A Greek Odyssey - Jason Fic

CHAPTER 37

Jason smiled at Nanna Daisy and offered her his arm so she could grasp onto it to hobble up to the dining room table. She took hold of it and Lexi was amazed to see her Nanna give him a flirtatious little look as if to say; "If only I was younger!"

He pulled the chair out for her and made sure she was settled and then stood to one side waiting to see where he should sit. James was in the kitchen trying to sneak bits of lamb off his dad while he carved the joint. Anna slapped his hand as she saw it snake towards the plate. 'Get your hands away and make yourself useful,' she handed him a dish of crispy roast potatoes and a serving spoon and ushered him out of the room only for him to re-appear a few minutes later, hovering around the kitchen again.

'James, whatever's the matter with you, you're like a fart in a trance?' his dad said, in an exasperated voice, handing him the serving plate with lamb on it. 'Take that through to the dining room and mind you don't put your dirty fingers on the meat!'

James skulked off to the dining room with the plate and took his place at the dining table next to his Nanna. 'Do you need any help Nan?'

'I'm not a bloody invalid!' Daisy answered testily and shot Jason another flirtatious look to where he was now sitting at the table opposite her. Jason reddened, not realising she was messing about.

A few minutes later Anna and Joe brought the rest of the dinner through from the kitchen and sat down. 'It looks delicious Mrs Willis,' Jason said, taking an appreciative sniff. Roast dinner was one of his favourites as he very rarely got to eat one.

'Please don't call me Mrs Willis!' Anna laughed. 'You make me feel old!'

'So, I understand you met Lexi on holiday Jason?' Daisy asked, fixing her eyes on Jason. She was a pretty good judge of character and her gut feeling was that Jason was very keen on her grand-daughter.

'Yes... err Mrs....' Jason fumbled, as he realised he didn't know her last name. He felt Lexi put a reassuring hand on this thigh and he reached down and tucked her hand in his under the table.

Daisy sighed, 'just call me Daisy, son. I'm not that scary am I?' She leant across and helped herself to some lamb, heaping it onto her plate and spooning some mint sauce alongside it.

Jason shook his head. It wasn't that she was scary he thought, he just knew she was astute and he didn't want to mess up. He knew it was important to Lexi that her Nanna liked him, as they were so close.

'Well, I can see why she fell for you, you're a very handsome young man. So, tell me a bit about yourself then?'

As he started to pile food on his plate he proceeded to tell her about his brother Josh, his other younger brother Seb and his parents Steve and Pat back in Manchester and a few snippets about his home in London. He was wondering when to drop into the conversation what his day job was, in case she didn't approve.

He needn't have worried, Daisy had already spotted that he hadn't said what he did for a living. She wondered if he hadn't said because he was something like a dust-bin man - not that he looked like he did something like that for a living. She'd already noted his clean fingernails and expensive looking clothes.

'So Jason, what are your job prospects like?'

James snorted with laughter, choking on a piece of roast potato which went down the wrong way. His Nanna was an avid reader of The Sun newspaper and he was gobsmacked that she hadn't realised who Jason was.

'What's so funny?' Daisy asked in confusion. 'It's a normal enough question. I just want to check him out!'

'Sure you do, Nanna!' James replied, with a dirty laugh as he took a sip of water to clear his throat of the offending potato.