Make Me Whole (7 page)

Nick ran his hand down the statue’s back, and his eyes stung. He’d found them. They were real and right here. He didn’t have to dig into his savings to haul them from a wreck site to the U.S. He didn’t have to search for a museum that would display them while letting the Charisteas family retain control.

By the time he turned back toward the first statue, Ella had left and Galen stood transfixed, staring at the two men embracing. Nick’s chest tightened. Near the end of their relationship before Galen had left, he had looked at Nick with that same soft, glowing expression. The expression had given him hope and had him saying words that he’d known were better left unsaid.

“You see it too, don’t you?” Galen asked and touched the shoulder of the new man. “The statue has changed. Everybody else seems to think this is the way it’s always been, except for me.” He met Nick’s gaze, his eyes troubled. “And now you. I was afraid you’d think I was trying to trick you.”

“I still might.” Nick couldn’t believe it. He’d heard tales of the statues changing, and he’d always chalked them up as fairy tales.

Nick walked around the statue and examined it closer, but he had to admit it didn’t look like an addition had been tacked on after the fact. The embracing men seemed to be one solid piece, though a test for age would reveal that for sure. “So, are you going to explain what happened?”

Galen spread his hands and opened his mouth with a shake of his head. “I don’t know if I can. I doubt you’d believe me. I’m not sure I believe it myself.”

“Try me, you’ll find I’m amazingly open-minded about some things.” A niggling suspicion had Nick taking another look at the statue. Most of his family had been skeptical about the legend surrounding it, but his uncle had been convinced the tale had merit. Nick had spent hours poring over his journals when he’d been a teenager, and the dreamer inside him had been captivated by Dexios’s story.

Both men looked familiar… however, with the lip-lock they had going, he couldn’t be sure. Nick cast a sharper look at Galen, who shrugged as faint spots of color appeared on his cheeks.

“This was still a single man when I went to check on them last night before leaving.” Galen hesitated and shook his head. “Oh, never mind. I’m sorry, it sounds too crazy even to my own ears.”

Last night Nick had dreamt of Galen kissing a strange man in his museum. He’d woken up to one hell of a boner and stirrings of an old jealousy. Until now, he’d passed the dream off as a natural reaction after hearing from Galen, given their unique history. His suspicions returned even stronger, and Nick shoved them away. Galen was right. It was too crazy to contemplate. This was real life, not a fairy tale.

“Let’s go back to your office and finish our breakfast. I’ll tell you what I can about the statues.” Then he had to decide whether or not he would let Galen keep them at his museum. He wanted them to be seen. They deserved to be on display, especially after so many years of being lost. To give Galen the opportunity meant he’d have to work with him, see him day after day and know that Galen was unreachable. He could touch, Galen wouldn’t mind that, but he wouldn’t be allowed to keep, and that’s what Nick really wanted.

“Okay.” Galen brushed his fingers across the statue’s jaw. “It’s beautiful as one piece, isn’t it?”

Nick had to admit it was. As stunning as he’d always found the pictures of the original, this one called to him on a much deeper level. What would they be like if somehow all of them came to be completed? His gaze drifted to Galen, and he snorted to himself. Not if fulfilling the legend relied on Mr. Noncommittal over there. Galen wouldn’t understand commitment if it slapped him in the face. Besides, it was just a story, a wildly romantic, heartbreaking story.

“Yeah, they’re amazing.” Nick resisted the urge to touch Galen’s shoulder, to cup his face. He couldn’t be so close to him like this and not have such thoughts. He spun on his heel to head back to the office, and Galen fell into step beside him.

“The quick version of the myth is that Dexios, the solo man in the statues, was in love with a fellow soldier, Lykon. They pledged their fidelity to each other, but when the campaign ended, Lykon broke his promise so he could return to his old life and left Dexios behind. Heartbroken, Dexios went to the island they had planned to make their home and gave in to despair. The goddess of love heard him and, out of pity, changed him into a statue to wait for his fickle lover.”

“The goddess of love, hmmm? You mean Aphrodite? I’d hoped this tale would be grounded in a little more truth,” Galen said as they climbed the spiral staircase up through the tower.

