The Lust Crusade

Chapter
One

Dani

Greece: Birthplace of many of Daniela Guiterrez's favorite things. Libraries. Gyros. Democracy. Cheesecake. And Dr. Theo Galanis.

His name had played on repeat in her head ever since she'd landed in Crete three days ago. Theo. Theo. Theo. This trip wasn't supposed to be about him. This was supposed to be her opportunity to finally see the world. Meet new people. Maybe meet a guy. Someone who might allow her to forget about Theo.

Dani laughed to herself at the idea as she stared out the window of the tour bus on its way to the palace of Knossos. The sparkling, crystal-blue water as they pulled away from the harbor reminded her of his eyes. A moment later, they passed a stand selling dolmades, tangy stuffed grape leaves-Theo's favorite food. And then, a local bar with a poster-size advertisement for raki, a celebratory drink at every one of Theo's family gatherings.

Forget about Theo? Who was she kidding?

She'd come to Greece, of all places. If there was anyplace in the world that could remind her of Theo, this was it. Place of his birth.

And of his death.

Are you gonna get busy living or keep busying yourself with dying? Her dad's question, butchering his favorite movie quote, echoed in her ears. As did her mom's follow-up: What he's saying, mija, is it's time for you to get a life.

Ouch.

It was some thanks after dedicating the last sixteen years of her life-ever since her dad's work accident-helping them out by taking her dad to his doctor's appointments, doing their grocery shopping, and picking up their prescriptions only for them to tell her a month ago that they were packing their bags and finally moving to Florida like they'd threatened to do so many times. Forgive Dani for thinking they'd never go through with it, seeing as they'd lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the entirety of their lives. Yet there they were, kicking her out of her childhood home so they could sell it to some young family looking to put down roots.

Okay, so maybe they did offer to sell it to Dani first, but the price they needed to be able to put down the deposit on their new place in Florida was not in her librarian's-salary budget and she wasn't going to ask them for a deal. Especially not after they'd apparently considered the last sixteen years as their favor to her, when she'd been over there naively thinking it had been the other way around. They didn't even seem to remember that her brother, Eddie, hadn't offered to lift a finger when her dad first got in the accident whereas she was packed and moved out of her dorm at the University of Michigan the minute her mom muttered the words, I don't know how I'll be able to take care of your papa alone.

Okay, okay! So maybe Eddie offered, but come on. Not only did he not have a single nurturing bone in his body, but he and Theo, his BFF since the second grade, had just left for a nonrefundable study-abroad program in Spain. Dani, on the other hand, was only a little over a hundred miles away and one (miserable) semester into her undergrad at Michigan. It made sense for Dani to be the one to help.

Right? She furrowed her brow as she watched Heraklion passing by out the bus window, thinking back to that pivotal time in her life all those years ago.

She'd always planned to return to U of M. Helping out her parents was supposed to be temporary. At least, that's what she'd been telling herself for the last decade and a half. It was better than admitting that Daniela Guiterrez, former high school daredevil and talker of big dreams, was too scared to go out on her own and eventually got comfortable living above her parents' garage and gave up on all those things she'd said she was going to do. She got comfortable never having ventured from Grand Rapids other than that short stint in Ann Arbor.

But now what? Her parents were moving a thousand miles away, Eddie was in Chicago living the bachelor life, and Theo's family, who'd been like an extension of her own, had all left the area. There was no one left to call Grand Rapids home. Her parents' suggestion that maybe it was time for her to start her own family, to settle down and find a husband, begged the question: With whom?

God, I need a date.

"Well, I'll go out on a date with you tonight, little missy. Happy to oblige," a voice said to her left.

Dani spun her head around to her tour bus seatmate, Harold, and blinked. Had she really said that out loud? The old man smiled, cheery as always, and she actually pondered his invitation for a moment. As she'd come to discover over the last couple of days, Harold was pretty funny. But ignoring for a moment that he was old enough to be her abuelo, in no universe did the term of endearment little missy ever result in someone agreeing to go on a date, and it certainly wouldn't be starting today.

