The Summer House in Santorini

The Summer House in Santorini Samantha Parks The Summer House in Santorini Samantha Parks One More Chapter an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk) First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019 Copyright © Samantha Parks 2019 Cover images© Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com) Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019 Samantha Parks asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 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Source ISBN: 9780008324452 Ebook Edition © August 2019 ISBN: 9780008324445 Version: 2019-07-25 Table of Contents Cover (#ub68eefce-c960-5e13-ab78-ff4bc6f06615) Title Page (#u9a17ee0e-68ef-54b8-b265-c397deca5c56) Copyright (#u546ab3ff-da62-5621-983b-2691c1f77859) Dedication (#uc9b34e3b-5938-544b-af26-6232412a19bd) Introduction (#u06e12507-7322-5de2-b8ed-8a293f0774bb) Chapter 1 (#ue4c53e53-55c8-5f39-9c52-8bc9ef4daec4) Chapter 2 (#ue0a1ed05-e807-5243-bec1-f4945029e9b4) Chapter 3 (#u5aef9598-db2b-5686-bd41-0bc62a11479f) Chapter 4 (#u39b341a4-0d85-54b4-850a-c69d8fa2d37b) Chapter 5 (#u49f5182e-5a46-551f-bbbe-34b0b437b7c9) Chapter 6 (#u01c6f6c4-6bb4-54ca-a23d-d543c2bf3467) Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo) Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo) Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo) About the Author (#litres_trial_promo) About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo) Dedication (#ua54c0591-9e0e-5c23-bdfd-6746636682af) To Averi and Shauna, my gorgeous, strong, passionate sisters. When faced with hard decisions, I hope you always choose to stay true to yourselves. Something like four thousand years ago, before Troy had fallen, in the height of the Bronze Age of Greece, a volcano erupted in the Aegean, the force of which is unrivaled to this day. The tiny island of Thera was destroyed, ripped apart from the middle, birthing legends of hidden cities and buried treasure that would perpetuate for millennia to come. The volcano erupted over and over again, its magma chamber refilling and depleting, until the entire area had been devastated beyond recognition. But Thera did not die. It became Santorini, or Thira, a small archipelago of islands – one large, reverse-C-shaped one and a few smaller ones – with an ecosystem defined by its volcanic history. The ashy soil birthed unbelievable produce, especially grapes for wine. The caldera that had formed from the island’s near destruction made for a gorgeous landscape, and tourists eventually found their way to the hidden treasure of Santorini. In the middle of the island is a small village called Exo Gonia, a town where, from some points in the village, the sea can be seen on every side. The roads up into the village are curvy and narrow, lined on both sides by whitewashed walls concealing houses and gardens that extend farther back into the hills than is evident at first glance. At the top of one such road – up the hill from the Agios Charalambos, a beautiful yellow church with three crosses atop round spires – is a small white house with three archways out front and views over Kamari and the Aegean Sea. The house was built with just one bedroom. The four-poster bed was carved by the grandson of the man who built the house. He built the kitchen table as well; a long, trestled work of art with knots in the sides and a shine on the top from so many years of food and wine and love and laughter. And when he was done, he made a new front door from the same wood and hung it proudly in the frame. The family who lives in this house is a humble one. The man of the house is a builder; his wife, a seamstress. The man has lived in the house his whole life. In fact, the house has been in the man’s family for over two hundred years, built by the first of the family to set foot on Santorini, rearing generation after generation of builders who have lovingly cared for and maintained the house, which has remained largely unchanged. That is, until the man had a son. And that son became a builder, too, and he wanted to add onto the house. But his father wouldn’t let him alter it, so he started building in the garden. He had dreams of entertaining guests from all over the world; strangers who would become friends simply by sitting across the knotted table and eating a meal plucked from the garden and sleeping nestled in the hills of the most beautiful island in the world. “The summer house,” he called it; the thing that would bring new people and new adventures to their tiny little corner of Exo Gonia on the island of Santorini. He decorated it with yellow paint and his hopes of a more exciting life. Only one person would come to stay in the summer house as long as the man’s son lived, but she would change their world forever. 1 (#ua54c0591-9e0e-5c23-bdfd-6746636682af) Anna had always thought that Manhattan summer was the closest one could get to hell, as least as far as temperature was concerned. But as she stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac in Thira, she realized there was a whole other level to that particular inferno, and it was in Greece. Santorini, to be specific. The sun shone a blinding white, and Anna scrambled to pull her sunglasses out of her purse. As she put them on and the glare subsided, she saw that the sky was a brilliant blue with not a cloud in sight. Off in the distance to her right, the sky and sea melded together at some point that Anna couldn’t quite determine. The airport itself wasn’t much to look at. Anna wasn’t sure what she was expecting – a whitewashed stone building with a blue-painted roof and a cross on top, perhaps? – but she was expecting more grandeur than what she saw as she entered the terminal. The building was white, but that was about the only part of it that met her expectations. Anna was running through in her mind the different ways in which she could introduce herself to her grandparents. “Hi, Mr and Mrs Xenakis. I know we’ve never met, but I’m your granddaughter, here to sell your summer house out from under you. Hope that’s cool.” She’d have to work on that one. Maybe a drink would help. According to a quick Google search (her international data charges would be through the roof when she got back, but she would manage), the address her sister Lizzy had given her for her grandfather was only about a mile and a half away as the crow flies, but it would take Anna nearly half an hour on a bus to get there, as walking with her three bags was out of the question. So as she went through Immigration – which was incredibly relaxed – she began looking for signs pointing to the buses. Or maybe she’d get to ride a donkey? She remembered seeing in a film once that tourists got to ride donkeys up and down the steep steps, and she started mentally counting her euros to determine if she’d have enough for a donkey ride and lunch. How much was a donkey ride, anyway? Five euros? Fifty? She only had fifty with her, so she hoped it was less. Riding a donkey sounded… well, not exactly appealing, but appropriate. As she walked through Arrivals, she skimmed over some of the signs being held up for people by their drivers, but there was only one sign that made her do a double-take – in big block letters on a piece of cardboard, it said: “LINTON”. The man holding the sign stood out from the others as well, not because he looked familiar, but because he was a head taller than everyone else around him. His thick dark hair fell to just above his shoulders, though the top half was tied back away from his face. His arms were lean but visibly strong, and the contours of his muscular chest were visible through his white tee shirt. He wore khaki pants that were covered in paint. Not your typical car-driver’s uniform, but Anna instantly thought of her grandfather’s construction company and began to wonder if the man really could be there for her. But no one knew she was coming… did they? The man waved as Anna walked nearer. So maybe he was there for her. Or was he just flirting? If she was being honest, Anna wasn’t sure which she preferred. “You’re Anna?” he asked when she was close enough. He knew her name. Damn, not flirting. At least she was getting a ride, though. “Yeah, that’s me,” she said, sticking out her hand. The man shook it, his long fingers wrapping firmly around her own, and Anna had to remind herself how a handshake worked. “I didn’t realize I was getting picked up.” The man didn’t respond; he just tucked the sign under his arm and started walking away, so Anna followed. “You don’t look half-Greek,” the man said without turning around. “Well, I am,” Anna said, rolling her eyes. What did it matter? Half the people in the airport were white and blonde. “Who told you to come pick me up?” “I work for your grandfather,” he said, shoving the sign into a bin as they walked past before carrying on. Apparently that would have to do for an explanation, as he didn’t offer any further insight as to how they knew she was coming. Anna replaced her sunglasses as they went outside, ready for the brightness this time, but the heat still caught her off guard. “Your English is really good,” she said, hobbling behind him as he walked. “I went to university in London,” he replied without turning around. He kept walking past the cars waiting out front, and Anna figured his car must be in one of the parking areas further on. She struggled to keep up, her duffel bag hitting the backs of her legs, her handbag strap straining against her shoulder and her heels catching on her roller bag as she did a funny little run/walk behind him. After a couple minutes of walking in silence, him a few paces ahead of her with her legs moving in double-time to keep up, Anna had become confused. They had now walked past the turnoff to the parking areas, assuming a big “P” meant parking in Greece as well. In fact, they were headed out of the airport grounds altogether. “Um, sorry, but where are we going?” He looked back at her over his shoulder, his eyebrows pressed together and his mouth in a half-smile, an amused look on his face. “To meet your grandparents, obviously.” “Yeah, but where is your car?” He laughed. “So sorry, Princess Anna, no car service for you.” Anna frowned, and the man pointed ahead to a bus stop. Dozens of other people were huddled outside. “I could have taken the bus by myself,” she said, hoisting her slipping duffel bag back over her shoulder. He simply shrugged. At that