BLEAK didn’t begin to describe Serena’s feelings. She couldn’t understand how a day that had begun with such happiness and such promise had degenerated so swiftly into a day full of hurt and despair. Her fault, she knew it. She’d asked for too much, demanded all Pete had to give, craving it all, taking it all, and never realising that there would be a reckoning; that he would make her pay.
Bastard.
Anger took the edge off her misery, never mind that it was misdirected. It was there, inside her. No point wasting it. So she stewed and she brooded and by the time Nico found her at lunchtime, in her usual place beside the Vespa shed, she’d acquired a head full of steam and an ocean of resentment towards the traitorous, thieving marauder of hearts, Peter, Superman, flyboy, Bennett.
Nico looked tired but happy as he handed over her lunchbox and settled into the chair beside her. Nico—if the unlived-in state of the cottage this morning was any indication—had not made it home last night. Good for him. ‘How’s Sam?’
‘He’ll mend,’ said Nico, opening her cooler and pinching one of her cans of cola.
‘And Chloe?’
‘She’ll mend too once she stops blaming herself for what happened. She’s fussing over Sam something awful.’ The hint of a smile touched Nico’s lips as he set the cola to his lips and drank deeply. ‘He’s letting her.’
‘Good.’ Good for all of them.
‘Chloe said she saw Pete this morning before he left,’ he continued with a studied casualness she didn’t believe one little bit. ‘She said if he looked any more miserable she’d have bundled him up next to Sam for the day and mollycoddled them both.’
Serena said nothing.
‘She asked him when he’d be back,’ said Nico. ‘She wanted to thank him properly for what he did for Sam. Take him out for a meal or a drink. Something.’ Nico slid her a sideways glance. ‘He said he didn’t know.’
Serena felt the tears start to well and blinked them away, grateful for the sunglasses that hid her eyes until Nico set his drink on the ground and gently removed her sunglasses from her face and left her defenceless.
‘He hurt you.’
‘No.’ Yes. ‘It’s nothing.’
‘Then why are you crying?’
‘I’m not crying,’ she muttered, dashing the tears from her cheeks. ‘You just took the sunglasses away too soon, that’s all.’ She took a deep shuddering breath. ‘Pete’s heading back to Australia. To his old job with air-sea rescue.’
Nico studied her intently. ‘So you’re crying because he’s leaving?’
‘No.’Yes. ‘He asked me to go with him. To marry him.’
‘Oh.’ Nico leaned forward, scratched his head, and developed a sudden fascination with the ground beneath his feet. ‘I would speak with your father on Pete’s behalf if you wanted me to. If you thought he might not approve.’
‘That’s not it.’
‘Didn’t think so,’ he said, turning his face towards her, his eyes sharp and searching. ‘You refused him.’
‘Not exactly.’ She hadn’t meant to ask for everything. She really hadn’t. She stared at Nico helplessly, not knowing how to explain. Not knowing where to start. ‘I just—’ She waved her hand in the air.
Nico sighed. ‘Did you say yes?’
‘No.’
‘Trust me. You refused him.’
Serena felt the tears start to come again. ‘I got the job in Athens.’
‘Well…’ he said, and followed up with a lengthy pause. ‘Congratulations. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to take it.’
‘If I don’t take it…if I don’t step out on my own now I’ll never know if I could have succeeded.’
‘Women,’ he muttered.
‘You don’t understand,’ she said hotly. ‘This was supposed to be my time. Mine. You don’t know how long I’ve waited for it!’
‘I do know,’ he said gently. ‘And it still is your time, Serena. There’s just another offer on the table now, that’s all.’ He sent her a wry smile. ‘All you have to do is decide which one you want to take.’
Pete stayed away from sleepy Greek islands and soul-stealing sirens for well over a week but he couldn’t stay away from the island for ever. Not when passengers wanted to go there. Not when passengers wanted to be picked up from there and flown to Athens.
His one saving grace was that he knew who his passengers were and Serena wasn’t one of them. It was Chloe and Sam.
Chloe greeted him like a long lost brother when he touched down, which was sweet of her. Sam greeted him with something akin to awe.
