Memories of Santorini, page 18
Carter listened, fascinated. He seemed more mature, even though he was only a year younger than Sienna. He was the grown up versus his friends’ college-age ways.
“Due to the eruption, the frescoes are among the most well-preserved examples from the period,” Xandros told them. “A thick layer of pumice and ash kept them virtually intact. We can visit the museum in Fira where you can see many of the artifacts that have been found.”
They spent another half hour wandering through the exhibits, reading all the signs. Alyssa, Irene, and Bill remained with them, attentive to Xandros’s comments.
He looked at Sienna often, smiling with their eyes met. She wondered if he was trying to ingratiate himself with her, hoping she’d put in a good word with Mom.
Once the tour was over, her mother took that same seat behind Xandros, as if she couldn’t bear to be too far away from him. Sienna could have sat with her and learned more tidbits about the island, but she headed to the last seat, crossing fingers Carter would sit with her.
She had to laugh at herself, because who was acting college-age now, or even high school? A grown up would simply have taken the seat beside him. But she was playing silly games, waiting to see if Carter sought her out.
And he did.
Once the bus was rolling, he leaned close to say, “He’s actually pretty cool.” He jutted his chin at Xandros at the front of the bus. “They make a good couple.”
“They certainly seem to have eyes for each other.” She prodded him in the ribs.
He nodded, still looking ahead. “Does it bother you?”
They’d discussed her parents’ marriage, and she’d admitted her mother deserved something better. And yet she said, “I’m not sure. I mean, we were supposed to take this vacation together.”
Carter looked at her, and she felt forced to return his gaze. “Yet you’re spending most of your time with us.”
She nodded, turning to her mother again. “Maybe it’s okay. I think we’re both having a good time.”
Carter nudged her. “You think?”
She bumped his shoulder, glad they were at the back of the bus so Tamryn couldn’t send her dirty looks. “I know I’m having a fabulous time.”
They trundled along a winding, dusty road when Xandros called out, “How about a late lunch?” He didn’t use the microphone, as if he didn’t want them to feel like they were on a tour. “I know a great place near Thera. And afterwards we can mosey around the ancient ruins there. Our tickets for Akrotiri will get us in there as well.”
Mosey? It wasn’t a Greek word. It wasn’t even a modern word. He was dating himself. Or maybe it said something about the time he’d known her mother way back when. And how close they’d been.
Everyone called out agreement, punched the air, the guys getting in a rounding huzzah.
Thirty minutes later found them all seated around a large table, a trellis above them threaded with blooming bougainvillea that shaded them from the afternoon sun. Xandros obviously knew the proprietor as they slapped each other’s back in big man hugs, laughing boisterously.
He ordered a feast of Greek delicacies, starting with deep-fried calamari and Greek salad, followed by traditional foods from dolmades, the stuffed grape leaves, to souvlaki, skewers of lamb and beef, to moussaka, the spicy eggplant lasagna. Tzatziki with toasted pitas accompanied the meal. To drink, he ordered retsina wine, because it was very Greek, he said, and Greek beer.
“What about ouzo?” Bill asked.
Xandros guffawed. “You do not want ouzo during the day unless you’re very used to drinking it.”
He made sure to seat her mother on his left, with Sienna on his right and Carter next to her. Between breaks in the courses served, he asked her questions as if he was really interested. “Your mother tells me you’re a financial advisor.”
She wondered when the two of them had talked about it. “I’ve actually got an interview at a new firm when I get back, and if I get the job, I’d like to think that my clients will come with me. They’re more geriatric,” she explained, hoping he didn’t think that was a dig at his age. “Many of my clients aren’t tech savvy, especially the widows, and I like helping them.” She grinned. “I’ve also come across those who are far more knowledgeable than I am, and they teach me a few computer tricks.”