moment, a bus appeared around the corner. They were still a couple hundred meters away. “Give me your bag,” he said. “We have to run.” Anna felt a bead of sweat drip down her back and shook her head. “No way. Not in this heat.” But she handed over her duffel bag anyway, thankful for the lightening of her load and a bit offended he hadn’t offered sooner. He took the bag and sped up. “No, really, we have to run or we’ll miss the bus!” “Then we’ll catch the next one!” “No, we won’t,” he said insistently. “There isn’t another one for over an hour, and I am not waiting around until then.” And then he took off running as the bus stopped, leaving Anna behind. Anna pulled her small suitcase up by the handle and started running after him. She wasn’t about to walk – or wait, for that matter – by herself in this heat. The people who had been waiting by the stop were pushing onto the bus at an impressive rate, and Anna wished they’d get on more slowly to buy her some time. The man who was escorting her had already disappeared into the crowd, but Anna was still too far away. She pushed herself as fast as her legs could move her, her suitcase awkwardly bashing against her side with every step. She ignored it, willing herself forward. She had to make this bus. But she wasn’t so lucky. When she was still fifty meters away at least, the bus pulled away, leaving behind it a cloud of dust. Anna stopped running and bent over, half in devastation at missing the bus and half to catch her breath. She couldn’t believe he had left her alone after specifically telling her she couldn’t navigate it alone! She also had no idea where to go next. He even had one of her bags. She pulled her phone out of her purse and checked her cell signal. Despite having full bars at the airport, out here there was basically nothing. Not enough to pull up directions to the house, anyway. She was officially stranded. But as the cloud of dust cleared, she saw a figure standing by the bus stop, holding a pink duffel bag. It was her escort. “You waited for me!” she called, amazed but smiling, then noticed his face was stern. “You made us miss the bus,” he said, his frown set so deeply that Anna now couldn’t picture a different facial expression on him. She opened her mouth to apologize, but he pushed past her and began walking down the road, leaving her duffel bag behind. Anna grabbed it and followed, struggling once again to keep up. After half a mile, she began to realize that they were going to walk all the way to the house like this. She called out a couple of times to ask for help with her bags, but her escort continued to ignore her, keeping twenty meters or so between them, even when she tried to close the gap. So all Anna could do was trudge on. Nearly an hour later, Anna scowled as they arrived at a big resort. Her escort still hadn’t given a word of instruction. He just strolled through the automatic glass doors and across the marbled floor to reception, whispering something to the young man behind the counter before disappearing down a hallway. This couldn’t be right. The man at the desk looked at Anna expectantly. She walked up to the large counter, which looked like it was made out of driftwood, set her handbag down on it and dropped her duffel bag and suitcase at her feet. “Are you here to check in?” the man asked. “No, I’m looking for my grandfather Christos Xenakis. Does he…” Anna looked around, hesitant to ask what seemed like a silly question. “…does he live here?” The man sneered. “Christos is a worker. A builder. Right now, he will be in the staff room, having lunch. It’s just down that hallway, last door on the right.” He pointed to an open door behind him to the left, beyond which a hallway stretched. The hallway down which her escort had disappeared. “Can I leave my bags here?” “Sorry,” he said, “bag drop is for guests only.” Then he picked up a walkie talkie off the desk and walked away. What is it with nobody wanting to help me today? Anna thought. She put her handbag over her shoulder, picked up her suitcase and duffel bag, and headed toward the door. But as she came around the desk, a short Greek man came through the doorway and locked eyes with her. He had thick eyebrows, leathery skin and a giant handlebar mustache. He would have looked like a cartoon villain if it weren’t for the broad grin that was getting bigger the closer he got. “Anna!” he shouted – loud enough that some other people in the lobby turned to look – and wrapped her in a hug, her hands still clutching her suitcase handles. This must be her grandfather. She wondered again how he knew she was coming. “Hi, Christos,” she said, letting go of her bags and lightly patting his back. After what Anna felt was a few seconds too long, he finally released her. He furrowed his brow and stared at her, and she touched her face to make sure there wasn’t anything on her to make him look so concerned. “You…” he started, closing his eyes as if to focus more. Anna realized he was simply struggling to find the right words in English. “You eat?” he finally managed, petting his stomach to emphasize his meaning. “No, I haven’t,” Anna said, shaking her head to make sure he could understand. He smiled at her and grabbed her bags, nodding for her to follow as he headed back down the corridor. As they went, Anna realized that she was actually quite hungry. She could go for a gyro or some hummus, or whatever Greek people actually ate for lunch? There was the smell of something delicious on the air, and it seemed familiar, though Anna couldn’t quite place it. Maybe it was something from her childhood? As they walked through the doors, someone threw a small white package at Christos, and he dropped one of Anna’s bags to catch it. Anna looked around to see what was going on and spotted a young man throwing things to people all over the room out of a brown paper bag. A brown paper bag with a big yellow “M” on it. Of course she would come halfway around the world and still not be able to escape McDonald’s. Every man in the room – and they were all men – was now biting into a burger or eating fries from the distinctive red cardboard holder. Not quite what she would have imagined, but it explained the familiar smell at least, a smell now accompanied by sweat and paint. The men were all dressed the same with the same complexion: hair so dark it was almost black, olive skin, and dark eyes with long, luscious lashes. There were a couple who were middle-aged or older like her grandfather, but the rest were all young and muscular and looked like they should be in an Olympic God of the Month calendar. She was the only woman in a room full of Adonises – not that she was complaining. But as they started to notice her, she saw that their gazes were less flirtatious, not even curious, but more annoyed. The way she would look at tourists who walked too slowly on the sidewalk in Manhattan. From across the room, she saw her escort amidst the mass of white tee shirts, leaning against the wall and laughing at something one of the other guys had said. He was holding a burger, and, as he took a massive bite out of it, he caught her eye and winked. She felt herself tense everywhere, and her cheeks went red. She tried to remind herself of the ordeal she had endured at his hand to get here, but still she smiled when he started walking toward her. “Hungry?” he asked as he walked up, grabbing a spare burger the delivery guy had left on the table and offering it to her. She hadn’t eaten McDonald’s since she was a kid; her father had taken her after school a few times, but her mother had forbidden it once he’d left, and the habit had stuck once she’d moved to Manhattan. Plus, who needed fast-food restaurants when there was a twenty-four-hour falafel cart less than a block from her building? But she was hungry, so she took the burger from him and unwrapped it, relishing the smell of the salty beef as it hit her nose. “It’s the least you can do,” she said before sinking her teeth into the burger. “What do you mean?” “You made me drag my bags all the way across the island, ignoring me the whole time,” she replied, her mouth full. “If I hadn’t been able to keep up, I would still be lost out there.” He rolled his eyes. “First of all, the airport is not on the other side of the island. Second, you made it just fine, didn’t you?” “No thanks to you,” she said, but she smiled despite herself. “I’m Anna,” she said, sticking out her hand. “I know, I picked you up from the airport,” he said, shaking his head. Anna retracted her hand. “I remember, but I was giving you a chance to introduce yourself properly.” “Ah, okay,” he said, wiping his hand on his pants before extending it. Based on their state, Anna wasn’t sure it would do any good. “Nikolas Doukas.” Anna swapped her burger to her left hand and shook Nikolas’s hand with her right. She felt the same tension as she had at the airport, but she managed to shake hands fairly naturally this time. “Nice to meet you, Nikolas,” she replied, trying her best to emulate the accent in which he pronounced his name. He chuckled in response. “What?” “For someone who’s half-Greek, your accent is terrible,” he said. “Well, what am I supposed to do about that?” “You can call me Nikos. Everybody else does.” “Nikos,” she said, much more naturally. “How’s that?” “Much better.” He was still holding her hand, and he shook it again. “Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t help you with your bags. Here in Greece, our women can carry their own luggage.” “Yeah, because Greece is so famous for its progressive feminism,” Anna said, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, well, we’re making up for lost time,” Nikos said, tilting his head. “You’re here about the summer house, right?” “Yeah, just to get it signed over and maybe on the market.” Nikos chuckled. “On the market? In a week? You’ll certainly have your work cut out for you.