Read Those Summer Nights (Corfu, Greek Island Romance) for Free Online Page B

gut that was telling him even his presence in Kos wasn’t going to win this deal back. Asp had been uncertain from the very beginning, as had the tenants of the properties. He thought he’d done enough to convince them his way was the only logical conclusion, but he was also astute enough to know community relationships were still held in high regard. The tight-knit village had obviously closed ranks. He looked across at the hire car parking lot, differently coloured flags fluttering in the warm breeze. Well, those businesses might survive another summer, but when the winter came and tourists went home, the financial crisis, coupled with the influx of migrants, would just about finish them off. And when Asp came crawling back for help he would have great pleasure in saying no. One chance was all you got with Panos Dimitriou, everyone knew that. He knew exactly what he was going to do.
    ‘Do nothing, Manilos,’ he stated. ‘Let it go.’
    ‘Let it go?’ Manilos repeated like he was speaking another language.
    ‘That’s what I said.’
    ‘But—’
    ‘You cannot win them all, my friend,’ Panos stated. He didn’t believe this. But Kos was one thing, he was damned if he was going to let it happen with Corfu. He wasn’t going by cab. He was going to hire a car. Because he didn’t care how long it took, he wasn’t just going to get the family restaurant back, he was going to own the whole strip.

9
En route to Acharavi, Corfu
    I mogen might have studied the guidebook on the flight but perhaps she should have looked closer at the map or, to narrow it down a little further, the geography. Corfu was a lot more mountainous than she’d realised and the roads left a lot to be desired. Despite his previous holidays, Harry was doing a pitiful job at navigating and it had been up to her to traverse the terrain in a Nissan Micra that sounded like it was going to expire at any second. And now, as they crawled around another hairpin bend, she felt a bit sick. The only thing that was lightening her mood was the beauty outside. Judas trees covered in candyfloss-pink blossom swayed on each side of the ravine.
    ‘I think I’m going to have to pull over,’ she said as all colour faded from her face.
    ‘We’re almost there,’ Harry answered, shaking the phone showing the sat-nav and bending his head to stare at it in greater detail.
    ‘You said that twenty minutes ago, Harry.’ She was feeling hot now and she pressed a button to open the window.
    ‘Don’t do that. We’ll turn the air-conditioning up.’ Harry reached forward to the grey plastic dials on the dashboard.
    ‘I thought you said it burns fuel like a Chinese lantern scalds gazebos.’
    ‘But if you’re hot—’
    ‘I want this to be over.’ She swallowed, gripping the steering wheel to negotiate another death-defying curve in the road.
    ‘Really?’ Harry turned his head to look out of the passenger window. ‘I’ve been enjoying the scenery.’ He filled his chest with a breath as if he was sucking in fresh air rather than the air-conditioning. ‘It’s just like I remember it. So green… and beautiful.’
    Imogen dared to shift her eyes from the grey concrete road to the flora and fauna surrounding them. Tall pines pillared up from the rugged drops to their left and right, bushes budded with vibrant flowers of purple and yellow and gnarly olive trees had black netting at their roots waiting for their fruit to fall. Her gaze went further, a few hundred feet below and ahead, to the azure sea, flat, still, a length of taupe beach in front of it. For once Harry was right. It was a landscape to behold. If she forgot about the restaurant element she could relax enough to imagine cooling cocktails and fruit sweeter, fresher and juicier than anything you could get your hands on back home.
    ‘We’re really not far,’ Harry stated, his voice bringing Imogen back to the task at hand. ‘It’s just past Roda, which should be the next place we come to. I