Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Suzie’s heart was in her mouth.
‘What do you mean? When?’
‘He came off his bike half an hour ago. He’s already been taken to hospital.’
‘How serious is it?’
‘I don’t know all the details. I’m my way there now. Can I pick you up”
‘Yes, please. I will be at the port in…’
She turned to Christian, who’d obviously been listening and was holding up five fingers. In this instance, she was grateful for him being able to read her mind.
‘Five minutes. See you there.’
Speaking was out of the question until she’d got some answers about Kostas. It was only after she’d leapt off the boat without a backward glance and was sitting in Panos’s van that she realised she was still in her sarong and flipflops. Her clothes were in a bag on the boat.
Not that it mattered. Getting to her boy was all she cared about. Thinking about the slightly chaotic nature of Greek hospitals occupied her for the rest of the journey, while she tried not to imagine what was waiting for them once they arrived.
Venturing inside the local hospital was always something of a shock. They were lucky to have one; most islands had to make do with a clinic, or sometimes a lone doctor, and anything more serious than a minor complaint was sent straight to Athens by boat or, in the most serious cases, helicopter.
Fortunately, she’d not had to spend much time in the town hospital as a patient, other than for her two straightforward births.
Although the medical care was no doubt excellent, when visiting others she’d always been surprised at the crazy noise levels, lack of chairs and the number of family members allowed in at once.
Relatives brought in the food for the patients, which meant competing smells wafting through the air at strange times of the day and night, and the wards were often mixed sex, something that any injured tourists found disconcerting.
Running full pelt through the corridors, they found Kostas in a bed in the corner of a ward.
Suzie breathed a huge sigh of relief. Thank God, he was sitting up and smiling at Giannis, who’d beaten them to it.
Things couldn’t be that bad. Suzie flashed her older son a tentative smile but rushed to her younger son’s side.
A harassed doctor came over when he saw them approach the bed.
‘He was lucky. Just mild concussion and a broken arm. I suggest he stays here tonight, but then he is free to go.’
The doctor looked down at her flipflops and up at her face again. Suzie reached for his hand to shake.
‘Thank you so much.’
Suzie moved towards Kostas at the same time as her ex-husband, and they ended up kissing a cheek each.
Suzie added a major hair ruffle too, before pulling out the hairband from her own hair and scraping her son’s locks up into a knot as he usually wore it.
Although there were some nasty scratches on her boy’s face, and one arm was in plaster, he looked relatively unscathed.
‘Baby, you’re OK. We’re so relieved. That bloody bike.’
‘You can’t blame the bike, Mama. I swerved to avoid a dog. There was nothing I could do.’
Kostas gave her a serious look up and down.
‘What the hell are you wearing? Have you come straight from the beach?’
Suzie pretended not to hear.
‘Will you promise me to wear a helmet now?’
‘Mama, you haven’t answered my question.’
‘Don’t change the subject. The accident could have been a whole lot worse. You terrify me the way you whizz around. Will this make you wear a helmet?’
His wink told her he was already on the mend.
‘We’ll see.’
A commotion behind them made everyone turn. Manolis was running through the ward like a madman. Instinctively, Suzie and Panos moved back. At the sight of Kostas with his arm in plaster in a hospital bed, the young man rushed straight to their son’s side and kissed him full on the mouth.
‘S’agapó. Lipáme, lipáme.’
Even if you didn’t speak Greek, mused Suzie, there was no doubting Manolis’s declaration. Although she was keen to know why he was saying sorry straight after telling Kostas he loved him.
But now was not the time. As one, she, Panos and Giannis withdrew from the touching scene. Seeing Kostas beam with joy at the sight of Manolis was the one good thing to come out of his accident. Whatever their problems were, they’d obviously made some headway in trying to solve them.
She stood with her ex-husband and elder son in an awkward huddle at the end of the bed, trying not to invade the privacy of the two men with their arms round each other, the plaster cast showing up brilliant white against Kostas’s tanned skin.
Giannis rubbed his hands together several times, something he’d done since he was a child when he was nervous.
Although they were messaging each other now, it was the first time she’d set eyes on her elder son since the tense ferry trip.
She had to say something to end the terrible silence. But it was her son who spoke first.
‘Mama, why are you wearing virtually nothing?’
Dressing correctly had always been one of Giannis’s things. The right outfit for the right occasion, scarily like his birth father, now she thought about it.