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “You’ll see,” Nikos said with a dismissive wave. “Tomorrow is my day off. I’ll come by and help you out.” Anna nodded. “I don’t know how much help I’ll need, but sure. You can make up for today.” Nikos laughed and nodded. “I have to get back to work in a moment, but help yourself to some more food. Kostas brought more than enough with him.” Then he touched her lightly on the shoulder and left. Alone now, she looked around her, seeing people’s eyes flicker over to her and then away again. She leaned against the wall eating her burger, but no one came to speak to her. In fact, people actively avoided her as they moved around the room, giving her a wide berth. A woman came through the door, a Serious Business Woman with a white blouse, stilettos and a power-bob haircut. She looked around the room, greeting some of the guys, then spotted Anna. “Hello,” she said, walking up with her arm outstretched. Anna set her burger down to shake her hand. “I’m Xenia.” “Anna Linton.” “Nice to meet you, Anna. What are you doing in my staff room?” Anna looked around. “I’m here with my grandfather,” she said, “Christos Xenakis. Nikos brought me here.” “Oh, you’re Giorgos’s daughter!” she said, smiling. “I heard you were coming. Welcome to Santorini, and to Kamari Sands Resort.” “Thanks, it’s my first time here,” she said. “Are you the manager here?” “I own it, actually. Family business. Just bringing it into the twenty-first century, which is why these guys are here.” She gestured to the workmen all around the room. “Nice,” Anna said. “Very impressive.” “So, what brings you to the island for the first time?” “Well…” Anna said, rubbing her hands together, “how much do you know about my parents?” “Not much,” Xenia said, shaking her head. “I mean, I knew your dad, but only casually.” “Well, my parents met here while my mom was traveling, then she got pregnant and they moved back to Connecticut, where my mom is from. My mom had my sister and then me, and Giorgos had a string of affairs, so my mom kicked him out and he lost his green card. When he died a few months ago, he left me and my sister his house, apparently. So I’m here to sell it.” Xenia nodded and inhaled sharply. Anna had definitely given too much information, but she wasn’t sure when she’d have another opportunity to talk to someone from Santorini who wasn’t already on Giorgos’s side. “Question for you,” Anna said, changing the subject. “Does everyone speak such good English? Nikos does too, but not my grandfather.” Xenia shrugged. “It differs, but Nikos and I both went abroad for college. I went to Dartmouth in New Hampshire, and he went somewhere in the UK, I think.” Anna nodded, stifling a yawn; she would have to get a nap in at some point. “You’ll be fine,” Xenia said with a smile. “Besides, your grandmother’s English is excellent. Now don’t hold off on your lunch on my account. I’ll see you later.” “Thanks, see you later,” Anna said as Xenia left. The guys were starting to filter out, so she grabbed a seat at the table and ate the rest of her burger. There was an order of fries on there, too, so she ate that as well. Afterwards, she sat there for another fifteen minutes or so until her grandfather walked back into the room. “Anna!” he shouted, just like he had when he first saw her. She would have to get used to that. “You eat?” Anna nodded. “Yes, yes, I ate,” she replied, getting up and walking over to him. “Now where is your home?” she asked, putting both her arms over her head like a roof when he frowned, clearly not getting it. Finally, his eyes lit up with understanding. “Home!” he said, just as enthusiastically as he had said her name. “Wait,” he added, holding up both hands, and left the room again. Already getting used to her grandfather’s disappearing/reappearing acts, Anna decided she would simply wait for him to return again. So, as the room fully emptied of Greek men, leaving behind wrappers and bags and stray fries, Anna sat back down at the table and put her head down. An undetermined amount of time later, a hand shook Anna awake. “Who’s there?” she asked, opening her eyes and looking around, feeling a throbbing pain in her neck. How long had she been asleep? As she turned, she saw a woman, maybe in her sixties or seventies, stood behind her with her arms folded across her chest. She wore a navy floral dress with a wide collar and a white apron tied around her plump waist. Her greying hair was secured in a bun with a pencil. She looked like every grandmother from every storybook ever. Which was fitting, since Anna knew from Lizzy’s photos that this woman was her grandmother. “Hi, Eirini,” Anna said, unsure of how much she would understand. “We go home?” “Yes, we’ve been ready to go for twenty minutes now,” she said, surprising Anna with her perfect English. “Christos is more patient than I am. If you’re coming with us, please do so now.” Anna nodded, standing up, grabbing her bags and following Eirini back down the corridor and out the front door. The sun was now low in the sky; Anna must have napped for hours. No wonder her neck hurt. A white pickup truck sat just outside, with Christos in the driver’s seat. Eirini motioned to the back, where tools and building materials crowded the bed. “You want me to sit back there?” Anna asked, peering over the edge and trying to find an empty spot big enough for her to sit. “No, of course not. Just throw your bags in the back and sit between Christos and me.” Eirini sighed and stood with the door open. Anna smiled feebly and nodded, placing her duffel and her roller bag as carefully as possible in the back, but a tool fell loose anyway and clattered about a bit. Anna looked up at Eirini, who was rolling her eyes at Christos. Eirini then ushered Anna into the cab of the truck, squeezing in next to her, pushing her further and further across the bench until she was pressed up against Christos, who just smiled at her with both his hands on the steering wheel. As they pulled away from the resort, Anna saw the view out over the island for the first time. She could now see clearly the roads of Kamari that had walled her in before, all of them pointing toward the azure sea. It wasn’t the Santorini she had pictured, with winding paths that cut between white stone houses with domed blue roofs that blended in with the sky. But as they wound through farmland and vineyards, she thought it was beautiful nonetheless. She wondered what the view would be like from the summer house. And as they started up a hill and the airport came into view in the distance, Anna remembered how she had ended up in Santorini to begin with. 2 (#ua54c0591-9e0e-5c23-bdfd-6746636682af) Four days earlier, Manhattan Until that moment, the worst moment of Anna’s life had been the night just after New Year’s when she’d found out her father had died. Her mother had mentioned it in passing, right in between a summary of the previous weekend’s yoga retreat and an interrogation of Anna’s dating life. The news that her father, the man who had given her life, had dropped dead of a heart attack was apparently on the same level as how well the other middle-aged faux yogis could hold a downward dog. Not that they had been close, of course, Anna and her father. At least not recently. He had left when Anna was six, riding away in a taxi as Anna’s mother had screamed down the street after him, yelling all sorts of names and insults, the white of her satin robe fluttering in the darkness as the wind caught it and tore it open. Anna’s big sister, Lizzy, eight at the time, held Anna close as she watched from the window and called down to her mama. Lizzy thought Anna was screaming because she was sad and scared but, really, she just wanted to tell her mother that her robe was open, and neighbors were starting to peek through their windows at the commotion. She had wondered for twenty years how someone could be so angry and embarrassed and in pain that they stood in the street with a boob out without realizing it. But now, as Anna stood on Fifth Avenue, looking up at the third-story window of the man who was both her boss and her lover and saw another woman pressed against it, him behind her, both of them naked, faces twisted up in passion and agony and pleasure, Anna understood. She could be in a bathrobe, flapping open in the breeze, the whole of Manhattan staring at her, and she wouldn’t be able to think anything but, “You fool. You fool, you fool, you ABSOLUTE FOOL.” Like a mantra of disbelief, it kept coming. She was devastated, but not for the reason she should have been. Marcus, the man she had been seeing for over a year, was fucking another woman right in front of her. Unknowingly, of course, but that didn’t make it any less jarring. But staring up at their bodies squished against the window, leaving sweat marks on the glass, she felt defeated. She felt worthless. She didn’t mean anything to him. She had had no delusions of romance, but it wasn’t until that moment that she understood exactly what she was to him: convenient. When Anna had been five years old, she’d been chosen as the “Model Student” of her kindergarten class for the month of May. This meant that she was kind to her classmates, did well on assignments, and was the first to volunteer for things. To be honest, she wasn’t actually that social; she was quite shy, even as a child. A new Model Student was chosen every month, and there were only twelve children in her class. Eliminate the ones who got in trouble a lot, and Anna was pretty much guaranteed the title at some point in the year, regardless of how bold or social she actually was. But that didn’t matter to five-year-old Anna. She brought her shiny yellow ribbon home that day and presented it proudly to her parents as she walked through the front door after school. Her father, Giorgos – the girls called him Baba, but their mother always introduced him as George – scooped her into a hug and tossed her in the air, spinning her around and cheering. Grace, Anna’s mother, simply said “well done” and poured herself another glass of wine. Anna asked if she could hang the ribbon on the refrigerator, but her mother said that that space was only for important things to remember. Giorgos had looked coolly at his wife, but then nuzzled Anna’s hair and smiled. “What your mother means, my darling, is that the refrigerator is for boring things, and your award is anything but boring. Why don’t we go hang it somewhere in your room?” The next morning, Anna’s mother had left for work without saying a word to any of them. Giorgos had piled Anna, Lizzy, and their school things into his painter’s van like always to take them to school. But when they got there, he’d told Anna to stay put; that he wanted to talk to her. “Baba, what’s wrong? Am I in trouble?” Anna asked, watching her sister walk into the building. But as soon as Lizzy was inside, Giorgos took Anna to the local breakfast chain for as many chocolate chip pancakes as she could handle. “Model