Page 39 of Greek Island Fling to Forever

‘Nice guy. Was he like that yesterday?’ Ben stopped in the shade of one of the trees, looking out to sea.

‘Worse.’ Arianna shook her head. ‘There’s something about him, though. As if all the shouting is really a scream of pain.’

‘I just wish that he hadn’t felt the need to attack you. That really wasn’t fair.’

‘He’s afraid. He wants to protect his wife and daughter, and he’s just lashing out at anyone and anything.’

Arianna was right. She’d borne the brunt of the insults and her ability to look past that and try to help the family was commendable. ‘I know. I felt a lot like that when Emma died.’

Arianna leaned towards him. ‘I’ll bet you didn’t go as far as interfering with Jonas’s medical treatment, though. Or making the people around you walk on eggshells.’

Ben shook his head. ‘No. No, I didn’t do that. Jem really needs some help, for his own sake and his family’s.’

‘Yes, he does. I’ll do whatever I can, and maybe Kriss will help him to make the right decision and come and see you, when you get back to England. It was really good of you to offer that.’

Ben smiled down at her. Being treated with such contempt can’t have been easy for her, but it was just like Arianna to push her own feelings to one side and concentrate on what other people needed. She did it a little too much for her own good sometimes; he felt sure that ignoring her own feelings was the root cause of the nightmares that plagued her.

‘I’ll come back tomorrow, when you go to see Eloise.’

She raised an eyebrow. Maybe that had sounded far too protective, but Ben didn’t actually care. He did feel protective about Arianna, and it was the first time in years that he’d begun to believe he could make a difference.

‘You’re on holiday, remember.’

‘Yeah. Just taking a little holiday from my holiday. A beautiful island bathed in sunshine can begin to grate a little after a while.’

‘I wouldn’t know. This beautiful island is where I work, so I suppose I have the best of both worlds. And I wouldn’t have missed your spectacular self-control for the world.’

Ben grimaced. ‘It wasn’t that obvious, was it?’

‘No, it wasn’t obvious at all. You were firm with him, but you were really kind as well.’

An idea occurred to Ben. ‘Tell you what. Lizzie’s taken a liking to one of the cocktails they do here. It doesn’t contain any alcohol, so you can drink as many as you like and still drive, but it has umbrellas and cherries...’

‘Umbrellas and cherries. Sounds good to me.’ Arianna grinned.

‘What do you say we go to see how the other two kids are doing, and then go upstairs to my room and order room service. We’ll drink the cocktails and you can tell me exactly how annoying this afternoon’s been. As loudly as you like.’

She was thinking about it. It was nice to see Arianna acknowledging her frustration instead of bottling it all up.

Suddenly she smiled, reaching up to caress his cheek, and Ben felt a tingle of excitement radiate from her touch. ‘Letting off steam over cocktails. You know my guilty pleasures, don’t you?’

He could think of a more delicious way of letting off steam. And as to guilty pleasures...

Cocktails were going to have to do.

* * *

Arianna had diagnosed one of the other children with measles, and Ben had concurred. The second had a runny nose but none of the other symptoms, and since he’d been vaccinated they’d agreed that it was unlikely he would have been infected. She’d already checked her records, to make sure that all of the children on the island had been inoculated, and it seemed that the outbreak was under control.

They ate at the hotel that evening, with Lizzie and James. Arianna had started to worry what Lizzie might be thinking of her, but her fears were groundless. Lizzie had the same laid-back sense of humour as her brother, and they were laughing together before very long.

Ben walked her out to her car. Arianna had already decided what she wanted to say to him, but he spoke first.

‘You’re going home alone, aren’t you?’

‘Yes. I... It’s not that I don’t want you there tonight, but I have the foundations to move forward now.’

‘And that’s something you have to do by yourself.’ A flash of regret showed in his eyes.

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