‘More than certain.’
‘OK, good. Because I know I said I would not be protecting the land at Avlaki with a sword, but I was not ruling out having to protect you in a similar way.’
‘Ah, well,’ Faye said. ‘There’s a big difference there. You own that lease. You don’t own me. And my swordswomanship is unmatched.’
‘Spoken like a true warrior.’ He put his hand to his chest. ‘Perhaps I need to invest in a shield.’
‘No more shields, Kosta, for anything,’ Faye told him, putting her arms around his neck and pulling him towards her.
‘No?’
‘No,’ she said, kissing his lips.
He lifted her up until she had to put her legs around his waist to keep balance, arms moving to his shoulders.
‘So, the master bedroom here, it has a bed?’ he asked her.
‘It does,’ Faye answered, fingers trailing his jawline. ‘But, you know, there’s also the beach. And this one is sand.’
‘OK, I hear you,’ he said, lifting her up higher in his arms and heading off the terrace.
‘Let’s make this one paradise too,’ she whispered in his ear.
71
‘You are OK?’
Faye smiled at Kostas’s words and wondered if she had ever felt like this in her whole life. She was absolutely joyously overflowing in a way she never thought could be possible again. She was content and complete on her own. But here, with him, lying on blankets on the sand, listening to the water rock as rhythmically as they had together, there was no ceiling, no limits, just a sensation of overabundance she wanted to soak in.
‘Yes,’ she answered, her head on his chest. ‘I am OK. Are you?’
‘Fuck, Faye, I don’t know what I am,’ he answered. ‘I am certain only that I am not the same person who arrived on this island such a short time ago.’
She laughed, moving as he moved, until they were both sitting up, still naked, facing the sea. He curled her up into his arms until they were comfortably nestled together like a rock and its fossil.
‘But it is only a good thing,’ Kostas told her. ‘A great thing, actually. And I know the work is not done.’
‘What do you mean?’ Faye asked.
‘Well, I mean this much more self-aware version of me knows that he needs to be better still. And that is going to require me to go back to therapy.’ He took a breath, played with a piece of her hair, smoothing it between his fingertips. ‘I need to be able to be in a room with cushions and not feel like I need to hide them in a wardrobe for a start. Realise that a touch of home, of comfort, of permanence can be a good thing.’ He sighed. ‘And I need to be able to face the fact that it is likely my father arranged for guys to attack me in Athens and no one is responsible for anything that happened to my family except him.’
‘Oh, Kosta, I don’t know what to say,’ Faye said, unravelling herself a little so she could look at him.
‘You do not have to say anything. You do not have to feel any way about it at all. It cannot be changed. And that is where I want to grow from. Address it, establish it as a fact from my past and move forward.’ He hugged her to him. ‘You told me how important honesty is for you and I don’t think I truly understood what you meant because I have not had that kind of honesty my whole life.’ He sighed. ‘I think the people in my life treated “honesty” like a white lie. You don’t feel you are being dishonest because you know the truth will hurt someone’s feelings. But sometimes we have to feel hurt to be able to feel all the other things.’
‘You are going back to Athens soon?’ Faye asked him.
He nodded. ‘There are new plans I am working on.’
Her body stiffened instinctively and he drew her back into him.
‘Hey, do not worry. I am not about to lodge plans to put a shopping complex next to the Parthenon. I am just taking things slowly this time. I could have told everyone about the idea tonight, perhaps alleviated their hatred for me, but I realised I would be doing that for me and not them and their island.’ He took a breath. ‘I’ve decided I want to set up a basketball centre for excellence here in Corfu. And, not just that, I want there to be more courts, better courts, in more places here. Places that are accessible to everyone.’ He sighed. ‘The times I lived here, and in the holidays, there were never enough places to hang out, you know, as kids. And when kids get bored, they look for trouble.’
‘Or they get really good at skimming stones.’
‘You want me to have a centre for excellence for that too? I am sure it can be done.’
She smiled. ‘I think you’d have to be the teacher.’
