‘Don’t worry about me. I’m not here to cramp your style.’ Five-foot-two Carole pinched six-foot-two Tom’s cheek like he was about six years old and roared with laughter. ‘Sorry, Tom. Your face is a picture. I know you don’t want to see your aunt-in-law on your stag party, but I thought I’d pop over and see Matty and have a quick chat about the work we want to do. There are some houses on the island I want you to have a look at, and I don’t want to tell you about it during the wedding.’ Matt was an architect and his aunt Carole, the sister of both Matt and Tess’s mums, had lived on Paros for decades and had decided recently that she wanted to spend some of the proceeds of the sale of her lingerie business on building some holiday cottages on her land, and she’d asked Matt to draw up the plans for her while he was over.
‘I’m impressed that you found us,’ Matt said.
‘I have my sources.’ Carole tapped her nose. ‘And a big group of lively young men on a small island isn’t hard to track down. Anyway, can I borrow you for a couple of hours to go through some things with you and show you on a map where the houses are that I’d like you to take a look at?’
‘Of course.’ Matt smiled at her. Carole and her husband, Norman, were childless and their nieces and nephew had spent many summer holidays here in Greece with them, and Matt adored her.
‘Car’s out there.’ She indicated with her head towards a bright-pink jeep in the street.
Fifteen minutes later, the two of them were sitting outside a hidden-gem-style café in a village in the interior of the island and Carole was spreading papers out all over the table.
‘I’ve brought you iced tea and some of my homemade honey cookies,’ Calista, the café owner, told them, inserting plates and glasses between the papers.
‘Thank you so much. These look delicious.’ Matt smiled at Calista and offered the plate to Carole.
‘Thank you, my darling. I’m only going to have one.’ She took the biggest one, from the far side of the plate. ‘I’m watching my figure.’
Matt took a cookie too, as Carole said, ‘Now. I’ve done some preliminary plans of my own.’ She picked up a wodge of papers and waved them in his face. He blinked.Somewas an understatement.
‘Looks like you’ve been quite busy,’ he said.
‘If you’re going to do something, do it properly. Anyway, these should show you what I want. Three separate cottages of different sizes, pool and barbecue area each. Now, they need a USP. So I’m thinkingeitherthey’re mini copies of the house that a certain Hollywood star has on this islandorthey’re copies of the underground house that someone built on this island that got shortlisted for shedloads of awards.’
‘Okay.OrI could come up with something original, based on a style that you like but appropriate to the specific location?’
Carole raised her eyebrows and scrunched her nose up. ‘Do you think you can actually do that? Being honest?’
‘I mean, yes? I’m an architect? It’s my job? That’s why you’re paying me to do this?’
‘I’m sorry, my love. I forget sometimes that you’re a fully fledged adult now with a proper career. How old are you now?’
Matt laughed. ‘I’m thirty-six. Very much a fully fledged adult. Okay. Why don’t we go through your plans and what kind of exterior design you like and take it from there? And obviously I’m more than happy to go and check out famous houses if we can see them from the road.’
‘You can’t see them from the road perse,’ Carole said, ‘but luckily I have friends who live in nearby houses and you can get a good look from their gardens. And luckily they’re both happy for you to go round on Saturday and have a nosey before you come over to us after the wedding. Are you sure you can only stay for one night?’
‘Sadly, yes, but I’d love to come out to visit again soon. It’s been too long.’
An hour and a half later, after they’d finished going through Carole’s – very ambitious – plans and drunk a lot of tea and eaten a lot of Calista’s cookies, Carole looked at her watch.
‘I need to get back,’ she said. ‘Got to cook Norm’s dinner. Let’s do a quick drive round the island and I’ll point out a couple of houses, and then I’ll drop you back with your party and get myself back on the ferry.’
‘So how are you?’ she asked a few minutes later as they rattled along a dusty back road in the pink jeep. ‘This is the first time I’ve seen you since your divorce. You know, the only time I ever met Gemma was at your wedding. You never came here with her. The only girlfriend you ever brought was that lovely girl, a long time ago. What was her name? Blonde hair and a big smile?’
‘Lily.’ They’d only been together a couple of months when he’d asked her if she’d like to come to Greece. It had felt natural because he’d already begun to assume that they’d spend the rest of their lives together. Stupid.
‘I liked her. But she’s not the one you married. How’ve you been since the divorce?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine, thank you.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, really.’ Matt pointed at the road ahead as Carole took her eyes off it to look at him. He’d better give her some more details or she’d drive them into the bushes. ‘The most difficult thing now is custody of the dog. We have joint custody and we’ve both really struggled with it. Makes you realise what a nightmare it would be if you had kids and split up.’ It also, when he said it out loud, made him realise that he probably shouldn’t have married Gemma in the first place, if only a couple of years after their divorce he was more upset about losing the dog than her. And if he reflected any more about things, the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about having seen Lily again indicated that he probably hadn’t been ready to marry someone else so soon after he and Lily split up. He’d thought he was in love with Gemma at the time, but in retrospect it had probably been classic rebound.
‘So what happened?’
‘She met someone else.’ He wasn’t going to go into any of the sordid facts with Carole about having found Gemma in their own bed doing stuff he hadn’t thought she’d ever done or would ever want to do. He wasn’t going to go into those facts with anyone, actually.
‘I’m sorry, sweetie. Good job you’re taking a break now.’ Carole threw the jeep round a corner and Matt grabbed the door handle as the whole car rocked for a second. ‘Have we not been in a car together before? How is that possible? Norm must have been driving last time you came. I wouldn’t have had you pegged as a nervous passenger.’