Students get celebratory breakfasts,” he said, taking a bite of his short stack and putting his arm around Anna, who was sat on the stool next to him, still barely able to reach the counter. As he chewed, a bit of syrup dripped out of his mouth and down his face. Anna pointed and laughed. Her father pretended to be confused before leaning in and planting a big kiss on Anna’s cheek, rubbing the syrup in and tickling her with his beard. After they ate, Giorgos drove Anna back to school and dropped her off at the front door with a note saying she had been at a dentist appointment. Anna was about to ask why they were lying if Model Students were allowed celebratory breakfasts, but when she looked up at her Baba, he looked so sad, so she just gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and went inside. A couple of weeks later, just after Anna’s sixth birthday, Giorgos was kicked out of the house, and Lizzy held Anna back as they watched from the window. Their mother would cite this incident of skipping school, alongside temperamental outbursts and a string of affairs she had discovered, in the ensuing divorce and custody battle that would result in Giorgos being sent back to Greece. Grace had never taken the last name Xenakis, and as soon as the divorce was finalized, she changed her daughters’ names to Linton to match her own. Anna and Lizzy would never see their father again. Anna had a difficult time coming to terms with her father’s infidelity. It didn’t make sense to her. “Baba loves us,” she told her mother. “He would never do anything like that. He would never hurt us.” “You’re a child,” Grace had said. “One day, you’ll understand just what a man will do, and then they’ll never be able to surprise you with how terrible they can be. But until then, you’ll just have to trust me.” Standing on the sidewalk outside Marcus’s apartment, her mantra repeating in her mind, Anna finally understood what her mother meant. She did not love this man. She did not have a family with him. But as she watched him through the window, as she felt her world crumbling around her, she began to feel, for the first time, as her mother must have felt: discarded. Half an hour later, Anna slammed her bedroom door shut and slumped against it, the tears finally coming. She had probably woken her roommate, but she didn’t care. She had been fighting back the tears the entire subway ride home, and she was at her breaking point. She tried and failed to push out of her mind the image of what she had seen, but it stayed front and center as she wept. It wasn’t even the fact that Marcus was sleeping with someone else. Anna had known as soon as she started seeing him that their relationship wasn’t a monogamous thing. It had been borderline clich?, the way they had hooked up at an opening just over a year before. She had been working at the gallery for months, but it was the first time she had spoken to Marcus, the gallery’s owner and world-famous photographer. Well, as world-famous as a photographer could be, anyway. To Anna, who had studied photography in college and been working for years trying to get a job at a gallery, he may as well have been Chris Hemsworth. She nearly died when he walked up to her at the event, and within a couple of hours they were in a hotel room. No, the awful thing for Anna had been watching her future crumble with every thrust. Anna was just a gallery assistant, and one with ambitions to become a photographer at that. Girls like her were a dime a dozen for Marcus. And despite the fact that she had worked for years to get a job at MarMac, if she wasn’t useful to him anymore, she would simply be cast aside for the next girl waiting in the wings. At least, that’s what she feared. After a few minutes, Anna crawled up onto her bed, settling on top of a pile of clean laundry, tears still streaming down her cheeks, images of that woman’s boobs pressed against Marcus’s window burned into her mind, and cried herself to sleep. 3 (#ua54c0591-9e0e-5c23-bdfd-6746636682af) Anna awoke what felt like seconds later to find her elbow buzzing. As she opened her eyes, she was confused to find that the sun was streaming brightly through the window, and she quickly snapped them shut again. The buzzing stopped for a few seconds and then started up again. Anna used the hand that wasn’t pinned underneath her body to feel around on the bed for her phone. She dug through the pile of clothes and pulled it out, swiping to answer her sister’s call. “It’s so early,” she said with a croak. “What do you want?” “Nice to talk to you, too, dear sister,” Lizzy said, barely audible over the noise of other people talking and what sounded like cutlery scraping against crockery. Anna could imagine the mess hall of the farm as it had been the one time she’d visited: crowded and sparse, but full of suspiciously happy people. “And it’s nearly nine, Banana. Not exactly the wee hours of the morning.” Anna jumped a bit at the realization of what time it was, but them images of what she had seen last night came back to her, and she instantly lost all motivation to go into work. “Hey, that’s still early for some people. What do you want?” “Touchy, touchy.” The noise behind Lizzy died down as she presumably stepped outside. “You okay, sis? You sound like you’ve been up all night crying.” Anna knew there was no point hiding anything from her sister, but she didn’t want to get into it with her. She had somehow managed to keep it from Lizzy that she had been seeing her boss for the last eighteen months. “Not all night,” she said, “but I don’t really want to talk about it. What’s up?” “Well, it’s probably better that you’re not at work now,” Lizzy replied. “I have some news.” Anna sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, her breathing shallow. Those were the four most terrifying words in her sister’s vocabulary. “What happened?” “Well,” she said, “some lawyers called from Greece.” “Greece?” Anna asked. “You mean Santorini?” “Well, actually, the law firm is based in Athens. But yes, it was about Dad.” Anna took a deep breath in. Talking about her dad was not what she needed this morning. “And?” “And it turns out we have a bit of an inheritance on our hands.” “What kind of inheritance?” Okay, this was actually possibly good news. Anna’s mind immediately went to all the things she could do with inheritance money. But as quickly as the visions of buying a loft apartment and a shopping spree on Fifth Avenue and a first class ticket to a far-off destination came into her mind, they were replaced with a feeling of resentment for her father. “A house,” Lizzy said. “In Santorini.” “I think it’s on Santorini,” Anna said reflexively. “Santorini is an island.” “That doesn’t even remotely matter,” Lizzy said. “The point is that you and I now share a house in Greece.” “How much is it worth?” Anna asked, apparently too quickly. “How is that your first question, Anna?” Lizzy asked, her voice raising. “Not about Dad, or why he left it to us? Not even ‘when can we go there on vacation?’” “Sorry,” Anna said with a laugh. “But you know I’m not the number-one fan of Greek exports, so I doubt I’ll be headed there on vacation any time soon.” Anna swore she could hear a wicked grin in Lizzy’s voice as she responded. “That’s just it, baby sis. Looks like you’ll be going there sooner than expected.” “What? Why?” “One of us has to go accept the inheritance in person.” “To Athens?” “No, actually to Santorini. There’s a Greek law that says you have to accept real estate in front of a notary public in the region where the property is.” “So one of us has to go to Santorini. Why does it have to be me? Why can’t you go?” Lizzy sighed. “I really wish I could, Anna. You know how much I’ve wanted to go back since Dad’s funeral. But it’s asparagus season, so I can’t.” Anna couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Asparagus season?” she said, almost shouting. “Are you kidding me? You want me, the one who didn’t even go to Greece for her own father’s funeral, to go now because you have to harvest some asparagus?” “Anna, that’s not fair,” Lizzy said. “You know I’m responsible for the well-being of this farm.” “It’s a cooperative farm! You don’t even get paid!” Anna was definitely shouting now. “Surely, it’s not the end of the world if you take a few days off to do something this important.” Lizzy was quiet for a moment, then responded softly. “I’m really sorry, Anna. I know how much you hated Dad and everything to do with him. But for us to get the house, you have to go accept it. “As for the farm, I hope that one day you understand what it’s like to be a part of a community – a family – that has each other’s backs. But, until then, don’t pretend to know what sort of obligation I should or should not feel to the people here.” She was quiet for a long time, but eventually Lizzy sighed, and Anna knew then that she wasn’t too angry. “I’m sorry, Liz. I didn’t mean to get mad. I just don’t want to go. I know you’d like to have a vacation home in Greece, but that’s just not important to me. Plus, I have work. And it’ll take me months to accrue more vacation time.” “I’m sure if you ask your boss and explain the situation he’d let you have the time. He likes you, doesn’t he? What’s his name? Martin?” “Marcus,” Anna said, wincing as she said his name. “I don’t know, Liz.” “I’ll tell you what…” Lizzy said. “If you go there for a week and still hate it, we can sell the house. How does that sound?” Anna cringed at the idea of having to spend a week in her father’s house, interacting with his family, sleeping in his bed. It felt weird after hating him for so long. