Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
S o what if he’d basically ordered her to move in with him? Or if it was too soon, and too emotionally volatile a decision to make following her outburst yesterday. After a restless night thinking about it, she decided she didn’t care about any of that, because the thought of being able to leave the noisy, crowded, wedding obsessed house she was currently residing in was too tempting to walk away from. Or so she was telling herself. And that was why, the morning after Joel had demanded she move in with him, her suitcase was packed and ready to go.
As she zipped her luggage closed, a high-pitched laugh—that sounded something like a hyena riding a firetruck—echoed down the hallway. She would have been able to pick out that laugh if she were standing in the middle of Milan train station. Abandoning her bag in her aunt’s guest room, she bolted to the kitchen where the joyous sound was coming from.
“Nat!” Lucy greeted her cousin, who launched herself into Lucy’s open arms. “Thank God you’re here! The mothers have been driving me crazy. ”
“I heard that!” Maria shouted from the other room.
Natalie giggled as she took a seat at the kitchen island. “She was just in here showing me the napkins she’s picked out for the engagement party. They’re so hideous it’s hilarious. Now she’s gone to pout because I said she’d embarrass the family if she put those out at your party. Sorry not sorry.”
“Well, thank you for saving me from a napkin disaster.” Lucy pulled out a plate of espresso bean biscotti and set it on the island. She glanced at the kitchen clock, which read 11 a.m. “It’s a bit early for you, isn’t it?”
“I know, right?” Natalie snagged a biscotti and took a bite. “It’s ridiculous that any human should be up this early, but I have a client who needed an emergency blow out for a blind brunch date, so I had to go into the salon earlier than usual.”
Natalie had the Barone entrepreneurship spirit. Just over a year ago, at the tender age of twenty-five, she’d opened her own salon. One of the many reasons Lucy admired her cousin so much.
“Wow, it is so quiet in here without Mar around, I can hear myself chew. We should have married her off years ago.”
Lucy laughed out loud at Natalie’s quip. Of the cousins, Mariana and Natalie were the closest, not only because they were the same age, but because Mariana had been an only child and Natalie the youngest of three, so Natalie had spent more time in Zia Ella’s house than at her own. It had worked out well, and their similar boisterous personalities and complimentary looks had everyone in the family calling them The Twins.
“Do you miss her?” Lucy asked, filling the kettle in the sink .
“Not as much as I used to.” Natalie shrugged. “I’m kind of used to her not being around as much since she got busier with Jeff. I mostly notice it when I’m here and she’s not. It will be weird visiting her at the mansion. I can’t believe she waited to move in with him until after they were married. I mean, who does that?”
Lucy grinned. The thing about growing up with only girl cousins in a close-knit family was that she often felt like she had five sisters instead of one. And she’d loved every second of that. “How long is Mariana honeymooning?”
Natalie snorted. “I dunno, forever? Jeff’s family has gazillions. She’s going to live the perma-vacation.”
Lucy couldn’t imagine living the trophy wife’s life, not having to lift a finger for anything she got, not working. If boredom didn’t kill her, a sense of worthlessness would.
“Speaking of gazillionaire,” Natalie said around another bite of cookie. “I didn’t think it got richer than Jeff’s family, but then you come in with the Morgan bomb, and I was like ‘mic drop! Someone in the family snagged a Forbes billionaire!’ I love you, Lu, but I never would have guessed it would be you.”
The kettle whistled, so Lucy took it off the burner and poured the hot water into the French press. “Don’t be ridiculous. The Morgans do well, but not Forbes well. Besides, that’s not why I married Joel.” Oops. Shit, she was going to have to get better at this, and fast. Luckily, Natalie didn’t seem to notice her slip up, as she was laser focused on thumbing through her phone.
Lucy brought the coffee pot and two cups to the island where Natalie sat. “Also, I’m insulted. Why wouldn’t I be able to snag a Forbes billionaire? Rude.”
“No offense, but you don’t get out enough to meet the upper echelon,” her cousin muttered as she focused on her phone. “Vanessa? Maybe. But you—see here!” Natalie thrust her device into Lucy’s hand. “Joel Morgan is on the list. Told you so,” she said smugly and proceeded to pour them both a coffee. “Honestly, Lu. How could you not know your fiancé was richer than God?”
“Everyone is richer than God. He’s a deity, not a businessman,” Lucy mumbled as she stared at the screen, and Joel’s handsome face staring back at her. Holy shit. When did this happen? She always knew Joel was wealthy. Morgan Construction built and owned half of San Francisco. But Forbes wealthy…there was no way anyone made it that big building apartment towers. Jesus. What had she missed?
