‘‘I'm so bored,” Julietta said now. ‘‘I feel like a beached whale or a pregnant hippo.’’ She rubbed her distended abdomen and sighed.
"Maybe it would be good for you to go in the pool. The water could help you support the baby.”
‘‘Maybe,” Julietta agreed. "But I can’t as long as it’s just me here with Alex. He tries to be careful, but he forgets he can’t leap on me these days.”
“I'll go in with you.”
Julietta’s eyes lit up with gratitude. ‘‘Oh, would you mind? That would be wonderful.”
She eased her ungainly body to a sitting position and, with Lucia's help, hauled herself to her feet.
"I'm so swollen,’ she said, craning her neck to look down in an effort to see her feet and ankles. "Much more this time than with Alex."
‘‘Every baby’s different, they say.’’ Lucia took her arm so Julietta wouldn’t slip on the wet tiles.
"Well, I'll be glad to get this one out of me and on its way." Julietta made a face. ‘‘Alex, at least, was a winter baby.’’ She smiled at her dark-haired son, who was jumping up and down in the water in eagerness as he watched her come down the steps into the pool.
‘‘Are you coming to swimmin with me, Mum?" Alex was bouncing on his toes.
‘‘How about if Mum swims on her own and you swim alongside me,’’ Lucia suggested.
Alex looked at her warily. He wasn’t exactly shy with other people, but he was definitely reserved as if he was going to do some serious study before he made up his mind about anyone. A lot like his brother, Lucia thought.
She’d told Damon yesterday at dinner how much his half-brother was like him.
"Don’t tell the old man that,’’ Damon had promptly said. Then his face had split in a grin. ‘‘On second thought, do. It'll drive him nuts."
In fact, Lucia didn’t know how Mr. Walter would react to the idea. She knew he was deeply devoted to his little son.
She suspected he was equally devoted to the older one—but had no idea how to show it. He couldn’t play catch with Damon or throw him up in the air or give him rides on his shoulders in the pool.
Has he ever done any of those things with Damon? she wondered. But one look at Damon’s hard closed expression, and she had known better than to ask.
"What do you say?" she asked Alex now. ‘‘Shall we swim alongside your mom?’’
He chewed on his fingernail. ‘‘Mmm. Yeah, I guess. Or we could race her!’’
Lucia slipped down into the water. ‘‘Come here, then.”
She felt Alex’s small eager hands grip her shoulders, and she put her hands behind her, giving him a boost so that he could wrap his legs around her torso and his arms across her neck.
‘‘Okay. Here we go. Watch out, Mom.” She grinned at Julietta, who was by this time submerged till only her head and shoulders were out of the water.
‘‘Better get going or we’ll catch you.”
“Oh, you will, will you?’’ Julietta began a lazy breaststroke toward the far end of the pool. Lucia started after her.
At first, Alex was content just to ride. But as his mother got further ahead, the Walter's competitive spirit won out.
"C’mon, Lucia!" he yelled, kicking her like a pony. “Catch her!’’ He wriggled and bounced, digging his heels even harder into her sides as if that would make her go faster. But, It slowed her down and they began to fall behind.
"No!’’ he wailed in dismay. “We’re gonna lose!"
Then Julietta, bless her, slowed a little, and Lucia and Alex surged past.
“We won! Lucia we won!” Alex crowed.
“Oh, good for you!’’ Julietta beamed at her son. “Thank you," she mouthed to Lucia.
‘‘My pleasure,” Lucia mouthed back. Then she said, “Come on, Alex. Let’s swim back to the other end and you can show me how well you swim on your own.”
Alex went with her eagerly, not kicking this time.
"You’re living with Damon?"
"I'm helping him,’’ Lucia corrected him, but she supposed from the boy’s point of view, he was right too.
"He’s my brother."
"I know." Alex made swishy fish movements with his hands.
"He doesn’t like me."
Lucia looked at him, startled. ‘‘He doesn’t? How do you know that?”
Alex lifted narrow shoulders. ‘‘He doesn’t talk to me, He just walks away. And he never smiles.”
“I think he has important things on his mind," Lucia said.
‘‘Maybe.’’ But he didn’t sound convinced. He sounded forlorn. Lucia wondered if Damon knew that Alex noticed—and cared.
She gave the boy’s small hand a squeeze. “I think Damon likes you, Alex. But he hasn’t had a lot of experience with little boys.’’
"How come? He used to be one,’’ Alex said.
"Well, yes, but that was a long time ago. Sometimes when they grow up, big boys forget.”
‘‘Maybe it’s ’cause he hit his head. Damon had an accident, you know. He was hurt badly. My daddy said he might die.’’
"Your daddy told you that?’’
Alex nodded positively.
"I was listening when he said it to my mom.’’
"I think your daddy was really worried about Damon right after the accident,’’ Lucia said carefully. ‘‘But he doesn’t have to worry now, and neither do you. Damon didn’t die then, and he’s not going to die now.”
“You sure?’’ Alex’s brown eyes, so like his brother’s, searched hers.
Lucia hugged the little boy. ‘‘I’m sure.”
Julietta thanked her again profusely when she came out of the pool.
"I know other mothers cope wonderfully well without any help at all,’’ she said ruefully.
“But I have been so tired these last couple of weeks. And now that Mr. Walter is gone...”