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it, okay?” “That’s all I ask,” Lizzy said over the sound of a bell in the background. “Now I have to go. That’s last call for breakfast. But let me know soon. There’s a bit of a deadline on us accepting, and the grandparents are not making it easy for us. I don’t think they expected anyone other than Dad to ever have it.” “Okay. Good to know, thanks. Love you.” “Love you, too. Bye, Banana.” Anna held the phone up for several seconds after the call disconnected, so unsure of what to do that she felt paralyzed. But regardless of her family drama and what happened with Marcus, she did still have to go to work, so she got up and got dressed. She took noticeably less care with her appearance than usual, which was saying something. She pulled on the first clothes she could find and caught the subway to work. The entire commute, she bounced back and forth between wondering if she should go to Greece and wondering if she should confront Marcus. On the one hand, she didn’t want anything to do with her cheating father’s legacy and, regardless of their relationship, Anna felt hurt by what she saw at Marcus’s the night before. On the other hand, surely her dad owed her at least this, and Marcus hadn’t really done anything wrong since they weren’t technically exclusive. The two issues swirled around in her head as she emerged in SoHo and walked up the steps to the MarMac gallery. As she walked in, she was almost immediately greeted by one of the other assistants, who threw a thumb drive at her that she barely caught. “These are the early entries for the Emerging Talent contest. Marcus wants us to screen them as they come in so there aren’t hundreds of entries for him to go through all at once. And make them anonymous; he wants to be able to tell his sister that the reason her kid didn’t win is because he’s a shit photographer, not because he’s trying to mess with her.” Anna nodded and turned the thumb drive over in her hand as she walked up the stairs to the office. A couple of years ago, she would have jumped at the chance to enter something like this. Even though there were dozens of contests young photographers could enter, Marcus’s was special in that it usually resulted in the winner actually gaining momentum in the art world. She even had a collection she had shot just before starting at the gallery that she knew Marcus would like; a series of photos of forgotten Manhattan landmarks. But she was a gallery assistant now, not a photographer. And she worked for Marcus. She couldn’t enter. She sat down at an open desk and looked out over the gallery below. A buyer was there already, someone she recognized from previous events. Rumor had it that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were her clients. As the gallery manager shook her hand and put a sold sticker next to the painting, Anna wished, not for the first time, that her photos could be seen by so many influential people. Almost everyone who showed at MarMac went on to do well. But instead she was sat behind the desk trying to anonymize Marcus’s nephew’s contest entry. Anna took out her laptop, connecting to the server and opening up her email like she did every morning. An email came in from Marcus almost immediately. U ok? She looked up toward his office, where she could see him peeking through the window. Not really, she typed out, but she couldn’t press Send. It didn’t feel right to confront him. Instead, she stood up to go to the bathroom, avoiding looking toward Marcus’s office on her way. As she passed through the door that separated the gallery from the office, she turned her un-made-up face away from the couple of people coming through the front door, walking as quickly as she could across the marble floor. Once she made it to the Ladies’ room, Anna leaned over the sink and splashed cold water on her face. What would she say to Marcus? She was notoriously bad at lying; Lizzy used to clean her out of her Halloween candy when they played poker as kids. Her blushing usually gave her away. Could she manage to get through a work day with Marcus without bringing up what she had seen the night before? But she didn’t have time to figure that out, because the door to the bathroom creaked open, and Marcus poked his head through, stepping in once he saw that Anna was alone. Standing in front of him, it was easy for Anna to understand how she had fallen under Marcus’s spell. He had a universal appeal, looking rugged yet refined at the same time. On the rare occasions he had taken Anna somewhere public, women and men alike would stare at him and shoot daggers at her. But now, Anna was the one shooting daggers, hard as she tried not to give too much away. “You want to tell me what’s going on?” Marcus said, the slight southern draw that Anna was pretty sure was an affectation coming out strong. “What are you talking about?” Marcus smiled and looked at his feet. “I’m talking about you coming into work nearly two hours late looking like you got hit by a bus. I know you’re sleeping with the boss, but you wouldn’t want to appear to be taking advantage.” Anna felt her stomach churn. Normally, she would have laughed it off, but she had too much on her mind to make the effort. “Are you kidding me?” she asked. “I’ve never asked you for a thing, especially not since our little arrangement began. Excuse me for having a bad day.” Marcus’s smile dropped, and he stepped toward Anna, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. “Hey, hey, what’s going on? I didn’t mean to offend you.” “I’m fine,” she said. She opened her mouth to say more, but she felt the truth of last night bubbling inside her, so she shut it tight. “You know you can tell me anything, right, Anna?” he asked, condescension dripping from his words, as if she were a little girl trying to hide that she had eaten the last cookie. “Is that what you said to the girl you fucked last night?” She felt the words tumble out of her mouth, trying and failing to catch them and shove them back in. So much for not confronting him. Marcus gave very little away, but she could tell from the twitch in his eye that she had surprised him. “You were at the theater?” “No, I was at your apartment. Or, I was on my way there when I saw you through the window.” Though nice to know you were flaunting her around at the theatre, too. Marcus was quiet for a moment, then his eyes widened as he realized what she must have seen. Then, just as quickly, he was back on his game. “Anna, I’m sorry that you saw that, but surely you didn’t think you were the only person I was dating?” He was digging in his heels; asserting his dominance. He must have thought so little of her. She realized in that moment just how disposable she was to him. And as long as she was disposable, she was never going to get anywhere working for him. If she had felt discarded last night, she felt absolutely disintegrated now. She needed to figure something else out. “Marcus, I need to take some time off,” she said. “Great,” he said. “Submit your vacation request to HR for approval.” “No,” she said, “I have to go now. I have nearly three weeks of paid vacation accrued. I’ll be taking it now. When there are two weeks left, I’ll send in my notice.” He frowned at her. “So much for not taking advantage of the situation.” She glared at him. “I’m not taking advantage. My dad died a few months ago, and he left me a property in Greece. I have to go there to claim it. I only have a small window before it goes to someone else, so I have to go now.” “You have to go on vacation urgently enough that you’re willing to quit this job?” He laughed. “Are you kidding?” “Nope. Not kidding,” she said, shaking her head. “And it’s not a vacation. I’ve just explained the situation.” He nodded slowly. “I hope you know that you’ve just ruined your future,” he said, but Anna saw a flicker of hurt cross his face, and she felt a tiny spark of pride that she had taken back control – she’d hurt him before he could hurt her again. Without saying another word, he slipped through the door and was gone, leaving Anna standing there alone, her hands still dripping with water. She kept staring at the door for a good minute after he left. How had her frustration with Marcus turned into a decision to go to Greece? But she had said it, and she couldn’t take it back. She wouldn’t grovel for her job back. She wasn’t about to let Marcus think she was taking advantage of their arrangement. Not after this. She dried her hands, pulled her phone out of her pocket and texted Lizzy: You win. I’ll leave in a couple of days It looked like Anna was going to Santorini, whether she liked it or not. 4 (#ua54c0591-9e0e-5c23-bdfd-6746636682af) Santorini The front of the house was positively quaint, Anna thought. It was nestled between two hills in a sort of mini valley. Three white stone arches covered in vines framed a door in the center and two windows, one on each side. A stone wall extended from each side of the front, with a gate several meters to the left and another beyond that. Anna walked through the center archway, looking around as she went. The front of the house was covered in climbing vines, crowded at the bottom by weeds. The wooden front door was beautiful and weathered; it looked like it had been there for hundreds of years, but it was still strong and sturdy. Eirini called for Anna to follow her through the first gate, bringing her into a square courtyard, about fifteen feet on each side with a table in the middle. The walls were covered in the same climbing vines as the front of the house, nearly obscuring the white paint underneath. As she followed Eirini through the next gate to the back garden, Anna found herself looking at the most beautiful little cottage she could imagine. It was made of the same whitewashed stone, but it was covered in gorgeous pink flowers. It was small -- Anna imagined it couldn’t have been more than one or two rooms -- but it was the kind of place that Anna would have booked immediately if she’d found it online. “Is that…?” Anna pointed at the cottage and looked at Eirini, not wanting to make another mistake but hoping dearly that this was the summer house. “This is your father’s cottage,” she said, “so, yes, I guess it is legally yours now. For some reason.” Anna ignored the last part and walked up to the cottage, peeking through the window next to the door. It was dirty, but she could see a bed, and another door further on. She turned around to look at the garden, but she couldn’t see where the entrance was. “How do you get back here?” Eirini sighed. “You can go through the courtyard, or you can use the far gate. But that’s difficult to get to. You will need to put in a path, eventually. The courtyard is the only part of our property you have access to.” Anna nodded in understanding. She wasn’t about to try to cross this woman, though she would have to see about getting that path put in. Maybe a fence between the houses as well. Eirini extended a set of keys to Anna, so she moved a few steps closer to her and took them. With that, Eirini turned around and walked back into the house, closing the door behind her. Christos was sticking his head around the door from the courtyard, and he stepped into the garden after Eirini had gone. “Is Giorgos house,” he said, slowly and deliberately. “Eirini love Giorgos… very much. Is hard.” And then he turned and followed Eirini inside. Anna watched her grandfather go inside, wishing he spoke better English so she could avoid Eirini. She turned around to inspect her new home, and as she saw it she felt giddy yet again. This would definitely make a great rental property. Maybe there was a rental agency they could work with, and they wouldn’t have to sell it. Then she and Lizzy could come whenever they wanted, and… … and nothing. After her icy reception from Eirini, Anna knew that she would never be welcome here. She would have to part with the summer house. