Memories of Santorini, page 9
The day was warm, but the wind off the Aegean and the shade of the overhang kept her comfortable. She’d worn shorts over her swimsuit. Her usual capris would have been unbearable out here on the water.
“Tell us about yourself, Mr. Ellis,” she said as he joined them under the awning, whether out of politeness or to get away from the blast of music, she couldn’t be sure. “Married, engaged, kids?”
Beside her, Sienna squirmed. But Angela was older, and she could ask the important questions. They’d settled in comfortable canvas chairs, drinks in hand, the platter of appetizers on the table between them. Angela nibbled while he answered.
“Call me Carter. No wife, no fiancée, and no kids. I’m twenty-nine. I’m a lawyer out of San Jose, California.”
Angela wasn’t sure who gasped first, her or Sienna. “You’ve got to be kidding. This is far too big a coincidence. Sienna is in San Francisco, and I’m in Los Altos Hills.”
Carter laughed, glancing at Sienna. “Serendipity. We were meant to meet.”
“And I suppose your girlfriend up top was meant to throw her drink on me,” Sienna drawled. Angela couldn’t read the look in her eyes, whether it was pleasure or annoyance.
Carter laughed again. “Absolutely. Or we wouldn’t have met.” Then he added with a smile, “And she’s not my girlfriend.”
The girl in question teetered on high heels as she maneuvered down the ladder from above, grabbing another drink before climbing back up. There was so little material in her bathing suit that it could barely be called a bikini. If she was thirty years younger, Angela might have had the courage. But at fifty-three, she was strictly one-piece. Sienna wore an attractive tankini which, as she moved, showed a strip of midriff. The high-cut hips showed off her long legs. Angela couldn’t tell if Carter Ellis looked at them behind his sunglasses, but she’d be surprised if he hadn’t.
“I’m a tax attorney,” Carter went on. “Sounds boring, I know, akin to being an accountant.” Then he leaned forward as if he had secrets to share. “But it can be fascinating matching wits with the IRS.”
“I didn’t know IRS agents had wits,” Sienna said smoothly.
Carter guffawed. “Good point. But like any profession, there are the dimwits and the ones who have more wits than are good for them. Or, I should say, good for me.”
They all laughed. “Do you have your own firm?” Angela asked, not to gauge his net worth or consider him for son-in-law material, but to keep the conversation going.
“It’s my dad’s firm. A family affair. My two brothers and sister work there as well.”
Sienna raised one eyebrow behind her sunglasses. “Now that’s a family business.”
Once again Angela couldn’t read her, whether that was sarcasm or admiration, or even a comparison to Donald’s family business, Walker and Walker.
Not wanting the conversation to falter, Angela asked, “Someone mentioned you’re here for three weeks. How long have you been on the island?”
Carter gazed out at the water a moment. “Two weeks. We’re flying out a week from Monday.”
“You’ve been enjoying yourselves?”
He nodded. “Swimming, taking out mopeds for day trips. You’d think we’d have done more in two weeks, but now we’re trying to pack stuff into the last week.” Then he asked, “What do you do, Angela?”
The question surprised her. She would have thought he’d ask Sienna. “Just a housewife,” Angela answered, then corrected herself. “At least until my children grew up.” She smiled at Sienna, who kept a poker face. “Now I’m a divorcee, and I spend my time volunteering for different organizations. I work at the SPCA feeding and grooming the animals.”
Sienna seemed to startle. “You clean litter boxes and wash out kennels?”
Angela laughed, though she would have done whatever they needed. “Just feeding and playing with the kittens. Some of them need bottle-feeding. Some puppies do as well. And I walk the dogs. It’s a real cushy job.”
“Sounds like it,” Carter said. “But you can’t do that full time. What else do you do?”
She pondered how to bring Sienna into the conversation. It would be too blatant to blurt out that her daughter was a financial advisor.
