‘You go first.’
‘OK. Eimear was nineteen when I met her. She was a tourist, like you, from Ireland. It was her first time abroad, and she had all these big plans to travel the world. But we took one look at each other and that was it. We both knew.’
Maddie sneaked another look at the man beside her. His eyes were closed, but he had a great big grin on his face.
‘And that also explains why your English is so good.’
Thanassis shrugged.
‘I suppose. Eimear never left. It was a lot for her to give up, but my life was here on the island. We’ve been fishermen in these waters for four generations, and tradition is strong in Greece. But she fell in love with the island as well as me, and the people took her to their hearts.’
His clear blue eyes stared into hers a moment.
‘What about your Tony?’
‘It’s not so different. We met at school.’ Maddie held back a sob. ‘We were both sixteen.’
The memories of the tall, gangly boy came flooding into her mind. ‘We both went for the last piece of cake in the cafeteria, and he let me have it. That was Tony, generous to a fault.’
Thanassis smiled.
‘I don’t like mean people.’
‘Me neither. Everyone thought we’d split up because we were so young. He went off to university because he needed a degree to be a teacher, which was always his dream, and I started work in social care. But we managed to meet up most weekends and we never found anyone else we thought was a better fit.’
Thanassis took another long drag on his cigarette.
‘Eimear had all this beautiful red hair, very much like yours, which is another reason why I was drawn to you.’
‘Ah, and that’s why your daughter thought she’d seen a ghost when we brought you into the harbour. And why she was giving me a strange look at thepanigýri.’
Thanassis sighed.
‘She is very protective of me. She still misses her mother dreadfully and is so sad that Eimear never got to see our beautiful grandchildren.’
The crack in his voice told Maddie that her companion was near to tears himself.
‘My son, Alex, works as a chef in Dublin where Eimear was from and where her relatives still live. They have been so welcoming, but I miss him all the time. My daughter, Georgia, is married to a local man, so she looks out for me. Do you have children?’
‘Yes. My daughter, Becca, runs two bakeries in the north of England. She’s married, but no children yet. While my son…’
Maddie couldn’t go on any further.
Thanassis put his hand over hers. A hand with rough skin. A working hand.
‘What is it?’
‘My son and I have fallen out. Or rather I have fallen out with his wife…’
There was no point in varnishing the truth now.
‘I said some things I bitterly regret. Which means I haven’t seen my beloved granddaughter, Elsie, for three months. No one else knows. And it’s killing me.’
Maddie couldn’t keep the tears at bay any longer. Thanassis carefully took the cigarette from her hand and stubbed it out on the sand before he held her sobbing figure in his arms, the stunning beach and the glorious sea all but forgotten.
When she could speak again, she reluctantly pulled out of the comforting embrace, but not before Thanassis had wiped away her tears with his thumbs.
‘You must fix this. Family is everything. We have lost so much. You cannot lose them.’
