“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
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 exci
ted 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.
The girl caught sight of Anna and smiled deviously. “Oh, now it all makes sense,” she said in perfect English.
“I’m sorry,” Anna said, “there’s really nothing going on between us. Nikos just works for my grandfather, and he was helping me get supplies. Nothing happened, I promise…”
Anna trailed off as she realized Nikos and the mystery woman were laughing.
“Just so we’re clear,” the girl said, walking toward her, “you think I’m worried the two of you did something because I’m his girlfriend?” She smirked, and Anna felt immediately defensive.
Anna felt her face get hot again. “I mean, yeah… I may not look like you, but it’s not like no one has ever been interested in me…”
“Thank god you don’t look like her,” Nikos said, gently hitting the girl’s arm as she doubled over with laughter. Anna’s face was practically on fire by now.
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“Because it would be weird if I was attracted to my cousin,” he said, lifting the tiles from Anna’s arms and taking them into the summer house.
“You’re his cousin?” she asked the girl. As in the daughter of his aunt, meaning the person he grew up with, making you basically his sister?
The girl stepped forward and stuck out her hand. “That’s me. Elena.”
“I’m Anna.” Anna placed her hand in Elena’s, feeling strangely relieved. “Wait, so if you’re not together, why were you angry with him for hanging out with me?”
“I don’t care who Nikos is with,” Elena said. “I care that he was meant to drive me to work nearly an hour ago but forgot. Which makes sense now.”
Anna furrowed her brow. “It does?”
“Oh yeah,” Elena said, walking out toward the truck. “He’s definitely got a type. Nice to meet you, Anna.” And then she disappeared around the corner.
Anna wondered what that meant. Did Nikos make a habit of getting close with American girls? Maybe his relationship with “influencers” was more complicated than he’d let on.
Nikos walked out of the house and back to Anna. “You okay, Linton?” he asked, showing that he had heard her before, that he was respecting her wishes about her name. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back in twenty minutes. I’ll even unload the rest of the tiles if you get started on the grout.”
Anna just nodded. He stopped next to her as he walked past and leaned over. “You’re doing it again,” he whispered.
She turned to him, her face just inches from his, close enough that she could feel warmth coming off him. “Doing what?”
“Blushing,” he replied with a wink, and then he walked away.
Anna stood in place until she heard the truck pull away, and then she went inside and sat down on her bed. She put a hand on her cheek. It was hot, and not just from the Santorini heat.
She opened her phone to text Lizzy about what had just happened, but before she could she noticed she had an email notification waiting. It was from the lawyer managing her father’s estate. Anna sighed and opened it up. It was time to stop worrying about men and remember why she was actually here.
Nikos returned half an hour later. “Sorry I was longer than
promised,” he said as Anna let him in, three boxes of tiles in his hands. Anna saw his eyes flicker from the untouched grout to her computer, open on her bed with the website for a local real estate agent pulled up. “What have you been up to?”
“I checked my email when I got in,” she replied. “There was an email from the lawyer. He’s coming tomorrow so I can sign the inheritance deed. But apparently we have to pay an inheritance tax on the value of the property, which of course I’m only increasing with every improvement.”
“So what does that mean?”
Anna took a deep breath. “It means that we have to wait to do any more work on the house. I need to get it valued in its current state so that the tax is as low as possible, then fix it up before putting it on the market so we can get as much as possible for it. It’s going to take ages.”
Anna tried to keep breathing deeply, but she was panicking. She had been since she saw the email just a few minutes after Nikos left. If her math was correct, by the time she could get the house on the market, it would be nearly a month from now. And, even then, she’d be lucky if she could get enough to make the inheritance tax and her trip out here feel worth it. It wasn’t like she had a job to go back to.
So much for a quick trip.
At least her panic attack had distracted her from Nikos and whatever it was that was happening between them. She did not need that, especially now that she knew she would have to stay a bit longer.
Anna thought about the reception she had received from her grandmother. Even the stews had stopped coming from her grandfather, presumably because he’d seen her carrying in groceries. Nobody wanted her here any more than she wanted to be here. How was she going to stay for a whole month in a place where she didn’t have a job, didn’t have a car, didn’t speak the language and only knew one person who would give her the time of day? She pictured herself trapped in the tiny summer house all alone for a month, and the reality of the situation – everything that had happened with Marcus, losing her job, the inheritance – came crashing down on her. She began to cry.
The Summer House in Santorini Page 5
