‘Did you even think to ask what Amalia liked for breakfast?’
That stopped him in his tracks. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Figure it out, Dimitri. I’m going for a swim.’
Dimitri felt the anger and helplessness rise within him. ‘You can’t just leave me.’
‘Yes, I can. There’s nothing stopping you from being a father—you’re perfectly capable of seeing to her food, her health and her safety. Now you need to learn how to do the hard stuff.’
Dimitri watched, horrified, as Anna stalked out of the house and down to the beach with a towel tucked under her arm and her head held high. He cast another look at Amalia, who by this point had stopped crying, as if she was as shocked as he that she would be left with him.
He left the counter and approached his daughter with caution. Each eyeing the other with deep suspicion, Dimitri stepped closer to the table where she sat in the high chair. He had watched Flora every morning, presenting Amalia with that same breakfast. He was sure that he’d done everything the same way that she had. He leaned forward to the little pot of prepared breakfast Flora had left him in the fridge with a label on it, but the label had been smudged. He dipped his little finger into the grey goo and tasted it, pulling a face as the paste hit his tongue. Theos, that was awful. What had Flora been thinking?
He reached for a glass of water to drown out the foul taste, and locked eyes with his daughter.
‘Okay, Amalia, I defer to your better judgement. That was vile. Now, what else is there around here that you might like?’
* * *
As Anna made her way back up from the beach she was wondering if she’d made a terrible mistake. She’d wanted this time to just be a family unit without Flora, to prove to Dimitri, to prove to herself that they could make this work. That she had been right to trust Dimitri with her heart.
But what if she’d left her daughter with him and he’d failed? Her footsteps gathered speed, and by the time she reached the crest of the hill on which the house stood her heart was in her mouth and she was half terrified at what she might find.
But it was her daughter’s laughter and infectious giggles that she heard first. Then the splash of water and, to her greatest surprise, a deeply voiced laugh. It stopped her in her tracks. She’d never heard Dimitri laugh. And for a second that was almost one of the saddest thoughts she’d ever had.
As she reached the flattened area of garden she saw Dimitri and Amalia in the infinity pool. He was holding her above his head, Amalia with her arms encased in little float bands, laughing hysterically as he swooped her in and out of the water. And suddenly she felt guilty for doubting him.
She walked back into the house to change and couldn’t help the smile that formed upon the sight of the kitchen. Half-eaten fruit, breads and pastries littered the surfaces as if some grand eating competition had happened in her absence.
By the time she had showered, was dressed and leaving the room that had become solely used for her clothes, she heard Dimitri settling Amalia down in the living room to play. This time it was Anna who hovered in the doorway as Dimitri’s gentle tones were soothing his daughter’s excitement and redirecting her attention to the small building blocks she loved so much. It wouldn’t be long before Amalia grew out of such easy distraction. It wouldn’t be long before she was off to playgroup and then school. And for a moment her vision of the future jarred, because it had always been in Ireland that she had imagined those things to happen. But now the location had shifted to Greece.
Dimitri looked up and found Anna standing in the doorway, her usually open expression unreadable.
‘I think Flora might have set me up.’
‘I think Flora might have been teaching you a lesson.’
‘You knew?’ he demanded.
‘I guessed,’ Anna said with a shrug of her delicate shoulder and the faintest trace of a smile playing at her mouth.
‘And you didn’t think to warn me?’ he replied, his tone readily losing the heat of anger and instead becoming filled with the warmth of humour.
‘You’re big enough and ugly enough to handle it,’ she assured him.
As she passed him he reached for her hips and drew her towards him, leaning over her to crowd her, teasing her as she tried to bend out of his reach.
‘You think I’m ugly?’ he said, his head cocked to the side, the entire length of his body flush with hers.
‘Hideous. Terrible. A monster,’ she said as he punctuated her taunts with a kiss upon her neck. This Dimitri? This teasing, playful, impossibly sexy man? Simply irresistible.
‘I am not a monster,’ he mock growled as he pulled her into a kiss. A kiss that wasn’t a punishment, wasn’t demanding, but giving, generous and spine-tingling.
She met his growl with a groan of pleasure but batted him away and went to the fridge to prepare a snack.
‘What time did you want to leave for Piraeus?’
‘Forget it. We can cancel. Let’s just go to bed. It’s nearly dark anyway.’