Page 65 of Never Too Late to Date

‘That’s everything. Let’s hurry. The last person in the world we want to bump into is Frank. You’re both entitled to your privacy.’

Christian grunted.

‘Ah, Frank. The Frank who helpfully suggested that I make a visit to your dressing room as you had something urgent to tell me.’

Suzie couldn’t hold in the white-hot fury that swept over her.

‘The bastard! The total and utter bastard.’

He’d obviously put two and two together and deliberately distracted her backstage to enable Christian to make his discovery.

Giannis’s head went up at the sound of her swearing. She rarely swore at home, but she could cheerfully strangle Frank with her bare hands for forcing the situation.

Christian’s stare was unfathomable.

‘I agree he’s a bastard, but he was right, wasn’t he? You did have something to tell me.’

Suzie’s interest in the contents of her handbag suddenly intensified a hundredfold. It caused her to let go of her suitcase, which toppled over onto its side.

Both men reached over to right it at the same time, but Christian pulled back in favour of the younger man. At least they were showing her a little consideration. The situation would need very careful handling. Giannis was undoubtedly her priority, but the thought of Christian on her island, even for a day, was distinctly unnerving.

The forty-minute car ride to the ferry was completed in silence. Christian might have paid the cab driver, and Giannis might have carried her suitcase up the ramp and stowed it in the hold, but that was about it as far as meaningful interactions went.

The emotion of the night sent her to sleep virtually as soon as the boat left the port, the gentle rocking motion doing its work, but each time she awoke from a fitful doze, her eyes searched for both men. Giannis stayed put in an armchair opposite her, sometimes asleep himself, while she could see Christian pacing the deck outside the window, smoking. So much for his one-a-day line, but she had to acknowledge her part in making this into one extraordinary day for him.

When she looked up again, Giannis was on his phone, texting furiously. At least he had Kat to talk to and go back to. She was so grateful for his loving wife waiting at home. Although it hurt her deeply to admit it, she wasn’t the right person to comfort her son at this point. For so many years it had been her job to make it better for her boys, but when it came to Giannis, she’d handed over the baton to Kat a while ago, and that was as it should be.

She, as his mother, was the reason he was in this state, and the decisions she’d made all those years ago had come back to haunt her. She’d had her reasons, but he wouldn’t want to hear them yet.

A sudden thought had her on her feet.

‘Gianni.’

He stopped texting.

‘You’re angry with me, I know, and you have every reason to be. But I’ve got to speak to you.’

‘Sit down, Mama.’

At least he’d called her Mama. She did what she was told.

‘I know I have no right to ask…’

Her son’s tired eyes, so similar to Christian’s, stared back at her.

‘But?’

‘Please will you let me tell your dad and your brother first? I’ll get them together and do it first thing in the morning up at the farm, I promise.’

Giannis nodded once and looked back down at his phone.

Suzie breathed a sigh of relief. His word was his bond. As a lawyer, he was well used to keeping other people’s secrets, but this one was different; this was personal. An enormous life-changing secret had exploded in his lap, and she had to minimise the emotional damage for those she loved – if she could. Her own feelings were very much at the back of the queue. In her eyes, that’s what it meant to be a mother, doing your best to keep your children on track. The saying ‘you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child’ had a lot of truth to it, and boy, was Giannis an unhappy child at the moment. Plus, she also had Kostas to consider. The news would be a terrible shock for him too.

‘Thank you.’

‘Don’t thank me, Mama. My father, my brother and I…’ A long sigh escaped her son’s mouth. ‘I suppose he’s my half-brother now…’

‘Don’t say that, Gianni. Of course he’s still your brother.’