Turning the heater on, I held my breath until it turned on. At least we had one thing on our side.
I held up my hands and called out, “We have heat!”
It wasn’t more than ten seconds later and the power to the whole cabin went off.
Kilyn let out a frustrated moan and said, “We had heat.”
Things were not looking good.
PHOEBE AND I sat and stared at the fire in silence. Thano and his brother decided to hike over to the closest neighbor. Even though Thad brought food, it was like a bag of chips, candy, and Pop Tarts.
“So how long have you and Thad been dating?” I asked, breaking the awkward silence.
With a warm smile, she said, “We’ve dated on and off for about two years. We’ve been dating pretty solid for the last six months, though.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, wow.”
When she shrugged and looked away, I wanted to ask why their relationship was an on and off one.
“You’d think after two years he’d want to take the next step.”
“Marriage?”
She laughed. “No! Not even. I’d take a full time commitment and meeting his family. I mean, I know Thano and Nicholaus, but I haven’t met anyone else. My own family is beginning to nag me about getting married and having kids.”
Wrinkling my nose, I asked, “Really? How old are you?”
“Twenty-three. Almost. Another week.”
Wow. I’d have to ask Thano how old Thad was. I was guessing thirty or so. I couldn’t really understand the whole parent pressure thing since mine weren’t around. “That seems kind of young to be thinking of settling down and having kids.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “You’re not Greek. You probably don’t have a mother breathing down your neck every time she sees you, whispering ‘tick tock the clock is running.’”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “No, I’m certainly not Greek. My parents passed away when I was fourteen.”
Her smile fell. It was always the same reaction from people when I told them my parents died. It was that look of pity. I hated it.
“I’m so sorry, Kilyn. I wouldn’t have said that if I had known.”
With a sincere smile, I reached over and squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. You couldn’t have known.”
She pulled in a breath and blew it out. “Here I’m bitching about my nagging mother and . . . damn. Change of subject. How did you and Thano meet?”
Just his name caused my body to react. Biting on my lower lip, I grinned. “A few weeks back. We bumped into each other at a bar. Talked for a few minutes and the next day he was at my best friend’s cooking class. Ever since then, it seemed like we kept running into each other. He ended up coming to my office looking for an interior decorator and he had no idea it was my business.”
Perking up, Phoebe pulled her knees to her chest and wiggled her eyebrows. “Fate has been throwing the two of you together.”
Was that what was happening? With a chortle, I shrugged. “Maybe. Or it was all a string of coincidences.”
She shook her head while pinching her brows together. “No. There is no such thing as a coincidence.”
“You don’t think so?”
“Nope. If you were to ask my Yiayia, she would tell you fate is throwing you both together. Of course, then she would find out you’re not Greek and say fate screwed up.”
Laughing, I couldn’t help but feel a connection with Phoebe. I liked her. “So is it important with your heritage to marry Greek?”
Phoebe stared at me like I had grown two heads. “Was Eros the Greek God of love?”
My eyes drifted up in thought, I tried to recall when we studied Greek mythology. “Um . . . yes! He was!” I called out in excitement.
“There’s your answer. Marrying Greek is huge. Not really so much with our generation, but with our parents and grandparents it’s still very big. But with my generation steering away from it, it is slowly becoming more accepted . . . kind of.”
I stared at my hands as my chest ached.
“It doesn’t matter to Thano if you’re Greek or not, Kilyn. Trust me.”
Lifting my eyes, I forced a smile. “Oh, it’s nothing like that anyway. I’m a long way off from worrying about that.”
She gave me a look like she wanted to say uh-huh sure.
The door opened, saving both of us from the direction this conversation was going. We both jumped up, Phoebe rushing to Thad’s side. “I was beginning to worry!” she exclaimed.
Thano glanced over to me and smiled. Returning the gesture, I walked up and took a few bags out of his hands. “Good thing my neighbor is into all the prepping and shit. He had food and plenty of lanterns for us to use for light.”
I placed the bags on the counter and pulled out granola bars, protein bars, dried milk, which caused me to shudder, and a few other boxed items along with hot dog buns.