Chapter Seventeen

Frankie stood on the main deck of the ferry, watching the port of Piraeus recede into the distance. She hadn’t been able to get a direct flight to Kathos, so she’d caught a plane to Athens, and now she was on the final leg of her journey home by boat. Home. The island was her home now, even though she wasn’t returning to what she’d expected. She’d be starting from scratch. She sighed to herself. There was no way she could afford to contest Nik over cancelling their contract. The thought that she’d not get to briefly own and work on the Villa Lemoni left a lump in her throat. But it was no good crying over spilt milk. She preferred to count her blessings; she was well on her way now to getting divorced and being a free agent, and she would be receiving funds in the not-too-distant future; her property dream wasn’t extinguished, just postponed. She was grateful she had somewhere nice to live, thanks to Ali and Pav. So she had enough to begin again, even if it might be a little harder than she had anticipated. Perhaps, for the time being, she could find a job working for a local real estate agency or property development company. She would just have to learn more Greek.

The journey across the Ionian Sea gave her time to relax on the ferry’s sunny upper deck and let the stresses of having spent the last week winding up her life in England melt away. It had been good to see her parents, and sad to say goodbye to them and remaining friends and colleagues, though promises had been made that all would come out to Kathos to visit. She thought of Hannah Oliver, the bright, bubbly, platinum blonde who had been her and Andrew’s assistant at the estate agency. Hannah had stayed on at McKnight’s, but was clearly finding it hard going now that Miss Becky was in the ascendant. Andrew’s fiancée had morphed into a bossy little madam, treating Hannah like her personal slave, and there were still weeks to go before Becky went on maternity leave. Hannah had been visibly subdued, and Frankie was upset for her. If only Nik hadn’t ended their relationship, she might have suggested Hannah take a break and come out to Kathos. Asked Nik if he could give Hannah a job in one of his establishments. Maybe, in time, she could give Hannah a position in her own property company.

Nik. Her heart fluttered like it did every time he sprang to mind. In quieter moments, she’d forgotten her anger and ached for him like crazy while she’d been away, longing to be back in his arms, and cried herself to sleep. How had it all gone so badly wrong? Why had he misinterpreted her motives with regard to Andrew so badly? Why had she been so stupid as to bring up Natassia when she didn’t know the full story? Her eyes filled with tears. She brushed them away. So many questions for which she had no good answers. She’d lost him, just when she’d started feeling so very deeply for him. She let out a ragged breath. So much for her silly fantasies about building a new life with Nik. No, she had lost him, and that was something she’d just have to live with. He’d been so adamant they were through, and his lack of faith in her meant she couldn’t go back. She had to put him behind her. Somehow. It was going to be hard in a small place like Agia Kalamaros.

Three hours later, the ferry docked at Paragolis. She queued with the other foot passengers to leave the boat, her wheelie suitcase by her side. Pavlos was coming to pick her up, so once she’d disembarked, she looked around for the Land Rover. There was no sign. Perhaps he’d been held up on the way over the mountain. She decided to scan the harbor side once more before phoning Alison to check if there was a problem. Still no Pav, but on the far side, her heart missed a couple of beats when she caught sight of a familiar figure standing out from the crowd, tall and dark, wearing his customary sunglasses and leaning against his four-wheel drive. Who was Nik meeting off the ferry?

Panic gripping her, she desperately looked for a way to sidle off to the other side of the dock before he saw her. Hopefully, he would ignore her, but if he didn’t, well, she just couldn’t face dealing with him right now.

“Frankie! Where are you going?” He strode towards her.

She halted and feigned surprise. “Oh! Hi, Nik,” she said as brightly as she could manage. “I was looking for Pavlos. Have you seen him at all? He was supposed to be picking me up.” She could feel herself tensing up and her skin get hot and clammy beneath her light cotton dress. He was looking as gorgeous as ever, dressed in a shirt and jeans, with a day’s scruff of beard. Her insides reacted instinctively and instantly, adding to her discomfort.

He removed his sunglasses and scrutinized her, which only increased her heart rate. “Pavlos is not coming, pet hi mou. I will be driving you home.”

