Skye turned as Joy’s other neighbor strolled into the kitchen. Stocky and square-jawed, with dark stubble and thick-framed glasses, Theo had the air of someone more comfortable observing than being observed. He was a writer, born in Greece but raised in England—details Joy had managed to dig up with no small effort, as she’d confessed to Skye, “not from want of trying.” He had arrived on the island with his son, George, although the whereabouts of the child’s mother remained a mystery.
“Apologies,” Theo said now, looking from one to the other. “The door was open, and I—”
“Not a bother, mate. You remember Skye, don’t you?”
“Yes.” He flashed her a hesitant smile. “Hello again.”
“Tea?” Joy offered, but Theo declined.
“I have a favor to ask,” he said. “I was wondering if you couldperhaps watch George for me tomorrow. I have a Zoom meeting with my editor, and—”
“Say no more,” Joy said. “Send him over whenever suits.”
Theo rubbed the back of his neck, eyes flicking toward the floor.
“I’d keep him with me,” he said, “but he doesn’t like the taverna, and that’s the only place nearby with reliable Wi-Fi. It gets so loud in there, and George is— He doesn’t like it.”
“Poor little mite.” Joy sipped her tea. “How’s he coping with all the building work that’s been going on?”
Theo grimaced.
“Not that well. He has his noise-canceling headphones, but when he uses those, it’s hard to help him with his schoolwork, and I have this deadline looming…”
He trailed off, bottom lip drooping miserably. Skye put down her mug.
“Is George a special-needs child?” she asked gently.
Theo looked up, nodded.
“I might be able to help you,” she said. “I was a teacher in my former life, and I have some experience of working one-to-one with children like George. If you’d like, I could sit with him for a few hours on weekdays. It doesn’t have to be here. We can find somewhere quieter.”
“You’d do that for him—for us?”
“I’d honestly love to,” Skye said. “But only if George agrees. It can be his decision.”
“Thank you.” Theo’s shoulders dropped a fraction, as if a weight had been lifted. “So much. I’ll go and tell him. This is…Thank you.”
“Sweet fella,” Joy observed as Theo hurried from the house. “It’s good of you to help out.”
“It’s not an entirely selfless act,” Skye said, her voice quiet but firm. “Teaching wasn’t something I chose to give up.”
It was the first crack she’d allowed to show, and Joy caught it, though for reasons unknown, she chose not to probe further. Instead, she offered a simple, if not entirely untrue, assumption.
“You miss it, don’t you?”
Skye was silent for a beat, and when she finally spoke, the words were heavier than she expected.
“Honestly? Teaching is the only thing I miss about my old life.”
Fourteen
A quiet tug-of-war played within Skye.
The readiness with which she had volunteered to start teaching again had taken her by surprise, the surge of enthusiasm vanishing as quickly as it had arrived. It wasn’t that she lacked faith in her own ability, more that she wasn’t sure how it would feel to slip back into the role. Being laid off from her last teaching position had been a pivotal moment in her life, one that had spiraled downward in a way she had not anticipated. The suddenness of it still unsettled her. One day, she’d had structure, purpose, and a roomful of eager faces; the next, it was all gone. The work she’d poured in and the relationships she’d built had all evaporated with nothing more than a polite handshake and sympathetic smile as they’d shown her the door.
While the desire to teach again was undeniable, her uncertainty lingered. Was she really prepared to risk being pulled back into a past she thought she’d left behind? Skye could not answer that, not yet. But she did know one thing for certain: She wasn’tprepared to go back on the promise she’d made to Theo and George. That mattered more than anything else.
Her pensive mood continued into an afternoon that crackled with heat. Skye left a bikini-clad Joy stretched out on a towel in her garden, her red skirt removed and rolled into a makeshift pillow, and made her way back across the hillside to collect what she needed for the night.
