Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Suzie deliberately lagged a few steps behind Christian as he walked towards the familiar table under the pergola where Panos, Giannis and Lydia were waiting.
As they got closer, she could see it was all set for a big breakfast. It was the Greek way in stressful times, or indeed most times, to prepare a feast. There were plates of pastries as well as bread, cheeses, olives, different types of fruit and yoghurt and a big bowl of strapatsada, the popular mix of scrambled eggs with feta and tomatoes, which she was sure was homemade by Lydia rather than hastily grabbed from a shop.
Panos held out his arms towards them both.
‘Welcome. Welcome. Did you travel together?’
‘No!’
Suzie’s voice was loud enough for all of them to take a step back. She needed to get a grip.
Christian recovered first and reached forward to shake Panos’s hand.
‘No, we didn’t. She picked up this reprobate at the entrance. Hello, I am Christian. Pleased to meet you, or héro polí as I think you say. I hope I’ve got it right.’
The smile that accompanied his words was totally convincing. Christian had always had bucketfuls of charm, she couldn’t deny it. It was his reliability that she’d had cause to question, not his ability to make people like him.
Panos greeted her next, kissing her on both cheeks, as did her son.
Christian was duly introduced to Lydia, who gave him a broad smile.
Suzie waited to see what would happen when he got to Giannis, but a swift handshake went off without incident before they were all encouraged to sit down in the shade.
It was Lydia who held out her arms in front of her this time.
‘Please, eat!’
The men helped themselves without further prompting, and soon Christian’s plate was piled high with portions of everything on offer.
‘Efharistó, Lydia. This looks gorgeous. I’m absolutely starving. I didn’t have a chance to eat anything in the hotel or stop on the way. Kalí órexi, everyone.’
He caught Suzie’s eye as she helped herself to coffee, and the ghost of a wink forced her to look away. He’d always been a great liar too. White lies, mostly, but the ease with which they tripped off his tongue scared her a little.
‘Mama, are you not eating?’
Giannis’s voice was full of concern. She must make this as easy as possible for her son. She reached over and took an apple-filled pastry.
‘Of course. Just waking myself up with coffee first.’
Eating took away the need for much talking for the next ten minutes, which she was sure had been a clever move on Lydia’s part to help them all relax. Christian appeared as dedicated to the art of food appreciation as any Greek as he made his way through the mountain on his plate.
When everyone had finally pushed back their plates with a satisfied sigh and thanked the chef, Panos stood up and smiled at Christian.
‘Can I take you on a tour of the farm? I understand from Suzie that this is something you’re interested in.’
Christian leapt to his feet.
‘Very much so. I have an organic cheese farm back in England, on the coast, the setting much like here.’
‘Páme! Let’s go.’
The two men left together happily, and Lydia started to clear the plates.
‘Can I help you with that?’
Suzie got to her feet, but Lydia waved her away and pointed at Giannis, sitting quietly staring into his coffee.
‘No, it’s fine. Why don’t you pour yourselves another coffee and have a nice little chat.’
More coffee was the answer to many a problem for the Greeks. The whole thing had obviously been choreographed between Lydia and Panos, but Suzie didn’t mind too much. She’d been looking for a chance to talk to her son one on one, so she did as she was told and settled down opposite her first-born.
‘How are you, Gianni mou?’
Her son forced a smile.
‘I’m fine, Mama, if a little weirded out by the last couple of weeks.’
‘I understand.’
‘With respect. I don’t think you can, really. For me, the news about Christian is a complete upending of everything I thought I knew. Baba is not my birth father, and although I’ve always felt more Greek than British, it turns out I’m not Greek at all, not one little part of me.’
‘That’s not true. You will always be Greek. It’s more a state of mind than a piece of paper.’
‘Easy for you to say.’
Giannis’s voice held more than a trace of irritation, but he needed to get it all out there, and she’d just have to suck it up.
‘It states that Panos is your father on your birth certificate. That will never change.’
Legal documents had always held more sway with him than with the rest of the family. But she had to take his concerns seriously.
‘But I know the truth now. It’s not something I can forget, just like that…’
The clicking of her son’s fingers was loud in her ear.
‘I am sorry, Gianni, for everything. I never meant for you to find out the truth. And especially not like this.’
‘But why, Mama, why did you lie? Did you not love Christian? Did you not want to give yourselves a chance?’
Her elder son had always been a romantic, far more so than his brother. She owed it to him to be honest.