Carter put his hand on her leg, sending a shiver through her. Xandros asked him questions as well, and the lunch was lively with talk and shared histories. By the end, she liked the older man. If her mother wanted a flirtation on this vacation, Sienna was fine with that. It gave her time for her own flirtation.
A bill for the meal never arrived, Xandros once again taking care of it. When Carter protested, he said, “The proprietor is an old friend of mine. I send many tour groups here. He is charging us only what it cost him, and it is my pleasure to treat all of you.”
Everyone thanked him, even Tamryn, who gave him a hug.
They walked the streets, stopping to look at the touristy offerings. Sienna bought a royal blue and yellow scarf that would remind her of the holiday. Carter purchased a scarf for his mom, and the girls loaded up on tchotchkes, especially since Xandros got them good deals in the shops. Even the guys succumbed to Santorini key chains.
In the same shop she’d bought the scarf, Sienna looped her arm through her mother’s. “That’s pretty,” she said of the blue blouse Mom was eyeing. “You should get it.”
“You think so?”
She hadn’t given her mom the time of day since she was eight years old. She’d punished Mom for the way Dad had acted. It was only in the last few weeks that she’d realized her father might be the villain of the story. Maybe it was long past time to be kind.
“The Santorini blue complements your coloring,” Sienna said. “Xandros will like it on you.” Her words were tacit permission to have that flirtation with the handsome Greek.
She was unprepared for Mom’s broad smile and the mistiness in her eyes, as if Sienna had just given her the greatest gift. “I’m so glad you think so. Thank you.”
Sienna felt as if she’d finally done something nice for her mother, something long deserved.
The day had been beyond Angela’s wildest dreams. Xandros treated them all to Akrotiri, then that fabulous meal, a tour of the ancient ruins at Thera, and finally the museum housing many Akrotiri artifacts.
When he finally dropped the group off outside the villa, she stepped back onto the bus to say goodbye after the others had exited.
“Would you like a winery tour tomorrow?” he asked.
“That would be wonderful. I’ll check with everyone.” He said nothing else, and she wondered if he was waiting for an invitation. “I’d invite you in, but I’m worried about what they’ll think. At least until I’m ready to talk to Sienna.” She touched his arm. “Is that okay?”
He nodded, his beautiful smile doing things to her insides. “It’s okay, as long as you meet me for coffee before the tour. I want some alone time.” He’d been around enough Americans to know the sayings.
“Absolutely.”
Glancing at the stairs leading down to their villas, she made sure the others had disappeared. Then she cupped his cheek, leaning in for a kiss, savoring his taste, his scent, the feel of his skin beneath her palm. His tongue flitted into her mouth, his mustache soft against her, reminding her of the hours they’d spent pleasuring each other yesterday.
“Tomorrow,” was the last thing he said before she climbed off the bus and he motored away.
She and Sienna had dinner with Carter and his group, and Angela brought food up from their fridge, not wanting it to go to waste. She ate lightly, a salad, after the big lunch.
Tamryn batted her eyelashes. “Xandros is totally dishy, Angela. You work fast,” she said with what Angela thought might be a sneer.
“It was just the surprise of seeing him after we’d met when I was here before.” That didn’t truly explain why he was taking them on tours and treating them to delicious meals. “Xandros wondered if we’d like to go wine tasting tomorrow. He can reserve another bus.”
“Way cool.” Irene and Alyssa were ecstatic.
“You’re amazing,” Carter said. “Finding us the perfect tour guide.”
From her seat beside Carter, Sienna looked at her with an unreadable expression. Then she smiled. “I’d love it, Mom.”
Angela savored the infrequent use of Mom, just as she’d savored Sienna’s opinion on the blouse she’d bought, especially that Xandros would like it. It had smacked of approval.
“It’s nice that you’ve found someone your age to hang out with,” Sienna said, and Angela felt the jibe before her daughter rushed on. “He knows all the places to go to. You couldn’t have found a nicer guy.”
“I’m tired of sitting on buses,” Tamryn said huffily. “We’ve hardly had any beach time this week. I want some sunbathing.”
