Part 16 (1/2)
”You'd like that, wouldn't you?” she said, but she laughed.
Turning to Claudia, she indicated Leandro with her thumb. ”You'll have to tell me how you know he's lying. I never know when he's pulling my leg or not.”
”It's the eyes. He was laughing on the inside,” Claudia said.
”Hmph,” Betty said, rocking back on her heels to study Leandro narrowly. ”Better watch out, Leo-I'm on to you now.”
Dom joined them, and as the conversation moved on to the rose garden the family had arranged to have planted for their grandmother's birthday, Alexandra tugged on the leg of Leandro's jeans.
”Want to go up,” Alexandra said, arms held over her head imperatively. ”Please, Uncle Leo.”
Without breaking his conversation with his brother, Leandro ducked down to scoop up his niece and place her on his shoulders. Claudia couldn't help but note his ease with the little girl, or the care with which he handled her. A gentle giant in every sense of the word. Despite all her deeply held beliefs about herself and children, she felt a definite twinge from her ovaries. What was it about big, masculine men and little kids? It was like catnip for female hormones, and even she was not immune. Shaking off the stupid moment, she tuned back into the conversation.
The sun moved across the sky, and before long she was holding a plate and standing in line with the rest of the family, waiting to help herself to the buffet laid out along one side of the courtyard. Leandro stood behind her, talking to one of his uncles, and she automatically plucked his plate from his hand when it became clear he was too absorbed to focus on serving himself. Making sure she gave him plenty of the spit-roasted meat, she loaded his plate up with salads and topped the lot with some fresh pita rounds. Leandro patted her backside in thanks, and Claudia became aware of the sensation that she was being watched. Glancing around, she locked eyes with Leandro's mother. The older woman smiled warmly, and Claudia frowned. She felt like such a fraud, being here with Leandro. Not only did he think they had a future, but his family did, too. And they were all wrong.
Filling her own plate, she joined Leandro at a trestle table and got sucked into a raucous, laughter-filled discussion about the latest World Cup soccer match. She surprised several of Leandro's male cousins with her wide ranging knowledge of the players and stats, and Leandro sat smiling at her goofily as if she were a prize poodle he'd brought along to do tricks. Ignoring the fact that his approval, ridiculous as it was, made her hum with pleasure, she concentrated on the flavors of the meal in front of her.
They were the flavors of her childhood, familiar and beloved-tender slices of roast lamb, spicy dolmades, salty taramasalata, olives, feta cheese and crispy calamari with fresh lemon juice and pepper. As the meal wore on, and the laughs kept coming, Claudia forgot about the difficult conversation she was yet to have with Leandro. She forgot about feeling like a fraud, about being there under false pretenses.
She laughed, she teased Leandro and his cousins and was teased in return, she gossiped about Hollywood stars with the women, and promised to do her level best to increase the quota of s.h.i.+rtless scenes on Ocean Boulevard to make their daytime viewing a little spicier. When the tables were pushed to one side and the bazoukis brought out, she clapped along with everyone else and even allowed herself to be drawn into the dancing. She knew the steps-of course she knew the steps-and she was soon regretting her high heels. Seeing her dilemma, Leandro dropped to his knees and undid the delicate buckles on her sandals, and everyone howled with approval.
As the sun began its slow slide toward the horizon, the sweet trays appeared with the traditional honey-sweet baklava, loukamades, custards, chocolate-covered almonds and more. She drank strong Greek coffee, listened as Leandro's mother read the coffee grounds and prophesied good luck in love in her future, and entertained Betty's young son while Betty cleaned up Alexandra's honey-smeared face and dress.
But mostly Claudia watched Leandro. She had a hard time keeping her eyes off him at the best of times, and seeing him in his element only made him more charismatic. It wasn't because he was the tallest man there, although a few of his cousins rivaled him for height. It was everything about him-his laugh, deep and contagious, the mischievous sparkle in his eye, the careless grace of his big body. Slowly she realized she wasn't the only one drawn to him. His cousins applied to him to resolve disputes, his brothers and sisters deferred to him, his mother gazed at him with adoring eyes. He was like the unofficial king of the family, and they all wanted to bask in his reflected glory.
