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“Why is no one sitting at the dining room table?” I asked Nic as we moved closer to the kitchen island that was covered in food.
“That’s for the family.”
I glanced around. A few people nodded at me and smiled and I graciously returned the gesture. Weren’t they all family?
“Nic, all these people didn’t come just to meet me, did they?”
He laughed but never answered as we approached the table. My eyes scanned the endless amount of food on the table. Here I thought my family loved food.
“Wow. That’s a lot of food,” I whispered with a small giggle.
Before I knew what was happening, a plate was shoved in my hands and Katerina started piling on food. There was so much food on my plate I nearly dropped it.
“Now, Gabriella, you come sit next to Yiayia.”
My heart froze and I quickly looked over at Kilyn. She lifted her brows and pretended to spit.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I searched for Nic.
“Don’t worry, my Nicholaus will be sitting right next to you.”
Was it my imagination or did she keep referring to Nic as hers?
As I sat down, Katerina pulled on my hair.
“Ouch!” I cried out as I turned to look at her. What in the hell?
She blushed. “Oh, my goodness my bracelet got caught on your hair. Look at that?”
Holding a few pieces of my hair, she smiled as if she had won a great victory. I, on the other hand, rubbed the area of my head where she had robbed me of precious strands of hair.
I slowly sank down into the chair as Katerina leaned over to Yiayia. “This is my Nicholaus’s Gabriella, Yiayia.”
The older woman turned and stared at me. I did the only thing I could think of doing.
“So, yiayia means grandmother in Greek?”
She huffed at me and I swear I saw smoke come from her mouth and nostrils.
The way her eyes took me in had me fidgeting in my seat. “So, you are Italian and you think you can cook Greek food, huh?”
My eyes widened in horror. “Oh, well I’m sure I can’t cook it nearly as good as you or Katerina.”
“Then how will our Nicholaus eat?”
I laughed and gave Yiayia a wink. “Lucky for me he said Italian was his favorite food.”
The entire room fell silent.
How in the hell did they hear that over all this talking?
Everyone looked at me then Nic.
“Is this true, Nicholaus?” Katerina asked.
I couldn’t help but notice how Thad and Thano leaned in closer . . . like their next breath depended on Nic’s answer.
Kilyn looked at me with a terrified look on her face then said, “I think what Gabi meant to say was, lucky for her Nic will eat her Italian cooking.”
She motioned for me to agree. “Oh, yes yes. That is exactly what I meant to say. Not that Italian was his favorite.”
I let out a laugh and Kilyn followed with one of her own. Then Phoebe chuckled. “As if Nicholaus would like Italian food over Greek!” she said.
Nic sat there stunned. Not uttering a single word.
Yiayia laughed then everyone else laughed.
“I knew my Nicholaus would never prefer that food!” Katerina said.
In a sad attempt to keep my fake laugh up, my eyes scanned around the table until they fell on Dimitris. He sat there staring at me. A slight smile played across his lips as he reached for a glass of wine and lifted it. I followed suit. He took a sip while I downed the whole glass.
Yiayia made a tsking sound then said, “Well, we know she isn’t pregnant with the way she drinks.”
I started to choke on the wine. Finally, Nic was pulled out of the daze he had been in.
“Yiayia, Gabi isn’t pregnant.”
She nodded. “I’d hope not with the way she’s kicking them back.”
“What?” I asked with a stunned expression. “I’ve only had—”
Nic leaned in closer. “Let it go, Gabi. Let it go.”
THE REST OF dinner was spent with Yiayia trying to shove every kind of Greek food down my throat.
Try the moussaka.
Eat the pastitisio.
Have you tried the spanakopita?
If I ate another thing I was positive I would throw up. The entire dinner Yiayia kept talking to me in Greek, like I had a clue what she was saying. All I could do was stare at her.
I was surprised to see most of the family had left, leaving pretty much just the immediate family and a few Maria’s sprinkled in here and there.
Katerina cleared her throat and looked at me. “How long have you been baking, Gabriella?”
Nic took my hand in his and all the females in the room sighed. I’d also heard most of the night how happy they were their Nicholaus had found someone. Although, I did hear someone in the other room mention it was a shame I wasn’t Greek.
Katerina actually looked happy to see the exchange between Nic and me, but I still felt like an outsider. If it hadn’t been for Kilyn and Kira, I’d be the only person in the room who wasn’t Greek.
