He gave me a warm smile. “My Katerina is a good cook. She can teach you.”
Thano grabbed my thigh and squeezed it under the table causing my entire body to enflame.
I turned to Katerina only to see her watching me intensely. “I’d love that very much.”
Her face turned up in a full-fledged smile. I was instantly reminded of my own mother and all the times I helped her in the kitchen.
More food was passed around as Thad and Nicholaus showed up. The look on their faces when they saw me sitting at their parents’ table was priceless. There was so much chatter and everyone talking at once that I had a hard time keeping up with everything.
When Katerina stood, she announced she was clearing the table for dessert.
“Oh, no,” I whispered. There was no way I could put anything else in my mouth.
I glanced around and realized I had been thrown in with the family and no one was really introduced.
“So, should you introduce me to everyone?” I asked Thano in a hushed voice.
“Um . . . if we could get them all to shut up I would. I’ll give you a run down on who is who. Over there next to my father is my cousin Maria. Next to her is her husband Nick. Their daughter Maria is next to him. Then we have cousin Sophia, cousin Angie and her twin sister Maria.”
I lifted my eyebrows. Wait. Was that three Maria’s?
“Then you’ve got my mother’s sister Agnes and her daughter Sophia and her son Thanos.”
“Like your name?”
Thano shook his head. “No, his name is just Thanos. There is an s on the end.”
“Oh,” I mumbled. Just when I thought I was getting it.
“You’ve got my cousin Angelo and his wife Christine and their little girl Marianna.”
My head was spinning. Looking at Thano, I asked, “Why are there so many duplicate names?”
He shrugged. “I guess Greeks like to name their kids after one another.”
Katerina and one of the Marias came walking out each carrying a dish.
Thano’s mother looked at me and said, “We’ve got baklava, galaktoboureko, loukoumades, and chocolate cake!”
Chocolate cake! That I knew!
When it was all placed on the table, my mouth watered but my pants forbid me to eat another bite. That was until Yiayia started putting it all on another plate for me, declaring I hadn’t eaten enough.
“Are all Irish girls so small?” Sophia asked as she pushed the chocolate cake my way.
“Well, um . . . I’m not really sure.”
Everyone stopped and looked at me. Dimitris moaned and mumbled, “Here we go.”
Katerina placed her hands on her hips and wore a serious look on her face.
“Does your family not get together for holidays? Like Saint Patrick’s day?”
I couldn’t help it; I giggled as I looked around at all of them. When I saw they were serious I looked at Thano who was currently shoving what I think was the loukoumades into his mouth.
“Oh, well, um . . . my parents died when I was fourteen and I had no other family. I moved in with my best friend’s family and they are a . . . well, an um . . . a blended family of I think Italian, German, and something else.”
I honestly had no clue what Claire’s heritage was and I totally made that shit up on the fly.
Tears filled Katerina’s eyes as she asked, “You lost your parents at fourteen?”
With a slow nod, I was almost afraid to open my mouth to speak again.
The next thing I knew I was being hugged by every female that was in the house and walked outside to take a tour of Katerina’s garden. Looking over my shoulder, Thano stood there with a huge grin on his face and powdered sugar on his cheek.
Thad and Nicholaus stood on either side of him. When all three of them lifted their hand and waved I wanted to scream out for help.
Those bastards!
I was being led away by a Greek mob and I wasn’t sure I would survive.
“DUDE, YOU’RE REALLY going to let them whisk her away like that?” Nicholaus asked.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the horrified look on Kilyn’s face. “She’ll be fine. Better to let her see what she is getting into now.”
My father walked up and stood next to me and sighed. “You do know Yiayia is currently assessing your girlfriend’s stomach. She’s probably trying to see if her Irish vessel is capable of carrying a Greek child.”
Letting out a roar of laughter, I popped another loukoumades into my mouth. Walking up to the window, I watched as Kilyn smiled and laughed while she and my mother walked toward the gardens. “What do you think of her, Dad?”
“I think she is a lovely girl and I can see how much you care for her by the way you look at her. And she you.”