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She’d always had a difficult relationship with her father, striving to earn his love even as nothing she did ever worked. That’s why she hadn’t gone to work for him the way Matthew had. She’d taken a job at some soulless corporation just so she did nothing that would disappoint him. Yet he’d been disappointed anyway.
In the last few months, though, things seemed to change. Maybe it was her friendship with Bron. Not that she’d become friends with Bron to get to her father. But she’d even asked him to put in a good word for her with the senior partner at Smithfield and Vine, the company she’d been interviewing with. The two men were good friends, and maybe it was nepotism, but she wanted this job. She wanted him to be proud of her. With his recommendation, she had an excellent chance.
So no, when Bron asked her to be a bridesmaid, she didn’t turn her down.
Luckily, her mother changed the subject. “I’d love to hear more about this new job. Tell us everything.”
Sienna did. Maybe, if she tried hard enough, she could leave behind all the resentment that had festered for as long as she could remember, making her question not only her mother’s motives but everyone else’s as well. It was even why she’d never let any man get too close.
But at thirty, she wanted to be a new person, one who no longer spent her downtime brooding about the past and possibly missing out on something good in her future.
* * *
Having taken only a long lunch,Sienna had rushed back to work once she’d demolished her sorbet.
“Don’t get all mopey,” Teresa told Angela. “She can change her mind.”
“Not if she gets this job. Which I’m sure she will.” Angela tucked her pain down deep. She had to believe that things would get better between her and Sienna. They’d come a long way. Five years ago, Sienna would never have met her for lunch, even if Teresa attended. And she hadn’t been cruel in turning down the trip. She’d actually been polite. Didn’t that mean there was hope?
“You can always go later, maybe in August or September, after she’s acclimated to the new job.”
Teresa always saw the bright side. But then she had three beautiful daughters who adored her and a husband who was as madly in love with her today as he had been when he married her. Angela, on the other hand, had two children who hated her and an ex-husband who couldn’t get rid of her fast enough once he’d met a prettier, younger model. Had they been having an affair before the divorce? That pregnancy had come along fast. Not that she cared. She relished her freedom. The best thing Donald had ever done was divorce her.
Once he was married, and with a new baby, he wouldn’t be so concerned with what Angela did. Maybe he could stop punishing her.
But that didn’t change the trip she wanted with Sienna. “If we wait, there’ll be the baby and the wedding. We really need to go in June.”
Teresa sipped her latte, licking the foam off her lip. “Wouldn’t next year work just as well?”
She needed to go this year, exactly thirty years after she was supposed to return to Santorini. And didn’t.
“It’s not as if he’s actually going to be there.” Compassion softened Teresa’s voice.
Angela knew he wouldn’t be there. She wanted only to retrace her footsteps of that glorious graduation trip. It was a pilgrimage to her past. If by some miracle she saw him, she didn’t have a clue what she’d say anyway. Sorry I didn’t make our date thirty years ago. He would never understand.
She’d done what every young woman did on a fabulous holiday in a foreign country. She met a boy, falling head over heels for him. He’d wanted her to stay. She’d wanted him to follow her home. But they’d had two very different lives.
And she was engaged to Donald.
But they’d made a pact before she left Santorini. She would return home and end her engagement, giving her family time to get over the scandal. And time for them both to make sure their feelings were true. Then, exactly one year later, she would return to their favorite café on the Greek island, meeting him for their usual coffee and bougatsa, the sugary pastry she’d loved. And they would plan their future.
The memory of those long-ago mornings with him at the café made her eyes ache.
But she’d come home to face the wedding, her mother adamant she couldn’t jilt her wealthy fiancé. The shame and scandal it would bring to the family was untenable, especially since her mother had worked so hard to make this relationship work. Donald’s family was San Francisco elite, and Mama wanted into that circle so badly she could taste it. Maybe if Angela had been older, stronger, if she’d started working and had lived on her own a few years, she might have withstood the pressure. But she couldn’t handle it, especially when her mother explained what her life would be like if she didn’t go through with the wedding.
Angela could still hear her mother’s angry voice, see the finger pointing in her face. “I told you to take your sister with you. None of this would have happened if you’d done what I said.” But Teresa had already met William, her future husband, and she’d had no intention of taking off for Santorini.
Mama had berated her endlessly, telling her she was just a passing fancy to a Greek boy who was no better than a beach bum. It was idiotic to think he’d be waiting for her in a year.
There was no social media, and cell phones and email weren’t the norm yet. Besides, the year apart was supposed to solidify their connection. They hadn’t planned to get in touch. But he’d believed she would call off her wedding.
Instead, she’d finally accepted her mother’s absolute certainty that he wouldn’t show up for their reunion. And the only other person she’d ever told about the Greek boy she’d fallen in love with was her older sister Teresa.
“It’s just a trip down memory lane,” she told Teresa. “It was the happiest three weeks of my life. I want to visit all the same places. And if Sienna will come with me, maybe she and I can work things out.”
“You can go anytime if all you want to do is relive memories. It doesn’t have to be the middle of June.”
But Angela needed to go to that café on the anniversary of the day she’d missed. She wanted to gaze at the bougainvillea climbing the white walls, the blue domes of the churches, and the turquoise Aegean.
She wanted to sit in the morning sun and imagine what her life would have been if she’d made a different choice.
But Teresa didn’t believe in fanciful thinking. She was down to earth. With her beautiful, loving family, she could be.
All Angela had were dreams. And the hope that one day she and Sienna would find the closeness that mothers and daughters should share.
