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14
Sienna had left fifteen minutes ago with her new friends, who’d planned an unusually early start to make sure they got mopeds before the tourist crowd snagged them all.
It was a gorgeous day, and wearing a sleeveless teal blouse and black capris, she set out later than her customary time. She was jumpy, worried Xandros had changed his mind. Maybe seeing her yesterday had turned him off. For thirty years, he’d thought of the young girl she’d been, not the middle-aged woman she was.
And he was in his prime.
She made it through the maze of alleys and steps to the café, breathless. It was the anniversary of the day she’d let him down. She’d let Sienna down too, because by then she’d allowed Sienna to believe another man was her father. What would their lives have been like if she’d made another choice?
But then there would have been no Matthew.
It was too late for rethinking as she pushed through the gate onto the terrace.
Xandros stole her breath all over again.
The café was full of tourists getting their first taste of delicious Greek coffee and licking bougatsa powdered sugar off their fingers. But Angela didn’t have eyes for the tourists or the sky or the sea. She saw only him, the strong lines of his face, the toned muscles of his body, and the deep Santorini blue of his eyes.
He smiled when he saw her, rising from his chair in a courtly gesture. His hand on her arm was warm as he seated her, saying, “Eleni is bringing your coffee and pastry.”
“Thank you.” And she admitted, “I wasn’t sure you’d be here.”
He raised one dark eyebrow. “Why would I not be?”
“I was afraid.” She stopped, wondering how to put it without forcing him to soothe her ego. “We all have images that stay in our minds. Maybe the reality wasn’t the same.”
He put his hand over hers on the table. “The reality is far better.”
She’d forced him to compliment her, but she liked it, especially when he added, “I’m so glad that you texted me.”
Eleni trotted out with café au lait and a bougatsa to share, leaving them with a smile.
Xandros asked, “What did you do yesterday after you left me?”
He made it sound as if she’d left him alone all over again. “We took the funicular down to the old port and walked back up the stairs.”
“Intrepid. Just the way you always were.”
She laughed softly, feeling at ease now that they were talking about mundane things. “I shocked my young companions when I made it up the stairs without needing a cane.” Her smile grew wider. “Or a donkey.”
“Young companions?” he asked. “I thought you were here only with your daughter.”
She licked sugar off her fingers. “There’s a group of young people in the villa above ours. They’ve taken us under their wing. Our first day, they invited us to go on a catamaran they’d rented, then yesterday we did the stairs.” She smiled, punctuating it with a chuckle. “We’ve had most of our meals with them as well, and today, Sienna, that’s my daughter, is on a moped trip around the island with them.”
“And you’re not going?” He turned his coffee cup on its saucer.
She shrugged. “I’m not sure I can handle a moped.”
He laughed, and she remembered how much she’d loved his laugh. It sent tingles through her belly, and now it made her think of her nights with him, the touches, the kisses.
“You handled a moped well before. You can still do it.”
She ignored all those tingles, all the long-ago thoughts. “I like this young man. His name is Carter, and I think he’s sweet on Sienna. So I thought I’d give them time together without Mom hanging around.”
He winked. “A summer romance.”
That’s what theirs was supposed to be, a holiday romance. It became so much more. It became Sienna. “It doesn’t have to be. He lives in San Jose, near San Francisco.”
He nodded, his expression suddenly grave. “She doesn’t have a young man at home?”