Her breath caught in her throat. What was going on? A stream of questions came pouring out. “You’re driving me…? What happened to Pav? Why isn’t he here? Why didn’t somebody call or text me to let me know?”

Nik didn’t reply immediately, but instead leaned in to take the handle of her suitcase, his fingers brushing against her hand and lingering for a second, sending a tingle up her arm. He straightened up. “I arranged with Alison and Pavlos that I would collect you. I wish to talk to you.” He let go of the suitcase for seconds to put his sunglasses back on and turned. “Are you coming?”

Feeling confused and wary, her legs weak and trembly as the shock of seeing him again set in, she stumbled after him and her luggage to his vehicle. When they’d both got in and fastened their seatbelts, she found her voice. “What do you want to talk about? I thought it was all over, that you had nothing more to say to me?”

He fired the engine. “We will stop off at a taverna I know on the mountain for an early dinner,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

She bridled. He was back to his old arrogant self! “You haven’t answered my question, and I’m very tired. I left my parents’ house at five AM this morning for a four-hour flight, and I’ve just made a three-hour ferry crossing. I need to go home, have a shower, and get to bed. Can’t you just drive me back to Agia Kalamaros and say what you have to on the way there?” She knew she sounded peevish, but she was genuinely exhausted and getting increasingly frustrated to know what he wanted with her.

He kept his eyes on the road. “I will not keep you out late. I am just asking you to have dinner with me so that we can talk for a while.”

She leaned an elbow against the car window and frustratedly rubbed her hand across her forehead. Clearly, she didn’t have much choice. “Whatever. But don’t blame me if I fall asleep face down in my meal.”

He glanced at her. “I am sure I will be able to keep you awake, agapimeni mou.”

She glared at his profile as he returned his attention to the road in front of him. What did that mean?

They wound their way up a steep mountain road until they reached the tavern, just outside the village of Skalos. As it was early evening, there were no other diners present yet. They were shown to a table on a pretty veranda filled with terracotta pots of pink, red, and white pelargoniums. Frankie couldn’t help letting her shoulders drop a little and some of her tension ebb away as she took in the spectacular view of the valley below and the sea beyond. She breathed in the fresh mountain air and was quickly absorbed by the soothing sounds of cicadas and crickets basking in the mellow early evening sunshine.

Nik held out her chair for her to sit down. “I think you are glad to be back,” he observed, moving to sit down opposite her and pour white wine from the chilled carafe that was waiting for them on the table.

She gratefully sipped some of the cool, fruity vintage and nodded. “I was just thinking on the ferry that I’ve come home.”

He smiled. “So you are here to stay?”

“There’s nothing to keep me back in England now, despite what you may think,” she responded.

He didn’t reply straightaway but steepled his fingers in front of him in that way he had when he was weighing things up. “You have wrapped up everything you need to with Andrew?”

It struck her that this was the first time she’d heard him use Andrew’s name. Before this, it had always been your husband. “Yes,” she confirmed, not wanting to elaborate as she wondered where this line of questioning might be leading.

She had to wait to find out because the waiter came to take their orders. She opted for a Greek salad and rice; she was too tired to eat a big meal. Nik chose lamb kleftiko.

He turned his attention back to her. “You did not tell me that Andrew’s girlfriend is pregnant.”

“No, I guess I didn’t.” She gave him a curious glance. “Was it Alison who told you?”

“She mentioned it when we were talking during the week.”

“Okay. She told me you had dropped by.”

“I feel it is regrettable that I did not know.”

He sounded stiff and…she felt as if he could be reprimanding her. She sensed her tension rise again. “I found it hard to think about, let alone talk about it. But did it matter that I didn’t tell you? It had no real bearing on you or us.” Us. She felt a huge pang as she remembered that temporary, wonderful state of being.

His expression sobered. “If I had known, I could have supported you. And I would not have jumped to the wrong conclusion about you and Andrew.”

She couldn’t restrain the hot ball of emotion that caught her unawares and burst up inside her. “Are you saying it was my fault you jumped to that conclusion? Oh, for goodness’ sake, Nik! Okay, I didn’t tell you about Becky, but so what? The point is, you acted as judge and jury and decided I was guilty!”

