Greek Island Fling to Forever

by Annie Claydon

  ‘And you turned up and saved the day for Helen. As soon as she could talk, she told me how kind you’d been to her.’

  Ben shook his head. ‘I don’t believe in turning up and saving the day any more.’

  He had, once. But he’d neither turned up nor saved the day for Emma. It had been a salutary lesson.

  She leaned forward, taking a matchbook from the holder on the table and lifting the glass shade from the candle that stood next to it. The match flared, and in the candlelight Ben thought he saw hope reflected in her eyes.

  ‘Maybe you should. Ilaria’s taught me a few things since I’ve been here. It might have some things to teach you too.’

  Maybe. Ben wouldn’t bet on it, but he wouldn’t have bet on Arianna having given him a second thought over the years either. Perhaps this was a place where anything was possible.

  He searched her face, looking carefully for any clue that she was speaking out of kindness. But even though he’d burst into her life with no warning, reminding her of many things that she’d probably rather forget, he could see no hint of regret. It empowered him to ask, ‘Will you tell me what you’ve been doing with the last twenty-five years?’

  CHAPTER THREE

  IT WAS THE obvious question. Arianna had asked it of Ben and he’d answered. Now it was her turn, and it felt much more challenging than sitting listening to him.

  ‘You’ve read the papers. You know who my father is. You probably know all you need to know.’

  Who her father was. The death of her brother. The fact that she’d been saved and Xander hadn’t. If anyone wanted to sum her up in three short sentences, then they covered pretty much everything.

  ‘Your father is Ioannis Petrakis.’ He said the name with an English inflection which made it sound unfamiliar to Arianna. ‘That’s part of the reason I succeeded in finding you; he’s an important man and the newspapers report on what he does. With pictures.’

  Arianna turned the corners of her mouth down. The thought that he was only here because of her father’s wealth and position left a sour taste in her mouth. Ben was the one thing she’d kept entirely for herself over all these years, and suddenly even that seemed to be slipping away.

  ‘Then you’ll know that I was a spoiled rich kid.’

  He shrugged. ‘I know that your father’s a rich man, but... I don’t know you well enough to say whether or not you were spoiled. In my experience, when kids are wet through and terrified they’re just kids.’

  ‘We were only on the ferry because my father’s launch had engine trouble. I loved it; it was so colourful and loud. After Xander died, I didn’t get much of a chance to do anything that was colourful or loud. My father wouldn’t allow it.’

  He nodded slowly. ‘It’s a temptation, for any parent. My son’s beginning to realise that there’s a world out there and he wants to start exploring it. When Emma died I just wanted to lock him away and keep him safe.’

  If Arianna could have seen Ben’s anguished look mirrored on her father’s face then maybe she would have understood a little better. But she never had...

  ‘My father...he did lock us away. It suffocated my mother, and she sued for divorce when I was fourteen.’

  ‘It’s one of the hardest things that anyone can ever face. The death of a child.’

  He understood. He’d struggled with his own loss. Her father hadn’t seemed to struggle, he’d just ruled his family with a rod of iron, but Arianna felt that she could understand that a little better now.

  ‘There was never really any room for anything else but grief with my parents. I tried to be a good child and not make things worse for them, but I could never really measure up to the son they’d lost.’

  Ben shifted in his chair, clearly thinking the matter over. She liked that. He thought about things, tempering his gut reactions with his head and his heart.

  ‘So you decided to measure yourself by what you wanted, instead?’

  ‘Yes. I couldn’t make a difference on the day my brother died, but I can make one now. My father threatened to cut me off when I applied to medical school in Athens but he just reduced my allowance to more than I ever needed.’

  ‘But you’ve spent time in London.’ Arianna shot him a questioning look and he smiled. ‘Your accent. No one’s second language is that good unless they’ve lived in a place.’

  ‘We came to live in London when I was eleven. My parents’ last-ditch attempt to get away from their grief and save their marriage. I went to school in Regent’s Park.’