‘I can only speak for myself. I think we were in love back then, if we knew what love was, but we were too young to make a go of it. Christian was on the way up; he was becoming more and more well known in Britain. And with that fame comes pressure, pressure to be at the right places, be with the right people, and to use anything you can to help you perform, night after night.’
‘Are you talking about alcohol and drugs?’
‘As I say, that’s not my story.’
She wasn’t about to slag Christian off in front of his son.
‘What I will say is that I got to the point where I wasn’t sure if I trusted him totally. And once I realised I was pregnant with you, I couldn’t risk that for my precious baby.’
She reached over to take her son’s hand a moment.
‘Please don’t judge me. I was barely more than a girl. I fled to Greece to give myself time to think and met and fell in love with your father. It was totally unexpected but wonderful.’
‘And very handy.’
Suzie snatched her hand away.
‘No, Gianni mou. That’s mean. It wasn’t handy; it was real.
I’d left behind all I knew, and I could see a life here with your father.
Those split-second decisions can turn your life upside down.
Who knows if they’re right or wrong? But you can’t go through life with huge regrets hanging over you.
I have no regrets about choosing your father and bringing you up in Greece.
You had a childhood full of sunshine, sea and close family.
Don’t try and tell me that I did a bad thing, please. ’
Her son’s smile when it finally broke through was worth the wait.
‘I have no complaints about my upbringing, Mama. Or having a father, a brother … and a mother … that I love dearly.’
‘Well then.’
The smile faded like a shadow falling over his face.
‘But there’s no way I can call this man “father.” Panos is my father and always will be.’
‘I get it. I really do. But is there any way you can see a place for Christian in your life somewhere?’
Why was she petitioning on behalf of a man who, up until recently, hadn’t even known his son existed?
‘As what? A friend, an older brother, a spiritual guide? You tell me. What exactly are you envisioning, Mama? I’d really like to know.’
The bitterness in his voice shocked her to the core. She’d hoped he’d at least give Christian a chance. They weren’t getting very far.
‘I just thought—’
‘Spit it out, Mama.’
‘You’ve grown into a lovely man, Gianni mou. I know I would say that because you’re my son, but I’ve seen you fight so hard for others to get justice. Being fair is in your DNA, and I just thought maybe you could apply a little of that generosity of spirit here.’
She paused to let the words sink in.
‘So, are you asking me to accept this man as a second father? Daddy One and Daddy Two? So I can pick whichever one suits me on a particular day?’
‘Now you’re just being ridiculous.’
‘Ridiculous, am I?’
It was going from bad to worse. Christian wouldn’t be the only parent not involved in their son’s life, if she didn’t manage to catch this runaway horse.
‘Of course I’m not expecting you to call him Daddy.’
‘Thank God for that!’
Their voices had got louder and louder, as Lydia’s concerned appearance in the doorway brought home to her.
Suzie shook her head in the woman’s direction and watched her retreat.
‘I was just hoping that you could maybe spend some time with Christian while he’s on the island and get to know him a little. He’s a qualified ship’s captain—’
‘Bully for him.’
‘And a big fisherman. He’d love to take you sea fishing.’
It was like she was writing a Tinder profile for the man.
‘It would mean so much to him.’
Gianni was looking less like a nine-year-old boy trapped in a man’s body than he had at the start of their talk.
‘And what would me giving him a chance mean to you, Mama?’
‘What are you driving at?’
‘Are you planning to get back with him after all these years? Is that what this is all about?’
A gulp of coffee went down the wrong way, and Suzie’s coughing and streaming eyes brought Giannis rushing round from the other side of the table. He passed her a glass of water and rubbed her back gently until her breathing returned to normal and she could speak.
‘Absolutely not. Christian won’t stay that long. He never does. All I’m asking is for you to go out with him a few times, to see if you even like each other.’
Giannis’s sigh was long and loud.
‘OK, Mama. I’ll do it. Mainly for you, but I will admit to some curiosity about the man who gave life to me.’
Suzie took several small sips of water as Giannis returned to his seat.
‘Thank you, I don’t think you’ll regret it.’
His smile was back.
‘On your head be it.’
‘Fine. It’s a deal.’
Suzie looked down into her coffee cup.
‘We were just silly kids; it was all a thousand years ago, and it’s done, dusted and never to be revisited. I want you to know there’s no way I’d get back together with Christian even if he were the last man on earth.’