“I drive for a great organization that provides rides for seniors. I had to get rid of my SUV and buy a car with a lower chassis to accommodate them. But seniors are wonderful and chatty and some of them are very lonely. I take a ninety-two-year-old woman to the community pool three times a week where she does water exercises.”
Worried about her instability, Mrs. Brandt’s daughters had recently asked Angela to get into the pool with the elderly woman. She even helped the lady in the shower. It wasn’t part of the drive service, which was only supposed to be door-to-door, but Angela didn’t mind. She wanted to keep Mrs. Brandt active for as long as possible. She often carried in groceries, putting everything away, helping her seniors as best she could. It was worthwhile work, and she loved it.
“The elderly are a delight when you get to know them,” she added.
Sienna looked at her as if seeing her in a whole new light, a real person instead of Mother.
“But enough about me,” Angela said. “I don’t want to take you from away from your friends.”
He showered her with a winning smile. “I’ve known these guys forever. We went to university together. Every year we get away in the summer for one big trip. My father believes that after a year of hard work, you have to let loose or go crazy. So he lets me out of my cage for three weeks to get wild. We’ve done the beaches of Brazil, the Caribbean, London and traveling around England. But the girls—” He hooked a thumb, indicating the top deck. “—wanted more beach and sun. So this year we decided on Santorini.”
“Wow,” Sienna said. “This is my first vacation in three years.”
Grinning, Carter asked, “Does that mean you’re going stir crazy?”
Sienna’s smile was genuine this time. “Yes, I am.”
“That’s why I wanted to get her away for a two-week holiday.” Angela couldn’t resist taking credit for getting Sienna here. It made them sound like they were close, that she’d been working on her daughter for years to get away, when the reality was that Angela didn’t even know Sienna hadn’t taken vacation in three years.
“Good on you for bringing her to Santorini. And rather than hanging out with these guys—” He shrugged at the noisy group in the sun. “—I’d rather know more about you two.” He jutted his chin at Sienna. “What keeps you from taking a vacation?”
Sienna leaned forward for another canapé, saying before she took a bite, “I’m a financial advisor. With the ups and downs in the market, my clients need a little extra handholding.” She popped the fritter into her mouth.
“It sounds more like they need a lot of handholding.”
She nodded, swallowed, and said, “I work with a lot of elderly clients, and whenever there’s a dip, they’re afraid they’re going to lose all their savings. I have one sweet old lady—” She gave an inner-directed smile as if she was picturing the woman’s face. “—who grew up in the depression, and she’s terrified of ending her days as a bag lady living in a cardboard box. Every time there’s a downturn, even a small one, I always call her right away and reassure her.”
“That’s good of you,” Carter said, his head tipped as if examining Sienna. “Most people would find that annoying.”
Sienna smiled, punctuating with a little snort. “My colleagues dump their elderly clients on me. I have no problem with that at all.” She looked at Angela. “It’s like you driving the seniors. Most of them are really sweet.” She shrugged. “But they need TLC.”
Angela felt a kinship with Sienna that she hadn’t known in years. It was wonderful to hear how caring Sienna was.
“That’s what keeps me at my current company. I don’t want to leave my clients.”
And yet Sienna did want to leave. “Would it be unethical to take those clients with you?” Angela wanted to know.
Sienna frowned. “Well, it’s not exactly kosher. Then again, it would be unethical to leave them in the hands of colleagues who don’t want to bother with them.”
“Technically, aren’t you allowed to give them your cell phone number when you leave? And if they choose to call?” Carter let the sentence hang.
“We’ll find out,” Sienna said with a sudden smile. “I have an interview with a group called Smithfield and Vine when I get back.”
Wasn’t that the job Sienna had been so upset that she hadn’t gotten?
Hearing the question Angela hadn’t asked, Sienna explained, “I saw Mr. Smithfield while I was out jogging, and I mentioned that if he ever had another opening, I’d be interested. He called me just before we left.”
Why hadn’t Sienna said anything? But Angela knew why. Because Sienna didn’t talk to her. She should be used to it by now. “I hope you get the job. I know it’s what you really want.”
