The con was harder to step away from than I expected, and I hated that. Hated that maybe all this time I had believed it was something I did, not who I was, and that maybe I had been wrong. Clinging to the familiar was easier than admitting that the real reason I wasn’t in a rush to return to Florida sat next to me. Something had started between us, had grown quickly in a few short days, and I didn’t want to live the rest of my life and not know what it might turn into.
Sam moved closer, slipping an arm around my waist and tugging me against him. We listened to the waves splash against the ferry’s hull in silence. For the first time in maybe my entire life, it felt okay to sit next to someone else and not worry that they would hear a million confessions in the silence.
Chapter 14
It was after eight when the ferry docked at Santorini, and my stomach felt hollow. We hadn’t eaten since lunch on the road, and Sam’s belly had been making noises that had him blushing and me laughing for the last two hours.
Unlike Jesenice or Skopje, I felt comfortable in Santorini. I didn’t speak a ton of Greek, but I understood enough to communicate. My parents had favorite restaurants, coffee shops they loved, and bars they’d snuck out to after they thought I’d fallen asleep. I had my own favorite—Sea Side. They served the most delicious dish of olives, tomatoes, and shellfish, but I worried they would be closed by this time during the off-season.
I dragged Sam away from the car, which we left in the port’s parking lot after a quick disagreement about whether or not it would be safe there overnight. I shoved him into a taxi—not onto a donkey, thank goodness—before he could get a word out.
“Where are we going? And why are you in such a hurry?”
“I’m hungry, and the place I really want to eat might close early.”
“Well, since we’re staying at least one extra day, we could always eat there tomorrow.”
“I know. Sorry. I’m just excited.”
“It’s equal parts disconcerting and adorable. In case you were wondering.”
“I really wasn’t.”
“That is one of the many things that makes you attractive, devil snookums.”
I made a point of ignoring his hybrid term of endearment, choosing to peer out the taxi window at the spectacular view instead. It would be better in the daylight—the sunset had given us a stunning show on the ferry ride—but even at night the island was nothing short of breathtaking. Santorini, like the majority of the Greek isles, had been formed by volcanoes. White-sided, blue-roofed houses and businesses rose on steep cliffs from the crystalline water, zigzag paths climbing the mountain in haphazard patterns. Boats—some commercial fishing, some pleasure—bobbed lazily against the docks down below, and date and olive trees added spikes of green to the picturesque scene. It was a beautiful place, especially in the winter when there weren’t nearly so many tourists.
Sam’s eyes were fixed out the window. “It’s gorgeous here.”
“You’ve never been?”
“No. I’ve been to mainland Greece but not the islands.”
The taxi ride was short, which was normal since Santorini wasn’t that big, and I paid the man with coins as we scrambled out. He’d dropped us at Perivolos Beach, which was home to Sea Side and also to a resort where we could buy what we would need to sleep on the beach, if Sam was serious about that.
“Well, are you hungry?”
Sam nodded, tearing his fingers away from the back of his neck, where he’d been scratching his bed-bug rash. I hadn’t been brave enough to ask where else the nasty little suckers had gotten him, but I suspected it was a lot like mine—any skin that had been exposed and pressed against the mattress itched like the devil every time the cortisone wore off. I’d done some quick research on his phone while Sam had been driving, just to make sure we weren’t going to contract anything horrible, and had verified what I’d said back in Skopje—the rash should go away within a couple of days. In the meantime, I felt spectacularly unattractive, but at least I wasn’t alone.
I hadn’t felt alone since we’d boarded the flight to Austria.
Sea Side was open, thank goodness, and the sign out front said they would be for another couple of hours. Since setting foot back on Santorini, I hated the idea of being indoors, and the thought of having the beauty of this place interrupted by strangers. It was weird to me that Sam no longer counted as such.
“How about we grab a couple of blankets, and sweatshirts if you want, from the gift shop at Nine Muses and then get the food to go? We’re only going to have a couple of days and I’d really rather spend them on the beach.”