‘Where do you want to sit?’ he asked the boy as they headed towards the Jet Ranger. ‘Front or back?’ His gaze slid to Chloe, his eyes narrowed. ‘Actually, you take the back. Last time your aunt was in the back of my helicopter she jumped out of it. And don’t think I’ve forgiven you either,’he muttered to Chloe. ‘The memory of it will haunt me to the day I die.’
Chloe sent him an angelic smile. ‘I knew what I was doing.’
‘You did not!’
‘Did she really jump out of your helicopter?’ said Sam.
‘Yes.’ He didn’t want to think about it.
‘Chloe says you found me.’
‘It was a group effort. Chloe spotted you, Nico came and got you, Mrs Papadopoulos had people out looking for you.’He gauged Sam’s readiness to hear what he had to say next. Thought the boy ready for it. ‘Pretty stupid move, Sam.’
‘I know.’ Sam’s thin frame stiffened but he held Pete’s gaze. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘I’m glad.’ Pete gestured for him to get in the helicopter, showed him how to buckle up, and where the life-jackets were. ‘Where were you headed, anyway?
‘Athens.’
‘Flying’s faster.’
‘Yeah, but I can’t fly a helicopter.’
‘You can’t sail either, but did that stop you trying? No.’
Chloe giggled first. Sam grinned. ‘I’m gonna learn to sail first. Then I’m gonna learn how to fly.’
‘Why not?’ said Pete. ‘So why the trip to Athens today? Something special on?’
Sam’s smile faltered. Chloe answered for him. ‘It’s an anniversary—of a kind. Sam’s mother died a year ago. We have a visit to make.’
‘My mother died when I was not much older than you,’ Pete told the boy gently. ‘I do the same. Every year. It helps you remember.’
They touched down in Athens without incident, Sam helping him secure the rotor blades as Chloe gathered up all their stuff. The boy looked edgy. Tense. But it was a big day for him. He had a right to be tense and Pete left him well enough alone.
Sam’s hands went to his pockets, nothing untoward about that except that when he withdrew his hand he clutched two fifty euro notes in it. He held them out to Pete, his expression guarded. ‘They’re yours,’ he said.
‘Are you sure?’
Sam nodded jerkily. ‘Nico and Chloe are getting married. Nico says he’s going to adopt me so that we’ll all belong to each other. Like a family.’ The wonder in Sam’s eyes pierced Pete to the core.
‘Take care of them, Sam,’ he said gruffly.
‘I will.’ The words were a promise. Sam held out the money. ‘Here. It’s yours. I don’t need them any more.’
Chloe had more words for him as they walked across the tarmac to the arrivals building.
‘Serena left the island last week,’ she told him.
Pete said nothing.
‘She’s staying with Nico’s family while she tries out this new job. She has a two-week trial period.’
Pete shrugged. ‘She won’t need it. Her work is brilliant.’
‘I hear she’s conflicted,’ said Chloe. ‘She had another offer on the table that was tempting.’
Pete smiled bitterly. ‘Congratulations on your engagement.’
‘You’re changing the subject,’ she said.
‘Yeah.’
‘We’re meeting her for coffee later. Care to join us?’
‘No.’
‘No message for her?’
‘Yeah.’ Pete’s gut clenched. He’d never known how hard it was to be the one letting go. ‘Tell her I’m proud of her.’
‘You’ve seen Pete?’ said Serena as Chloe gave Sam the okay to go and check out the pastries in the cabinet. They were sitting in a café in Athens before Chloe and Sam headed back to Sathi. The question revealed more than it should but Serena asked it anyway.
‘Of course I’ve seen him,’ said Chloe. ‘He flew us here. He’s flying us back.’
‘What did he look like? How did he seem?’
‘He looked the way he always looks. Heartbreakingly handsome. He seemed fine.’
‘Bastard,’ she muttered.
‘You, on the other hand, look miserable.’
‘I’m not miserable. I’m fine.’
‘How’s the job going? Is it as fulfilling as you expected?’
