Rebecca scrunched up her face, a look of disparagement in her eyes. ‘Puh-lease. Don’t tell me you’re one of those men that subscribes to the theory that it takes women forever to get ready.’
He held up his hands in surrender. ‘Never.’
‘Good,’ she said with a brisk nod. ‘Now lead on.’
She matched him stride for stride as they walked down the slope to the winding path that led down to the beach. He inhaled the fragrant lavender that hedged the path and buzzed with busy bees. He loved this place, although it had never been his intention to stay.
As if she’d been reading his mind, she asked, ‘Have you always lived here? Your English is incredible.’
‘I went to the international school here. Then university in the States.’ He kept his explanation deliberately short. ‘Being fluent is very handy.’ He flashed her a flirtatious smile to distract her from any further questions.
‘I bet it is.’ She rolled her eyes and laughed.
‘How about you? This is a departure.’
She raised an eyebrow.
‘I read your application.’ He shrugged. ‘I was in the office. I was bored.’
‘You need to get out more if that’s your entertainment.’
‘Oh, I get out plenty, don’t you worry.’
She laughed again. ‘Yeah, I bet you do. Having all this must be amazing.’ She spread out an arm to encompass the view, but he didn’t miss the fact she’d avoided answering his question. ‘Does your family own this land?’
He paused and turned to look back at the building. ‘The main house was always the farmhouse, built by my great-grandfather. Everything is grown here on the farm or the sister farm Quinto do Marmelo, which is about twenty kilometres away. It was my grandfather’s idea to create the hotel in the second building you see today.’ He pointed to the long, low building, with its two-storey block at one end, painted white, with the windows outlined in the traditional deep blue so common on the Algarve.
‘The restaurant was an extension. It was my father…’ He raised his head and looked upwards, something he did whenever he talked about him. He hoped his father was looking down on him and was proud of him, of what he’d achieved. ‘…who decided to embrace agro-tourism. He was one of the first farmers in the region to do such a thing.’
‘It’s beautiful and a wonderful location. It seems… a happy place.’
Felipe nodded and he swallowed the lump. ‘It is now.’
Rebecca looked at him, but she didn’t probe, for which he was grateful.
Above them, birds chattered and flitted from branch to branch in the tall Mediterranean pines, the scent of which surrounded them.
They hit a sandy path weaving through the trees to the clifftop, where they came to a halt. Felipe smiled. It was a sight that never failed to tug at his heart.
‘Come,’ he said and led Rebecca to scramble up the sandy bank, riddled with tree roots and half-hearted tussocks of dried grass, onto the wide clifftop.
He stood for a minute, taking in the colours, where the dark rich umber of the clay soil and the paler sandstone met against the pure azure blue of the sky in a glorious, brilliant collision of intense colour to provide one of the most majestic views of the ocean along the coastline.
‘Wow! The colours!’ said Rebecca.
‘Home,’ said Felipe, remembering why he loved it here, even though his choices had been taken away from him. There was nowhere quite like it.
They stepped a little closer to the edge, and Felipe put a warning hand on Rebecca’s arm. ‘Don’t get too close.’
Beyond the cliff, the sea stretched far and wide across the panorama. Felipe turned to point left. ‘Falésia beach and the Atlantic. There’s nothing between us and America. That way along the beach is Vilamoura, and the other way Albufeira.’
The long golden beach stretched out as far as the eye could see before it bent away around the cliffs.
Around them a brisk wind carried the scent of the sea and the slight sting of sand. Although it was early evening, the sun still shone brightly and its rays danced and weaved on the waves rippling into shore.
‘It’s different every day. The Atlantic is unpredictable. Sometimes it can be a perfect, still day here, but the waves are big and crash on the sand. Other times, it’s so flat and calm you can barely see a wave.’ He gave her a flirty wink. ‘As changeable and mysterious as a beautiful woman!’
‘Ugh, Felipe!’ She threw back her head with a laugh. ‘Do those lines ever work? I have two brothers, you know.’
