“Your life is a vacation.” She sighed. “Where is Bas, anyway?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Today?” She closed her book, using her index finger as a bookmark. “He shouldn’t be working.”
“He doesn’t think of it as work. He’s finally doing what he loves. And what I love.” I had detailed, intimate memories of the dishes Bas had conjured up since he’d taken over the restaurant. “You should get him to make you his lemon cod. It sounds simple, but it’s incredible.”
“Shouldn’t he be getting ready?”
“Well, where’s Evan?”
Elizabeth craned her neck to peer up the beach. “He said he wanted to talk to someone about sailing. He’s hoping to buy a boat in the next year.”
I yawned. Bas and I had been out on the water a few times, but I preferred dry land. “And how’s the book coming?”
She sat up and faced me, feet planted in the sand, elbows on her knees. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. I’m applying to the MFA program in Boulder.”
“That’s wonderful, E. You two really fought to make things work. I take it that means Evan’s happy working for NOAA? You’re planning on staying in Colorado?” When he’d been offered the position, they’d jumped at the chance, something she said she might have been afraid to do if it hadn’t been for my courage to follow my heart.
“He’s thrilled to be off the television.” She sighed. “It doesn’t hurt that we’re so consumed with house hunting.”
“I can’t wait to visit you when you settle in.”
“Well, you were just over for the wedding, so I don’t expect you to make the trek again any time soon. What about Christmas?”
“Count us in.” Basil’s mom would saint me if I got him to visit during the holidays. I was already a family favorite for managing to get Bas to do the trifecta of visiting Greece, getting a job worthy of his talents, and finding a wife.
Bas and I had been back to Virginia twice in the past eight months. The first time in February to pack up our worldly possessions. We combined that trip with a wedding. I’d wanted to elope in Greece right away, but Bas had turned green at the thought and said he’d never hear the end of it from his mom if she wasn’t there when her baby got married.
And in hindsight, it gave us a little more time to reconsider decisions made in haste while exhausted and emotionally wrought. Even so, there were six or seven times since we’d tied the knot when I thought I’d made a colossal mistake. Bas wasn’t perfect, but neither was I. He lost his temper, and I acted like the world might end. He needed too much reassurance, or he didn’t give me enough. It had been a learning process, and we discovered that marriage wasn’t easy. Not even when you married your soul mate, your best friend, your favorite person in the world. We’d found new ways to communicate and trust each other.
I’d leaned on Elizabeth at first, especially since she was discovering all of these things out for herself in her new life with Evan.
Despite the bumps along the way, Bas and I had fallen more madly in love. Every morning, he was the first person I wanted to see when I woke up. And every night, or afternoon, or early morning, it was his body I craved, his kisses I could never get enough of. How I’d ever resisted him, I couldn’t remember. I always thought romance was a trap. I’d never felt freer.
I figured out that I wasn’t my mom, and he wasn’t my dad. We were flawed, but I hadn’t picked the wrong guy. Bas was proof there were good guys out there, and I was so, so grateful I’d held out for my hero.
And I hadn’t lost my autonomy. On top of my own job, I’d started to make new friends in Greece, at work and at Greek language school. Plus, his family loved me. Yia Yia thought I was the sainted mother.
But mostly Bas and I had become each other’s family.
And we’d made Greece our home.
For the time being.
I’d started telling him he should explore the job market in Paris. Just an idea.
Something caught Elizabeth’s eye, and she squinted toward the hotel. “There’s Bas.” She glanced to her left. “And here comes Evan.”
We watched as they chatted. Bas had on a pair of tan linen pants that he lived in. They’d become threadbare and wrinkled, but I couldn’t get him to give them up. “They’re perfect,” he insisted. “Just like you.” I would have taken umbrage at being compared to ratty fabric, but I knew he really loved those pants. His white button-up shirt showed off the tan on his neck, chest, and forearms from all the time we’d spent in the sun. He’d settled into Greece, and Greece had accepted him with open arms.
Meanwhile, Greece tolerated me, but there was a guy near my job who made the most mouth-watering lamb souvlaki. I’d never told Bas for fear he’d think I was food cheating on him, but while Bas was away, he didn’t know what I was up to. There were so many new foods to discover, and I hadn’t tired of exploring.
“I think that’s our signal.” I stood and slipped my feet back into my flip-flops, my white skirt flowing out behind me like a train.
Bas looked up and saw me, and his eyes pierced me like he wasseeing me for the first time. He always looked at me like that, like he couldn’t believe I was real, that I was here. And his face lit up in that smile that asked:what mischief can we get up to today?
“Come on.” Elizabeth nudged me, and we caught up to the boys.
