotistical.                       
       
           



       

She had been sure she would be ready to walk away when the time came. She'd imagined she'd be ready to run!

But she wasn't even crossing off the days on the calendar. She was  living in the moment-and enjoying every minute of it. But the fear was  growing inside her that she had made a mistake, that she'd tempted fate  by going to bed with Lukas.

That she was falling in love with him.

No! No, she wasn't. She couldn't be. She wouldn't let herself!

It was just that she was alone, that Lukas wasn't there to distract  her. "Might not be back until Thursday," he'd told her last night,  grimacing as he relayed the news. "Depends on how much time Elias has to  spend getting the buyer up to speed. And if he wants to stop and see  the folks on the way home."

Lukas's parents still lived on the shore in the big house where he had  grown up. Holly knew from things he had said over the past couple of  weeks that, for all that he'd been away a dozen years, Lukas was close  to his family.

"You should stop and see them," Holly said.

"I would," he said, "if you came along. You could stop and see your mother."

"And tell her I'm living with you?" Holly hadn't even told her mother  she'd sold the condo yet. She hadn't wanted to explain why she'd moved  to Lukas's. She knew what her mother would think-that she was foolish,  she'd get hurt, she should never take such a risk-and she didn't want to  hear it.

"You're not living with me," Lukas pointed out. "You have your place. I have mine."

"But we seem to be in the same place a great deal of the time," she  reminded him, nuzzling his whiskered cheek. "But we don't need to be  together every minute. I have work to do here. A job, remember?"

"I never got to take you sailing."

"Another time."

"Promise?"

"Yes. Of course. As long as we do it before the first of August. Enjoy  the day with Elias. Go see your parents. Don't even think about me."

But she thought about him.

It was because the opening was over and she had time to breathe, she  told herself. It was because he wasn't there in front of her, coming up  with ideas, making demands, distracting her, teasing her, kissing her.  But all day long her mind was filled with a kaleidoscope of images.

She helped Teresa hang a new painting and remembered Lukas on a ladder,  hanging another one, scowling as he tried to make sure it was perfectly  straight. She fixed a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and smiled at  her visions of Lukas slapping jam on bread as he made her lunch. Back  down in her office, her mind went immediately to Lukas in black tie the  night of the gallery opening, looking far handsomer than any man had a  right to. She had another memory of him that night as well-of him  bending down to listen to his grandmother lecture him. Then she had  straightened his tie and patted his cheek as if he were a small boy. And  Lukas had kissed her. The memory made Holly's eyes well.

He was so good with all his family. His grandmother, his parents, his  siblings, even Martha, who was at pains to give him grief. He doted on  his nephews and nieces. She had visions of Lukas with his nephews  swarming around him, grinning broadly as he hoisted his niece onto his  shoulders so she could be princess of them all.

She sat at her desk and tried to focus on writing a press release. But  the last time she'd tried, Lukas had carried her off to bed. And of  course, then she couldn't help but close her eyes and see Lukas naked in  her bed, eyes slumberous, yet hungry and intent, focusing just on her.

"Ah, there you are!"

Holly jumped a foot as Althea swooped into her office, all smiles, and  with a dress carrier bag over her arm. "Look what I've got!"

Holly felt a sinking sensation. "Oh. How nice."

Althea rolled her eyes. "Oh, ye of little faith. You'll love it. Truly.  Stig says it's you. I just hope you won't outshine the bride," Althea  added wryly.

"No chance of that. You've always been a beautiful bride."

Althea laughed. "All that practice. But Stig picked my dress, too, so  I'm feeling pretty confident." She thrust the dress bag at Holly. "I'm  just the messenger, and I'm late for a hair appointment. Let me know how  it fits. If you need alterations, we can get them done next week." And  she was gone as quickly as she'd come.

The dress bag hung over the back of a chair in her office the rest of  the afternoon. Holly ignored it, even though it began to take on the  proportions of an elephant in the room. She carried it upstairs after  work, but she didn't take it out of the bag. She didn't want to be  depressed. Then Charlotte and Teresa and a sculptress called Gwen  invited her to go out for pizza.                       
       
           



       

"Since Lukas is gone," Teresa said, "we thought you might come."

Holly went. And after the pizza, Charlotte headed back to work on a wall hanging, but the other two wanted to go clubbing.