Chapter Fifteen
The next day Nina visited Maria, doing her best to placate her. She apologised, she brought ingredients to make baklava, she listened as Maria ranted about how selfish she’d been, she made her the best cup of coffee she could. And eventually she was forgiven.
‘How can I stay mad at you?’ Maria asked, patting her cheek and smiling.
Nina was surprised to find how relieved she was that Maria hadn’t cut ties with her after all.
They weren’t an obvious pair, perhaps, but there was something about this sparky woman that she was drawn to.
And she suspected that, for all her spiky exterior, Maria was a softie inside.
‘Your baba tell you more about your mama, moro mou?’ she asked as they sat waiting for the baklava to bake, the room filling with the aroma of butter, honey and lemon.
Nina sighed. ‘Not yet. I thought he might yesterday, but . . .’ She shrugged.
Maria tutted and folded her arms. ‘Silly boy. You want me to make him tell you? I can, he’s still scared of me, I see it.
’ She pointed two fingers of one hand at her eyes.
Nina stifled a smile. ‘I’ll go right now .
. .’ She stood up, wobbling a bit in her haste so that Nina also rose, reaching a steadying hand to her. She laughed.
‘No, it’s okay. Thanks, Maria. I appreciate the offer, though.’ She grinned, and Maria nodded as she lowered herself back into her chair. ‘But I think we could be getting closer; he told me a load of stuff about him being a kid here –’
‘Naughty kid,’ she grunted.
‘Naughty kid,’ Nina agreed. ‘And he’s never talked about his childhood before really, so hopefully . . .’
‘Selfish not to tell. You need to know about your own mama.’
Nina shrugged. ‘I know, but – it’s hard for him. I think he just really loved her, you know?’ Maria sighed and nodded. ‘But if I ever think he needs a telling-off, I’ll come straight to you.’
‘You do that,’ she said, grinning. ‘Now, quick-quick, those pies be burning.’
Nina reached the oven just before they caught, and then sat a little longer with Maria as they ate the delicious pastries, still slightly too hot, and shared stories, mostly about Theo’s cheeky antics.
All week Nina rose early, refreshed and motivated, to help Theo with the work on the house, and the harder she sanded and smoothed and pulled apart unwanted furnishings, the more she rediscovered her joy of DIY.
She’d forgotten, in her recent years of taking such care of her manicures, how much she enjoyed hands-on refurbishing.
Now, looking down at her chipped nails and roughened, reddened hands, her wrist bare as she’d left the bangle on the side so it didn’t get scratched, she could hardly bring herself to care.
Satisfaction at the swathe of smooth surfaces and clean walls she’d left in the wake of her hard work thrummed through her.
Their efforts were thwarted once by the protesters, who blocked the road to the house one morning with their ranting and chanting, preventing a truck getting through.
By the time they’d discovered what had happened to their missing supplies, Theo eventually calling the company to track them down, the protesters had gone.
Nina raged, ready to go on a rampage of the village until she found the culprits and gave them a piece of her mind, but Theo shook his head.
‘They’re coming tomorrow, isn’t a problem. Leave it alone, eh?’
Nina, secretly wondering how hard the delivery driver had tried given that the insurmountable blockage was likely a straggled bunch of a few half-hearted villagers, swallowed her anger.
Theo picked the skin around his thumbnail, his forehead wrinkled with worry, and she grudgingly accepted that causing more of a scene would only add to his problems.
As the week passed, he worked quietly, smiling at their progress and congratulating her on what she’d done.
But he was distracted, she could feel it.
There was none of his usual playful teasing, none of his usual enthusiasm for taking breaks in the courtyard to drink Mythos and eat a snack and admire the view.
Sometimes, she thought she heard him moving around in the middle of the night.
He wasn’t sleeping well, she was sure of it, the shadows under his eyes were growing deeper every day.
Even Vassilis noticed Theo’s low mood. ‘He okay?’ he asked, as they stole a quiet moment in the heat of the afternoon. ‘He seems . . .’ He shrugged.
‘Yeah, I don’t know, he’s not himself. These stupid protests are getting to him I think. He dismissed it at first, but now I think it’s too much.’
Vassilis stood frowning for a moment, picking at a rough bit of plaster on the wall. Eventually he shrugged. ‘These do-gooders, don’t know what they talk about.’
Nina nodded. ‘Right? They keep saying we’re damaging the wildlife but we can’t be, can we?’
‘Of course not,’ he said dismissively. ‘You’re just doing up the house, no problems.’ Nina let out the breath she’d been holding. He was local, surely he would know if they were accidentally causing some harm.
‘That’s what I thought. I mean, I understand why some people wouldn’t like the idea, but it’s just one little hotel and it won’t do any harm. To be honest Metalios could do with something to liven it up. And a few tourists will bring in a bit more money, won’t they, so I don’t –’
Vassilis chuckled, pulling her to him. ‘No need for all these worries,’ he said, soothingly.
‘What you’re doing is a good thing for the village, bring in just a little tourists, just a little more business for everyone.