  His lips curved suddenly into an incredulous smile that made her shiver. ‘You had a straw boater as part of your uniform in the summer? With a blue ribbon?’

  ‘Yes, the blue matched our blazers and dresses...’ Arianna had hated the old-fashioned uniform of the high-class school for young ladies that seemed as if it was taken straight out of the nineteen-seventies.

  ‘I was at medical school nearby. Whenever we got a break during the afternoons we’d go and sit in the park.’

  They both smiled at the same time, the idea hanging in the air between them. Maybe he’d seen her. Maybe she’d seen him, one of the young men by the lake who’d seemed so free in comparison to her own closeted existence. If fate hadn’t managed to engineer a meeting between them, it hadn’t been through any lack of effort.

  They’d been in the same places, seeing the same things. If Arianna had known that, maybe her teens would have felt a little less lonely. Or maybe not. Somehow it felt as if Ben had always been there. He already felt like an old friend, someone she hadn’t been in touch with for a while, but still close enough to pick up a conversation where they’d left it last.

  ‘I came back to London after I graduated from medical school. I applied for a newly qualified doctors exchange programme and worked at a medical centre near Charing Cross.’

  He nodded. ‘My practice is near there.’

  Another chance to pass in the street. To go to the same restaurants and bars. It was tempting to reel off a list of places and wonder if he knew them too, but the fact that they’d breathed the same air seemed enough at the moment, because now they had met.

  ‘You must like London then?’ He took a sip of his drink.

  ‘London has a lot going for it. But, to be honest, the moving around was partly an attempt to stay one step ahead of my father. It didn’t work very well; he’s got business interests all over Europe and it doesn’t much matter where he’s based as long as he’s within reach of an airfield. When I went to Athens he decided to buy a house there, and when I came back to London he suddenly felt the need to return and throw a few big parties.’

  ‘Parties?’ Humour glinted in his eyes. ‘Not the usual kind of parties that newly qualified doctors go to, I imagine.’

  Arianna leaned towards him. It felt so natural to confide in Ben, and she wasn’t sure whether it was because she owed her life to him or because he seemed to make everyone he came in contact with feel at ease.

  ‘Nice parties. Where I could meet eligible young men who would take me away from a life of doctoring and turn me into a society lady.’

  He nodded. ‘I’m assuming that they didn’t work so well.’

  They almost had. Not quite as her father had intended, though...

  Lawrence had been the antithesis of her father. He was fearless and unconventional, living for today with no thought of tomorrow. It had been refreshing at first, and he’d swept Arianna off her feet, asking her to marry him before they’d really had a chance to get to know each other. Arianna had said yes far too soon.

  And then she’d realised. Lawrence’s idea of the way they should live was really more a matter of how he wanted to live. His plans involved travel and spending her trust fund, and took no account of Arianna’s career, because why would she want to work when she didn’t have to? Even then she’d known that her work was the only stabilising fa
ctor in her life, the only reason she could find for having survived the sinking ferry when Xander hadn’t.

  That was all in the past now. Arianna had made her decision and her broken heart had mended, leaving her determined not to repeat her mistake. There was no going back, not on any of it.

  ‘No. They didn’t work.’

  ‘He throws parties here?’ Ben looked over his shoulder, smiling, as if he half expected to see a party heading their way.

  ‘My father doesn’t come to Ilaria...’

  ‘Too many memories?’ Something soft crept into his tone.

  ‘Yes.’ Arianna wondered how it would have been if it had been the other way around, and Xander had lived. If he’d become a doctor and come to Ilaria. Maybe her father would have come then, and maybe Xander’s achievements would have meant something to her father.

  ‘But you have your own memories, surely.’

  ‘I love the way of life here, in the islands. I’m needed, and that’s what I always wanted to be. But I chose Ilaria in particular because I thought that trying to drive my memories away wasn’t the best way of dealing with them.’