Carter snorted. “Hitting the beaches was all we did the first two weeks we were here.”
Bill boomed out. “You’re giving up wine tasting? Are you nuts?”
Jamal and Reed shot their fists in the air with a rousing huzzah. “Count us in.”
They shamed Tamryn into going on the jaunt. Angela almost told her to forget it. She was pretty sure the girl’s antagonism was jealousy of Carter’s attention to Sienna.
The group decided on another late start at eleven o’clock, and when someone suggested a turn in the hot tub, Angela finally excused herself.
“I’m not as young as you,” she said with a smile when Carter protested.
“I’ll be quiet when I come in,” Sienna said, making it clear she was staying.
Angela laughed. “No one can be quiet after margaritas.” Carter was already making them.
Though she was tired, she wanted to call Xandros and let him know the time for tomorrow. She wanted to hear his voice, calling him after climbing into her bed.
“They’re not an early bunch,” she told him.
His deep, thrilling voice sent shivers through her. “Eleven is good. It will give me time to make a few calls after our coffee.” Then he added in a soft, delicious tone, “Come early.”
“Thank you for today. They loved it.” She’d loved it all, walking beside him, eating next to him, remembering how they used to feed each other morsels of food when they were young.
“It was my pleasure to show you.” He emphasized the word, meaning so much more than the tour. “I wish you were here now.”
“I wish I was too.”
He murmured so sensually that she felt as if he’d run his fingertips across her skin, “I could come down and pick you up. No one would ever know.”
God, how she wanted it. But… “Sienna usually peeks in when she returns. I can’t risk the bed being empty.”
“Alas, my bed is so empty.”
There was more talk, not actual phone sex, just desires to spend more time together. The call left her feeling delightfully sexual in a way she hadn’t for years.
When Sienna saw her mother was awake, she perched on the edge of the bed. “I like Xandros,” she said, her gaze a little blurred, her brain slightly fuzzy.
“I like Carter too.” Her mother touched her hand.
They weren’t touchy-feely, but this was nice. “It’s just a vacation thing.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, nervous even though she didn’t know why she should be.
“But he’s in San Jose. If you wanted…” Mom didn’t finish, but the suggestion was there.
“I’m too busy with work.” But what would it be like? She felt a giddy thrill in her stomach, even if it was impossible. She had to be satisfied with what she had now. “Do you like Xandros?”
Her mom blinked, looked up at the ceiling, as if the answer was written there. “I like him very much.”
“Did you like him when you knew him before?”
Her mother blushed, the lamplight highlighting her pinkened skin. “I did back then too.”
“But he lives out here and you’re back home. Could it turn into something more?”
Her mother’s smile lit up her face. “I chiseled your father out of a very nice settlement. If I want to come back, I can even fly first class again.”
Sienna giggled, her hand over her mouth. “It’s like a long-distance booty call, you naughty woman.”
Mom laughed with her. “We’ll have to see.” But her smile was sweet, almost secretive, as if they’d already had a booty call and that’s why they’d watched the sunrise together. Maybe Mom was having a holiday fling.
It didn’t bother Sienna the way she’d thought it might. Her relationship with her mother was changing.
She’d never had a mother she could talk to. She’d only had her aunt.
Maybe it was time to give Mom a chance.
20
Xandros was great, Sienna decided. He arrived the next day around eleven for wine tasting, and Mom turned all pink-cheeked, like a woman entranced. She wore the blue blouse and basked in Xandros’s compliments.
“I really don’t mind if she has a fling while we’re here,” Sienna told Carter as they sat together on the bus.
Xandros’s smile was wide, his gaze flashing often in her mother’s direction in the rearview mirror. He never truly stopped looking at her mom. Except when he smiled at Sienna as if he was asking permission for something.
“Are you just trying to convince yourself?” Carter wanted to know.
