Chapter Twenty
Theo was given the all-clear, his heart checked and blood pressure taken.
The verdict – fit as a beetle, he declared, and this time Nina didn’t have the heart to correct him.
He was still pale, shaken by the panic attack and the fear that it had been something worse.
She guided him out to where George still sat on the plastic chair in the corridor, scrolling on his phone as he waited.
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Hi, Theo. Glad you’re okay.’
‘Thank you for bringing me, young man.’ Theo walked to him and patted him on the back. ‘And thank you for looking after my Nina,’ he said quietly, leaning in.
George’s gaze flicked to her, and Nina, caught in his blue eyes, felt herself blush. ‘I didn’t need looking after,’ she protested. ‘But George has been very kind.’
George said nothing, just walked out with them at Theo’s rather slow pace, and then drove them all back in Maria’s battered Toyota Yaris. When he pulled up outside the house, getting out to help Theo, Vassilis stepped out from the shadow by the wall.
The two men made eye contact, and Nina sensed a flicker of hostility, though neither spoke or acknowledged the other’s presence. George turned to Nina.
‘Thank you so much,’ she said quietly, wanting a moment just between the two of them. ‘I don’t know what I’d have done without you.’
She looked up into his face, cheekbones and a sprinkle of freckles against his tan, and felt a gentleness in his gaze. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Vassilis called her name. The anguish in his voice dampened the flash of irritation she felt, but only a little.
George’s gaze flicked over her head to Vassilis, and his expression turned stony. ‘Ah,’ he said, ignoring Vassilis and smiling a little tightly. ‘You’d have been fine.’
Nina doubted it.
He was gone before she had the chance to say anything more, climbing into the car and slamming the door a little hard, she thought. And while George was still turning the car around outside the house, and Theo was still holding unsteadily onto her arm, Vassilis was upon her.
He smiled and spread his arms, tipping his head in attempt, she assumed, to show remorse.
‘Forgive me,’ he said. ‘We had a – I should have been more patient.’ He leaned in to kiss her cheek, his stubble grazing her skin lightly.
The touch of his lips still sent a shiver through her.
‘I’m sorry, I – well, there is no excuse.
I was a bad man, but I will do better again, I promise this. Let’s try again tonight.’
The pain in his voice was a far cry from his usual confidence, and she was tempted for a moment to forgive him. But then remembered how dismissive he’d been the night before.
Was it only the night before? It felt a lifetime ago.
‘My dad’s been in the hospital,’ she said.
And for the first time, Vassilis looked at Theo, perhaps only now registering that they were just arriving home instead of having breakfast as they usually would be at this time.
Nina didn’t mention that she had been awake all night, that she’d been worried sick and that she was exhausted to her bones.
Let alone the fact that she was still angry with him. She didn’t have the energy.
‘You okay?’ Vassilis asked Theo. ‘I hope nothing serious?’
‘Yes, yes. Fusspot here is making a mountain out of a molecule.’
‘Molehill,’ Nina instinctively corrected, putting her arm through his.
‘This is good,’ said Vassilis. He turned to Nina.
‘Okay, we’ll talk later.’ He nodded, and stepped back respectfully to give Theo some space.
Theo smiled weakly, leaning heavily on Nina’s arm.
With each blink his eyes remained closed a little longer, like a child defying sleep, and Nina just wanted to get him rested and well.
‘I will do all the work today,’ Vassilis added, flashing a smile that she would usually find irresistibly charming. ‘You two need rest, yes?’
‘Yes,’ Nina said, heaving Theo towards the door and scrabbling for her keys. ‘We need sleep. Go home, Vassilis. I don’t want to talk to you today.’
A wave of shock washed over his face. She suspected he wasn’t used to being rejected. But she was too tired to tiptoe around his feelings right now.
She didn’t watch him leave.
Nina helped Theo up the stairs to his room, where he fell on to the bed fully clothed. She barely had enough energy herself to brush her teeth and wash her face before closing the shutters and crawling into her own blissfully comfortable bed.
She was exhausted and she’d missed an entire night’s sleep.
She should black out immediately. But every time she closed her eyes an image of the previous night rose to taunt her: Theo, lying pale and panicked at the roadside, or sitting in the hospital bed, looking smaller than she’d ever seen him; Vassilis, scowling across the table at a luxurious restaurant, his beautiful lips set in a sulky line; George, blue eyes filled with sympathy as she talked about her mum.
