Page 11 of Greek Island Fling to Forever

‘He’ll be all right. This is a private beach—the land on either side of it goes with the house. I’ve got some buckets and spades...’

The children’s buckets and spades were placed neatly in the corner of the veranda, and it was impossible that they hadn’t been put there in preparation for their arrival. Ben watched as Arianna showed Jonas how to dip the buckets into the water butt at the back of the house and wet the sand a little so it would retain its shape. She was so eager to get involved, and all of Jonas’s initial shyness had disappeared now and he was hanging on her every word.

He drew a line in the sand, impressing on his son that he mustn’t cross it. Jonas was used to the lines that Ben drew; he’d never known anything different, and he was far too interested in his sandcastle to want to bother with the sea.

Hearing how Arianna had reacted to her own father’s protectiveness was food for thought, though. It was tempting to believe he might somehow make up for Emma’s death by protecting Jonas, but Ben had to admit that his solicitousness for his son was sometimes a little too much of a good thing. If Jonas reacted as Arianna had, it would break his heart.

He could think about that later, though, because right now he had a moat to dig. Jonas stood to one side, issuing instructions and advice, and then decided that if you wanted a job done well it was necessary to do it yourself.

Ben saw Arianna laughing behind her hand as Jonas relieved him of the spade and shooed him away, leaving him to walk back to the shaded patio.

* * *

‘He’s a great little boy. You must be very proud of him.’ Arianna was watching Jonas while Ben filled two glasses from the pitcher.

‘Yes, I am.’ There was no hesitation in his answer. If her father had reacted in that way just once, then things might have been very different.

‘It must be hard. Working and looking after him alone.’

Ben shook his head. ‘It would have been harder without him. After Emma died, it was having Jonas to look after that kept me going. And I’m lucky; my sister, Lizzie, has a girl Jonas’s age and she’d already made the decision to be a stay-at-home mum. She offered to look after Jonas while I was working.’

‘That’s a good arrangement. Although I expect he misses his mother.’

‘He doesn’t really remember Emma. He asks about her sometimes and we talk and look at old photographs together. I think he may start to feel her absence a little more when he’s older.’ Ben’s brow furrowed slightly. ‘I guess the two of us will deal with that when we come to it.’

Arianna guessed they would too. Her own loss seemed so long ago in comparison and not nearly as life-changing, but somehow Ben had managed to look forward. Maybe she should take a leaf from his book and shake off her nightmares.

Their conversation drifted, past places they both knew in London, and things they’d both done as doctors. When the timer sounded from the kitchen Arianna jumped to her feet, hurrying inside, and then reappeared with a bowl of warm tiropita in one hand and one of keftedakia in the other. Ben called Jonas, taking him into the kitchen to wash his hands.

Jonas worked his way through everything that was put in front of him, and then ran back to his castle. Arianna made coffee, and they watched Jonas playing in the sand. When he called his father, Ben slipped off his shoes to walk out onto the beach and Arianna followed him.

‘That’s amazing. Fantastic work, Jonas. What do you think, Arianna?’

‘Best I’ve ever seen.’

Ben rolled up his trouser legs and knelt down in the sand next to his son, and the boy nestled close. ‘That’s a great moat. Like the one we saw at Leeds Castle.’

Jonas wrinkled his nose. ‘It doesn’t have any water, Dad. And I can’t go across the line.’ He pointed at the line that Ben had drawn in the sand.

‘Yeah, good boy. It’s okay if you and I go across the line together. Perhaps we’ll just flatten the sand a bit first, eh?’

Ben started to tamp down the sand at the bottom of the moat and Jonas followed suit, watching his father carefully. Arianna knelt down on the other side.

‘Can I help?’ Maybe this was something that Ben and Jonas wanted to do together.

‘Hear that? Your castle has its very own princess who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty.’ Ben grinned at Jonas. ‘I think that’ll be a yes please, won’t it?’

‘Yes! You can do that bit.’ Jonas pointed to a segment next to his own. ‘Please...’

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She could feel Jonas’s warm skin against her arm as they worked. His hands pressing on top of hers. The half-remembered feeling of playing with other kids, before she’d lost her childhood and become the little girl who made no noise, and who didn’t attract any attention to herself, for fear that the weight of her parents’ grief might suddenly break free and crush her.

‘Dad...’ Jonas frowned. ‘You have to do the sides too. We’re doing the sides.’

‘Yep. In a minute. I’ll just finish off here...’ Ben was packing the sand down at the bottom of the moat first, and Jonas clearly felt that his father wasn’t doing things in the right order. Wriggling in between Ben’s arms, Jonas started to rectify the problem, tamping the sand at the sides.

Arianna left them, nudging each other good-naturedly out of the way, and went to fetch three large buckets. Ben got to his feet, catching two of the buckets up in his hand, while Jonas followed suit, picking up the two small children’s pails. When they got to the line in the sand, he slid one foot over it, grinning cheekily up at his dad, and Ben laughed, picking him up and swinging him over the line, before racing him down to the water’s edge. When Jonas reached the sea, he dropped his pails and started to splash water at his father.

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