The Summer House in Santorini. Samantha Parks
place,” Anna said quietly.
“What?”
“I said it’s my place now,” Anna said, louder this time. “I know everyone wishes I would have just stayed away, but it’s my place now. And I think I deserve it, what after going without a father for the last two decades.”
Nikos sighed as he stared at the road ahead. “I don’t think anyone feels that way – that you should have stayed away.”
Anna scoffed. “Yeah, right. You’re telling me Eirini wouldn’t prefer to have her backyard empty of unwanted grandchildren right now?”
He hesitated a beat before responding. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about this?”
“Yeah, well, we’re not,” Anna said, crossing her arms. “But that response does sort of prove my point.” Plus, it’s not nice to be completely ignored by your only family for thousands of miles.
They made the rest of the drive in silence. When they pulled up to the house a few minutes later, Anna took the food and a couple of shopping bags from the back. Nikos grabbed the mattress and lifted it over his head, following behind her.
“You sure you don’t want to wait until I can help with that?” Anna asked.
“I’m fine. Just carry the light stuff and leave the heavy lifting to the pros,” Nikos said, though Anna could hear a strain in his voice. She just chuckled and continued toward the summer house, leaving the gates open for Nikos behind her. She turned around as she walked through the back gate and chuckled again when she saw him trying to squeeze the mattress down so it would fit through the front gate.
As she walked up to the front door of the summer house, she saw another stew waiting outside for her. She looked from it to the McDonald’s bag and felt a small pang of guilt. She hoped Nikos could eat as much as she claimed. She unlocked the door and stepped carefully around the bowl as she went inside, dropping the bags on the table.
Then, behind her, Anna heard the crunch of something breaking. She turned around to see Nikos frozen, facing away from the door, holding the mattress behind him, the bottom of one of his pant legs soaked in stew, the bowl broken under his boot.
Anna started to laugh.
“Okay, that is not funny,” Nikos said, but he started to laugh as well. He picked his leg up to inspect it.
“No, don’t move,” Anna said between chuckles. “I want to make sure you don’t track any shards into the house.” She reached into one of the shopping bags and grabbed a rag, the price tag still attached, then started picking up pieces of the bowl and putting them on the tray.
“Smells like carrot,” Nikos said, still laughing. “What a shame.”
Anna finally managed to pull herself together and began picking shards from the tread of Nikos’s boot. As she pulled it closer to get a better look, he nearly fell, only just catching himself with the mattress, and it set the two of them off laughing again.
When they eventually managed to make it into the summer house, Nikos swapped the mattresses and immediately collapsed onto the new one while Anna dealt with the mess.
“Hey, lazy bones, no way. We’ve still got an oven and a bathroom sink to unload from that truck.”
“Come on, Anna, it’s nap time. We’ve worked so hard.”
“Not a chance,” Anna said, pulling at his arm, but he shooed her away. “I only have two weeks to get this place in working order. I’m not going to waste perfectly good hours of the day resting.”
“Says the girl who slept until noon.” He didn’t move, but instead began pretend-snoring. For just a moment, Anna stood there admiring the sight of him lying on her bed. She didn’t hate it. But she shook it off. She had more important things to focus on.
“Fine,” Anna said, walking back to the table. “I guess I’ll just have to eat all this food myself.”
Nikos rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow. “I’d like to see you try.”
“I wouldn’t have to if you would just come eat,” she said, holding an order of fries in front of her, wafting the scent toward him with her hand.
“Fine,” Nikos said, hopping up and trying to grab the fries from her hand. But Anna pulled them away.
“Not until you help me bring in the rest,” she said.
“But it will be cold by then!” he said, pouting and tilting his head.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have stepped in stew or tried to take a nap.”
Nikos groaned. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you pay for lunch.”
“That’s right,” Anna said, putting the fries back in the bag and guiding him toward the door. “Now let’s go earn it.”
A couple of days later, Anna and Nikos were stood in line at Vodafone to get Anna a Greek cell phone. She was only going to be in town for a little while, but she had racked up an impressive phone bill for the month of May, so she needed to use a bit less data and make fewer calls. At the moment, she was scrolling obsessively through Instagram while connected to the WiFi, liking all the Memorial Day photos of people in the Hamptons and Nantucket.
“Are those people your friends?” Nikos asked, watching over her shoulder.
“Not really,” Anna said. “A couple of them are friends from high school or the city. But most of them are just bloggers and YouTubers.”
Nikos rolled his eyes. “I swear, Instagram is the best and the worst thing to ever happen to this island. We’re grateful for the business, but it’s a pain in the ass to be stopped every few meters in Oia because someone doesn’t want any people in their photo stood on top of someone’s wall.”
Anna laughed. “Tell us how you really feel.”
He shot her a look. “Honestly, don’t get me started. I could rant about influencers” – he made air quotes with his fingers – “all day long.”
It was their turn at the counter, so Anna set the flip phone she had chosen in front of her and let Nikos do the talking. She wasn’t about to get talked out of all her money because she didn’t speak Greek. When Nikos went to pay, Anna tried to press her credit card into his palm, but he shook his head and squeezed her hand in his.
“Why did you do that?” she asked him as they exited the shop, her new flip phone in her purse next to her iPhone.
“Your grandfather saw everything we bought the other day and told me to put anything else you need on the business account.”
“What? Really? Why would he do that?” Anna asked, though she knew the answer. She smiled as she thought about how excited he had been to see her.
“Not everyone is as upset as Eirini about a new generation of Xenakises taking up residence in the summer house.”
Anna frowned a bit. “My name’s Linton,” she said, realizing even as she said it how ungrateful she sounded. These people were her family, after all.
Nikos looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Clearly, he was as unimpressed with her comment as she was. “Whatever you are, your grandfather is really excited that you’re here. And I think his feelings would be hurt if he heard how quickly you disown his son and his family, two things he’s extremely proud of.”
Anna looked at her shoes as they walked. She didn’t like Nikos chastising her. But when she peeked up at him, he wasn’t frowning but smiling softly at her. She returned the smile with her own tentative version.
“That