“I mean it. We had a nice talk about it last night. They might even see each other again after the trip is over.”
“Good.” He stroked her thigh. She liked the way he touched her intimately, as if they were an item, though they hadn’t even kissed yet. What were they waiting for?
The wines they tasted were amazing, and so were the vineyards, the vines coiled on the ground like woven baskets, a growing method that protected the vines from the wind and heat.
They tried mostly whites, because the majority of grapes grown here were white, but there were reds. And retsina, of course, which was fermented with pine resin that left behind its unique aroma. She found it overpowering, preferring the sweet dessert wine, Vinsanto.
Xandros chose wineries off the main cruise route so there were fewer people. The tastings were no less delicious. Well known to the proprietors, they gave him the red-carpet treatment with a variety of appetizers and flights of wine.
Sienna was tipsy by the time it was over, but she’d had fun. On the return trip, with her head on Carter’s shoulder, the sway of the bus and the warmth of his body lulled her.
Xandros kept up the tour guide gig the following day, taking them on a catamaran to Nea Kameni, a small island created by the volcano itself, its last eruption back in 1950.
Birds roosted on the rocks as they landed at a small wooden dock. Tamryn whined that she hadn’t brought appropriate footwear for hiking, and Xandros climbed back onto the catamaran, reappearing with a pair of shoes that fit.
Tamryn’s favorite pastimes seemed to be complaining or creating drama.
Lava rocks rimmed the cemented path along with scrub and grasses dried brown in the sun. Wind whipped through trees that looked like little more than tall, thick weeds. The path changed to steps as the group climbed, then finally to gravel.
It was a good hike, though not strenuous. Her mother enjoyed it as well, taking the hills faster than the rest of them, right alongside Xandros.
Finally, they gazed down into the crater that had formed as the magma cooled, Carter reading all the interpretive signs while Tamryn and the guys sat in the shade of a picnic structure.
She’d thought that was the top, but Xandros waved them on. “There is more,” he called, leading them along the rim. Several benches had been erected beneath umbrellas for those who needed to escape the sun.
Santorini and the blue water came into view. She stopped to take pictures while her mom trudged on with Xandros, Carter not far behind. The higher they went, the windier it got, until it was almost a struggle to walk, but the panorama was stunning.
Trails crisscrossed the crater, smoke and sulfur fumes rising out of the ground.
“The vents are called fumaroles.” Xandros had them squat to touch the ground. “Feel the heat coming from below.”
The volcanic earth was warm to the touch. The island was like walking on the surface of the moon.
She murmured to Carter, “I’ve definitely decided that instead of working out in the gym, I’m going for a hike every day during my lunch hour.”
He laughed, not at her, but with her. “What about your high heels and skirts?”
She shrugged. “I change to work out in the gym. I’ll do the same for a hike. There’s a trail by the Presidio.” It was where she’d seen Mr. Smithfield that day. “I don’t get there often enough.” She pumped a fist in the air. “But now it’s a priority. And I also plan to do some hills.”
Carter pulled her in and kissed the top of her head. “You go, girl.”
She liked how easy they were together. Wasn’t that the better way, friends first?
They headed back to the catamaran for a light lunch and the cruise to the hot springs.
When they arrived, tourists already packed the small bay. “A hazard of Santorini,” Xandros commiserated. “Tourists everywhere.” Though tourists were his company’s mainstay.
The water bore a reddish tinge due to the hot springs emanating from the volcano. They all stripped down to swimsuits and dove in.
Sienna came up ready to squeal. “It’s a lot cooler than I thought. Where’s the hot in hot springs?”
Xandros bobbed in the water beside her mother. “We must get closer to shore.” He swam with a powerful stroke.
Once they hit the warm flow, it was wonderful, despite the crowd. They splashed and played and floated for at least an hour before Xandros herded them back to the boat.
Over dinner that night, he tagged along, seating himself next to her mother. “What can I arrange for you all tomorrow?”
