The Summer House in Santorini

“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.”

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