Page 95 of Hot Greek Summer

Laughing softly, she nodded. ‘Sure is.’

Corinna appeared fleetingly beside them again. ‘Recognise anything?’ she asked. ‘This is Jesse’s most personal exhibition to date. Most of the pieces relate to his life here on the island.’

Other pieces followed, every one as lifelike as the last and the little redsoldstickers were appearing thick and fast, until at the back of the gallery the exhibition took an unexpected turn. A really, really personal one, for Winnie at least, because every last sketch was of her, nude.

He’d made sure that she wasn’t identifiable, thankfully, using her hair to obscure her features in any drawings that included her head. Winnie felt an odd mix of pride, fury and hurt. He should have asked her if she minded this. It was an imposition of the most personal sort.

‘Holy fuck,’ Stella said, a little too loudly, making Frankie elbow her in the ribs. ‘Act natural, Win.’

‘It’s you, isn’t it?’ Frankie whispered.

Winnie didn’t answer. She didn’t have to; her friends knew perfectly well that it was.

‘Oh, but Winnie, look at these. They’re so beautiful.’

Jesse had made two full-size sculptures of her, both of them loosely based on the seated position he’d asked her to assume the first time he drew her. She was a mermaid on the rocks in the first, her head bowed, her long rope of hair swept over one shoulder, her legs encased by a fantasy scalloped tail. It was whimsical and entirely divine.

The second sculpture transformed her from mermaid to fairy, knees drawn up and ankles crossed, her head dipped forward to rest on her forearms. He’d given her filmy, gossamer wings, rendering her ethereal and enchanting, and he’d entitled the entire collection ‘Muse’.

Corinna stood oblivious to them a few steps away, deep in conversation with a woman Winnie didn’t recognise.

‘Stunning, aren’t they? A study of his late wife, I think.’ Winnie caught Corinna’s confidential tone. ‘He never speaks of her, but from photographs I saw when he first moved here these images bear a striking resemblance.’

Corinna’s words settled like soft falling snow over Winnie’s heart.His late wife?Little things he’d said suddenly made sense now. He’d been married, and something tragic had happened to take his wife away. God, no wonder his attitude to love and marriage was so intense.Winnie’s heart broke a little for him, and for herself too.Jesse was absolutely entitled to his past and his privacy, but the idea of being so similar in looks to the woman he’d loved held a sudden eerie ring of truth.

‘Sold already,’ Stella frowned, noticing the red stickers on the base of the two sculptures. ‘I don’t like the idea of you being displayed in someone else’s house, it’s not right.’

Winnie had seen and heard enough. ‘Can we just get out of here, please?’

They sat outside a café in the pretty town square eating freshly made gelato from bright pink tubs.

‘He should pay you to use your image,’ Stella said, licking chocolate ice-cream from the back of her small plastic spoon. ‘The donkey’s one thing, but everyone could see your nipples!’

‘People see more on the beach every day,’ Frankie said, trying to make less of it. ‘He should have asked your permission though.’

Winnie stirred her strawberry gelato listlessly, playing with it more than eating it. ‘Did you hear what Corinna said?’

Both of the others shook their heads.

‘She said that she thought they were based on his late wife.’

Frankie slid her tub of vanilla onto the table, barely eaten. ‘Jesse’s a widower?’

‘So it would seem,’ Winnie said. ‘Corinna said that the sculptures bear a striking resemblance to her.’

Both Stella and Frankie seemed unsure what to say to that. Winnie couldn’t blame them, she was having a difficult time processing it too. Her ice-cream had turned to slushy milk in the tub, and she stood up sharply and picked up the car keys. ‘Let’s go home.’

All was not as they’d left it when Stella eased the big old car back through the garden gates at Villa Valentina. They clambered out onto the uneven paving stones and found themselves met by a reception committee of Angelo, Gav and Seth, all wearing shorts and looking sweaty and filthy.

‘You look like three naughty boys who’ve been caught doing something that they shouldn’t,’ Stella said, standing on tiptoe to kiss Angelo square on the mouth. He seemed to lose focus for a second, growling ‘I like your dress,’ and cupping her ass until she slapped his hand away. ‘What have you been up to?’

The men stepped aside to show off the fruits of their afternoon of hard labour. They’d cleared out all of the dead plants wrecked by the fire and replanted the bed with the vibrant arbutus bushes, creating a wall of gorgeous creamy flowers that would turn to their stock of berries come the autumn.

‘You did all of this this afternoon?’ Frankie whispered. It was as if a garden makeover show had swooped in in their brief absence and worked TV magic.

‘Seth’s idea,’ Gav said generously.

‘Panos and Jesse were here too,’ Seth said quickly, not wanting to take all of the glory.

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