He leaned forward, consternation in his expression, his palms outstretched. “Pethi mou, listen to me. I am not blaming you. What I am trying to say to you is that I reached the wrong conclusion. I owe you an apology.”

“Too damn right you do,” she bit out. Then it hit her that he’d actually said sorry. “But thank you for the apology,” she added more quietly, amazed he had done that.

“I misunderstood a lot of things,” he said softly. “But I would like to hope that it has not completely ended things between us.”

His statement pulled her up short. What was he saying? Her defenses, already sensitive, instantly sprang onto red alert. “Nik, now I really don’t understand. You were so adamant that you wanted me gone, and that you’d be severing the business ties between us.”

“I did not actually go ahead and do that,” he admitted. “You own the Villa Lemoni. The sale has gone through. You are named on the title deed, and our agreement is still in place.” He smiled ruefully. “I have had time to reflect, and I would like to suggest that we resume our partnership.”

“Our partnership?” she echoed, completely taken aback. Was he seriously thinking they could just slip right back into being together again?

“Rebuilding and selling your villa.” He focused on her with his liquid chocolate gaze.

She hesitated. Your villa. She felt a spark of excitement ignite in her at the prospect that the Lemoni project hadn’t been snatched away from her, and they might be able to do what they’d planned with it after all. But could she go back to working with him after what had been said and done? Could she trust him any more? Did he really trust her? And wouldn’t it be temptation for both of them, which wouldn’t be wise or right? She puffed out her cheeks and expelled a breath. “I don’t know, Nik. It’s just not that easy. How we parted was brutal and unfair, as far as I was concerned—you didn’t listen to me when I tried to tell you the truth and jumped to conclusions. I’m not sure I have confidence in you—us—anymore, and that’s no basis for a business partnership. Maybe it’s better that we go our separate ways.”

Nik’s insides twisted. He’d been hoping she’d jump at the opportunity to resume work on the villa at least. And that would have been his starting point to rebuilding their physical relationship. But now as he surveyed her poker face, which had returned after weeks of absence, he realized just how much he’d hurt her. She’d said she wasn’t sure if she had confidence in him. That hurt him. He picked up the wine bottle and refilled their glasses. Alison’s wise words came back to him—let her know how you really feel. Be open and honest with her. He felt uneasy; it had been so long since he’d shared his feelings with a woman.

“Do I take it from your silence that you were expecting me to leap at the chance of starting back on the villa?”

He took the plunge into openness and honesty. “I was hoping that you would say yes.” He reached out and took hold of her hands. “This is difficult for me because I realise I did not handle things well. But the truth is that I found it hard to understand why you were being so damn nice to your husband.”

He felt her fingers stiffen beneath his. “Nik, I’ve already explained all of that to you.” She took her hands away and tucked them out of sight under the table on her lap. “Apart from anything else, did you not see and hear all the other signs that I was wanting out of my marriage?”

He gazed at her lovely face, filled with emotion, the way flashes of pink colored up her cheeks, her blue eyes sparked wildly and her lips parted. This was how she’d looked when he’d made love to her and she was about to come. He felt his arousal swell against his trousers. He’d missed that—her—so much. “Signs, pet hi mou?”

“Yes. The facts that I was willing to relinquish my home and business in England and stay on Kathos. That I wanted to get involved with a property project that will take months to complete. Did that not say something about my intentions? Or that I confided in you that Andrew and I had troubles in the bedroom?”

He smiled ruefully. “I did notice those signs, but they did not seem as compelling to me as other things. You didn’t leave Andrew because of the bad sex—”

“No, I went because our whole relationship had deteriorated, and then I discovered he was cheating with Becky. But the sex was pretty bad too.”

“You told me you were loving him less each day, but that said to me that you hadn’t quite stopped loving him completely.”

He watched as she nibbled at her inside lip, something just as lovely and familiar to him as her poker face. “When you’ve been with someone for a long time and loved them, you don’t just switch off your feelings for them overnight, no matter how much they might have betrayed you.” Her voice and features took on a new softness. “You know about that, Nik. Which was why you took offense about Natassia. You loved her very much, didn’t you?”