But as her actual abuelo had always said: Respect your elders.

"I don't know why I said that," she responded. "I was thinking about something else. Besides I think we'll be too tired after today's excursion, don't you think?"

"Bah!" Harold said, waving his hand dismissively. "Ain't nothing but a bit of walking around at Knossos. Wait 'til we get to the Acropolis. Glad I got that knee replacement surgery taken care of last year." He made a fist and knocked on his knee, clearly proud of his mobility.

"But I get it," he resumed. "If I were a beautiful young lady like you, I wouldn't want to hang out with an old fogey like me, either." He winked and smiled, and Dani couldn't help but smile in return.

She was used to old men hitting on her-or really, men of all ages hitting on her, especially whenever she came out from behind the counter at her job at the Grand Rapids Public Library and they got one look at her . . . generous hips and ass-but she didn't get that sort of vibe from Harold. After only three days with him, he gave off more You're the only person I can stand on this group tour than Hubba-hubba.

"But," Harold continued, "if you want to check out the nightlife and need a wingman, I'm your guy. I'm the only one in this crew who can stay up past five p.m., after all."

Harold gave her another wink, and she snickered. At thirty-five, Dani was the youngest person on the tour bus by at least thirty years, and, in most cases, more like forty. On the first day when Harold had joked he must have been twice her age, it had turned out he wasn't wrong. But how was Dani supposed to have known that Silver Sunset Singles Tours, LLC, catered to the sixty-plus crowd?

Okay, so maybe silver should have been a hint. And sure, there were a lot of photos on Silver Sunset's website of happy retirement-age individuals. But it was the only Greek singles tour with last-minute availability she could find within her budget. It wasn't her fault that some sort of internet form snafu didn't catch that she was "underage," something she hadn't been in quite some time. So when she'd arrived in Crete for the start of the tour and the guide, Cosmo, had gone to check her in, they decided to honor the reservation.

What were they going to do? Cancel it and leave her stranded, alone, in Greece? She was just glad there was someone on this bus who was interested in talking with her.

Though becoming besties with a septuagenarian wasn't exactly what she'd envisioned for the trip when she'd booked it a few weeks ago. Right after her parents told her they were selling the house two days after . . . Theo's memorial service.

Seriously, could they have picked a worse time to break the news?

Her entire world had been turned upside down in a matter of forty-eight hours, her parents' announcement being the final nail in the proverbial (and in Theo's case, nonexistent) coffin. Seemed like as good a time as any to take a last-minute midlife crisis vacation to a foreign country.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Harold asked.

"Oh, I was thinking about a friend."

"A friend?" Harold raised his brow. "What sort of friend?"

"Not that kind of friend," she said with a bit of a laugh and then waved her arms around their surroundings. "I mean, look at me. I'm by myself. On a seniors' singles tour."

"Why is that, exactly?" he asked, folding his hands in his lap and turning in his seat to face her. "What brings a gal like you on a tour like this?"

Dani sighed and leaned back against the headrest. "I didn't know it was a sixty-plus tour, if that's what you're wondering."

"I figured as much. Been meaning to ask you, but I didn't want to be rude by asking what in the golly heck brought you here. Thought maybe you were Cosmo's girlfriend at first."

Dani scrunched her face at the idea. Cosmo may have been a young whippersnapper when compared to Harold, but he was still at least twenty years her senior.

"So maybe Cosmo's not your type," Harold said with a chuckle. "But alone? Don't you have someone special-or maybe even that friend of yours you're thinking about-who could have gone on a trip with you?"

Oof.

"Well, when you put it that way . . ." Dani said, and let her voice trail off.

Because what was she supposed to say? That, no, she didn't have someone special because for the last decade she'd dated only casually so she could be available if and when her parents needed her? Or perhaps that her only real friend nowadays, her coworker Beau, preferred sand and mojitos over crumbling ruins and ouzo. In his words, he wouldn't be caught dead in hideous hiking boots.

