A Promised Fate Read Free Page B

inspection and gently stroked the circling rows of
diamonds.
    I freed the air from my lungs. “So you will wear it
then?”
    “I won’t take it off.” She leaned forward allowing me
to clasp the necklace in place around her neck. The diamonds rested
ever so gently against the very top of her chest.
    “Thank you. My first evil eye. I love this so much,
Ari. It’s perfect,” she whispered, and looked up at me to kiss my
lips.
    “Anything for you,” I whispered back. “The idea of an
evil eye was actually something my dad came up with. I should have
given you this a long time ago. Maybe an evil eye could have kept
you safe when I couldn’t.” My eyes burned into hers and I thought
of all the times I failed her. All the times I could not save
her.
    “We're safe now.” Ava’s thumb smoothed my creased
brow and she gave me a reassuring smile.
    “Mmmm.” My fingers edged along her long, scarred
wrist.
    “Let’s have fun tonight. Ok? Forget about all that.”
She lightly bumped her shoulder with mine.
    “Right.”
    We had been looking forward to a long holiday
together at home with our family. This would be Ava's first Fourth
of July weekend at the family compound in Dana Point. Just about
everything we do around the holiday weekend, bedsides eating mounds
of great food, involves water. Ava has a genuine but absurd fear of
water. Humbly I take credit for having wielded my charm and
persistence to get her into the ocean a handful of times. But each
time I got her there, she suctioned herself onto me like a
jellyfish, leaving me to peel her off as soon as we were back on
shore. The only part of her that ever tries our pool is a big toe,
and that has happened bloody rarely. She has no idea of how to
swim, a fact that has bothered me because I love the water, but my
worry had become much more serious with the arrival of Max. Soon,
with a baby on the way, she would be responsible for two lives in
and around our house by the sea. Three if you count her own.
    “What name did you pick?”
    Shit . She brought me back to reality and I had
not yet thought of any baby names as I had also promised. Batting a
thousand.
    “Tell me your pick first,” I said, attempting to buy
some time.
    “Ok. I was supposed to come up with a boy’s name.
What do you think about Dorian?”
    “Dorian,” I said, “Dorian is, well, it's … ” The
twisted, scrunched look on my face must have said it all.
    “You hate it.” Ava’s excited smile slid down into a
frown.
    “It’s just … I don’t … love it.”
    “Ok, let’s see if you can do better. Your turn.”
    “Alright…” I hurriedly racked my brain for a name I
could live with. I wanted to name the baby with a Greek name from
our heritage and Ava agreed, so long as we could come up with
something we both liked.
    “You sure you don’t want to name her Ileana?”
    “Ari, no!” she scolded me for the twenty-first
time.
    “Alright, alright. What about Athena?”
    “Athena? She’s a goddess right?” Her nose crinkled a
tad and I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes at her.
    “Uh, yeah. Athena is one of the twelve Olympians.
She’s uh, she’s pretty high up there, Ave.”
    Ava nudged me with her elbow. “I dunno! I can’t keep
it all straight. Who is she exactly?”
    “The Athenians founded the Parthenon on the
Acropolis, you know Athens, in her honor. She is the goddess of
wisdom, courage and inspiration. Also, my mother is somehow related
to descendants of Athena on her mother’s side. Athena and Aphrodite
were sisters. So my mom would like die and go to heaven if we named
our girl Athena. It would be a good name for our child. I think it
is pretty.”
    “Athena Alexander,” Ava’s lips puckered in a kind of
pout as she said the name aloud. “I like the idea of naming our
child after someone so important and great … just not Athena.
Sorry, it’s a no for me. I want to hear a name and just have it
click. I want to feel it.”
    “Ok, I think I know exactly what