“You wanted to hear the story. You didn’t say anything about truth.” Nick sat down and picked up his coffee again. He grimaced as he took a taste. It had gone lukewarm. “Unless something happened last night to make you think there was more to the statues than pieces of art. Belief is power, and the names of gods and goddesses change with the people who follow them. It doesn’t mean that the spirit doesn’t exist.”

“Let’s not argue philosophy. What happened next?”

“At some point, Lykon returned looking for Dexios and instead found the four statues of him. The goddess appeared and cursed him to be reborn over and over, searching for his lost love and unable to have him.”

Nick leaned back and folded his hands on his stomach as Galen shifted with a frown. “You mean there isn’t anything in there about the statues becoming whole?” he asked.

Nick waged a fierce inner debate over whether to tell him more and decided that if Galen were going to continue to hold out about what happened the night before, Nick wouldn’t spill all of his secrets either. He had a lot he wanted to consider before he let Galen in more.

“There’s a whole body of research on them that I haven’t delved into for a while. The answers should be there. You see, the statues are more than an area of study for me—it’s family history. The Dexios Collection belongs to the Charisteas family, and I have the paperwork to prove it.”

He waited for that to sink in, for Galen to realize he could snatch possession of them right from him. Galen’s eyes widened, and when he opened his mouth, Nick held up a hand to stop him. “I have a number of journals from past family members that pertain to the Collection. Most are in Greek, but my uncle’s mentions, on occasion, some of the statues changing like yours did. It never went beyond three, and they always reverted back to only Dexios.”

Nick considered telling Galen that the other journals backed that up, but decided not to. He didn’t want to reveal how much information he had just yet. Not until he knew what Galen was going to do. He didn’t want to get any more invested in opening doors with Galen than he already was.

“The belief is that when all of the statues are made whole, the lost lovers will be reunited. I’ll admit the family has always been rather split on whether or not the statues really changed. Most seemed to think the men who came up with the tale enjoyed a little too much opium, or whatever their personal recreational drug choice was at that time.”

Galen turned his head and stared out the window. Nick studied his profile in the silence. He used to kiss the long bridge of Galen’s nose when they lay spent in each other’s arms. He wondered if Galen remembered the little things like that.

Galen turned back toward him and leaned forward. “Which are you, Nick? Are you a believer?”

“Let’s just say, I’ve always wanted to believe.” Nick paused and leaned forward too. “I had a dream about you last night, of you kissing a man in Greek armor who you called Dexios. If you want to keep these statues as part of the exhibit, you will have to tell me what happened between the time you left me a voice mail and this morning.”

Galen’s eyes widened, and he frowned as he pulled back. “I seem to remember telling you once I didn’t like ultimatums. You’re basing your distrust on a dream.”

“No, I’m basing it on our history.”

“Trust goes both ways. Did you ever think to ask yourself why I kept my distance, or did you assume the worst about me? I was honest with you from the very beginning about what I wanted. I never lied to you. You changed the rules on me and got upset when I pulled back.”

Nick rose and took two steps toward the staircase before he turned to face Galen again. He had asked that question many times. He still wondered what lay behind the easygoing demeanor that Galen had projected that invited closeness but wouldn’t accept any ties. And to make it worse, Galen had to remind Nick that he’d walked right into a broken heart with wide-open eyes.

“I didn’t come here to bring up our sordid past. I came to see if the statues were really the Dexios Collection.”

“And to lay claim to them?” Galen rubbed the arms of his chair, his gaze fixed on Nick. “That’s what you’re good at, isn’t it? Staking a claim on the things you want.”

Nick flushed and looked away. “I didn’t come here to fight, Galen,” he said, his chest tightening even more. “Why’re we arguing?”

Galen sighed and his voice softened. “You know why. I don’t like a threat hanging over my head. I don’t know if you’re trying to goad me or if I’m trying to goad you, but I think we should take a step back and think things through, then try to talk again.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Step back, retreat behind that no-man’s-land you put yourself on.” Nick came around the desk toward Galen. He’d thought that time apart would’ve eased his knee-jerk reaction to Galen pulling back, but apparently not. He should back up himself and not engage Galen. Not after all this time. He couldn’t open that door again and risk Galen hurting him just like last time. What kind of a man did something like that? A masochist, in Nick’s opinion.