Poor word choice, Beau. Too soon. Much too soon.

Of course, there was always Eddie, but she'd be caught dead before taking a trip like this with him. Nothing was worse than when people asked if they were dating. Gross. Besides, they got along fine-she might even consider them "friends" given how much time they hung out together with Theo-but things were different now that Theo was gone. It was almost as if his absence was an elephant in the room whenever they got together and they didn't know how to act around each other without him there.

Most of Dani's other friends had left Grand Rapids straight after high school, and those who hadn't, well, there was nothing like showing her face again after moving back home only a few weeks into college. Sure, Dani, the dutiful daughter that she was, could point to her dad's accident as the justification for her return to Grand Rapids. But she'd heard the rumors:

Did you hear Daniela Guiterrez couldn't hack it at the University of Michigan?

I heard she flunked out.

I knew she was nothing but talk.

She thought she was so much better than us, and look at her now.

Ah yes, look at her now. Single. Midthirties. And working in the library, of all places. Served her right for that stunt she pulled in tenth grade, reshelving all the books in their high school library by "vibes" rather than author name and genre. Back then, she'd never been one to turn down a dare.

But that was then.

Once voted "most likely to bungie jump off the Eiffel Tower," now Dani would probably be more accurately described as "most likely to die of actual boredom." The only times she felt like her old self were the times when Theo visited.

We figured you needed us, her parents had explained, sitting her down at the dinner table to break the news about their impending move. You seemed so unhappy and sad all the time. We thought you wanted to come home. It was difficult to recall the discussion surrounding her return home all these years later. She remembered saying she'd come home without hesitation when her mom first told her about her dad falling down a manhole working for the city's public works department during a storm event and how he'd be out of work for at least a few months. She'd volunteered because they'd asked. Hadn't they?

The conversation was a little hazy now.

Her return had nothing to do with the fact that she was homesick. Or that she didn't get into all the classes she'd wanted. Or that she and her new roommate weren't getting along. Or that she missed her old friends and family.

Home made sense. At least it did back then.

Could she even call it that anymore, though, when her home was literally being taken from her?

"I'm sorry. There I go, being nosy again," Harold said.

Dani smiled and put her hand on his arm. "It's fine. Really. My life right now . . . it's . . . it's complicated."

That was one way to put it. Definitely too complicated to get into in the last ten minutes of their bus ride to the palace of Knossos where soon they'd be crawling around ten square kilometers of sprawling ruins, learning about the lives of the Minoan civilization with thousands of other tourists. At least they were going in the latter half of the day after the crowds had hopefully thinned out.

"Well, then, you can tell me all about it over dinner tonight," Harold said with a wink. "Only as friends. I promise."

Dani smiled. "Okay. Friends."

"I was only teasing about the date thing earlier, you know. I know I'm here on this whole single seniors' thing, but ever since my Patricia passed away five years ago, I haven't been able to imagine life with someone else." There was a crack in his voice, and suddenly he stopped talking, pulling his lip in to keep it from trembling. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to get morose. You probably came here to enjoy an adventure, not think about dead people."

Dead.

The word thumped in her chest. Suddenly the words that she still refused to accept flashed through her mind:

Greek American Archaeologist Presumed Dead

By the time the newspapers printed that headline, the story of Dr. Theo Galanis's disappearance had already been blasted all over the news and social media. When Dani had first learned that he'd gone missing, his last known whereabouts being a marina where he'd chartered a boat for a journey off the coast of Neapoli, she hadn't been able to breathe. Theo had arrived in Greece one week earlier. He was supposed to have been there for only a couple of months, six tops, having been contacted by his old friend on behalf of some archaeological society to assist with a dig on the Peloponnesian peninsula given his expertise in ancient Greek archaeology. The details were a little fuzzy, as was any paper trail with the specifics.