The waiter arrived with their food, and Nik waited as it was served. The urge to bury thoughts of Natassia, the bitter feelings they aroused, tightened in his chest. But then he looked at Frankie as she sat quietly and expectantly. Even his common sense told him that if there was any chance of them having a relationship, he would have to talk about Natassia to her. It was an obstacle between them. He just hoped she wouldn’t think any less of him than she already did when he told her the truth.

As if on cue, after a few mouthfuls of her meal, Frankie said, “Tell me what happened with Natassia.”

“Okay. I first became aware of Natassia when I had just turned fourteen,” he began. “Her family had moved to Agia Kalamaros the previous year, and she was thirteen and in my year at the gymnasium—”

“That’s my equivalent of secondary school, isn’t it?” Frankie jumped in.

“Yes. My cousins in America said we were freshmen at high school.”

“Okay, so you were young and in love?”

His mood lifted as surprisingly good memories that he had long forgotten came flooding back in. “I think it was more like in lust, pet hi mou. Unusually for a Greek girl, she had fair skin and very blue eyes. Her mother hailed from Sfakia in western Crete. In fact, for the first year, I walked around with a permanent erection,” he said, his eyes crinkling humorously.

“No change there then,” Frankie put in, a mischievous smile on her face, forking up some of her salad.

He found himself laughing at her cheekiness. He shook his head. “No, no, I am a changed man from how I was then. I was a horny little beast in those days. And with a tendency to show off. Like many teenagers, I had a scooter, and I recall I would drive up and down the strip wearing my shades and thinking myself very cool.”

“Definitely no change then! You still wear your sunglasses at every opportunity.”

“I did until I kissed you and they were crushed and broken.”

For a moment, she scowled, and he wondered if he had said too much, but then she gave him a big grin. “I guess I asked for that. Go on. What happened next?”

“I went to the Christmas festival at Trapazakia.” He felt the happiness drain out of him, and saw Frankie’s features also become solemn too, as the ghost of Marco came to stand beside them. His meal lay untouched. “It was when I was caught up trying to persuade Natassia to date me that Marco disappeared.”

Her eyes widened, her consternation evident. “Oh, Nik, she was that girl? I’m so sorry. But you got together anyway?”

“She did not say yes to me for a year or two after that. In that time, I became a little obsessed with her. Partly because I wanted her so badly, but partly because if I hadn’t won her, the loss of Marco would have seemed even more terrible and pointless.”

Frankie’s expression scrunched up with puzzlement. “You’ve lost me.”

He averted his gaze and fiddled with his cutlery for a few seconds, then looked up again. “It has taken me many years to admit this to myself, but I think my logic was that if Natassia was mine, then I had been doing something worthwhile while flirting with her when Marco disappeared. It was a way of dealing with my guilt.”

Frankie could see his eyes were shiny and her heart went out to him. She could feel her resistance to him melting a little. “Have you ever talked about this to anyone before?” she asked gently.

“No,” he admitted. “I did not talk to myself about it for many years.”

“You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened to Marco—”

“Yes, I should,” he interrupted, his tone laced with self-reproach. “My brain lived in my trousers, and I had helped myself to the free wine at the festival.”

“No,” she insisted quietly. “You were fourteen and you were a little drunk, maybe for the first time. You had the hots for a girl, and, at that age, with all your hormones raging, you didn’t have it in you to think about anything else.”

“You are very kind, but my actions caused my little brother to be taken, and my mother to die of a broken heart. And for what? A woman who, as it turned out, didn’t really love me.”

“Oh, Nik, that’s very dark. What happened happened. You were a boy, just a boy when you fell for Natassia.” He looked so sad and desolate she wanted to give him a hug. “I wonder if Marco or Drusilla would want you to go on punishing yourself like this? I have a feeling both would be very proud of you if they were around to see you now.”

His expression lightened a little. “Everything I do is for Drusilla and Marco, and Ian too. Just before he died, he begged me to carry on his mission after he’d gone to find out what had happened to Marco.”

