Page 28 of Footprints in the Sand (Coleman #13)

Chapter Twenty-Four

E va wasn’t the one who broke the news about Kostos.

When she first learned the extent of it—including the two little girls and his wife on the island of Amorgos—she was so overcome with shock that she cried.

It was personal to her, of course, going far beyond the little Greek story she’d found herself in.

It reminded her too much of her grandfather, too much of what Grandpa Chuck had done to his first wife. It put everything into context.

Then again, Kostos was a dangerous part of an active crime ring. Grandpa Chuck had never dug himself that deep into anything. He’d loved, lied, and lost. Like Finn, sort of.

When news of Kostos broke, Eva, Jean-Paul, and Aphrodite were “in hiding,” sort of, in a friend of a friend’s house near Noussa, on the opposite side of the island to Aliki.

After they’d learned that Kostos was watching them and knew they were after them, they’d known not to go back to where he’d be able to find them.

They’d reasoned, though, that Paros was the best place to go, if only because most of Kostos’s friends and relatives assumed he was dead.

The news was strange, however, because it often suggested that Dimitra was a part of the cover-up, if only because she took insurance money from Kostos’s death.

“Poor Aunt Dimitra,” Aphrodite said, standing near the television with her arms crossed.

When Nico first appeared on-screen in connection with Kostos’s arrest, Aphrodite gasped and got ready to go. They’d been in hiding for only forty-eight hours, but everything had blown up. Aphrodite needed to go home and tend to her family. She needed to take care of her mother.

“Mom won’t believe this,” Aphrodite said.

Eva knew that no mother wanted to believe their son was a criminal. She hardly wanted to believe it herself about Nico, a guy who probably could have been happy just being a bad boyfriend and making a little cash in the summertime. Had Kostos dragged him into the mess of all this?

It was a question the prosecutors would get to the bottom of, Eva was sure.

When Aphrodite was ready to leave, Eva walked her to the door and enveloped her in a big hug. Aphrodite shivered and let out a single sob, then said, “Okay, that’s enough crying.” She had to be strong for everyone else.

Aphrodite asked, “Will I see you again before you leave for the States?”

“We’ll make it happen,” Eva said.

Aphrodite shook her head. “I don’t understand how this all happened. We didn’t turn him in.” She searched Eva’s face for some sign that she was keeping something from her.

“It wasn’t me. I swear to you. And I never lie.”

Aphrodite would have to take her word. It was all she could give.

That said, Eva had decided not to tell Aphrodite about the tremendous amount of money Nico had stolen from her.

When Dimitra had informed her of the card that had been taken on the Fourth of July, she’d known exactly who the culprit was.

But what did it matter? It was just money. They were just things.

After Aphrodite drove away, Eva and Jean-Paul watched the news for over an hour, trying to get their heads around what had happened. Dimitra and some sailor guy from Martha’s Vineyard were mentioned, but the connection between them and the Cycladic drug ring seemed manufactured and weak.

In some of the photos, Dimitra looked gorgeous and thrilled to be alive. Eva wondered if it was all because of that handsome sailor, Harry. She hoped he made her happy. She hoped, after all the strain and horror that Kostos had put her through, she’d finally found peace.

When the news became too bleak, Eva began to pack her things.

Jean-Paul did the same, and they went out to his sailboat parked at the end of a dock and sailed to the opposite side of the island, where his workshop was.

It was a clear day of about eighty-three degrees, and when they reached the workshop, Eva leaped into the water and swam around, floating on her back to gaze at the tremendous sky above.

Before she knew it, Jean-Paul had joined her, floating just a few feet to her left.

He had a quiet power, lending her a sense of calm that shouldn’t have been possible so soon after Kostos’s threat.

“I wonder who turned him in,” Eva mused.

Jean-Paul righted himself in the water and swam over to her. “That man had a lot of enemies, and he was being careless. We were even on to him, and it’s not like we’re the FBI.”

Eva giggled and treaded water. She loved having Jean-Paul so close to her, his dark eyes glinting, his smile soft but sure.

“I don’t want to go back to Aliki,” she told him then. “I don’t want to go back to that house. I think it has bad energy.”

Jean-Paul nodded. “I don’t want you to go back there.”

Eva’s heart pounded. “Do you think I should go back to the United States?”

He shook his head again. “You said you were going to stay for three months?”

“We agreed to two or three.”

“It’s been nearly two,” Jean-Paul said.

“Yes.” Eva suddenly felt terrified. Would Jean-Paul forget her the minute she got on the plane?

“Why don’t you stay the whole time?” Jean-Paul said.

“I could get a new place, I guess.” Eva had Jean-Paul, Dimitra, and another few artist clients, proof of her social media prowess and, apparently, the fact that she didn’t need to get a “real” job. She could freelance and make up her own rules.

Maybe that was what she always wanted.

“You can stay with me,” Jean-Paul said suddenly, softly, as though it was something he’d just thought of.

“I don’t want to put you out.”

Jean-Paul smiled. “I don’t know this English expression. Put me out?”

Eva laughed openly and swam closer. “I mean, I don’t want to make anything difficult for you.”

“Eva, are you kidding?” Jean-Paul said. “Everything you do makes my life easier and happier and nicer.”

Eva couldn’t catch her breath. Suddenly frightened, she reached for the dock ladder and pulled herself into the sunlight.

Jean-Paul followed after her, then draped himself on the dock boards so that the flat of his belly glowed and the dark hairs on his chest made little patterns.

Eva inhaled, exhaled, and splayed herself alongside him.

As they stared at the sky above, his fingers linked with hers. Her heart thudded with understanding.

“I don’t want you to be far from me,” Jean-Paul whispered. “I don’t want you to be a stranger to me. Do you understand?”

Eva said she did. Tears filled her eyes, and Jean-Paul’s firm, capable hand took purchase of more of hers. As the Aegean shifted gently against the dock, she let herself fall deeper into what she’d always felt for Jean-Paul.

“Jean-Paul?” she whispered.

But instead of answering, he brought his muscular body over hers and kissed her right there on the dock. Their wet dark curls coiled together, and their lips glistened. Eva thought it was the best kind of fairy tale, if only because this happily ever after meant everything had only just begun.