“I know Smithfield and Vine. Great outfit,” Carter added. “We’ve often worked with them. But if you’re interested in staying in San Francisco, you might try Walker and Walker, another good company up there.” He stopped, cocked his head. “Walker.” He raised one finger. “You couldn’t possibly be part of the family or you’d already be working there.”
“That’s my father.” Sienna’s lips thinned. “My brother works for him. But I wanted to strike out on my own.”
As if realizing it wasn’t a subject Sienna wanted to discuss, Carter clapped his hands. “I wish you all the luck at Smithfield and Vine, and being able to bring along your elderly clients who adore you. And while I have you as my captive audience, I’d like to invite you to go with us tomorrow to climb the Karavolades Stairs. We plan to go around noon. That way all the adventurous tourists coming from the old port will have already made their way up the stairs or taken the funicular.” He waved a hand. “We’ll ride the cable car down and climb back up.”
She was about to say that Sienna wouldn’t climb the steps, but her daughter jumped in before she got a chance. “My mother’s been talking about walking those stairs. It’ll be fun with a group.”
Angela barely stopped her jaw from dropping. When she’d asked, Sienna preferred to sunbathe, but when Carter Ellis offered, Sienna immediately said yes. All right. That was fine. Angela knew where she stood. She wasn’t hurt, she wasn’t even upset.
It just meant she had her work cut out for her.
Her mother leaned against the bathroom doorjamb as Sienna removed her makeup.
“It was a good day, don’t you think?”
“Yeah.” She scrubbed a little too hard at a mascara smudge under her eye. “They sure are a hard-drinking group.”
Her mother laughed. “They’re on vacation. And they’re young.”
“Not that young.” Sienna washed her face and came back up for air to find her mother still standing there.
“What did you think of Carter?” her mom asked.
God forbid Mother should start matchmaking. She wasn’t sure about Carter. How could someone take off every summer since he’d graduated from law school? Lawyers, just like financial advisors, had to work their way up the ladder. And that didn’t involve taking off three weeks every summer. If his friends were any indication, she wasn’t sure how any of them had graduated. He’d said two of the guys were lawyers, another was an accountant, so was one of the girls, all of them on the partner track at large firms. Another of the girls had become an interior designer. And Tamryn was in marketing. But they were all partiers. Carter was handsome, and he seemed polite, but she had to consider the company he kept. Maybe the fact that Carter worked for his father said it all. He didn’t have to work hard. He already had it made.
“And he lives and works right in San Jose,” her mother went on. “How’s that for serendipity?”
“Coincidence,” Sienna said. There was a world of difference between the two. Her mother was definitely matchmaking. “Please don’t get any ideas about Carter and me. He’s not my type.”
Her mom arched a brow. “You’re both in high-stakes careers. You both work hard. You’re both career-oriented.”
Sienna put a hand on her hip. “Really? Didn’t you see how much those people were drinking?”
“Yes,” her mother said calmly. “But Carter didn’t drink any more than we did. Besides, if you work hard eleven months out of the year, you deserve to let loose for three weeks.”
Sienna had expected agreement from her mother. “Anyway, I’ll never see him once I’m back home. I’m too busy. Especially if this interview with Smithfield and Vine goes well.”
“I hadn’t realized you had another interview with them.”
Sienna felt a stab of guilt as she smoothed on her moisturizer. They’d been out in the sun all day on the boat, then gone to dinner with Carter and his group, dining on calamari, moussaka, and dolmades, delicious stuffed grape leaves. The others had dug into the ouzo to the point where she was sure it was oozing out of their pores. But her mother had a point. Carter hadn’t imbibed nearly as much as the others.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Sienna said. “I wanted to keep things close to the vest in case it goes south like the last time.” She shouldn’t have even mentioned it, but she’d been making conversation with Carter.
“It went south because of your father,” her mother said softly. There wasn’t reproach in her voice, just something wistful.
Sienna gasped. “Did Aunt Teresa tell you?”