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy a few days in it. She’d just have to find somewhere to spend her time where she could fit in with the other tourists. Anna unlocked the door and went inside. As she had expected, it was just one big room with a bathroom in the corner. It was immediately obvious, however, that it was in no state to rent out or sell as it stood. The small kitchen in the far-right corner was filled with rust-covered appliances, and one cabinet door was hanging by a hinge. The mattress on the bed looked like ones Anna had seen in back alleys in Manhattan. The wooden floor was almost completely covered in a thick layer of dust. And while the bathroom had a lovely freestanding tub in it, there was no flooring and no sink. This must have been what Nikos meant when he said she wouldn’t have it on the market in a week. The summer house was going to need a lot of work. She just had to determine if that work was her responsibility. Anna pulled out her phone to ring Lizzy, and, after taking a moment to connect to the Greek network, a flood of messages came through. Unable to leave the notifications alone, Anna went through each one: a confirmation that the room she was subletting would be held for her; a text from the pizza delivery near her apartment in New York offering “15% off” for the next three days, and a notification that she had beat Lizzy in their latest round of Words With Friends. Next, she reluctantly opened her work emails, with the intention of just checking there was nothing important waiting for her, but saw a message from Marcus’s assistant waiting in her inbox. The subject line was “Moving forward,” so she clicked into it. Hi, Anna. Due to your recent tardiness, the second documented offense of its kind … The first had been the morning after she found out her father had died. She had only been twenty minutes late. As for her second offense, she didn’t even realize she had been written up again. The email continued: … we no longer feel you are a good fit for MarMac. We would like to give you your two-week notice, which will begin immediately. We are aware that you are away on personal matters, so while we will pay you for the two weeks, you should consider your employment with MarMac, Inc. to be complete. Please return the attached paperwork in order to be eligible for the next two weeks’ pay. Anna couldn’t believe what she was reading. He was firing her before she could send in her notice. This was a new low for Marcus; not content with sweeping Anna under the rug because he was done with her, he had to have the last word, too. She set a reminder for the next morning to fill out the paperwork before tapping out her reply. Really classy, Marcus. Thanks for the heads up. His response came quickly: Don’t be a child, Anna. At least I gave you severance pay. Just remember that you’ll never be a photographer if you can’t take your work seriously. Anna groaned and slammed her phone down. He was so infuriating. At least this meant she would be able to stay a bit longer to get the house sold. As she looked around again, she began making a mental list of everything that the new owner would have to do: replace the mattress, tile the bathroom, buy a sink, repair the cabinets, replace the oven, clean the refrigerator, clean the floors, clean the windows… okay, clean everything. And replace a lot of things. Or maybe she was supposed to do all that before putting it on the market? If so, this was going to cost her a lot of time and a lot of money. But, then again, she had a little bit of both to spare. She picked up her phone again, this time to call Lizzy. “Hey, Banana!” Lizzy shouted. “You there yet? I was beginning to worry about you.” “Yeah, I’m here,” Anna said. “I fell asleep for a while. Sorry. But I’m at the summer house now.” “How was your journey from the airport?” Lizzy asked, and Anna could tell that she was smiling mischievously on the other end of the line. “Horrible,” she said. “Some guy named Nikos picked me up and we had to walk all the way to the resort where Christos works.” “I told him to drive you!” “You told him?” Anna asked. “How do you know Nikos?” “I met him at Dad’s funeral,” Lizzy said. “I thought you might enjoy having him as your escort.” “Very funny,” Anna said. “I’m not really in the market for a Greek booty call. A Greek summer house is about all I can handle at the moment.” “Fine, fine, fine,” Lizzy relented with a sigh. “And what do you think of the summer house?” “Well… it definitely has potential…” “Potential? That’s how they describe absolute dumps on home-improvement reality shows!” “Yeah, well, I think that would be pretty fitting, given that it looks like a crack den at the moment.” Anna walked around as she spoke, opening cabinets to get a sense of what was there. She tried not to balk at the state of some of the dishes, but she knew they would be getting thrown out rather than cleaned. Lizzy sighed. “Oh, Anna, I’m sorry. I really thought it would be in better condition. Eirini and Christos must not have been in there since Dad died.” Anna opened her mouth to respond, but as she did, she saw an air mattress and some bedding in a cabinet that looked decidedly cleaner than everything else she had seen. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she said, silently thanking Christos for the fact that she wouldn’t have to sleep on the mattress currently on the bed. “But it’s nothing I can’t handle. I just need to pay to fix it up first …” “How much are we talking?” Anna did some quick mental math. “Maybe a couple thousand? I need new furniture, a new oven, a sink for the bathroom, and some tiles for the bathroom floor.” “Anna, that’s a lot of money for us,” Lizzy said. “Remember, we don’t get paid here. Plus, isn’t that a lot to do before you have to get back for work?” “Well, actually,” Anna replied, “about that…” “What happened? Did you get more time off at work?” “Something like that,” Anna said. She didn’t want to tell Lizzy she had been fired; that would mean telling her about what had been happening with Marcus. “The point is that I can stay as long as I need to. I’ve got my savings and a pay check coming through soon. Then I can just recoup the money for the repairs from the sale before we split it.” “That sounds perfect,” Lizzy said. “You’re the best.” Anna could hear noise in the background. “Hey, Banana, I’ve got to go, but thanks again for handling this. Just remember to have an open mind with Dad’s family. There’s two sides to every story.” “Yeah, whatever,” Anna said, rolling her eyes. That had been Lizzy’s line ever since she’d gone to the funeral. But Anna wasn’t interested in sides. She was interested in getting out of Greece as soon as possible. “Let me know what else you need. Love you!” “Love you, too,” Anna said, but the line was already disconnected. She put down the phone and began to roll out the air mattress, but her stomach began to growl. It had been hours since she last ate, she realised. She poked around in the cupboards and refrigerator, but there was nothing to be found. She pulled a granola bar out of her bag but decided to save it for breakfast. She’d need energy if she was going to walk to get food and supplies the next morning. She plugged in the air mattress and started to inflate it, but it was incredibly slow. So she sat down at the table and opened up a new game of Words With Friends. A few minutes later, the mattress was about two thirds full, and Anna was just playing a very weak “team” onto the game board when she heard a light knock on the door. As she opened it, she saw a bowl of stew and a chunk of bread on a tray on top of a cardboard box. She looked over just in time to see the door to the main house click shut. Anna smiled as she brought the tray inside. She would have to find a way to thank Christos for helping her out. She set it down on the table and went back for the cardboard box. She put it on the bed and opened the top. Inside were a couple of clean glasses, a couple different kinds of towels, a dustpan and brush, a few rags and some bottles of various cleaners. At the bottom there was a note that said keep the dishes. The air mattress pump started to whine in a slightly higher pitch, and Anna saw that it was full, so she turned it off. Almost immediately, she could hear a faint whistling coming from somewhere. The hole must have been what made it fill so slowly. This was going to be a long night. Anna sat down and ate the stew. It was one of the best meals she had eaten in ages. It certainly beat the falafel cart down the street from her apartment, and it even beat some of the “fancy” restaurants she had been to with Marcus. She ate as much as she could with the spoon, then she finished the rest with the bread. When she was done, she pulled a rag and a bottle of dish soap out of the box and washed her dishes in the sink. Then she cleaned the countertop so she would have a clean place to dry her dishes and laid out a towel for them to rest on. Anna walked into the bathroom, and as she turned the corner she saw that opposite the bathtub was a huge picture window that looked out over the island. She could see from here how high up they were, nestled into the hills they had climbed on the way here. And between two of those hills was just a peek of what Anna knew from a quick check of the map on her phone was the caldera on the other side of the island. Her father must have built the summer house with a window here just so he could get that view, though why he wanted it from the bathroom was beyond her. The stars were shining in the sky, and Anna took a moment to appreciate that she was as far from home as she had ever been. Lizzy had come back to Greece for their father’s funeral, but Anna had elected to stay home rather than grieve the man who had left her as a child. The farthest she had been was to Vancouver with her mother when she was a teenager and Cancun for one spring break. She had been meaning to get out and see the world but living in Manhattan on an assistant’s salary was hard. She had barely managed to save the five thousand dollars in her bank account, mostly leftover excess from the student loans she was still paying off. Most months she could barely make her rent, much less buy a transatlantic plane ticket. And that transatlantic flight was starting to take its toll. Anna slipped the sheet over the air mattress, turning the pump on for a few desperate minutes before bedtime. She didn’t have a pillow, so she filled the pillowcase with her softest clothing and tried to nestle in. And despite it being the least comfortable sleeping arrangement she had experienced since slumber parties on the floor as a child, Anna fell asleep as soon as her head hit the makeshift pillow. 