She ignored his question and leaned in closer to him, pressing a kiss to his warm lips, running her fingers through his hair as she smiled against his mouth. ‘Good morning.’
He pulled her down on top of him, kissing her back, but she laughed and pulled away from him, escaping his grasp and heading for the bathroom. If she started along that track, she was never going to leave his apartment. ‘You get the coffee, I’ll get showered.’ She was always in a rush in the mornings to get to work, and he was always bleary-eyed from performing and coming home late, but in the two weeks they’d been seeing each other, he’d never failed to rise and have coffee with her, before returning to bed when she left. They’d fallen into a pattern of seeing each other every day, making the most of being together before he went away on tour, and Ella smiled to herself as she stepped under the warm water, thinking about Gabe. There was something different about him, and she knew it wasn’t just that she was falling very quickly for him. It was the fact that they’d known each other when they were younger, and it wasn’t so much that they’d picked up where they’d left off, but that she felt comfortable with him just from having known him before. When she finished her shower and walked out of the bathroom with her towel around her, Gabe was leaning on the kitchen bench, a mug of coffee in his hand. He nudged another one in her direction, but she saw that his eyes were trained on something else.
Ella walked around him, leaning against him from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder. ‘What are you looking at?’
But the words had just fallen from her mouth when she saw the photo sitting beside her handbag. She must have left it there the night before.
Gabe turned and wrapped his arms around her, his lips warm from coffee when he pressed them to her forehead. She knew what he was thinking as she leaned into him. They’d spoken about it a few times, but every time she’d resisted, not sure whether she could, or even wanted to, do it.
‘I know,’ she said with a sigh.
‘I keep thinking that you only have a month before your next exhibition, and you said that if you didn’t go soon, if you didn’t just book the trip…’
She nodded, tucking her head to his chest, snuggling deeper into him. ‘I know, but I just want to keep enjoying this, I—’
‘Ella,’ he said, looking down at her as she leaned back, his thumb beneath her chin as he lifted her head. ‘I’m only gone for two months. We can pick this up where we left off as soon as I’m back.’ He smiled. ‘Nothing is going to change the way I feel about you, even with all that time apart.’
She glanced down at the photo again before looking back up at him. She’d never made a decision around a man before, but Gabriel was going away on tour at the end of the month, and right now she just wanted to soak up every second with him. But he was right: if she waited until he was gone, it would be too late—work would become chaotic, and she would have to wait until the following year to take a few weeks off. And what if it was too late? What if something else came up that meant she couldn’t go then? She owed it to her grandmother to find out the truth about her past, didn’t she?
‘I’ll be honest, I don’t want you to go,’ he said. ‘I’d rather spend every night until I leave with you in my bed. But there’s something about this that feels urgent, that—’
‘Feels as if it needs to be discovered now,’ she finished for him, reaching past Gabe for her coffee. She took a sip, closing her eyes for a moment as she thought about what she needed to do.
‘I wish I’d discovered more for you from the sheet of music,’ he said. ‘I’ll keep trying, but no one seems to have any clue as to who it might have belonged to.’
Ella took another sip of her coffee, a shiver running the length of her body when she saw Gabriel’s laptop sitting on the sofa. She knew what she had to do.
‘Do you mind if I use that?’
He followed her gaze. ‘Sure.’
She left her coffee on the bench and hurried across the room, re-tucking her towel against her breasts to make sure it didn’t slip. Doing this was going to make her even later for work than she was already, but it was something she needed to do now before she lost her nerve or changed her mind.
‘What are you…’ Gabriel came to sit beside her, his leg pressed against hers as she leaned forwards, seeing what site she had opened.
Ella knew the dates she could go; she’d gone over them a thousand times already, and it only took her seconds to select the airports. Her hands were shaking as she chose her seats and entered her credit card details by heart, but it wasn’t until she reached the final confirmation button that she stalled.
Gabriel dropped a kiss to her shoulder then, and that was all it took for her to make the final click. She turned slowly and looked at him, her heart racing. She’d done it. She’d finally done it.
‘I’ll miss you,’ he murmured.
Butterflies exploded in her stomach as she kissed him, wishing the timing had been better but knowing she’d done the right thing.
‘We have six days together before I go,’ she whispered.And then three months after that until I see him again. ‘But you’re right, if this thing between us has legs, being apart will only make us want to be together more.’ It would just make their reunion all the sweeter.
He laughed and pulled her towards him, his mouth against her skin. ‘Then we’d best make the most of it.’
13
As she’d boarded her flight from London to Agios Konstantinos six days later, Ella had been filled with trepidation. She couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong, most especially with the house she’d booked. What if it was nothing like the pictures? What if she didn’t feel safe there alone? Her head was filled with so many worries that had been almost impossible to ignore—they’d been building ever since she’d booked the tickets.
But now that she was actually on the ferry on her way to Skopelos, watching the world pass by and seeing the Sporades islands and the Aegean Sea with her own eyes, she was slowly starting to relax. Why had she ever doubted that this was the right place to come? What was not to love about Greece? Gabriel had been right; she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t do everything within her power to discover the links hidden within the photo, the music and her own family secrets, even if it did mean missing out on time with him.
As the ferry sailed closer to Skopelos, Ella lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, smiling as she looked at the beautiful Venetian-style houses, rising up from the port, with quaint balconies and terracotta roof tiles. She could see little stone-paved paths connecting the white-painted houses—they looked as if they’d all been built at the same time to create a cohesive style of architecture. She could almost imagine the scenes fromMamma Miabeing filmed as the boat slowly came into port.
It didn’t take long to disembark, and Ella found herself standing with her bags in hand, trying to figure out where to go. She watched as many of the other tourists who’d been on the ferry with her walked over to the bars and coffee shops that stretched along the harbour front, the tables and chairs facing out to the view. It was the perfect spot to people-watch, but Ella wanted to get settled into her accommodation before stopping for lunch.
The instructions from the owner of the house had been to catch a bus and then walk the short distance from the bus stop, or take a taxi if she preferred, but she decided to get the bus. It allowed her time to look around and really soak in the atmosphere and visuals on the island, rejoicing in the fact that she wasn’t on a schedule. It didn’t matter how long she took to get there or what time she arrived: there was no one waiting for her, and it was a nice feeling.
