That's Amore! - Janelle Denison [63]
Much as he was grinning at him now.
And now it was Nick fidgeting not with his necklace but with his necktie.
Nearly everyone he knew in his lifetime was gathered for the event. Everyone but Efi.
He felt something on his left shoulder and looked to see Efi's aunt Frosini brushing lint from his suit jacket. She grabbed his chin in her bony fingers and gave him a jostle and a smile, then walked away, her black dress broken slightly by a sky-blue scarf she carried rather than wore.
Strange old woman, Aunt Frosini. For the past week he'd gotten nothing but evil looks from her. He'd feel the hairs at the back of his neck stand up on end and turn around and find her staring at him, as if wishing him some sort of ill will. But now he couldn't help thinking he'd been given a nod of some sort, a vote of confidence that perhaps he hadn't had before, but had somehow earned between then and now.
Or maybe she knew something he didn't… He squared his shoulders. It was just nerves, he told himself. Efi was coming. Of course she was coming. Wasn't she?
He looked at his watch. She was already more than forty-five minutes late. While it was tradition for the bride to keep the groom waiting—some sort of dominance thing, much like the stepping on the foot directly after the ceremony—wasn't forty-five minutes too long?
He leaned toward her father. "Who's with her?"
Gregoris Panayotopoulou stared at him beneath his bushy brows. "What do you mean who's with her?" He swept his arm wide. "Do you not see everyone here?"
Nick fought a sudden rush of panic. "No one's with her? She's alone?"
"The driver's with her."
"The driver…"
"Of the car I rented for the occasion." A stranger…
He reached into his pants pocket for his car keys, only to find them not there. He'd given them to his koumbaros—his best man, Alex—for safekeeping.
"Give me my keys," he said, pushing Alex from where he was talking to Kiki in a way that told him there might be another wedding not far in the future.
"Why? Did you forget something out of your car?"
"Just give me the goddamn keys!"
Alex began handing them over. "I wouldn't go just yet."
"Why?"
His friend grinned just as he heard the strident honking of a car horn. "Because your bride just turned the corner."
EFI TOOK HER FATHER'S HAND and climbed from the back of the car. Her pulse beat slightly faster, but nothing she couldn't handle. Her family and friends applauded her appearance as her eyes swept the crowd looking for Nick.
"Are you ready?" her father asked, beaming down proudly at her.
She kissed him on the cheek and nodded.
Then the group parted, opening a path to where Nick waited for her at the bottom of the church steps.
Her heart skipped a beat.
So breathtakingly handsome, this man who was going to be her husband in a few short minutes.
She began walking toward him on her father's arm, her gaze catching on a spot of bright blue as she walked.
Aunt Frosini…
"You're about to make the biggest mistake of your life," the old woman had said when she'd climbed into the back of the car at the house.
Efi had been afraid she was going to play into all her fears about her coming nuptials. Instead, the old woman had shared with her a story so similar to hers they could have been the same woman.
It seemed when her mother had said Frosini's plans for marriage to a man back in their home village had fallen through and had involved land and goats she had been only partially right. There had also existed an Aphrodite in Frosini's life. A woman, a relative, who had tried to steal her groom from her.
Only ultimately she hadn't had to steal him. Because Frosini had readily given him up.
"I allowed fear to guide my actions," she'd told Efi in the back of that air-conditioned car, the driver trying to appear not to be listening but listening nonetheless.
She'd taken Efi's hands and stared deep into her eyes. "Marry Nick, agape mou. Marry Nick and complete