"Mr. Walter is gone?’’
"He had to go to Athens," Julietta explained.
‘‘He’ll be home next week.”’
By next week, Damon would be out of his cast and gone. Lucia wondered if Mr. Walter realized that. She wondered what he’d say to her when he came back and found Damon had left.
"He works so hard,” Julietta said. "He ought to slow down. He had a heart attack two years ago, you know. I... hope you can convince Damon to come back to the firm. It would be so much better.”
For his old man, Lucia wanted to say.
And for Damon?
She didn’t know.
"Alex thinks you don’t like him,’’ she told Damon that night.
He was lying on the bed with his eyes shut. He’d been working all afternoon with some CAD program that was going to save his business and ruin his head, he told Lucia. She forced another dose of the pain medication down him. ‘‘Rest,’’ she commanded.
“I can’t. Not until I tell Anderson what I think of him,’’ he muttered.
“I’ll do that for you. Lie down and dictate.”
He flashed a grin at her.
“To you, sweetheart? I'd be delighted.” Lucia flushed.
“You promised not to do that!’’
‘‘No. I promised not to kiss you. I didn’t say | wouldn’t flirt.’’ So to change the subject, she told him what Alex had said. Damon lifted one brow. ‘‘Don’t like him? I never have anything to do with him.”
‘‘I think that’s the whole point. He’d like to have something to do with you.”
"Tell that to the old man. He makes damn good and sure Alex is never around when I am. Doesn’t want me contaminating him.”
“Oh, I doubt that.’’
But Damon didn’t, it was clear.
The next morning she went back to the big house to see if perhaps she could give Julietta a break and, incidentally, find out what Mr. Walter's second wife thought.
Julietta was feeling a little better this morning, and she suggested they walked down to the beach.
They did, and while Alex played in the sand Lucia brought the subject up.
"Damon asked to permit Alex to come to the cottage.”
Julietta pursed her lips. "I think ‘won’t permit’ is a little strong.”
"But he does discourage Alex from going down to see?"
Julietta scooped up a handful of sand and let it trickle through her fingers. ‘‘I think he’s afraid that the resentment will hurt Alex.’’
“Damon resents his father, not Alex.’’
"I know that, and I wouldn’t blame him either. Mr. Walter wasn’t the father to Damon that he had been to Alex. He had to work so hard back then," she explained. "To make the business a success, to justify his marriage."
Lucia's brows knitted together at this last.
‘‘What do you mean, to justify his marriage?”
"Damon's mother was the daughter of a very wealthy family, and she was supposed to marry someone else. She was promised by her father to someone else. But she loved Mr. Walter, and her father finally gave in.’’ Julietta sighed and shook her head. ‘‘I think Walter always felt he had to be a success so he could prove he was worthy of her."
Lucia digested that. She had assumed that the marriage was arranged. She hadn’t assumed that Damon's mother had loved her employer. Not at first anyway. Later—well, Damon had agreed she’d loved him then.
When she went back to the cottage, she tried to ask Damon about it. But he wouldn’t discuss his father and mother in the same breath.
"Worthy of her?’’ He nearly spat. "He wasn’t worthy of her!”
And that was that.
The phone rang then.
“Damn it! Doesn’t Brian ever sleep?’ Damon muttered.
“I'll get it," Lucia said. But it wasn’t Brian at all. It was her aunt Em.
"We’ve missed you, dear. Are you coming this week? Are you bringing little Damon?’’
"It's not yet my day off." Lucia protested. And he wasn’t little Damon! Nor was she about to bring him!
"But we love to meet your little charges," aunt Em said wistfully. “You know how lonely we get out here now that Beth doesn’t drive anymore.”
“Well,"
“We'd watch him,” her aunt assured her.
"You could have your rest.’’
“I don’t need rest exactly, but—’’
“His parents wouldn’t approve?’’
Lucia sighed at their ignorance. There was no way, of course, that she was taking Damon out there. But maybe she could take Alex.
It would be good for Julietta to have a little time to herself. And it would be equally good for her aunts. And she really didn’t need a day off that badly.
“I’ll see,’’ she said. “But remember, his name is Alex, not Nikos."
When she hung up, Lucia turned back to Damon.
"It was my aunt. Tomorrow’s my day off,’’ she explained, "and they’d like me to come. I thought maybe I could take Alex with me...”
A grin quirked his mouth. "Not me?’’
She rolled her eyes. "Definitely not you."
He feigned a crestfallen look. Then he grinned. "I'd like to meet the women who raised you.”
‘‘And I wouldn’t like them to meet you.’’ She sassed back.
“You don’t think I’ve behaved myself this week?’’
"Of course you have. Sort of,’’ she qualified. "But...’’
"I think we’ve done very well.’’ He grimaced. ‘‘And it hasn’t been easy."
Lucia's eyes widened. She felt a hint of color bloom on her cheeks. He was still interested, then? Despite not wanting to be?
"Good thing I’m leaving,’’ he said.
"What?’’ She felt her whole body tense. ‘‘When?’’
"Tomorrow. I’m getting the cast off in the afternoon."
"Tomorrow?’’ He’d never said that! Had never mentioned it!
“The nurse called this morning while you were at the beach. Said they had a cancellation. Wondered if I wanted it. I said yes.
Twenty-four more hours and I'll be gone.”