This is exactly what Metalios needs.’ Relieved, Nina relaxed in his arms, allowing him to distract her as he pulled her in and kissed her slowly, sensually, until her head was spinning and she couldn’t think of anything else if she wanted to. Which, right now, she didn’t.
‘Hey,’ Theo called from the next room. ‘Why am I not hearing no hammering or such?’
They snapped apart and Nina stifled a giggle as Vassilis winked at her. ‘I take you out at the weekend, yes?’ He leaned in, brushed her neck with his lips. ‘You and me time,’ he whispered.
Nina couldn’t wait.
When Vassilis had gone, she showered and helped Theo make gyros. Comfortably dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, she felt refreshed, clean and cool after a satisfying day’s work. Theo smiled as she helped him chop and fry.
‘Your cooking lessons paying off, I see,’ he said.
Nina crunched a bit of cucumber. ‘Maria’s softer than she lets on.’
He snorted. ‘If you say so.’
He smiled and asked about her day and ate the food with almost his usual enthusiasm, but he still seemed flat. Pushing away his almost empty plate, he sighed, rubbing his hands over his face.
‘That was delicious,’ she said. He smiled, lips stretched tight, eyes dull. Nina reached across the table and placed her hand over his. ‘You okay, Baba?’
‘Of course.’ His attempt at a smile was a little more convincing this time. ‘I’m always okay, and here in this beautiful place with my beautiful girl – even better. Just tired, is all,’ he said. ‘Tired old man.’
Nina squeezed his hand. ‘You’re not old. Maybe you’re working a bit too hard? Why don’t you go and rest, and I’ll wash up.’
And Theo, who would usually insist on helping, who would usually grumble and tease about the standard of her dishwashing and flap around the tea towel in some overly dramatic display of good-humoured exasperation, simply nodded and sloped off to the courtyard, his shoulders stooped.
Nina washed up, trying to shake the niggling concerns about her dad. He was tired, wasn’t he, like he said; nothing more to it than that. A bit of rest and he’d be just right again.
She could almost convince herself.
Tired herself, she decided to head to bed when she’d finished.
She went to fetch her bangle and say goodnight to Theo, but the bracelet wasn’t where she’d left it.
Nina dampened down the panic that spiked in her as best she could; there would be an explanation.
Theo must have moved it. Realistically, what else could have happened?
‘Baba?’ she asked, trying to keep the tension out of her voice. ‘Did you move my bangle?’
He turned around, dragging his gaze from the sea view, nodded. ‘I put it in your room. Safekeeping.’
He smiled, and she kissed him, relief flooding through her.
‘Great, thank you. I’m going to bed.’
She took the stairs two at a time, still a little shaken, imagining already the feel of the smooth, solid metal in her hand, the bracelet that had touched her mum’s skin soon to be resting on her own, the symbo5l of her parents’ love.
But when she reached her room, no matter how carefully she looked, the bracelet wasn’t to be found.
‘Baba,’ she called. ‘My bracelet isn’t here.’
He appeared in the doorway, frowning. ‘But I . . . I thought I had . . .’ He sighed. ‘Stupid old man, I will help you look for it.’
They searched the house together, every surface, every drawer, under every piece of furniture.
Nothing. Nina tried to stay calm, but her head throbbed with a near-panic; it couldn’t be lost, not this, of everything she owned.
The one thing that truly connected her to her mum, the one thing she remembered her wearing, day-in and day-out.
The thing that made her feel as though she was still here, somehow, guiding Nina by the hand, embracing her and cheering her on. It couldn’t be gone. It just couldn’t.
But it was.
‘Baba, think. Where might you have put it?’ She tried to stay calm, to quell the distress that rose in her.
He held his palms out, shoulders high and tears standing in his eyes. ‘I – I am certain I put it in your room.’
And the fury finally came crashing through. ‘But it’s not in my bloody room, is it?’ she yelled. ‘It’s not where I left it because you moved it, and now it’s gone, you put it somewhere and now it’s gone. What’s wrong with you?’
Theo ran trembling hands through his hair.
He looked distraught, and on some level guilt surged in Nina that she was making him feel so bad, but it was overwhelmed by grief over the bracelet.
‘I – I don’t know,’ he said desperately.
‘Perhaps – maybe you put it on again and it fell off? When you were out maybe?’
His face was pale and the tears in his eyes threatened to spill over. Nina couldn’t bear to see him like this, but neither could she contain her anger with him at losing the bracelet, her most precious possession.
‘Ugh, you’re useless,’ she snapped, turning on her heel and leaving, slamming the door behind her.
She hadn’t touched the bracelet since she’d taken it off that morning, she knew she hadn’t.
It hadn’t fallen from her wrist. Her mind was reeling and she was desperate; she would try anything at this point, she would give anything to see it again, to run her finger over the metal knowing she was touching what her mum had touched.
The bracelet wasn’t anywhere to be found in the house. They’d gone through every room, cupboard and drawer looking for it; there was nowhere left to look.
Despairing, Nina decided to go and search the places she’d been recently: the café, the cliffs, the beach.
She couldn’t have lost it outside. But she would search anyway. She would do anything to have it back.