Chapter 23 #2
When she straightened up, the sight of a figure standing by the passenger door made her jump. The pastry she was eating leapt out of her hand and onto the seat.
Christian opened the door and handed her the fallen pastry before he sat down, uninvited.
‘Room for another one?’
She could hardly keep him out, given that the whole roof was off the car.
‘Suppose so.’
‘So gracious.’
Christian looked down at the bag on her knee.
‘Is one of those for me?’
‘Not exactly. Haven’t you had breakfast?’
‘Couldn’t eat. Too nervous. And now I’m here stupidly early. But luckily I recognised you and your cute car.’
‘Yes, wasn’t that lucky.’
Interesting that he’d admitted he was nervous too. It was reassuring to know that under that cool exterior, Christian was feeling the pressure as much as her.
‘So, can I have the other pastry, pretty please?’
Suzie shoved the bag in his direction.
‘And maybe some of your coffee?’
‘You don’t need a blood donation while you’re at it?’
‘Not at the moment, but I’ll keep it in mind, thanks.’
Suzie passed him the coffee and watched him take a long slurp. She wouldn’t be keen to share drinks with many people, but when you’d already mixed your DNA and created another human, maybe it was churlish to refuse.
‘Presumably you’re early too?’
‘Mmmm. Can we just be quiet for a few minutes? Please.’
‘OK, keep your hair on.’
The sun had climbed higher in the sky while she’d been sitting there, and Suzie lowered her sunglasses, which she’d been using to hold her hair back, onto her nose.
Peace reigned for a few precious moments as they sat side by side eating the pastries and passing the coffee cup between them.
‘Do you remember that time we played a series of gigs in Barcelona and took a ferry to Menorca on our one night off, straight after coming off stage? We got there in the early hours and sat in the hire car watching the sun come up over the port, drinking strong coffee and eating churros dipped in chocolate for breakfast, a little like this.’
He had to spoil it, didn’t he? Of course, she bloody well remembered. She was fairly sure that trip was when she’d got pregnant with Giannis. She’d left her packet of pills behind by mistake, and they’d definitely got carried away on more than one occasion.
‘No, not sure I do.’
‘You must do.’
‘No, sorry.’
He narrowed his eyes.
‘Don’t you remember the little hotel on the water?
We lay around drinking cheap rosé and eating the biggest king prawns smothered in garlic mayonnaise that I’ve ever seen.
And we got caught up in a fiesta, and ended up singing together for the punters in the square, me accompanying you on guitar? You have to remember that.’
She couldn’t indulge him in his memories, shared memories if she was being honest, especially not this morning.
‘Nope, nothing. Maybe my memory’s going.’
He snorted a few crumbs out onto his faded jeans.
‘As if. You have the memory of a tiny elephant.’
‘A very tiny elephant.’
‘A little weeny elephant.’
He’d got her smiling again.
Just as she gave him a playful punch on the arm, she saw Giannis’s car pass them and turn up the drive to Panos’s place. Oh great, now her son would think she’d intended to come with Christian all along, and they were in it together somehow, especially as he knew about the boat trip.
‘That was Gianni. Let’s go. The gang’s all here.’
Maybe she could ask Christian to get out at the bottom of the drive. Although she had a pretty good idea what his answer would be.
She paused the car at the entrance to the farm and observed his eyebrows go virtually up to the top of his head at the suggestion that he be dropped off.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Suze. He knows we were together in the car. I’ll explain what happened if it means that much to you.’
Exactly what she’d expected from him. She put her foot down, throwing him back against the seat.
‘Whoa. Easy, tiger.’
‘I just want to get this over with.’
‘Me too. But I’d prefer it if we were both still in one piece.’
He’d always been rude about her driving.
Ironically, Christian had been the one who’d taught her to drive at seventeen, and, to be fair, although she wasn’t in the mood to be fair, he’d been an unexpectedly patient teacher.
He’d stepped in because she and her dad had rowed every time she’d even stepped into a car, let alone attempted to drive it.
Scraping her dad’s precious Rover along the wall of their garage hadn’t helped. The swearing had brought her mum and a couple of the neighbours out on onto the street. What she wouldn’t give to have a conversation with her dad now, even if it were just a row.
Suzie skidded to a halt in front of the farmhouse and pulled up the handbrake with what even she could see was unnecessary force.
Thinking about her dad and what he’d meant to her, the way he’d been at her side for every moment of her childhood, past the troubled teenage years to adulthood and beyond, brought tears to her eyes.
Had she denied the man next to her the greatest gift that she could have given him? Being a proper father to his own son? He’d freely admitted that parenthood wasn’t on the agenda for him back then, but who was she to play God?
The reality of the situation hit her anew.
It had been fine when he was just an old boyfriend, firmly consigned to the past, and nothing to do with her carefully constructed life in Greece.
An old boyfriend, forever fixed in her mind as a young man, and safely thousands of miles away in another country.
But now the not-quite-so-young-man was here, on her island, appearing round corners, shocking her at every turn, the spitting image of the son they’d made together, out of love. She’d set the whole sequence of events in motion by accepting the tour, but where would it end?
A hand pulled hers gently off the handbrake.
‘Are you OK?’
The warmth in his voice gave her strength.
‘Yep, let’s do this.’