‘No confined spaces though?’ Becky asked, her voice catching a little.
‘You are concerned about being in a confined space when I am here?’ he asked. ‘It might be fun… a tight space, our two bodies very close together, sharing each other’s air…’
‘As much as I love you, Elia, you’re making it sound like a double coffin and that really really isn’t sensual.’
He stopped walking then and gazed at her, his heart in his throat, his mouth dry. ‘You… love me.’
Becky’s eyes were still closed and he watched the rise and fall of her chest, her lightly bronzed skin moving against the neckline of her cream-coloured sundress. She wasn’t saying anything yet, perhaps it had simply been a figure of speech…
‘I do,’ she whispered. Then quieter still. ‘Is that too soon? Do you think I’m rushing things and—’
Elias answered her with a kiss, a delicate, but definite, touching of his lips on hers to ensure there was no misunderstanding. She kissed him back, one hand smoothing over the back of his neck, her fingers tickling his hairline. He wanted to hold her forever… and wasn’t that what love was?
‘Can I open my eyes now?’ Becky asked him, ending the kiss.
‘No,’ he replied. ‘Not yet.’
‘But I want to look at you.’
He was enjoying looking at her, her gentle, sweet, beautiful, soft perfection shining from the inside to the out. He really had never met anyone like her before. And, more than that, she had helped him to find himself again. He put his hands on her shoulders and guided her forward once more, along the path, past his father’s newly dug allotment, along by the chickens and the goats, to the final part of his father’s land, a bamboo-ringed clearing. He smiled to himself as he looked at the tepee he had constructed with his father earlier. Made from some old sheets he had managed to obtain from Areti, over long sturdy bamboo canes tied together at the top with strong wire, it was like the fortress he had made when he was young. Except back then the tent had been filled with dinosaur toys and card games. Tonight it was filled with blankets and pillows and surrounded with strings of fairy lights.
‘Open your eyes,’ Elias breathed, turning Becky so she was facing the tepee.
*
Becky’s heart was thudding in her chest, wondering what she was about to look at and thinking that although Elias had kissed her when she admitted she loved him, he hadn’t actually acknowledged it with words of his own. She was telling herself it didn’t matter. It didn’t. This relationship was very new and they were both a little damaged from relationships past. She was overthinking things.
‘Becky,’ Elias said. ‘You can open your eyes.’
Overthinking and keeping her eyes shut. Mad. And likely to spoil the evening if she didn’t shake herself out of it.
She opened her eyes and gave a gasp. ‘Wow… Elia… wow! It’s so… beautiful.’
Stepping quickly over the grassy ground she approached this triangular wigwam, the warm glow from inside making it look like the cosiest resting place. ‘This is amazing.’ She stopped at the entrance, two sheets pegged into place to create the opening. ‘Did you make this?’
‘I did,’ he said, standing beside her. ‘With quite a lot of help from my father. Please, do not tell my mother he was standing on two very unstable boxes to reach the top. I offered to do this, of course, but he said I would not do it right.’ He shrugged. ‘What can I say? He is Greek. No care for health and safety and as stubborn as a goat.’
‘Elia, it’s so… perfect,’ Becky said stepping inside. It really was a little haven just for them. The floor was covered in thick matting and there seemed to be dozens of cushions and pillows and rugs and blankets. There was also a small table holding a bottle of wine in a cooler and two glasses.
‘It isn’t your mother’s wine, is it?’ Becky asked, the tang of it somehow arriving in the back of her throat.
‘Is there something wrong with my mother’s wine?’ Elias asked. He couldn’t seem to hide the knowing grin.
‘Does she not know it’s awful?’ Becky said. ‘Is everyone too scared to tell her?’
‘Yes, everyone is too scared to tell her,’ Elias said with a laugh.
Becky sat down, leaning back on the cushions and gazing out into the night. ‘Oh, wow, the view from here is amazing.’
She could see the sea, the twinkling lights of the villages below and the sound of the night-time bugs was all around.
‘It is even better in the daytime but, in the daytime there is also the view of the neighbour, Areti’s laundry.’
Becky laughed as Elias sat down beside her, then lay back too. Tomorrow all this would be far away. It wouldn’t be fairy-lights it would be fairy-cakes, or rather, large filled baguettes to feed a battalion…
Elias took hold of her hand. ‘We should make plans,’ he told her. ‘We should make plans tonight, before you leave.’
‘What plans?’ Becky asked, turning a little and looking into his eyes.
He sighed. ‘I wish I was getting on that plane to London with you, but I have to stay here a little longer to finalise things with the goods from Villa Selino.’ He paused before carrying on. ‘And also, I want to spend a little more time with my parents, make sure my mother plans the holiday she so badly needs and I need to do something about my empty house. Do you understand?’
‘Of course I understand,’ Becky said, squeezing his hand in hers. ‘And, I might not be a seasoned traveller just yet, but I have experience in managing almost perfectly well on air travel even when the most extraordinary circumstances are thrown my way.’
‘You certainly do,’ Elias agreed.
‘And I’m going to be busy,’ Becky told him. ‘Preparing to cater for the nursing home’s special summer party next month.’
She watched Elias’s face light up. That was why she loved him. Because he truly cared about things that were important to her.
‘You pitched for the contract,’ he said excitedly. ‘You pitched and you won.’
‘Actually,’ Becky said, ‘Megan pitched my menu and yes, we got the job.’ It still gave her a thrill saying the words. It was going to mean so much to their family as well as the business. ‘And I won’t need any lawyer services with regard to the suspected unintentional poisoning.’
‘No?’ Elias asked.
‘No,’ Becky said with a breath of deep relief. ‘It wasn’t my food that made Martin have a reaction. It was a spider bite would you believe.’
‘Wow,’ Elias remarked. ‘In England?’
‘Maybe a false widow… no one seems to know. But he’s on the mend and I’m off the hook. And Megan wants to keep my ideas with the tasting platters and tailored ingredients but everything labelled and above board, which is how things should have been in the first place, if only we could have actually, really talked to one another.’
‘I am so happy for you,’ Elias told her.
‘I am happy for me too,’ she admitted. ‘Deliciously happy. In fact, I don’t think there is anything that could make me happier right now.’