Barbara DeLeo [Weddings in We The Bouquet List (epub)

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.Seducing a tall, dark man out of her league was five—some things on her list scared her more than others, but she’d have attempted none of them in her quiet and conservative old life BD—before dengue.Now everything was different.“I’ve been doing research work in Borneo for a little bit, but I’m back earlier than I’d planned so I thought I’d surprise Mom and Dad.Are they around?”Stratis shook his head.“Your mom’s not here, and the last time I saw Mano he was in the restaurant threatening to fire one of the new waiters for wearing his pants too low.Want me to take your bag upstairs while you go find him?”“Upstairs?”He nodded toward the nearest building.“Your mom and dad moved into the old apartment a while back so they could rent their house as part of the wedding package.You didn’t know?”Her chest hollowed.She’d been in Borneo for eighteen months, but her parents hadn’t mentioned anything about moving to the apartment.Things had been tough at the Palace for a while now, which was part of the reason she hadn’t told them she’d been so sick, but she hadn’t realized things had gotten this bad.“No, I didn’t know they’d moved.Thanks for taking my bag, Stratis.I’ll go look for Dad and catch you later.”Stratis picked up her backpack and headed up the stairs to the apartment that overlooked the entranceway while she walked through the courtyard.Everything was as she remembered.Statues of Greek gods were dotted around the perimeter while a pink fountain in the middle changed its colored light to synchronize with the movement of the water.If she hadn’t just traveled in a cab from LaGuardia Airport, she could be fooled into thinking she was in Greece.Well, maybe Greece in the 1980s.The decor had never quite kept in step with the decades, but there was more to it this time.Some of the bright turquoise and yellow pots that held tumbling geraniums and basil in every available space were cracked, and the whitewashed wall covered in brilliant purple bougainvillea was peeling.Whether the decor hadn’t been modernized because there wasn’t enough money, or the other way around, the Aegean Palace wasn’t what it used to be.This sight, combined with the news that her parents had moved into the apartment, made Yasmin even more anxious to find her father.If she weren’t in such a hurry, she’d have gone to say hello to Monty, the parrot who was just as much of an institution as the Dionysus mosaic on the ground and the plastic grapevines adorning the front of the restaurant.There would be time to chat to Monty later, but right now she couldn’t wait to see her dad.As soon as she entered the restaurant in its conglomeration of gold and black decor, she spotted him.He was standing with his back to her, arms flailing wildly as he harangued a waiter in Greek.The emotion she’d kept bottled inside the last few weeks overpowered her, and she rushed up behind and threw her arms around him.“Baba!”“Panagia!” he called out and spun around.Then, just like Stratis, he froze.“Yasmin! Kori, is that you?”Instead of squeezing her close in one of his bear hugs that she’d missed so much, he took a step back and his horrified gaze swept from the top of her head, to the diamond glinting in her nose, and down to the Doc Martens boots she wore on her feet.And then to her dismay, his eyes filled with tears.“It’s okay, Dad,” she said in a rush.“I should’ve told you.Something happened in Borneo and I wanted a fresh…”He cut her off before she could deliver the speech she’d prepared on the plane about how the fever had affected her, how the list she’d written was changing her already.She should have known that seeing her like this would be a shock.“It’s your mother,” her father choked.“Mom? What’s happened? Where is she? Is she okay?”Her father’s enormous chest rose, then fell, beneath his tight black waistcoat.“She has gone to Greece.” He vigorously crossed himself.“And thanks be to Panagia that you have come to help me bring her back,” he said, swiping at his eyes.He dropped his voice as if he was suddenly conscious of his outburst.“Come to the back office and I will explain everything.”While the wedding crowd began to move inside for what was probably the arrival of the bride and groom, Yasmin followed her father across the courtyard and into one of the offices.Her mother was in Greece without him? That had never happened before.A relative must have fallen ill.Perhaps her mother’s sister Maria.Her parents had run this place for forty years, but she couldn’t imagine her father coping on his own.Especially when times were so tough [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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