Page 78 of Hot Greek Summer

It was a little after two in the morning, and Winnie had finally turned in after a solitary cup of coffee in the kitchen and a fair while spent sitting on her balcony. She’d tried to read but her mind wouldn’t settle to her book, and she’d tried to sleep once already but hadn’t been able to switch off. And so she lay awake on her back in the middle of her huge bed and gazed at the rafters, wondering why Jesse had even asked her to the movies at all when the thought of being on a date with her was clearly distasteful to him.

Her eyelids had just drifted closed when a noise jolted her wide awake again. What was that? She lay perfectly still, and after a minute or so, it happened again. The tap of pebbles on glass. Propping herself up on her elbows, she flicked on the creamy side lamp and stared at the dark balcony doors, and sure enough it happened for a third time; she saw it as well as heard it this time.

Slipping from between the sheets, she pushed her feet into her cowboy boots beside the bed and crossed to open her balcony doors. Resting her forearms on the edge she leant over and looked down.

Jesse.

‘You said you wanted to dance.’

Her bruised ego wanted to tell him to leave, but her tender heart wanted to dance.

‘Come down?’ he said, when she didn’t reply. ‘Please?’

If she insisted on having this conversation over the distance of two floors the whole villa would be awake in no time, and given the money that Tryx had handed over for their serenity, that was out of the question.

‘Wait there,’ she sighed, retreating into her room just long enough to throw her short robe over her slip. She moved quietly through the slumbering villa, opened the front door and stood just inside the frame.

‘What are you doing here, Jesse?’ she asked softly.

He’d changed from his expensive-yacht-owner gear into his more regular jeans and T-shirt, all faded and worn into the shape of him. He took his time replying, and Winnie sensed that it was because he was choosing his words carefully.

‘I’m not a straightforward man, Winnie.’

Tell me something I don’t know.She thought it, but she held her tongue.

‘There were things … people. Someone. A long time ago.’

As explanations went, it was as clear as London fog. Winnie pulled the villa door closed and led him across to the loungers on the edge of the beach. Perching sideways on one, she nodded for him to sit on the other facing her, and then, knee to knee, she studied him, trying to understand what he wanted to say.

‘What was a long time ago?’

He shook his head, his eyes turned towards the dark shoreline.

‘I came here to escape from my life, Winnie. So much had happened, and Skelidos literally saved me.’

She laid her hands lightly on his knees. ‘What was so awful that you needed to move around the world to outrun it?’

His mouth twisted. Whatever it was, it was buried deep and he was having a hard time getting it out.

‘You don’t have to tell me,’ she said quickly.

‘What happened … it changed me. I don’t see life the way I used to. I don’t see love the way I used to, either.’ He paused. ‘In fact, I don’t see love at all.’

Winnie shook her head. He was wrong. ‘Yes, you do. You love this island. You love the life you’ve built here. You even seem to love my bloody donkey.’

A smile of appreciation lifted the corner of his mouth at her attempt to lighten the mood.

‘Those things are my building blocks,’ he said. ‘They’re my stability, and in truth they’re my sanity. They don’t go anywhere, even when I fuck up.’

‘Unlike women?’ she said, perceptive.

‘Something like that.’ He met her gaze with his troubled, guilty eyes. ‘You asked me earlier how many women I’ve been with.’

Winnie wasn’t certain she wanted to hear the answer now but she didn’t stop him because this was all leading somewhere, she just wasn’t certain where yet.

‘I don’t know what the number is and it doesn’t really matter, but what I do know is that I have nothing to offer, Winnie. I’m a one-night-stand guy. It’s who I am.’

She searched his face, unsure what he expected her to say.

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