“Which you have. You’ve been doing everything you can to discover where Marco is.” She paused. “Have you heard back from the police about the remains on the mountain?”

“The local chief called me yesterday to let me know that they didn’t belong to Marco, but to a young shepherd boy of ten years old who went missing on the mountain during a storm in the early 1950s. They found some usable DNA inside the bones and were able to match it to surviving relatives who still live locally.”

“Gosh, that’s amazing after more than sixty years,” she said, awed.

“Apparently, they can get DNA from skeletons that are thousands of years old now.”

“How did they check the remains weren’t Marco’s?” she asked, fascinated.

“The skull and bones were too large to be his; they established that pretty quickly. But they had samples of his DNA that were taken at the time of his disappearance from a little sun hat he liked to wear and his bedclothes.”

“Oh.” The mention of the sun hat was sobering. “Poor little soul.”

“I won’t give up until I find out what happened to him, Frankie.”

“I know you won’t, and don’t ask me why, but something tells me that you will.” There was a silence, and she watched him as obviously difficult emotions flitted across his face. After a while, she prompted, “So you got together with her? Natassia?”

He nodded. “Yes, when I was seventeen and she was sixteen. We had a wonderful year together before I left to go to university in Athens.”

“Did you stay together while you were studying?”

“Yes, or so I thought. Natassia had stayed at home to work in her family’s hotel business, and I came back to Kathos when I could. After I graduated, I returned home to Agia Kalamaros, with a degree in economics and big plans for starting a chain of bars and clubs. Within a year, Artemis AK was open and the bar in Trapazakia my next enterprise. Natassia appeared keen to marry, so I proposed, though I asked for a long engagement while I grew my business because I knew she would want to start a family once we were wed and I wanted to be able to provide for them.” He stopped and poured both of them some more wine.

Noticing he had ground to a halt, Frankie peered at him over the rim of her glass. “So you and she were engaged,” she prompted again. “And then she called it off?”

He nodded slowly. “Yes, a week before the wedding.”

“That must have been awful for you!”

“It was. Because she ran back into the arms of my old school friend, Christos. It turned out that they’d had a fling while I was away studying in Athens, and then carried on seeing one another without me knowing.” He sighed deeply. “I think… No, I know, she didn’t really love me when she said yes to marrying me, but the idea of a life as the wife of a rich man appealed. But, in the end, she went to the man she did love, even though he was a humble waiter in his uncle’s restaurant.”

“Did they stay in Agia Kalamaros?”

“No. She and Christos moved over to Lekopolos, where I hear they have a taverna of their own and four children.”

Frankie didn’t make any comment for a minute or so. She saw now why he’d taken the path he had since then when it had come to women; he hadn’t felt he could risk that kind of betrayal or rejection again. And she, of all people, understood that completely. She put down her fork and held out her hands to him again. He took them and looked at her questioningly.

“You and I have something big in common. Both of us have been cheated on.”

“Yes, I guess we do,” he agreed.

“It leaves scars. So now I understand why you chose short-term involvement rather than a proper relationship. I shouldn’t have believed the worst when I heard about your reputation.”

He shrugged and gave a half-smile. “I have come to regret that lifestyle. It was shallow and selfish, meaningless. In future, I want to try a proper relationship. To give as much as I take.”

He looked at her intently when he said that. Her insides turned over because she knew with a bolt of startling clarity that he meant what he said, and that she forgave him, and, deep down, she wanted a proper relationship with him too. A few hours ago, she would have considered those crazy thoughts. But now he had opened up to her, shared his pain, owned his mistakes, she had the closeness with him she hadn’t had before, and she realized she felt nothing but love for all that was great about him, and acceptance of all that was flawed.

“If I overreacted about Andrew, it was because I thought I was losing you.” He gave her another searching look. “Have I lost you?”

Her fingers slipped out of his as she leaned back in her seat. “What do you mean?”

His mouth quirked. “I mean that I don’t want to lose you, and I want you to agree to come back to me.”

“You mean…to working on the villa?”

“I mean being with me, agapimeni mou, as my business partner and my lover. And not just for as long as it takes to renovate and sell the villa; for as long as it’s meant to be.”