‘And three days.’ Becky put her hands back to the rope and steered the vessel a little, as if suddenly, under Elias tuition, she had got the knack.
‘Then after four weeks he dates your sister?’
It sounded even worse when it was someone else speaking the timeline of events out loud. She had fallen hard for Dean. He had been sweet and funny and indulged her love of crazy when it came to experimenting with pizza toppings like she experimented with sandwich-fillings…
‘He is… the worst kind,’ Elias spat.
It sounded like he was forcing the words out through gritted teeth. It sounded like he was furious. She could imagine the look on his face, the raised eyebrow, the pursed lips, a little like the expression he’d worn when he’d had to rescue Petra from the cave lake.
‘He’s been loyal to my sister so far. They seem completely devoted. We don’t go out as a three now. After a rather awkward meal at a restaurant Dean and I used to go to when the waiter thought we were still together it seemed better to not encounter that scenario again. And, if I think realistically about it, they are much better suited than Dean and I ever were. I should have realised that at the time and—’
‘I hate him,’ Elias hissed, his body shifting. ‘I do not know him and I hate him.’
‘I hated him too. For a while. Until I saw how happy he was making my sister.’ She sighed, looking at the beautiful view around the bay, the perfect picture postcard blue sky and warming sunshine making the water sparkle like it was laced with jewels. ‘And that’s one of the reasons I decided to come to Greece. Because staying in Wiltshire all the time is making me stagnate. As much as I love where I live and my job, I’m not going to find what it is I really like, or who I want to spend time with, unless I try other places, other things, other people…’
For a second she had forgotten exactly how close Elias was sitting to her. As she said the word ‘people’ it became completely obvious they were tightly melded into the space really meant for one. It was disconcerting as well as seriously sexy. And why was she telling him this? Just because it was time she got it off her chest? It had been on her chest and inside of her for so long, no one knowing except Megan and Dean. How much more awkward would it have been if Hazel and Shelley knew Dean had started off with her? There would be the looks and comments and misunderstanding. It was far better for Hazel and Shelley to think she had only ever had casual drinks with people like Angus from the sausage shop, not a real-life eighteen months and three days with a conservatory salesman they knew all too well.
‘Being here is my time-out from everything I know. It’s going to give me and Megan some much-needed space. It’s going to be time for me to work out if my destiny lies with making sandwiches for my sister’s business and give her time to find out whether she needs me to keep her firm successful. Maybe she will need me. Maybe she won’t. Maybe I will decide to start something of my own.’
Was starting something of her own what she wanted to do one day? All the ‘one days’ that had gone before had been usurped by the death of her dad and Megan needing someone to drive her out of the grief she was ignoring. Becky had always been the sister who made sacrifices.
‘We are drifting a little close to the rocks,’ Elias said all of a sudden. He put his hands over hers again, helping her to manoeuvre the boat away from the coastline.
‘Yes,’ Becky answered, reticent. ‘It’s rather a constant theme with me. Although I always do it in a very quiet way so no one notices.’
‘We always think that it is sometimes safer to hide. To not show that things hurt. To cover up how we really feel,’ Elias whispered so close to her ear.
‘Yes,’ Becky breathed. ‘Exactly.’
He squeezed her hands in his, firm, soft, all the hotness…
‘We make things all about the other people. Do not make other people feel bad. Do not make a scene. Do not stand up for what matters to you.’
‘Yes,’ Becky stated, smiling. ‘You understand.’
‘Of course,’ Elias replied. ‘I am… the same as you.’
She could feel the warmth of his breath against the side of her neck, the heat of his fingers on hers, hands clasped over the rope in the sunlight, sailing together across the now much less choppy sea…
Slap!
Becky screamed and reared back into Elias as something landed right in front of her on the boat.
‘Get it off! Get it off! Arrggh!’ Becky was trying to flip her body out of the sunken niche in a bid to get further away from their sea-life visitor.
Elias began to laugh and she could feel it, rumbling through him from inside that taut stomach that was nestling into her back, then up through his chest until release into the sea air. It was a warm sound, a genuine sound and Becky always liked hearing it.
‘It is only an octopus,’ Elias said, still laughing, taking control of the boat as Becky had dropped the rope in her panic.
‘You wouldn’t be saying that if you had seen the monster in a video Petra showed me last night.’ She shuddered and Elias leaned his body into her again.
‘It is a fine specimen,’ he continued. ‘I expect it would be delicious.’
‘I can’t… I couldn’t eat it… not now I’ve seen it, alive and… wriggling. Argh!’ Becky exclaimed as the octopus shuffled along the deck, closer to her. ‘Make it stop.’
Elias slipped his body away from hers and attempted to stand up on the boat. His motion made the yacht sway a little and Becky screamed again.
‘Yassas,’ Elias said and he took hold of the creature and tossed it back into the ocean.
‘Is it OK?’ Becky asked as Elias turned to face her, expertly keeping his balance. She admired the physique of him in those tight trunks – not dissimilar to something David Gandy could model.
‘You are enquiring after the health of something you were terrified of?’ Elias asked her, a wry smile on his face.
‘I just didn’t want it to be like coral or something else from the sea that dies if you touch it.’
‘Let us hope it does not try to find the love of its life or it might be the trying that kills it.’
‘Ha ha,’ Becky replied. ‘Very amusing.’
‘Come on, Captain Rebecca. Let us see if you can sail this dinghy without any help from me.’
Forty-Two
Villa Selino, Kerasia
In the past four days Becky had seen the flowers of Villa Selino really come into their own. She had watered them thoroughly morning and evening, but she had done something else too, something she did to the herbs and plants in the garden of It’s A Wrap. She had spent time talking to them. Now, with Petra lying in the pool, inside a bright pink flamingo ring that Becky was concerned might attract the real flamingo to mate with, she was holding the hosepipe over the blooming urns of lilac anemone and bright yellow marigolds whispering to their petals.
‘It’s been four days,’ Becky said, watching the water tumble into the soil. ‘Four days and I haven’t heard anything from Elias. And I shouldn’t be thinking about him because, he was a stranger on a plane and he told me he was an estate agent and… countless other reasons. But…’ She paused, as if waiting for the marigold to give an answer. ‘He was the first person I told about Dean and that means that I obviously liked him enough to tell him that and that… well, that’s important.’