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“That call is not mine to make, is it?”
“No. You’re right. It’s just so satisfying to think of what good it might do.”
“And someone worse might have come up through the ranks to take his place in history’s void.”
She shuddered. “You make a good point,” she admitted. “Let’s talk about something else.”
After dinner they took a long, moonlit walk and talked about family and the future. Simon had a sense that they wanted much the same things, stability, children, a sense that they’d made the world a better place. Again, he felt hopeful.
It fell to Eirene to initiate a good-night kiss because Simon was determined to be the perfect gentleman. It was a sweet, tentative one, promising nothing and yet filled with promise. It made Simon dizzy. It made him blissfully happy. He felt like a teenager again, and once they’d said good-night, he drifted back to the car, thinking about weddings.
She was everything he wanted. He was certain of it.
Kosta had been right to turn his attentions to Athena Katsaros when he had because the next time he saw Simon, the man was changed. It was for the better probably, though not for the betterment of Kosta’s business. Simon planned to close down the business. He was going to work for his father’s company.
“I’ve finally convinced him that I’m ready to apply myself to the business. I am finally ready,” he added. “And I’m getting married.”
“Married? Well I can’t fault you for that,” Kosta admitted. “Who’s the lucky girl?”
“The daughter of one of the Katsaros business associates.” That was playing it close to the vest. He didn’t want Kosta to know too much. But as it happened, Kosta already knew that Simon had been seeing the Dimitrios girl pretty regularly for months.
“Can’t you do both? This is a nice sideline for us.” Kosta still needed financial backing, though he was close to being able to strike out on his own. And now he needed more introductions to people with the money to buy what he was selling. Simon’s rich, idiot friends were fine for the more minor-league items, but what he was getting lines on were museum-quality antiquities, very rare, and very hard to move if you didn’t know the right people.
Simon was looking Kosta up and down, clearly surprised by the changes he was seeing. “You’re looking… prosperous,” he observed.
“You think?” He brushed an imaginary speck of dirt off his cuff. “I thought it was time to take the business to a higher level. The people I buy from distrust me if I don’t look like I’m on the make, but the people I sell to prefer a little more respectability, even if it’s only on the surface.” Did you get that, rich boy?
“It’s a good move,” was all Simon said to that. He didn’t respond at all to any hidden meaning in Kosta’s words.
And it was a good move. Athena had responded very positively to his casual overtures. They’d actually had coffee together at a cafe in Neil’s Yard. She’d laughed at his jokes, had told him about her classes and her plans. She’d also agreed to have dinner with him the next time he was in London. He couldn’t help but smile as he remembered that afternoon. He liked the girl well enough that being around her wasn’t a trial. He’d be good to her, and she’d adore him. It was enough.
“What’s so funny?”
“I was just thinking about a joke I’d heard. It’s nothing. When is the wedding?”
Simon gave him a look that said the date didn’t matter since Kosta wouldn’t be invited anyway. “I thought I’d send a gift.”
“We haven’t set a date yet, Simon told him. We’re thinking in the winter.”
Good plan. Well let me know so I can pick out something nice.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“So you’re determined to bow out of the business, then?”
“You can handle it. You’ve handled most of it all along.”
“Well, if I can’t convince you, then it simply remains to finish off the contracts we’ve made and get your money to you. I don’t suppose there are any job openings in the Katsaros empire.”
“For someone with your skill set? I don’t think so.”
“No? Pity. You’re putting me out of business after all.”
“I have a feeling you’ll land on you feet, Kosta.”
With the money he still held, Kosta figured he could get one more shipment out of the Middle East before Simon shut them down. Maybe he could find his own buyers. And if this thing with Athena didn’t work out, he’d simply abscond with Simon’s share of the profits and start over somewhere else, though that wouldn’t have been his first choice.
Kosta could buy and sell anything if he put his mind to it. He’d been doing it all his life, and doing it well. He liked the jobs that paid well, of course, and that usually meant something illegal. He had never balked at circumventing the law when he could do it to his profit.