5 (#ua54c0591-9e0e-5c23-bdfd-6746636682af) The next morning, Anna awoke to a knock on the door. She rolled over on the now almost fully deflated air mattress, hair matted and mouth dry, wondering what time it was. The light coming through the window suggested it was fully daytime outside. The heat confirmed her assessment as Anna felt a trickle of sweat roll down her leg. “Anna,” came a muffled voice along with the next knock. “Anna, are you in there?” She groaned an affirmation, but the person at the door did not hear her. She propped herself up on her elbows and blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Whoareyoua?ndwhatdoyouwant?” she mumbled, barely able to keep her eyes open. But it did no good. Anna was forced to stand up, adjust her pajamas, and walk over to the door. As she opened it, a far-too-awake Nikos stood in front of her with a cup of coffee in his hand. She took it, shut the door, re-locked it, and went back to the air mattress, her bum touching the floor as she sat down. “Anna, you have to let me in!” Nikos said through the door. “Go away!” she shouted with as much volume as she could muster. “It’s too early!” Then she pulled the blanket over her head. She heard the muffled sound of his now-all-too-familiar chuckle. “Early? It’s barely even morning anymore.” Anna rolled over and pressed the home button on her phone. The screen said 11:47. She jolted awake. How could she have slept so late? Damn jet lag, she thought. She shuffled back over to the door and turned the lock, dreading seeing the smug expression on Nikos’s face. But as the door opened, he just smiled, not a hint of smugness in sight. “Tired from the flight?” he asked. “I guess so.” “Makes sense,” he said. He pointed inside. “So, may I come in?” Anna stepped aside to let Nikos in and shut the door behind him. As he pulled a chair out and sat down in front of the table, Anna walked over to retrieve the coffee he had brought her, then back over to the table, where she sat down opposite him. “So, did you sleep okay?” he asked. Anna looked over at the almost-flat air mattress. “Not great,” she said, rubbing at her neck. “But anything beats sleeping on that grubby thing.” She pointed to the mattress on the bed frame. “Yeah, your dad had been meaning to replace that. Never got around to it, I guess.” Anna stiffened at the mention of her father. “You knew Giorgos?” Nikos smiled and looked curiously at her. “You call your dad Giorgos?” “Well, he wasn’t really much of a dad,” Anna said as she took another sip and looked down at the table, her lips pursed due partly to the coffee and partly to the subject matter. He had been a fine dad for the first twenty percent of Anna’s life. But his record wasn’t stellar after that. Non-existent, in fact. “Not to you, maybe.” Anna looked up, and Nikos was staring back at her with something that looked suspiciously like pity. “Do you want to tell me why you’re here?” “I’m here to help you,” he said. “You want to fix up the summer house, and I’m here to lend a hand.” “Thanks,” Anna said, “but I’m not really sure where to start.” “Well, Christos said that we could use his tools, and we have the truck for the day, but you’ll have to buy materials,” Nikos said, walking around the room. “So why don’t you make a list, and I’ll meet you around front with the truck?” She nodded. “Great. See you out front in five.” As Nikos left, Anna pulled a pen out of her bag. She didn’t have any paper, so she tore one of the flaps off the cardboard box and began to make a list as she noticed things: Mattress Pillow Oven Sink Plumbing stuff Tiles for bathroom floor Curtains Curtain rods x2 Vacuum Dishes Pots, pans & utensils Place settings Trash can Toilet paper Food Bathroom toiletries Paper Artwork for walls Bath mat Laundry hamper Hangers Area rug As Anna made her list, she realized she had gone from trying to get the summer house to be sellable to putting down luxuries; things that would only matter if she were going to stay for longer. She crossed them off the list. She certainly wouldn’t need a laundry hamper for just a couple of weeks. List complete, Anna went outside, to find Nikos speaking with her grandmother at the front of the house by the truck. Eirini was happily chatting to him, but the moment she saw Anna, she dropped her smile and squeezed past into the courtyard. “Can you believe that?” Anna said, gesturing behind her as she climbed in the truck. “You would think that having her long-lost granddaughter come to visit would be a bit more exciting for her.” Nikos shook his head as he climbed in and started the engine. “It’s not you,” he said. “It’s the situation. None of them knew Giorgos was leaving the summer house to anyone. And it’s not like anyone was keeping you away from visiting them before now, were they?” “That’s a bit unfair,” Anna said as Nikos reversed down the drive. “Excuse me for not wanting anything to do with the family of the man who cheated on my mother and abandoned his family.” Nikos slammed on the brakes hard enough that Anna was thrown forward in her seat. “What the hell was that for?” she shouted, turning to him. “Maybe it’s better if we don’t talk about Giorgos, okay?” he said, frowning. “I understand why you don’t like him based on the story you know, but that wasn’t my experience with him, and I won’t sit around and listen to you complain about him when you clearly don’t know the whole story.” Anna blushed and looked at her lap. She felt she had every right to complain about her father, but maybe she needed to realize that she was the odd one out here. And she didn’t want to push Nikos away. She needed his help too much if she was going to get out of Greece as soon as possible. “Fine,” Anna said. “Let’s just fix up his summer house and be around his family without ever once mentioning him. Sounds easy.” She looked up at Nikos, who was still frowning, and rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine, for real. No Giorgos talk.” Nikos nodded, put the truck back into gear, and started down the road. “So tell me about yourself, then,” he said as they turned onto the main road. “Not much to tell,” Anna said. “I’m from Connecticut, which I’m sure you know from he-who-must-not-be-named. I moved to New York City about a year and a half ago to work at an art gallery. I spend too much time at work, not enough time with my sister, and too much of my salary on cheap wine and falafels. And now I’m halfway around the world collecting inheritance property. Does that about do it?” “Do you have a boyfriend?” Nikos asked, smiling slyly at Anna. “No,” she said, perhaps a bit too sharply. Nikos noticed. “Sounds like there’s a story there.” “Does it?” She wasn’t about to take the bait. “I assure you, there is no boyfriend.” “So when do you have to be back at this art gallery job of yours?” he asked. “Well, the thing is…” Anna wasn’t sure what to say. She hadn’t even told Lizzy that she was fired. But was she going to try to convince Marcus to give her her job back? No, the thought of that made her feel sick. So what was the harm in saying so? “I don’t really have a job to go back to,” she admitted. “So, your stay is open-ended, then?” Nikos asked, and he almost sounded excited. “Maybe you should see a bit more of the island. Make sure you get the full experience before you go back to the city.” “We’ll see,” Anna said. “I only want to be here as long as I have to be in order to get the summer house on the market.” Nikos laughed. “I think you’ll find that will be much longer than a couple of weeks. We’re on island time here, and then there’s Greek time on top of that.” “What is Greek time?” Nikos chuckled again. “Let’s just say your social life here will involve a lot of waiting around for people.” Anna shrugged. “We’ll see. Plus, I don’t think I’ll have enough time to develop much of a social life.” “We’ll see about that,” Nikos said as they turned into a car park. “Okay, first things first, let’s get you an actual bed to sleep on.” A couple of hours later, Anna ran out of the McDonald’s in Fira with a greasy brown bag and two drinks. They had tried to fit through the drive-through, but Anna’s new mattress was sticking up too high, so Nikos had made her run in for the food, his only demand for payment for the day of help. “Two Big Macs, chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce, large fries and a Coke,” Anna said, her own burger and fries taking up very little space in the bag. “I still can’t believe you can eat that much.” “Seeing is believing,” Nikos said. “Now let’s get back to your dad’s place so you can see.” “It’s my place,” Anna said quietly. “What?” “I said it’s my place now,” Anna said, louder this time. “I know everyone wishes I would have just stayed away, but it’s my place now. And I think I deserve it, what after going without a father for the last two decades.” Nikos sighed as he stared at the road ahead. “I don’t think anyone feels that way – that you should have stayed away.” Anna scoffed. “Yeah, right. You’re telling me Eirini wouldn’t prefer to have her backyard empty of unwanted grandchildren right now?” He hesitated a beat before responding. