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Shauna’s mouth dried up and no words would come. After all these years, all the times she’d thought about what she would say if she ever met Demetrios again, now that she was standing in front of him, her mind was blank.

Demetrios stood up and walked towards her. He was wearing an old T-shirt dotted with paint splatter, and a pair of loose khaki shorts. He could easily have been mistaken for some artisan craftsman, she thought, rather than the head of an international conglomerate. ‘I do not get many visitors to my boathouse, despoinída, you have taken a wrong turn perhaps?’ He came closer, smiling in welcome, but as he neared her, his smile faltered. Shauna took off her fedora, her red hair falling loosely about her shoulders.

‘Hello, Demetrios.’

They stood staring at each other in silence for a moment. Those achingly familiar gold-flecked hazel eyes were full of disbelief at what he was seeing. Now, rather than the fervour and passion of the young man that she remembered, there was caution and a touch of sorrow in them.

Demetrios cleared his throat and said, ‘Shauna, you came …’

He reached out to her and before she could stop him, he enveloped her in his arms, holding her tightly without speaking. Shauna found herself surrendering – a surge of emotion threatening to overthrow her composure. Instinctively she knew he felt the same as she did. She didn’t want to let go, to end this brief interlude and begin the painful conversation that she knew was coming. She drank in his familiar smell of citrus and sandalwood, now combined with an earthiness that spoke of days spent toiling with his hands. She pulled away.

‘It is good to see you,’ he told her.

She smiled and nodded, making no attempt to hide the fact that she felt the same way. ‘So this is your new office?’

He ran his hands through his hair and them wiped them on his shorts, the nervous movement showing his anxiety. ‘Call it the indulgence of a middle-aged man. Here I can pretend I am something else.’

‘Still trying to escape?’

He laughed ruefully. ‘Still trying, and still failing. But I forget my manners. I have little to entertain guests here, but I can offer a small hospitality.’ He pulled out two wooden folding beach chairs that were leaning against a wall and placed them just inside the doors of the boathouse so that they looked out over the sea. ‘Sit, please.’ Then he hurried off to a cool box in the corner and returned with two glasses and a bottle of retsina.

He filled a glass and handed it to her, then filled the second and raised it in a toast. ‘Here’s to …’ It took him a second or two to find the right words: ‘Here’s to you and your success. I always thought you had a very special quality and I am pleased that the rest of the world has appreciated it too.’

‘Thank you.’ She clinked glasses with him and took a sip of the cool, pungent wine. A little Dutch courage wouldn’t go amiss, she told herself.

‘I am so glad you chose to come here. I must apologize that I did not find out until recently that the Shauna O’Brien I knew all those years ago had become a famous actress. It was only a couple of years ago, when I caught a glimpse of you at Cannes—’

‘It’s a shame we didn’t see each other,’ she lied. ‘And there’s no reason you should have known. Our paths went in opposite directions.’

‘If I had known, I would have written to you sooner, to explain myself.’

‘There really is nothing to explain. We were young and from two different worlds. It could never have worked.’

Demetrios frowned. ‘I see. You think it was youthful infatuation?’

‘No one could expect a young man like you to have made a commitment to a girl like me. It was too much to ask – and so it proved.’

Demetrios took a slow sip of his drink and appeared to be weighing up his words. ‘I have always regretted that I didn’t try harder to find you. When Jeremy fired you, you left so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to—’

‘Honestly, Demetrios, there’s no need to drag up old feelings that don’t have any place now.’ Shauna knew she was being harsh, but she needed to be strong.

‘Then why did you come here?’

‘There is something that you need to know …’ She stood up and walked a few paces, steeling herself. ‘Something about us.’

He looked at her, unsure what was coming. Seeing how nervous she was, he nodded encouragingly but didn’t try to pressure her.

‘Well … my husband, Dan …’

‘I am so sorry for your loss. I saw the news and—’

‘He had an affair.’ She turned to him now.

‘Then he must have been crazy.’ Demetrios got up and took a step towards her.

‘He had an affair and there was child. Dan’s mistress called me, earlier this year … she had cancer and knew she didn’t have long to live. She was worried about her son – Dan’s son. Four years old, and he was about to be an orphan. She wanted me to take him in and give him the chances in life that she never could.’

‘And did you take him in?’