Matt was looking at her with a definite smirk on his face.
‘What?’ she said. ‘Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have sauce on my cheek or something?’
Matt shook his head. ‘You’re thinking how you’d like to move here, aren’t you?’
‘Oh mygoodness. How do youknowthat?’
He laughed out loud. ‘Every time. When you’re in a great holiday location, you start to wonder whether you should move there.’
‘Only slightly,’ Lily said, narrowing her eyes at him. ‘I’m a lot more mature now. I know that holidays are not real life, and all my friends and family are in the UK and I’m in no way planning to move.’
‘What’s the average house price on Antiparos?’ Matt filled both their water glasses as he spoke, not looking at her, concentrating on his pouring.
‘It’swayhigher than you’d think. Way higher than a lot of Paros.’
‘Been round all the estate agents already?’ Matt was grinning broadly.
‘I might have popped into a couple.’
He was still smiling at her, and then his expression grew more serious.
‘Lily, what exactly happened—’ He was interrupted by two of the children, both girls, coming over from the kids’ table.
‘Mummy,’ the bigger one, Lauren, said, ‘Mimi can’t breathe properly again.’
‘Where’s her inhaler?Where’s her inhaler?’ Ricky practically roared. ‘Where is it?’
‘It’s okay,’ Marie said, pulling a bag out from under her chair. ‘Everything’s going to be fine.’
‘Quick, do her puffs,’ Ricky said.
‘Let me just check her breathing first,’ Marie said. She took a blue inhaler, a spacer and a phone out of the bag and spent fifteen seconds timing the rise and fall of Mimi’s chest. ‘Why don’t we go and sit quietly over there, darling?’ She hoisted her daughter up into her arms and began to shake the inhaler as she walked.
Lily looked away from Marie and Mimi, at the table. She couldn’t get involved. She couldn’t bear it. It brought back too many bad childhood memories.
She glanced at Ricky. He was twisting his napkin over and over in his hands. Lauren was standing next to him looking tearful.
Lily really didn’t want to get involved.
Ricky was going to break his fingers in the napkin if he carried on like that.
‘Daddy, I’m scared about Mimi,’ Lauren said.
‘Yeah.’ Ricky pushed his chair out and strode over to Marie and Mimi.
Lily stood up and put her arm round Lauren. ‘Why don’t you come and show Matt that YouTube video I heard you talking about earlier? The one with the puppies doing Harry Potter impressions? I’ll be back in a second.’
In the corner of the garden, Marie was sitting cuddling Mimi and periodically counting her breathing while Ricky paced around them.
Lily squatted down in front of Mimi.
‘Hey, Mimi,’ she said. ‘How are you doing?’
‘Okay.’
Lily looked at the portable oxygen saturation monitor that Marie had placed on Mimi’s finger – her levels were good – and at Mimi’s throat. ‘She doesn’t have a tug at her throat. That’s good. Is she recessing?’
Marie checked her daughter’s chest. ‘I don’t think so.’ She drew a big, juddering breath herself. ‘This is… hard.’