  ‘The best way isn’t always the easiest.’

  Arianna steeled herself against the tenderness she saw in his face. She was quite sure that if she gave into it, it would involve tears, and now wasn’t the time for them. Nightmares and tears were for the darker recesses of the night.

  ‘So...how long are you here for? Will I have an opportunity to meet your son?’

  ‘We’re here for three weeks, staying in a hotel on the mainland. Jonas is with my sister today; she’s here too, with her family. I’ve told him all about you, though, and he’d like to meet you. I’ll bring him with me the next time I come.’

  ‘When can you come next?’ Arianna pressed her lips together. Maybe she should have waited for just a few moments and made the question sound a little less a matter of life and death.

  ‘I’m on holiday. I don’t have any plans.’ His melting gaze hinted at just one plan. ‘Apart from coming to find you...’

  He was here for her. No one had ever just been there for her.

  The chemistry that had been flying between them fizzed and bubbled with gratification, like a test tube reaction that threatened to get out of hand and cause an explosion. Arianna’s heart began to beat faster, reacting before rational thought could stop it, and she reminded herself again that acknowledging the way that Ben made her feel would be a mistake.

  ‘I worked last weekend, so I have the day off tomorrow. Would you like to bring Jonas over to my house? We can have lunch and he can play on the beach.’

  ‘You have your own beach?’ He raised an eyebrow.

  ‘It’s...just a small one. He might like it though; it’s secluded and safe for him to run around and play.’

  ‘He’d like that. I would too, thank you. If it’s not too much trouble...’

  ‘No trouble. You could catch the morning ferry and I’ll meet you at the terminus.’ There was so much more that she wanted to say to Ben. Arianna wasn’t sure what that was yet, but she knew she needed more time with him. A lot more time.

  He nodded, looking at his watch and pulling a face. ‘I guess we should be getting back to the health centre to see if Helen’s up to the trip back tonight.’

  Where had the hours gone? It didn’t seem five minutes since they’d sat down at the table, but the coffee pot that the waiter had brought was empty now, and the sun had sunk low in the sky. But she had tomorrow to look forward to, and it would bring him back again.

  They walked back up to the health centre together, and Arianna couldn’t resist taking the route that led through the harbour and the older part of town. When Ben took a few moments to appreciate the sunset, she found herself smiling. He clearly liked Ilaria, and that meant rather more to her than it probably should.

  Andreas reported back on Helen, saying that she’d been making a good recovery, and when Arianna examined her she found no trace of the painful wheeze that had accompanied her efforts to breathe earlier on. She joined Ben in the empty reception area.

  ‘She’s just getting dressed. She should be fine for the journey back. I’ve made sure she has a spare inhaler and I’ll write a discharge note, and give you a copy. What time will you come tomorrow? There’s an eleven o’clock ferry.’

  There was a long night to get through before she’d see Ben again, and suddenly she wanted to know exactly how many hours she’d have to wait.

  ‘Eleven sounds great.’ He took his phone from his pocket. ‘Maybe we should exchange numbers, so I can call you if we’re going to be late.’

  Good. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Something concrete that she could take away with her. Arianna repeated her mobile number to him, hearing her phone ring as he checked he had it right. Now she had his number.

  ‘Ben, I’m so glad you came. It means a lot...’

  Suddenly, and without knowing quite how she’d got there, she was in his arms. She must have made the first move, Ben was still standing exactly where he had been before, but there was no mistaking his response. This felt so natural, as if time had crushed the getting-to-know-you process into a few short hours and they’d already become firm friends.

  His body was strong, and as he returned the hug, she felt tears welling in her eyes. For the first time in more years than she cared to remember, she felt truly safe.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘ARE WE THERE YET, DAD?’

  There was a glazed glass barrier between them and the sea, but Ben still had a tight grip on his son’s hand. An instinct that had survived the years since he’d seen Arianna slip under the metal railings that skirted the deck of the old ferry. That had sharpened since Emma’s death.