Kostas’s accident had brought her up short.
She’d lost sight of what was important there for a moment.
It was like she was being punished for even thinking she could have a different type of life.
Her life was here on the island, with her sons and her friends, running the bar. To think otherwise was foolish.
Giannis was still waiting for an answer.
Maybe it was finally time to stop all the lying, even the tiny white lies designed to ease someone else’s pain. It hadn’t worked out that well so far. If anyone deserved the truth, it was Giannis.
‘I’ve been out on a boat with Christian for the day.’
‘Okaaay. So, like a date?’
‘No, not a date. Just as friends.’
‘I see.’
Her son still had his serious face on. ‘I’m glad to see you properly at last.’
‘Me too, Gianni mou. I have missed you so much.’
She went in for a hug, which was returned for a few precious moments. It was a thaw rather than a full-blown flood.
But her son had more to say.
‘Now we know Kosta is OK, I wanted to tell you that I am ready to talk to…’ Giannis stumbled over the word. ‘Chr…Christian.’
Panos put his hand on his son’s shoulder.
‘And so too am I. We’ve talked about it, and we’d like to do it together, up at the farm if you could arrange it sometime soon.’
Suzie kept her reaction to a nod. Her not quite dry bikini was clammy on her skin underneath the sarong. She desperately needed to get changed and wash the salt off her body.
The sooner she set this meeting up, the sooner the man who was making her behave totally out of character would be off and away from her island, and she could forget all about him.
‘I’ll let you know as soon as I can.’
She held out her arms, and her son went into them again, for a few seconds longer this time. Healing the rift was still a long way off, but at least they’d made a start.
Vicky took her familiar seat at the bar and waited until Suzie had stopped serving a customer before she made her presence known.
It was becoming something of a ritual. In the evenings she’d walk into town from the sanctuary and chat to Suzie, particularly on the nights she’d agreed to go out patrolling the grounds with Alex, looking for the poisoner; he’d meet her there when he finished up at his own clinic.
Propping up the bar was a good way to keep herself awake.
After a busy day with the animals, she was sometimes in bed before ten.
She and Alex had been out together seven times at dawn and twilight, without seeing anything more dangerous than a hedgehog, and tonight was their eighth outing.
‘Hey!’
Suzie had spotted her first and put on an elaborate charade of pulling the top off a bottle from the other end of the bar. A thumbs-up was enough to get Suzie to make her way over with two cold beers in her hands.
‘Yamás!’
‘Yamás!’
Suzie clambered up onto the neighbouring stool.
‘I’m taking the weight off for a few moments.’
Vicky nodded to where Manolis was serving behind the bar.
‘How’s it going with Kosta out of action?’
‘Manoli is doing the work of two men, and we’ve taken on an extra casual until the plaster comes off.’
Suzie leant forward and lowered her voice.
‘Plus, it really helps that Manoli has moved into the flat upstairs with Kosta. As well as being an ace barman, the guy’s a decent cook too, so my boy’s really being spoilt.’
Vicky smiled.
‘Oooh, things have certainly moved on then.’
‘Since the reunion scene in the hospital, it’s all been sweetness and light.’
‘Did you ever find out what had been going on?’
Suzie looked around before speaking, but her son’s boyfriend was busy with a queue of customers.
‘Sort of. I think Manoli was anxious about making their relationship public. His family is very religious and being gay is more of a big deal in Greece, especially on the islands where everyone knows everyone’s business. Thinking he might lose Kosta really made him think about what was important.’
‘Well, he’s certainly put it all out there now. That scene you described in hospital could have come straight out of a film.’
‘It was pretty romantic, I must admit.’
Vicky took a long draught of beer.
‘So, one brother sorted. What about the big one?’
‘I don’t think that will be so easy. We’ve got the big meeting up at the farm at the weekend, so fingers crossed.’
‘Great. Why are we still whispering?’
‘No idea.’
‘And Christian?’
‘What about him?’
Suzie was aware her voice sounded defensive. Since her day out living the high life and the scare with Kostas, she’d avoided the man. Rationally, she knew the two things weren’t connected, but the superstitious side of her wasn’t keen to push it.
‘Have you seen him?’
‘No, just text messages.’
‘Right. Interesting. Are you scared you’re going to burst into flames if you go anywhere near him again?’
Suzie resented Vicky’s implication that she didn’t trust herself around Christian. Even if there was a tiny grain of truth in it.