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“You do. You don’t have to marry Spiros.”
“Then the company goes under.”
“No. Then Papa has to take it public.”
“We may be past where that would help. The situation gets worse the longer the infusion of capital doesn’t happen. It wouldn’t look that good to investors right now, and Papa would probably end up losing control at this point.”
“So we start over.”
She loved her brother’s attitude, but she couldn’t share it. “I think it would kill Papa and Mama.”
“Really kill…like a heart attack?”
“Or something. Tio Theo isn’t the only one who works too hard and hasn’t exercised enough in the last ten years.”
Chrysanthos headed into the city, his expression sober. “So you are going to marry Spiros?”
“Probably.”
“Why did you agree to the promise with Dimitri in the first place? You didn’t know we needed money then.”
“I wanted to get over someone else…make him see me as a woman.”
“Did it work?”
“Not the way I planned.”
“You aren’t over him?”
“No.”
“Does he see you as a woman?”
“Yes. But my promise got in the way of him doing anything about it.”
“Was it Spiros, then?”
She laughed. “How did you get so smart?”
“Hey, I’ve managed to go my whole school career without getting twisted around some girl’s finger. You can’t do that without being aware of what’s going on around you relationship-wise.”
“Everyone else thinks Spiros and I are like brother and sister.”
“People see what they want.”
“You don’t see it that way?”
“You make the guy crazy, Phoebe. You have for a while. And the way you look at him…it’s all heated. Not a sister look. And those I know, being your brother and all.”
He was right.
Chrysanthos took Phoebe to a popular dance spot, and she spent hours dancing with her brother’s friends and perfect strangers. It was fun, and it did exactly what her brother had promised it would. It got her mind off Spiros and the whole marriage thing for a while.
She exhausted herself physically and was able to fall asleep when she got home late that night. The next morning she felt strangely at peace when she woke.
The old adage that sleeping on something made it look more bearable in the morning had proved true. This time. What had helped as well were Chrysanthos’s words about Spiros. Her brother had said she’d been making him crazy for a long time. Okay, so the comment had been highly embarrassing when he’d made it, but, looking back, it gave her hope.
Apparently Spiros had been attracted to her for a while. She hadn’t noticed. But she’d convinced herself it was never going to happen. So she hadn’t been looking for the signs.