“Well, some might argue.” Natalie stirred sugar into her coffee. “Anyway, see, you don’t get out enough to know your fiancé is a billionaire. I swear, if I hadn’t seen the lovesick look in his eyes, I would have bet my salon that the two of you were making the whole thing up.”
Lucy nearly choked on a sliver of guilt. Setting the phone on the marble countertop, she said, “He didn’t have a lovesick look.”
“Please, he looked so pathetic, I thought Zia Ella was going to adopt him and put a collar on him. Which she still might, you know? She and your mom have gone nuts this week. With those two behind the wheel, it’s going to be the biggest wedding ever planned in less than six weeks.”
“Yes, and I’ve been here living every high-strung moment of it.” Not for much longer, though. She’d find some reprieve from the chaos at Joel’s apartment, at least.
“So I hear your engagement party is going to be at Bowie’s?”
“What?”
“Yeah, Ivy and Hope arranged it with the Zias. ”
Too much information was coming at her at once. “How do you know Ivy?”
Natalie raised her eyebrow. “Have you seen that girl’s bangs? Perfection like that only comes when you book with me every four weeks.”
Her face must have been giving away her shock because Natalie laughed. “It’s all in the family, cuz! Portland is an incestuous little place. Everyone knows everyone. Sometimes I swear I’m living in small town America. But hey, look, this is a good thing, right? Everyone is happy for you.”
“Natalie! You’re making a mess,” Maria scolded as she came into the kitchen. “There are enough crumbs on the table to make another biscotti.” She walked straight over to Lucy and kissed her cheek. “Where have you been, patatina ? I haven’t seen you all morning?” She shoved a package of napkins under Lucy’s nose before she could answer. “These are pretty, right? They’ll look so nice on a white tablecloth.”
Lucy stared at the package of napkins. They were floral, which wouldn’t have been bad, but the roses on the napkin were an orangey red, and not the sunset-colored kind of orange red, but more of a rusted metal kind. The green stems were a vomit green. “Um.”
“They’re hideous, Zia. I told you already.”
“Quiet,” Maria grumbled at Natalie in Italian. “You are so negative all the time. Be happy for your cousin.”
Natalie threw her hands in the air. “I am happy for her! I’m trying to save her from barf-colored napkins on one of the most important days of her life.”
“What time are you leaving to move in with your fiancé?” Zia Ella asked, coming into the kitchen carrying a stack of fabric.
“Say what?” Natalie’s head swiveled toward Lucy. “You’re moving in with Forbes? ”
“Who’s Forbes?” Maria asked.
“Nobody,” Lucy said to her mother before turning to her cousin. “It’s only until I go home to San Francisco.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon to live together?” Her mother asked, as if she hadn’t been the one championing for a rushed wedding since she’d found out about the engagement.
“Mom, it’s just while I’m in Portland. I’m heading back to San Francisco as soon as the engagement party is over,” Lucy reminded her mother. And herself.
“Maybe you should stay here. It might look better. You know, appearances—” Maria said.
“Zia, look on the bright side, you can use the spare room Lu has been sleeping in as the sewing room now, to—” Natalie fluttered her hand to the fabric on the counter. “To make handmade napkins. We can let people take them home as party favors.” She turned back to Lucy. “I think it’s perfect. You can get out of this zoo and don’t have to hold back while he’s drilling you.” She wagged her eyebrows suggestively.
Lucy gasped, horrified, checking to make sure no one over the age of thirty had heard her raunchy cousin. To her relief, Maria and Ella were fussing over fabric swatches, deep in their own conversation.
“Nobody is going to be drilling anybody,” Lucy hissed to her cousin, who responded with a snorting laugh.
“Why? Because you’re not officially married yet?” Natalie raised an eyebrow. “Come on, Lu, we’re all cafeteria Catholics around here, you know that. Take what you want, leave what you don’t want.” Her hands flapped as she spoke. “You can screw the billionaire against the wall tonight, but you’ll still be married in the Cathedral in your virgin white.” She shrugged extravagantly. “It is what it is. Embrace it. ”
It was official. Her family was insufferable.
As if to prove the point, her mother glanced up at her from a rose-colored swatch. “Oh, and patatina , you should change. You look like you can’t afford real clothes.”
Lucy glanced down at her high-rise jeans and off the shoulder Tragically Hip t-shirt.
“He’s invited you to stay in his home. He didn’t have to. The least you can do is look nice. And don’t forget to bring him the gnocchi that I made yesterday. He likes my gnocchi. There is Tupperware in the refrigerator. Take the big one.” Gathering the fabric and vomit-colored, store-bought napkins, her mother and aunt made their way into the living room. “We’ll make napkins out of the rose-colored fabric, so find a dress to match.”
Lucy stared after the matriarchs, then at her cousin, who wore a crumb-dusted smirk and said, “You’re welcome.”