“Kissing on the cheeks is a sign of familiarity here. It’s something that a brother and a sister, or a father and a daughter would do without a second thought. To kiss both cheeks is like saying ‘I’m comfortable with you. You are a good friend.’”
“So you’re saying that—”
“Nick doesn’t want to be your friend, Miss Joanna. He wants something more.”
Joanna didn’t know what to say. Chris waved her on and said, “Go and get some sleep now. Think about it tomorrow.”
Peter calledJoanna back after she had changed and brushed her teeth for the night. She considered not answering, but did to tell him all about Villa Azure, the hotel of which she was now proud owner.
“Ooh, never mind what it’s like on the inside, if the views are as good as you say they are, sell the place. Whoever buys it is probably just going to bulldoze it down and start over anyway. They’ll pay you for the land, and you can use that as a bargaining chip. Land’s a huge commodity in the Greek Islands apparently. Your big chain hotels are always looking for mom and pop places to buy so they can swoop in and run it like it’s supposed to. They’ll make millions more because they’ll put in what tourists actually want.”
“Uh-huh,” Joanna mumbled, thinking that a generic tourist hotel would be awful in a place like this.
“I can help you out. We’ve got a lot of international connections at the company. We’ll get you the money you deserve. We’ll dance with investors. You’re probably going to become a millionaire overnight. We’ll be able to have our wedding wherever you want.”
“That sounds … good I think. But I’m going to need a little more time here first.”
“Time?”
“There are some things I need to deal with, some letters belonging to my father. Probably other things as well. The letters are between him and my mom. Seems this whole thing was more than just a one night stand.”
“Oh, well, clean his room out and then sell. I don’t get what that has to do with anything.”
“I’m just… I’m just not so sure I want to tear it down just yet. This place was built by my grandfather, and he passed it down to my father, who passed it down to me.”
“A father you never spoke to passed it down to you Joanna,” Peter pointed out. “You’re not obligated to preserve anything for him. He did nothing for you.”
Joanna remembered the story Nick told to her about what her father told him.
“I have known no father who would have his son walk in his footsteps simply to repeat his story. All fathers want their children to have their own story.”
Still, her mind wasn’t there. She wasn’t ready. Not yet. Not after having been there for less than a day.
“There’s a story, Peter. I have to know it. If I walk away now I may never know it.”
Peter was quiet. She could tell he was measuring his words. Crafting a way to try and get her to commit to selling. He was a good salesman, but he wasn’t good enough to sell her on this. He knew it, and she knew it.
He exhaled. “Do what you have to do, Joanna. Just don’t get lost in some dream that never existed.”
Chapter Eleven
“Good morning,” Chris greeted warmly the next day, as Joanna came down the stairs. “Did you sleep well?”
“I did,” she replied. “Actually don’t think I’ve ever slept so deeply in my life.”
“We get that a lot,” Chris chuckled. “Not just from tourists. Skiathons who stay at Villa Azure say that too. I don’t know why that is. Something in the stones this place was built upon, I guess.”
Joanna went and poured herself some hot coffee from a pot across from the clerk’s desk, and noticed Nick already outside reading the paper in the back alongside the dated, chipping swimming pool. She considered running back upstairs as she hadn’t put any makeup on yet, but decided to go out and tell him good morning. He didn’t seem the type to care that she wasn’t wearing eyeliner and blush.
He saw her and beamed.
“Kaliméra, Joanna,” he said, folding up his paper.
She cocked her head in confusion.
“Good morning,” he translated with a smile. “Your Greek language instruction starts today.”
“Really now? Why is that?”
