Chapter 3 Rosa #3
“I’m glad to hear that,” Dominic said. “Because there’s going to be endless opportunities for dancing and making merry over the weekend, and I happen to be especially single too.”
Rosa’s heart rate had accelerated to the speed of the popcorn machine at her old school. She rubbed her left thumb where she’d once burned herself with hot oil. This man was as hot and dangerous as that oil.
“Do you like to dance, Rosa?” Dominic asked.
Dance? Women like her didn’t dance. They collapsed at the end of the day to watch a favorite sitcom on television and hoped they’d stay awake long enough to eat their frozen dinner.
“I used to.” This man’s behavior was vaguely familiar.
She could almost recall it from another lifetime.
It was the way he peered at her as though he wanted to…
to what? Eat her for dinner? Or take her to bed.
God, yes. That was the look. A man wanted her, even with her plump bottom and slightly squishy middle? She resisted the urge to fan herself.
“When was the last time you danced?” Dominic’s gaze remained on her face.
She really should have worn her good lipstick. “I haven’t danced since high school.”
“That’s a shame,” Dominic said. “A woman as pretty as you should always have a full dance card.”
She blinked several times, then squinted, wondering if this was the beginning stage of dementia.
Did the others see him? He appeared real.
Or was this how the mental decline started?
Handsome men appeared out of nowhere, flirtatious and interested in little old ladies?
This had to be an illusion. Men like Dominic Perry drove sports cars and dated women half their age.
They were interrupted when the doorbell rang.
Lois, as if she were queen of the mansion, stalked by them to answer it.
For the next hour, it was a flurry of introductions and greetings.
David Perry arrived with his two little ones, Laine and Ollie, as did Maggie and Jackson Waller, who were also staying at the house with their toddler, Lily, and a young nanny.
Stone and Pepper arrived, after spending several hours with Lisa and Rafael off at the lodge.
The evening, which included a buffet-style dinner of pasta and meatballs made by Lois, sped by.
After the men did the dishes, they all went upstairs to the loft area to drink, play pool, and watch football.
Rosa offered to put Laine and Ollie to bed for David, but Lois insisted that it was her job as the grandmother.
She disappeared with them and didn’t come back.
Maggie, after putting Lily down, returned to the living room and huddled with Pepper and Ria on the couch to watch a romantic comedy.
Normally Rosa would have joined them, but she was restless.
Dominic Perry had shaken her. His attention hadn’t lessened at dinner.
Several times she caught him staring at her.
She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror that hung over the bar area.
Still the same round face and brown eyes stared back at her.
She wondered what on earth did he see when he looked at her?
Her skin was still relatively smooth, especially when she didn’t smile.
Although smiling was one of her favorite things to do, so that didn’t do her much good.
No chest to speak of, so it couldn’t be that.
And she had these skinny arms and legs. Now that she thought about it, she looked rather like a plum with sticks for legs and arms. Her round head was like an abnormal growth from too many pesticides.
To boost herself, she thought about her mama.
She’d always said Rosa had beautiful eyes, the kind that drew a person in and made them feel as if they were wrapped in a warm blanket.
“A pretty mouth, made prettier because you’re always laughing.
” That had been before Javier broke her heart.
After Rafael was born, her laugh returned.
She’d been surprised to find that after surviving loss, laughter was even sweeter.
From then on, laughing was like a perpetual first taste of cherry pie.
Perhaps when joy goes dormant, it returns with a great roar.
How strange that a man’s attention had made her remember what her mother had said to her.
She wandered into the kitchen and found a teakettle in the pantry. After filling it, she rummaged through a basket of tea bags until she found chamomile. She’d just filled her cup when the door to the kitchen swung open and Dominic appeared.
“I hoped I’d find you here,” he said. “May I join you?”
She flushed with warmth but kept it together enough to ask him if she could make him a cup of tea.
“I’m not really a tea kind of guy,” Dominic said. “But for you, I’d make an exception.”
She smiled and pointed to the refrigerator. “There’s beer in there.”
“Now you’re talking.” He grabbed a bottle and sat on one of the stools that lined the island.
“Why aren’t you upstairs with the rest of the men?” she asked.
He shrugged and ran a hand through that glorious head of hair. “I’d rather get to know you.”
“Why?”
He laughed. “There’s something about you that’s so alive. It’s intriguing and makes me want to be around you.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be having a midlife crisis and chasing after young women?”
