Chapter 58
58
THE GREEK DYNAMO, KASSIOPI HARBOUR
There were floating candles in the water, what seemed like hundreds of them, bobbing around the harbour walls as Christos drove Vaggelis’s boat slowly from its mooring. People lined the streets, watching, some of them throwing flowers into the sea, and then the applause began. Hundreds of pairs of hands clapping loudly, appreciatively in respect of this much-loved member of the local community. And that’s when Molly felt it, a soft, warm, almost overwhelming sensation at what she was seeing, at what she was hearing and being part of. It was a feeling of belonging. For whatever reason, here in this place that was virtually unknown to her, because of the kindness of a man who was not biologically related to her, she, for the first time, felt like a vital important piece of this crazily intertwined Greek jigsaw puzzle.
‘You are OK?’ Christos asked her.
She nodded, resting her hand on the side of the boat, beside him as he steered towards open water. ‘Yes.’
‘You are crying,’ Christos said.
Was she? She put a finger to her eyes and there the tears were, unexpected, falling because of this incredible emotional pull this moment was giving her.
‘I never really understood family before,’ she whispered to him. ‘You know, it was something I saw on Christmas adverts, mum, dad, children, pets and a grandparent and just something I never had in that way. But, it’s not even really that, is it? It’s about finding the people you’re happiest with, the ones who accept you for who you are, the ones who don’t judge and just want to know you, who take time to understand.’
‘You realise this now because…’
‘Because all these people clapping for Vaggelis, toasting him, missing him, loving him, they aren’t all his blood relatives but they’re his family all the same, the ones who cared about him each and every day.’
Christos nodded. ‘That is true.’
‘Well, I’ve spent all my life desperate to know who my father was because I thought I needed to complete some holy circle, when really I just needed to be at peace with what I had and learn to appreciate different places and different people who have quickly become so important to me,’ Molly continued.
‘OK, we have come far enough. Can you drop the anchor?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ Molly agreed. ‘And that’s what I feel I can do now. I can drop my anchor wherever I feel safe and integral and… happy, and there doesn’t have to be anyone else’s reason for it. It doesn’t have to be because that’s where my mum is or where other people say is a really nice place to be or where I’ve always been. My life, my home, my family can be anything I want it to be.’ She collected the anchor and threw it over the side of the boat and came back to him just as the first fireworks soared into the sky.
‘Molly,’ he said as she stood next to him, looking up at the fiesta of bright colour zipping across the black night.
‘Yes.’
‘I know you are meant to be going back to the UK soon,’ he said.
‘In two days,’ she said, sighing. ‘I have so many things I’m going to have to organise for Mollify and now I have Freya on board it’s going to mean even more pressure. But good pressure, I hope.’
‘You are going to make your business a big success,’ he said. ‘I know this from the moment you told me about it. And maybe my timing is all wrong.’
Another firework lit up the sky, crackling and spitting golden sparks.
‘Tell me,’ she said, slipping her hand into his.
He sighed, wrapping his fingers around hers. ‘Well, the truth is, a little like you have said about family. I cannot imagine not having the connection we have made. Every day here I look at Virginia’s and I remember when you thought I was a waiter. Then I look at the balconies of the apartments and I remember you jumping across them like a crazy person. Then there is the truck, more of it falling apart every day, but I remember you driving it for the first time when I fell down the ravine and then when you and I went to see the new olive tree. And as for Armeena, I think she is almost on her way to being slightly domesticated but, you know, it might take some patience.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘And then there’s this boat.’ He rested his free hand on the steering wheel. ‘I don’t really know what it’s meant to be. Something for parties? Something to take holidaymakers to Paxos for the day? Something to give someone else those opportunities? But, for me, right now, it is the place we really began to get to know each other.’
‘Where I dropped a dumbbell through the deck,’ Molly reminded him.
‘Where we made love for the first time.’
Despite the humidity, his words made her shiver all over as she relived every tiny sensual touch in her mind.
‘Molly, I don’t want to get in the way of your business. I know how hard it is to start something from the very beginning and how it can consume you if you let it but, maybe, at some point, I wonder if you would have time to… stay with me in Athens.’
Another firework popped, but it wasn’t that Molly could hear fizzing, it was the sheer thrill inside of her at Christos’s question.
‘You don’t have to give me an answer right now, it’s been a big day and?—’
She didn’t hesitate. She let go of his hand, threw her arms around him and drew his face towards hers, capturing his mouth and stealing his breath in the deepest of kisses. And she didn’t let go until she was forced to take air. She smiled at him, her heart beating hard in her chest.
‘That was a yes, by the way.’
‘I think you might have to kiss me again just so there is no doubt.’
‘Really?’
‘ Sostó . I think, a second kiss should make this legally binding. A little like Vaggelis’s will.’
‘Well,’ Molly said. ‘In that case, I wouldn’t want to break any laws.’
With that said, as Christos drew her to him this time, and more fireworks lit up the harbour, a lone blue dolphin appeared on the horizon, dancing happily in the water.