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about this?” “Yeah, well, we’re not,” Anna said, crossing her arms. “But that response does sort of prove my point.” Plus, it’s not nice to be completely ignored by your only family for thousands of miles. They made the rest of the drive in silence. When they pulled up to the house a few minutes later, Anna took the food and a couple of shopping bags from the back. Nikos grabbed the mattress and lifted it over his head, following behind her. “You sure you don’t want to wait until I can help with that?” Anna asked. “I’m fine. Just carry the light stuff and leave the heavy lifting to the pros,” Nikos said, though Anna could hear a strain in his voice. She just chuckled and continued toward the summer house, leaving the gates open for Nikos behind her. She turned around as she walked through the back gate and chuckled again when she saw him trying to squeeze the mattress down so it would fit through the front gate. As she walked up to the front door of the summer house, she saw another stew waiting outside for her. She looked from it to the McDonald’s bag and felt a small pang of guilt. She hoped Nikos could eat as much as she claimed. She unlocked the door and stepped carefully around the bowl as she went inside, dropping the bags on the table. Then, behind her, Anna heard the crunch of something breaking. She turned around to see Nikos frozen, facing away from the door, holding the mattress behind him, the bottom of one of his pant legs soaked in stew, the bowl broken under his boot. Anna started to laugh. “Okay, that is not funny,” Nikos said, but he started to laugh as well. He picked his leg up to inspect it. “No, don’t move,” Anna said between chuckles. “I want to make sure you don’t track any shards into the house.” She reached into one of the shopping bags and grabbed a rag, the price tag still attached, then started picking up pieces of the bowl and putting them on the tray. “Smells like carrot,” Nikos said, still laughing. “What a shame.” Anna finally managed to pull herself together and began picking shards from the tread of Nikos’s boot. As she pulled it closer to get a better look, he nearly fell, only just catching himself with the mattress, and it set the two of them off laughing again. When they eventually managed to make it into the summer house, Nikos swapped the mattresses and immediately collapsed onto the new one while Anna dealt with the mess. “Hey, lazy bones, no way. We’ve still got an oven and a bathroom sink to unload from that truck.” “Come on, Anna, it’s nap time. We’ve worked so hard.” “Not a chance,” Anna said, pulling at his arm, but he shooed her away. “I only have two weeks to get this place in working order. I’m not going to waste perfectly good hours of the day resting.” “Says the girl who slept until noon.” He didn’t move, but instead began pretend-snoring. For just a moment, Anna stood there admiring the sight of him lying on her bed. She didn’t hate it. But she shook it off. She had more important things to focus on. “Fine,” Anna said, walking back to the table. “I guess I’ll just have to eat all this food myself.” Nikos rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow. “I’d like to see you try.” “I wouldn’t have to if you would just come eat,” she said, holding an order of fries in front of her, wafting the scent toward him with her hand. “Fine,” Nikos said, hopping up and trying to grab the fries from her hand. But Anna pulled them away. “Not until you help me bring in the rest,” she said. “But it will be cold by then!” he said, pouting and tilting his head. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have stepped in stew or tried to take a nap.” Nikos groaned. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you pay for lunch.” “That’s right,” Anna said, putting the fries back in the bag and guiding him toward the door. “Now let’s go earn it.” 6 (#ulink_e62153a8-3f93-59a4-922e-3603ad9f5259) A couple of days later, Anna and Nikos were stood in line at Vodafone to get Anna a Greek cell phone. She was only going to be in town for a little while, but she had racked up an impressive phone bill for the month of May, so she needed to use a bit less data and make fewer calls. At the moment, she was scrolling obsessively through Instagram while connected to the WiFi, liking all the Memorial Day photos of people in the Hamptons and Nantucket. “Are those people your friends?” Nikos asked, watching over her shoulder. “Not really,” Anna said. “A couple of them are friends from high school or the city. But most of them are just bloggers and YouTubers.” Nikos rolled his eyes. “I swear, Instagram is the best and the worst thing to ever happen to this island. We’re grateful for the business, but it’s a pain in the ass to be stopped every few meters in Oia because someone doesn’t want any people in their photo stood on top of someone’s wall.” Anna laughed. “Tell us how you really feel.” He shot her a look. “Honestly, don’t get me started. I could rant about influencers” – he made air quotes with his fingers – “all day long.” It was their turn at the counter, so Anna set the flip phone she had chosen in front of her and let Nikos do the talking. She wasn’t about to get talked out of all her money because she didn’t speak Greek. When Nikos went to pay, Anna tried to press her credit card into his palm, but he shook his head and squeezed her hand in his. “Why did you do that?” she asked him as they exited the shop, her new flip phone in her purse next to her iPhone. “Your grandfather saw everything we bought the other day and told me to put anything else you need on the business account.” “What? Really? Why would he do that?” Anna asked, though she knew the answer. She smiled as she thought about how excited he had been to see her. “Not everyone is as upset as Eirini about a new generation of Xenakises taking up residence in the summer house.” Anna frowned a bit. “My name’s Linton,” she said, realizing even as she said it how ungrateful she sounded. These people were her family, after all. Nikos looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Clearly, he was as unimpressed with her comment as she was. “Whatever you are, your grandfather is really excited that you’re here. And I think his feelings would be hurt if he heard how quickly you disown his son and his family, two things he’s extremely proud of.” Anna looked at her shoes as they walked. She didn’t like Nikos chastising her. But when she peeked up at him, he wasn’t frowning but smiling softly at her. She returned the smile with her own tentative version. “That is, if he could understand you to begin with, which would be a miracle,” he said, breaking the tension. They laughed together for a moment the unease of his reprimand effectively diffused for the moment. They climbed into the truck, and Anna broached the topic again, less defensively this time. “So, you knew Giorgos—” Nikos shot her a look from the driver’s seat. “Sorry, I mean, you knew my dad well?” Nikos nodded. “Really well. My father was never in the picture, and my mother died in childbirth. They were really poor, and she couldn’t get to a hospital. But my aunt was there, and she raised me along with my cousins, even though she was a single mother as well. When she got sick, I came back from university to help out, and your father convinced your grandfather to give me a job. I had never even held a hammer before, and look at me now.” He grinned and sat up straight, and Anna giggled. Nikos looked over at her and smiled. “I love your laugh,” he said, and Anna felt her face flush immediately. “You know you do that a lot, right?” he said, his gaze locked on her. “Do what? Laugh?” “No, blush when I look at you.” Of course, all this did was make Anna blush even more. She turned away and looked out the window, rolling it down a bit to get some fresh air on her face. “Anyway,” Nikos said, thankfully changing the subject. “Your dad took me under his wing. He trained me, not just at work, but also at home. He taught me how to cook for my aunt and cousins, and he showed me how to budget. He even helped me finish my sustainable agriculture degree online.” “He did?” Anna asked, turning to him. “I wouldn’t have thought he would have known about that sort of thing.” “That’s just it, he didn’t,” Nikos said. “He stayed up just as late as I did every night, reading the textbooks and quizzing me on the effect of nuclear power plants on the environment. And when my aunt died and I couldn’t get out of bed for days, he logged on and took one of my tests for me. Got an A, too.” Anna looked down at her hands. This sounded like the father she remembered from when she had been little. Caring. Thoughtful. Passionate. Not like the man who had cheated on them and then left. “You make him sound like such a good guy.” “He was,” Nikos said firmly. “The best. And an amazing father, no matter what you think you know. And the day his heart gave out was the saddest day of my life.” Anna had been ordered her whole life to never talk about her father, never to bring him up around her mother, until she didn’t want to talk about him either. But now she was a part of his world; living in his house, with his parents. Hanging out with someone he apparently spent so much of his time with. And she found herself growing more and more curious about who he really was. “Maybe you can tell me more about him sometime,” Anna said as they pulled up to the house. “I’d like that,” Nikos said, smiling. He parked the truck and put his hand tentatively on Anna’s knee. It was warm, and she could feel his calluses on her skin. She froze at his touch, not ready to reciprocate it but not wanting to scare him off either. “But for now,” he said, moving his hand away, “we have a bathroom to tile!” Then he turned, climbed out of the truck and disappeared through the gate. Anna could still feel where his hand had been on her knee. Eventually, she got out of the truck and grabbed a pack of tiles from the bed, barely able to lift it herself. As she came through the courtyard, she could hear Nikos arguing with someone up ahead – a woman, in Greek. As she turned the corner, she nearly dropped the tiles on her feet at the sight of one of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen shouting at Nikos. Her hair was so long that a bit of it was caught in the waistband of her jean shorts, the colour the same dark brown as Nikos’s. She looked to be around the same age as him. Anna wondered who she was and why they were shouting at each other, but she had a sinking feeling she was walking into the middle of a lovers’ quarrel. Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/samantha-parks/the-summer-house-in-santorini/?lfrom=688855901) на ЛитРес. 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