  ‘Not yet.’ He squatted down, holding Jonas protectively against his body, and pointed into the distance. ‘That’s where we’re going...’

  Ilaria seemed to shine in the sun ahead of them. He’d texted Arianna to let her know that they were on the ferry, and she’d said she’d meet them at the terminus. Maybe she was already there, shining too.

  ‘How far is it?’ Jonas was clearly trying to measure the distance that the ferry still had to travel.

  ‘About a mile.’ Ben took a wild guess. ‘We’ll be there soon, but we’ll have to wait and take our turn to get off.’

  ‘Okay.’ The information seemed enough for the moment, and Jonas pulled away from him, staring at the island ahead of them.

  Maybe fifteen minutes before he’d see Arianna again. Ben wondered whether it was possible that Jonas could be as impatient as he was. Their embrace had been echoing through his mind ever since last night.

  Now that Arianna was drawing closer with every moment, he should think of it as a hug. A hug which had totally redefined the word and lasted much longer than was strictly necessary. It had said more than broken words ever could.

  It had meant something more to Arianna too, he knew. When they’d heard the sound of a door opening and footsteps in the corridor that led out into the reception area, she’d pulled away from him, brushing tears from her eyes.

  In that moment he’d felt something flooding back into his heart. The feeling that he wanted to protect her, and the almost painful realisation that maybe there was some way that he could. Ben hadn’t allowed himself to feel that about anyone, apart from Jonas, in a very long time and it was almost as if Arianna had stripped the years away and found the man he’d once been. The one he was trying to find his way back to.

  Jonas was interested in everything, the people around him, the way the ferry manoeuvred into the dock and the prospect of dry land ahead of him. Ben held his hand firmly, his gaze searching for just one person. When he saw Arianna, wearing a bright yellow sundress, his heart almost leapt into his throat. Dizzily he returned her wave, nudging at Jonas’s shoulder to point her out, and the boy waved too, staring at
this new person he’d heard all about.

  ‘Hey, Jonas.’ She flashed Ben a smile and then turned her attention to his son. ‘Welcome to Ilaria. I’m Arianna.’

  ‘Hello.’ Jonas was a little more reserved now, watching this new person carefully. How anyone could resist the sudden sunshine of Arianna’s smile was a complete mystery to Ben.

  ‘How was the ferry ride? Did you like it?’

  Jonas nodded. Arianna looked up at Ben. ‘I’m parked in the harbour. I thought perhaps he’d like to have a look around there?’

  ‘What do you think, Jonas? Shall we go and see the boats?’

  Jonas perked up immediately. ‘Yes, Dad!’

  ‘Okay. The harbour it is, then.’

  She seemed so keen for Jonas to like Ilaria, and for him to like her too. Arianna produced chilled drinks from the straw shopping bag she carried, smiling when Jonas accepted one from her. He’d get over his reticence soon, and then... What was not to like about Ilaria? What wasn’t to love about Arianna...?

  He amended the thought quickly. The ‘L-word’ shouldn’t intrude into this equation. What wasn’t to like about Arianna...?

  By the time they reached the car, Jonas had been introduced to the men working on their boats in the harbour, and had even been allowed on one. The boy was shining with enthusiasm now, and when Arianna opened the back door of the small SUV he climbed in without a backward look at his father, getting into the child seat and waiting for Ben to strap him in.

  It was only ten minutes’ drive to the house, which stood in an isolated spot outside the town. When Arianna opened the front door, beckoning them inside, the interior was cool and quiet.

  Inside, white-painted walls and irregular exposed stonework were given a modern feel by elegant wooden furniture and pale fabrics. At the back, shutters protected the space from the heat of the midday sun, and when Arianna opened them he saw French windows leading out onto a large patio, edged with flowering plants and shaded by a canopy draped with a vine. Beyond that, a sheltered beach and the blue of the sea.