For the first time since she’d met him, the sparkle faded from his eyes. “I’m not interested in dating a child. I was married to a wonderful woman for thirty years. She passed away a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. She had cancer, and boy did she fight, but it finally took her. Since I lost her, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. We were supposed to grow old together.”
“Ah, yes. The supposed-tos. We all have those, don’t we?”
“What about you? Warren says you’re divorced?”
“Were you asking about me?” She blew on her tea. The steam danced above her cup.
“Guilty.” He grinned.
“We were only married a short time before I got pregnant. He left before Rafael was born.”
“And there’s never been anyone else?”
“No. When I was still young and pretty, I didn’t have time. Rafael was my priority. After he grew up and left, I was already past my prime. Men aren’t interested in women my age.” She played with the silver cross she wore around her neck.
“You’re still young and pretty,” he said.
She tapped the side of her head. “In here, yes.”
“I’ll be fifty-eight next year. I’d been planning on retiring. That was my promise to my wife. But now, without her, I don’t know what I would do without work.”
“May I ask what you do?”
“I’m the CEO of a company that makes radiology equipment for hospitals.”
“How interesting.”
He laughed. “Not really.”
“More interesting than being Rosa the Lunch Lady.”
“Sounds like the title of a children’s book.”
“Lisa mentioned you never had any children.” She said it nonchalantly, as if she were just making conversation.
“Were you asking about me?” He took a sip from his bottle, smiling at her with his eyes.
She lifted her cup to her mouth and let herself smile right back at him with her own eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. She told me about you before we came out here.” Who was this sassy woman who felt twenty years old again?
“Crazy Uncle Dominic?”
“Something like that, yes,” Rosa said.
His eyes widened. “Really?”
“No, I’m teasing you. She said she adored you when she was a child and that you and your wife were glamorous and fancy.”
He tugged on his ear. “We loved having the twins come stay with us. My wife was never happier. We would’ve loved to have some of our own, but Susanna was unable to conceive. I knew that before we married.”
“You didn’t care?”
“No. I wanted her. Nothing else mattered. I never regretted it. Not for a moment.”
“She was lucky.”
“I was the lucky one.”
Was there anything sweeter than a man who loved his wife? She had hoped to be on the receiving end of that at this age. God had other plans for her. She’d reconciled with him about that a long time ago. He gave her Rafael. Her beautiful son.
“I wish Susanna were here to see Lisa get married. She would’ve enjoyed this whole thing immensely.
My wife loved a good party.” He placed the palm of his hand against his forehead.
“What’s wrong with me? I came in here to charm you into agreeing to dance with me at the wedding, and I’ve done nothing but talk about my wife. ”
Rosa wasn’t sure what to say, other than he couldn’t expect to simply move on as if his marriage hadn’t existed. “She was a big part of your life for thirty years.”
“Yes, she was. Still, I’m alive, and it’s time I started acting like it. I’ve grieved her for three years. It’s time to start living again.”
“Sometimes the thing we’re supposed to do seems impossible until we do it.
The fear of the unknown is usually worse than what comes to pass.
” She set aside her mug and glanced outside the window.
Night had fallen hours ago, but outside lights illuminated the long icicles that hung from the roof of the house.
She’d never seen icicles in real life, only in Hallmark movies. This was a trip of firsts.
She leaned against the counter on her elbows from the other side of the island from where he sat.
They chatted for a few minutes about the wedding.
She surprised herself by telling him how mortified she’d been to learn that Lisa was only going along with her wishes for the ceremony.
“Our little Pepper Shaker had to set us all straight.”
“Those girls know everything there is to know about one another,” he said.
She agreed with a nod of her head. “True.” Pepper had to force Lisa to admit she wanted a wedding in a snowy mountain town instead of Cliffside Bay. “I was embarrassed—suddenly I’d turned into one of those pushy mothers-in-law people talk about.”
“It all worked out for the best,” he said. “And Pepper and Stone fell in love.”
“You know about that?” she asked.
“Pepper told me the story today,” he said. “It’s darn romantic.”
Pepper and Stone had been snowed in for a few days in this very house. Just long enough to fall in love. Their wedding would be next.
“She told me this house has magical powers. People fall in love here.” Dominic raised his thick eyebrows. “Do you think it works for old people or just young ones?”
“I’m assuming only the young,” Rosa said.
“We have four days to find out.”
This was one bold man.
“I guess we do.” She smiled over at him and promised herself to wear the good lipstick for the rest of those four days.