George had understood. The man who had driven her half mad with fury at his antics, who had shattered the peace of her summer with Baba, who had thwarted their plans for the house and their attempts to settle into the village, and insulted her a number of times.
He had been the one who understood how much the bracelet meant to her, and her need to search the beach with no realistic prospect of finding it.
He’d understood how hard Theo’s refusal to talk about her mum was.
He’d respected her concern about Theo’s disappearance and helped her look for him.
Vassilis had clearly not understood at all, any of what she was feeling. Nor the extent of her sadness at losing the bracelet.
Nina opened her eyes, shifting in the bed.
The blankets had tangled around her feet and she felt trapped and a little panicked.
She watched the light through the slats in the shutters, the floor ribboned with gold.
It was daylight, and perhaps that was why she couldn’t seem to sleep, no matter how exhausted she felt.
An image of the room freshly painted, the floorboards sanded and varnished, and a rug with rich, warm hues floated through her mind.
A beautiful place for guests to stay. And an idea came to her, a way of persuading Theo that selling up wasn’t the only option.
She turned onto her stomach, pummelling the pillow to plump it, and lay back down with a sigh, closing her eyes.
Tears still burned her eyes as she thought of the loss of her bracelet. But at least Theo was now safe and well; she’d never again let herself lose sight of the fact that the people in her life were more important than the things, no matter what memories those things carried with them.
Her thoughts drifted on, returning to George and the moment of awkwardness when she’d mentioned his girlfriend.
The shutting down of his face, the way he’d crossed his arms and turned his body away from her.
Perhaps he just didn’t like her prying. But she had a sense that there was more to it than that; he’d talked about everything else openly enough.
His silence on this particular subject only piqued her interest more, and she found herself imagining every possible scenario: he was married with five children; he’d been happily living with his boyfriend for years; he was a player who’d never settled down.
Someone had broken his heart and he couldn’t bear to think about it.
Nina didn’t know why she cared, anyway.
Sighing, she pushed back the covers and got out of bed. Clearly, she wasn’t going to sleep.
In the kitchen she found Theo, bags under his eyes, making strong coffee and heating milk.
‘Baba . . .’ She shook her head. ‘What did I tell you about coffee?’
Theo looked sheepish. ‘Please, I have not had my coffee for many hours now.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Anyway, I thought you were sleeping?’ she said trying not to sound too accusatory.
He shrugged. ‘A bit but – ah, who can sleep in the daylight, eh?’ He handed her a hot cup of coffee.
She took it gratefully, breathing in the earthy aroma. ‘Not us, apparently.’
They carried the drinks to the courtyard, sitting under the shade of the tree. Nina sipped the creamy liquid, savouring the mellow flavour and closing her eyes as she felt the caffeine diffuse through her, gently bringing the world back into focus.
‘No work today,’ Theo said.
‘Day off won’t do any harm.’ Nina opened one eye and peeped at Theo; he was gazing out over the wall to the view of the sea below.
‘Baba, this hotel you’re going to sell to, is it a big chain?
Only George said that it was, and he said that the lights from the bar or whatever will be bad for the turtles and that –’
Theo waved a hand, as though her words were an irritating mosquito that could be swatted away. ‘Oh George-this, George-that, why you so interested in this boy all suddenly? He talks nonsense.’
‘Well, he seemed pretty knowledgeable actually, and I wondered if there’s another way we can go – maybe a smaller hotel or something? This is important to me, Baba. We don’t want to damage the village, do we? We need to protect the wildlife; he said it could really harm the turtles on the beach.’
He sighed. ‘Okay. For you, I will check this out. I will talk to the hotel and see what they say about these turtles. Yes?’
Nina nodded. It was a start, and perhaps there was a way that the turtles could be protected, and Baba could still sell to who he wanted.
‘But I don’t think there will be any worries, Antheia. This is just George, getting all worked up about things, he is always this way. Now he’s getting you all worked up with him.’ He shook his head. ‘But this Vassilis, he is a nice boy. Good Greek boy.’
Nina snorted. ‘I’m not sure about that; he wasn’t so nice last night.’
‘Why? He been cheating on you?’