She was sitting to one side, her sandals lying beside her chair, when Leandro's mother joined her. Suddenly all the ease of the last few hours evaporated and she braced herself for the typical Greek mother's interrogation.
”Are you having a nice time, Claudia?” Alethea Mandalor asked.
”I'm having a great time. Everyone's been very welcoming,” she said.
Leandro's laugh rang across the courtyard, drawing both their gazes.
”It is hard not to smile when Leandro smiles,” Alethea said.
”He's very charming,” Claudia agreed.
This seemed to please Alethea.
”I wanted to talk to you, Claudia,” Alethea said, turning to regard her with eyes that were uncannily like Leandro's.
Here we go, Claudia thought.
”Okay,” she said. She'd give the woman two minutes, then she was making a bolt for the bathroom.
”There is a woman on your show-a gray-haired actress,” Alethea surprised her by saying.
Claudia frowned, having trouble switching gears mentally. This wasn't quite the opening gambit she'd been expecting. ”There are a couple of older women characters. Do you mean the actress who plays Leona, or Priscilla?” she asked.
”Priscilla-that's her name.” Alethea leaned toward Claudia confidingly. ”Do you think her haircut would suit me, Claudia?”
Claudia blinked as Alethea tugged the pins loose from her bun and shook out her hair. It fell to just below her shoulders in a thick curtain.
Leandro's mother wanted beauty advice. Claudia almost laughed she was so relieved.
”My husband, he loves it like this, but I want something shorter, more stylish. I saw that actress the other day as I was switching channels, and I wondered...”Alethea elaborated.
Claudia smiled to herself. One by one, all of Leandro's female relatives had confessed they watched both Ocean Boulevard and Heartlands, taping one while they watched the other. They'd all begged her not to tell Leandro, not wanting him to think they were disloyal. And now, Mrs. Mandalor was admitting in a roundabout way that she, too, followed the fortunes of the Ocean Boulevard characters.
”It's much shorter than what you have now,” Claudia said, tilting her head to one side and seriously a.s.sessing Leandro's mother's face.
She guessed Alethea was in her late fifties-early sixties, and she had the kind of strong facial structure that had aged well.
”You've got the cheekbones to pull it off. And a nice high forehead. I think it would really suit you,” Claudia said.
”Thank you!” Alethea said, touching Claudia's arm gratefully. ”The rest of the family-they're used to me looking a certain way. This face, this hair is what they think of when they think of Alethea Mandalor. But it's time for a change, and I'm going to do it. I'm going to make an appointment tomorrow.”
”You know, if you'd like, I could ask Priscilla's stylist to take a look at you,” Claudia heard herself saying.
Before she could regret the impulsive offer, Alethea's face lit up with such genuine grat.i.tude that Claudia was touched to the heart.
”Oh, Claudia,” Alethea said. ”I cannot tell you what that would mean to me. I would know I was in such safe hands. Priscilla always looks so elegant, so refined.”
Suddenly realizing that she'd just admitted to actually watching the show, Alethea lifted a hand to her mouth and turned wide eyes to Claudia, looking for all the world like a naughty schoolgirl.
”Don't worry-your secret's safe with me,” Claudia said.
A shadow fell over them, and Claudia knew before she looked up that it was Leandro.
”How's it going over here?” he asked warily.
”Oh, relax, Leandro, I'm not grilling your friend. What do you think I am, some prehistoric cultural cliche?” Alethea said, waving her hand at him dismissively as she relinquished her chair.
Leandro stared after his mother in bemus.e.m.e.nt, then he looked down at Claudia.
”She really wasn't giving you the third degree?” he asked.
”Nope.”
He raised his eyebrows as if to say ”go figure.”
”You ready to go home?” he asked her.
”If you are,” she said.
She was surprised at her own answer. If anyone had told her when she first arrived that she'd be reluctant to go home, she'd have laughed in their face then s.h.i.+mmied over the nearest wall and made a run for it.
”I had a nice time,” she said to Leandro as they made their way out to the car. The sidewalk was warm beneath her bare feet despite the fact that the sun had almost set.
”Good,” he said. The gaze he shot her was cautious, a.s.sessing.