“I think we should get back to the topic at hand. I’m sure you want those statues to be seen just as much as I do. What better place than here? Let me show you the plans I have for the whole exhibit. The opening is going to be huge, and your Collection will be right at the heart of it. After all this time, don’t you think Dexios deserves that?”

“I meant what I said.” Nick ignored Galen’s impassioned plea and leaned over the desk until their faces were inches apart. “If you can’t be honest with me about what’s happening with those statues, my statues, then I’m not going to let you keep them. They’re important to my family, and I’m not willing to leave them in the hands of somebody I can’t trust. Something happened last night, something that changed one of them in a significant way. I want to know what you did and if you think you could do it again.”

Galen’s gaze darted away and came right back. He dragged a hand through his hair with a sigh. “I need some time to consider it. I’m still not sure it wasn’t a dream myself. I haven’t had a chance to think it all the way through.”

Nothing had changed; disappointment cut sharp and deep, and it infuriated Nick that he’d let himself think something might’ve changed. When Galen had apologized in his message with that warmth in his voice, Nick had let himself soften.

“You have twenty-four hours. I’ll have found another place for them by then. Do your thinking, and do it quick.”

“Come on, be reasonable,” Galen said, and though his voice remained calm, his hands kept moving, betraying his agitation. “You don’t need to resort to threats.”

“You’ll tell me what I want to know?” Nick held his breath.
Come on, Galen, let me in a bit. Give me some reason to hope that maybe, just maybe we can make a relationship work out.

Galen glanced away.

“I thought not.” Nick straightened and grabbed the remainder of his coffee. He had to get out before he lost his temper. He never should’ve even tried. He could’ve sent a notice through his lawyer and never had to deal with Galen at all. “You know how to reach me if you change your mind.”

“Wait.”

Screw that, Nick thought. He was done with waiting.

“Come on, talk to me,” Galen said in a softer voice.

“That’s the fucking point. You aren’t talking.” Nick paused and stabbed his finger toward Galen. “How am I supposed to trust you? Tell me that. This is important to me, and if you’re going to dick around, we can do it through lawyers.”

Galen jumped up as well, all trace of entreaty vanishing as his eyes flashed hot. “You can’t just walk in here and take them. We’re the ones who found them.”

“And I’m the one that owns them.”

They stared each other down, the tension crackling in the air. Nick had never seen Galen pissed off before, and if there hadn’t been so much riding on the line, he might find it kind of hot. There had to be some legal way of getting the Collection back without screwing with the museum and its reputation. He didn’t want that, no matter how much this whole situation tied him in knots.

“Look,” Nick said, striving for a calm that seemed to stay just out of reach. “Let’s just both separate and cool down before we say anything else we regret.”

Galen motioned toward the stairwell with a jerky nod, his jaw clenched, and his hand shoved into his pocket. “I’ll give you a call.”

Nick bit back a hot retort and headed down. Yeah, right, he wasn’t going to hold his breath on that one.

“
W
HY
won’t you talk to me?” Galen stood in front of the unmoving statue and strained to listen for any whisper of sound. The heating system sighed as it cut back on, but no other noise broke the silence. The museum had been locked down for the night, and it hadn’t seemed to make a damn bit of difference. His mystery man hadn’t shown himself.

“Dexios, please, talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.” Galen went from statue to statue, and they all remained silent. Whatever he had unlocked the night before, both with the statues and within himself, seemed to have retreated, leaving him with too many questions and no way of getting the answers. At least he wasn’t delusional. Nick had seen the change too, and Galen clung to that knowledge.

Everybody else looked at Galen like he was crazy if he mentioned that something had changed about the statues, everybody but Nick. Well, Suzane believed him, but she had no memory of how it looked originally. And he had asked Nick point-blank if the Collection consisted of four unfinished statues, and Nick had confirmed it. So, why were they the only ones who remembered something different? It made no sense.