“She didn’t mean to. I dragged it out of her. I couldn’t understand why you weren’t the top pick, and I kept saying you should have gotten the job. So she had to tell me about Donald.”
She wondered how much of what she told her aunt made it back to her mother. Did it matter? If she really wanted a relationship, maybe she needed to talk more.
Instead of pushing the conversation, though, her mother changed the subject. “I’ve decided not to climb the stairs with you guys tomorrow.”
Letting her hair out of the elastic she’d pulled it back with while she washed her face, Sienna gaped. “But you wanted to climb the steps.”
Another twinge of guilt squeezed her. She’d refused to walk the stairs with her mother, yet she’d jumped at going with Carter and his friends. She hadn’t wanted to look like a stick in the mud. But there was a bigger question here. Why did she care what Carter Ellis thought?
It couldn’t be because she liked him. He was a playboy with good looks and a winning smile, but he wasn’t a hard worker. He was a year younger than her, unmarried, and he should put his career first.
She tried to explain. “It’s just that since I didn’t join in with the sunbathing or dancing or drinking or being with his friends, I didn’t want Carter to think I’m…”
“A stick in the mud,” her mother finished for her.
She smiled at her mother’s use of the same cliche. “Yeah. They’re having fun and doing all the touristy things, but the first thing you want to do, I say no. I’m sorry. I was just tired. The last couple of months have been busy getting ready for this trip.” She sighed.
“And you wanted a day or two to relax in the sun and acclimate. I understand.”
She squirted toothpaste on her toothbrush. Maybe her mother understood a lot more than Sienna had ever thought. Especially about her dad. “Yes. But—” She held her toothbrush aloft. “I feel like I can make it tomorrow.” She truly wanted to have fun with Carter, even if he wasn’t as career-oriented as she was. Maybe she’d even get to know his friends. If they weren’t drinking so much, they might be okay.
“I’m not offended at all. And I hope you’re not offended if I don’t go.”
Another wave of guilt turned her face pink. She’d been mean to her mom today, and she didn’t like that about herself. “Then I won’t go either. We’ll do it together another day.”
Mother shook her head. “Absolutely not. Go have fun. They’re having breakfast out too.”
Sienna groaned, thinking of the climb up all those steps on a full stomach. “I’m sure as heck not eating a lot. Or drinking.”
Smiling, her mom leaned in to touch her arm. “I won’t act like a mother and tell you to drink lots of water and rest regularly and put on suntan lotion and wear your hat.” They both laughed. It felt good to laugh.
“Anyway, it’s way too late in the day for me. I like to go early. And we’ve got two weeks together to do whatever we like.”
“I don’t want you to feel left out.”
Her mom shook her head, her short curls bouncing attractively. “I’ll go for a walk while you sleep in and have a coffee at a café I found yesterday. And if you’re gone when I get back, I just might lie in the sun and read a book.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Now brush your teeth, dear.” She blew a kiss and went off to her room.
Her mother was beginning to amaze her. All her volunteering, her understanding of how fulfilling working with the elderly could be, just the way Sienna felt.
There was so much more to her than Sienna had ever imagined. She’d thought her mother went out for coffee chats or brunches with her friends and spent the afternoon watching Dr. Phil and Judge Judy. How ridiculous. Of course her mother would be hiking, volunteering at an animal shelter, and driving old people around. Nonni volunteered her time too, but she excelled at organizing five-hundred-dollar-a-plate galas and auctions that benefited this or that group. But her mom was hands on. Sienna liked to think she gave a lot to her clients: confessor, advisor, friend, a shoulder to cry on if they needed it. Was there that much difference between what she did and what her mother did?
If she moved to Smithfield and Vine, she’d have to find a way to bring her clients with her. She absolutely could not leave them in the hands of indifferent colleagues who were only out to make a buck and didn’t care how they affected the lives of the people they advised. It was only about the commissions they could make. And the company rewarded them for that attitude. That’s why she needed to leave.
