Chapter Fifty-Four
To his credit, Mads has made himself scarce. With Stef in the kitchen, we watch the skies shift pink to purple in the twilight as I cook our dinner. Outside, the cicadas continue to hum in the lingering heat. Stef stands beside me at the island, his arm around me, chin on my shoulder. I kiss him.
We’re in shorts and unbuttoned shirts, blissed-out, but it’s bittersweet. We’re carefully not talking about him leaving tonight. Not yet. I make a tomato salad while he pours the wine.
“My parents are here, at the flat. And Spiros, my youngest brother,” Stef explains over his wine, as I take the pan-seared whitefish fillets to the dining table. “Summer holidays.”
“Right, okay.” I nod as he brings the salad over.
With one last trip for our wineglasses, we settle at the table to take in the view. Well, he takes in the view outside, and for my part, I take in the gloriously disheveled sight of him.
“They always come stay in Kerkyra in the summer for a couple of weeks at least. At least once. If it’s only once, they come for the month. Usually August, though that may depend on what else is happening in the summer.” His lips flicker into a wry smile. “Also, he’s buying a new yacht this week. Well, a new-to-him yacht. It’s a couple of years old. He’s here early because of my coast guard follow-up about the old yacht.”
“Sorry.”
Stef waves me off. “Stop it. We’ve been over this.”
“Yeah, well. I’m sure the property loss doesn’t have your father thinking kindly of me. Even if he doesn’t know the rest.”
“I don’t know.” Stef, as ever, is very diplomatic.
“Anyway, aren’t they going to wonder where you’re off to all day?”
He shrugs. “I have friends here. I told them I was going out to meet up with them, which isn’t unusual.”
“Okay.” My shoulders ease. “I feel bad taking you from your family.”
Stef laughs, giving me a knowing look. “I have free will, you know, and agency too, for that matter.”
I give him a sheepish grin. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Tomorrow, I’m meant to go with my father to visit the new yacht together. He’s like a child at Christmas.” He smiles.
I nod, ignoring the pang inside me, knowing he’ll be gone after the meal.
We work on our meal. The fish was caught earlier that day, the tomatoes so fresh they burst sweet and salty on our tongues. Best of all is having Stef here greedily to myself, even if it is stolen time. At least I’ve told him how I feel. And… I know how he feels. Even if everything remains impossible.
For dessert, we follow with ice cream in crunchy waffle cones, eaten as we sit with our feet dangling in the infinity pool, side by side.
“Imagine if we could do this every day,” I whisper, glancing at him with longing. I shake my head, then gaze out over the blue of the infinity pool glowing at night.
“Mm.” Stef kisses my cheek, his lips cold from the ice cream. “If only.”
We’re quiet once we finish the ice cream, gazing out over the water and the nighttime view of the bay and the lights below and across.
“How’s the archaeology?” I ask at last, giving him a sidelong glance as we sit in the fading light. “And the digging?”
“I applied to grad school,” he offers. “To a few different universities. Betters my odds of getting in.”
“Who would have the nerve to turn you down?” I ask, indignant at the very idea.
Stef laughs with delight. He rubs my foot with his in the water. “You’d be surprised. Anyway, I’ve sent all of the applications. And I worked for two months on a dig this year, which helps.”
“That’s really great, Stef.” I smile at him.
“And I’ve got more work lined up too. In the lab, after our work at Aigio on the northern Peloponnese. A few more weeks, anyway, after my parents leave.”
I nod.