‘I’ve only been there a week,’ she said dryly. ‘Fulfilment takes time.’
‘If you ask me, without the right man at your side, fulfilment’s going to take for ever,’ muttered Chloe. ‘Not that you asked.’
‘Since when did you become the expert?’
‘Since your cousin asked me to marry him,’ said Chloe shyly, and lifted her hand to display the sweetest diamond ring.
‘Really?’ A smile began to bloom deep in Serena’s heart. Finally, something that was going right. ‘I knew it,’ she said as she leaned over and hugged Chloe tight. ‘I knew it!’ She sat back and beamed. ‘He’ll bring you laughter and happiness.’
‘And fish,’ said Chloe with a grin.
‘And children,’ said Serena, slanting a glance at Sam who was still glued to the sweets counter, seemingly unable to make a decision about which one to have. ‘More children. You’ll have a good life together, Chloe. I can feel it.’
‘You could have had a good life too,’ said Chloe quietly. ‘With Pete.’
‘I know.’ Serena looked away.
‘Call him,’ said Chloe.
‘And say what? Don’t go back to Australia? Stay in Athens and cart tourists around for a living? It won’t satisfy him, Chloe. I can’t ask it of him.’
‘Maybe he could get air-sea rescue work here. Have you asked him that? No. Have you discussed the possibility of you getting the kind of work you want back in Australia? No. You took the first job offered, and sold yourself short.’
‘I had to start somewhere,’ she said defensively.
‘Don’t get me started,’ said Chloe curtly. ‘Your photographs are wasted on a daily newspaper. Your pictures don’t need words. You’re an artist. That your family didn’t encourage you in that direction long ago is shameful, but enough about my feelings on that.’ She cut off her words with an abrupt wave of her hand. ‘If you want to be a photojournalist, fine. Be one. But why on earth do you have to be one here?’
‘It’s not just that,’ she said doggedly. ‘I know it sounds selfish but I wanted to concentrate on me for a while. My wants. My wishes. My career. If I’d met him a few years from now it might have been different… Would have been different,’ she admitted. ‘I’d have been ready for what he offered me, Chloe, but right now I just don’t know. Sometimes I want him with me so bad I ache. But I want my freedom too.’
‘Marriage isn’t a cage,’ said Chloe, and held up her hands when Serena would have protested. ‘Okay, I know it brings with it responsibilities and duty to other people. It brings complications when it comes to working out whose wants and needs should take priority. It can bring sacrifice and heartache, children to love, relatives to worry about, and more ties than you know what to do with and they just keep coming until they’re wrapped around you like a cloak. But it’s a cloak of gold, Serena—rich with dreams and with wishes, full of strength and of joy. It’ll keep you warm in the winter and it’ll be there for you to come home to after a hard day’s work taking pictures that break your heart. It’ll keep you strong for when you come home to a man who’s been up in the sky all day scouring raging seas for non-existent survivors. Talk all you want about freedom, Serena, but what you found with Pete Bennett? It’s worth something.’
‘I know,’ she said quietly.
‘He said to tell you he’s proud of you,’ said Chloe.
Serena swallowed hard. Nodded. She couldn’t speak.
‘Do you love him?’
Serena nodded again.
‘I can’t tell you what to do, Serena, but if you love him the way he loves you?’ Chloe smiled gently. ‘It’s worth everything.’
Serena stewed over her options another week before finally gathering the nerve to call Pete. Her two weeks trial working period was up. She’d found the work satisfying, occasionally exhilarating, and the deadlines tight. They were happy with her work. She was happy with it. Time to start looking for an apartment and carving out a life for herself in Athens if that was what she wanted.
But it wasn’t.
She wanted something else more.
She needed to find out if it was still on offer. With shaking hands she reached for her phone. A recorded message told her his phone was out of range. She called the helicopter charter service. Tomas answered.
‘How’s the new job?’ he wanted to know.
‘It’s a good job. Tomas, is Pete around?’
‘Didn’t he tell you?’ said Tomas. ‘His old air-sea rescue unit were desperately short a helicopter pilot. He’s back in Australia. He went home.’