Page 20 of Hot Greek Summer

‘This one. It actually specifies that it’s best for delicate-stomached tourists who insist on a full English breakfast washed down with builder’s tea.’

‘Ha ha.’ Winnie grabbed it from him and put it as far away from the bacon and eggs in her trolley as possible.

‘What else do you need?’

Surveying the list, Winnie said, ‘Dinner.’

‘Eat at Panos’s place.’

‘Welivehere, Jesse. We want to cook for ourselves.’

‘Ilive here, and Panos cooks my dinner more than I do.’

‘You’re a man.’

‘Now who’s being stereotypical?’

She pulled a face at his back as he wandered away towards the deli counter. Following him, she listened as he chatted easily with the girl behind the display, speaking in fast, fluent Greek that she couldn’t follow. He made the girl laugh though, so evidently he was more charming in his second language than his native tongue.

‘Not vegetarians, no?’

‘Frankie is.’ Winnie didn’t miss the pained look on Jesse’s face as he turned back and ordered more things from the counter.

‘Olives,’ he said when he turned back around with his hands full. ‘And feta.’

Winnie watched him lay the clear containers of gleaming green olives and big creamy chunks of cheese alongside the salad ingredients already in her trolley.

‘Spanakopita. It’s spinach pie.’

Frankie would approve of that.

‘Keftethes. Meatballs. Tell your vegetarian to steer clear.’

‘I think she could work that much out for herself,’ Winnie said. The balls were huge and clearly strictly for carnivores.

Jesse added a tub of tzatziki and slices of locally cured ham, before moving over to the bakery to order a bag of fresh triangles of pita straight from the ovens.

‘Dinner,’ he said, waving his hand grandly over the trolley as if he’d been out and hunted the meat himself.

‘Thank you.’

They wandered back towards the tills, and once there he automatically unloaded and packed her shopping into brown paper carriers without her needing to ask as she carefully counted out the unfamiliar money. It was a moment of simple harmony, and she had the grace to thank him as they left the store and filled the boot of his Golf with her shopping bags.

‘Do you need to go straight back?’ he asked as she slipped into the passenger seat.

She looked at him for a long moment, wondering what he had in mind. ‘I don’t think it matters too much. Why?’

He winked at her before sliding his glasses over his eyes and gunning the engine.

‘In that case I’ll show you something special.’

He threw his arm across the back of her seat to glance over his shoulder and reverse in that sexy way that only men on movies ever truly do, and Winnie tried not to notice the inadvertent graze of his fingertips against the back of her neck as they left the supermarket behind them in the distance and drove up into the hills.

Reaching across Winnie’s knees to grab a bottle of chilled water from the glove box, Jesse tried not to notice the fact that she smelled like fresh flowers or that her skin was so double-cream pale against his own sun-weathered arm.

‘Come on, it’s up on foot from here.’

‘What is?’

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