Epilogue
One month later
Carmen turned the knob on the stove to low, giving the pot of sauce a quick stir before turning to study her granddaughter. She patted her cheek. “You’re pale. Are you sure you’re feeling up to doing this?” she asked Lila.
“Don’t worry about me, Nonna. I’m fine, and I think this is a great idea. Your followers are going to love it.”
“Our customers seem to, so I thought, why not invite our followers to join us for a family dinner at La Dolce Vita? Not all the time, just once in a while, on a special occasion.” She gestured out the restaurant’s front window at the line of people waiting to get inside.
“It’s been like this for the past two weeks.
Ever since we reinstated our family dinner tradition, the restaurant is packed on Sundays.
We’re booked solid for the next three months.
” She nodded at the window. “They’re hoping for a cancellation.
They’ve even taken to trying to bribe Bruno.
He was accosted at the farmers market yesterday.
” She shook her head, reaching up to untie her apron.
“They’re hoping for some good old-fashioned Rosetti family drama.” Lila grinned. “No pressure, but I think your followers are too, after your last Instagram Live. They’re still posting memes of Zia Gia and Zia Cami’s food fight.”
“They might just get some.”
“Oh no, don’t tell me Gia and Cami are fighting again. Mom will be so disappointed. She says it’s just like old times. The three of them have been having so much fun together.”
Carmen smiled, thinking about her daughters.
Her girls were acting like sisters again, and she couldn’t have been happier.
About them being close again, si; about what her Gia had been up to, not so much.
“Gia and me, we might have some drama.” She gestured at the camera in Lila’s hands.
“Don’t tell me when you start filming. We’ll let it unfold organically, naturally. ”
“I, uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Nonna. Instead of live, why don’t I film and edit and then post.”
“No, I want it happening in real time. Now I’m going to pretend you are just looking at yourself in your phone and not filming. You have a little chat with our followers and tell them what’s up.” She waved her hand. “Do it now.”
“All right, but I’m not taking the rap for this, Nonna. It’s all on you.”
“Si, si . ” She walked over to one of the tables in the corner and straightened the silverware, doing the same at several other tables before waving Lila over. The time for the reveal had come. She couldn’t put it off any longer. “Come, it’s time for Gia’s big surprise.” She rolled her eyes.
“Why are you acting like that, Nonna? Zia Gia has worked really hard on this.”
“I know, I know. But what, do they think when you turn seventy-four, you’re suddenly clueless, you don’t see and hear what’s going on around you?
Seventy is the new sixty.” She tapped her red-framed glasses.
“I also have twenty-twenty vision, but more than that, I know my Gia. I know her brushstrokes, the way she blends her colors… Her heart, it comes through her paintings.”
“Um, what are you saying, Nonna?”
“Her big surprise. Her big reveal. Bah. I knew she was this street painter, this J.R., from the very beginning.”
“Then why did you say all those things? Why did you threaten to have her… J.R. arrested for destruction of public property?”
“Because I wanted her to stop wasting her talent painting for free on the streets of Sunshine Bay!” She opened the door onto the deck, the gentle breeze off the ocean, the rhythmic slap of the waves on the shore doing nothing to ease her temper.
“God gave her a gift, and she’s squandering it giving it away for free. ”
“Another way to look at it, Nonna, is that she’s sharing God’s gift with everyone.”
“Bah, sneaking around in the middle of the night? Hiding in the shadows? She should be proud of her talent. She should own it, claim it. Show the world who she is, a beautiful, strong woman who has nothing to hide.”
“Nonna.” Lila reached for her arm. “I think we should practice how you’re going to act when Gia reveals her mural to you.” Lila circled her face with her finger. “Show me your surprised face? Nonna, that’s what Mom would call your constipated face.”
Carmen raised her hands palms out, widened her eyes, and let her mouth drop open.
“Uh, no, just no.” Lila tapped her finger on her lips. “Okay, pretend Bruno has come up behind you and surprised you.” She shuddered at Carmen’s impression of her surprise. “That’s a hard no.”
Carmen clutched her chest. “Madonna santa, I’m going to have a heart attack.”
“Nonna, what’s wrong? Should I get you a glass of water?”
“No! That was me acting surprised.”
“No, Nonna, that is what you do whenever you get news that you don’t like and want to guilt us into changing it. You’re a big faker.”
“Sometimes si, sometimes no.” She sighed. “Let’s go. I can hear them whispering, all excited.”
“Do not roll your eyes.”
“Okay.” She made a face.
“Don’t do that either.”
“You’re so bossy, just like your mother. But I made that face because I remembered you were filming live.” She nodded at the camera and whispered, “You were right. I don’t want my Gia to hear me talking about her like that. Can we delete it or something?”
“I love you, but you taught us to follow our gut, and my gut said do not, no matter what Nonna says, film her on Instagram Live.”
She patted her cheek. “My girls, you’ve all grown up so smart. I’m proud of you, of all of you.”
“That look right there. All you need to do is look at Zia Gia that way, and you’ll make her day.”
“Okay, I can do that.” She rubbed her chest as she walked down the stairs onto the beach, rehearsing what she’d say to her daughter.
She wouldn’t hurt Gia for the world, so she’d do like Lila said and keep her mouth shut and let her love for her daughter shine from her eyes.
Yes, she could manage that, she thought, taking the worn path to where her family stood waiting for her.
A huge black tarp covered the side of the restaurant. Flynn stood with Gia, his arms around her from behind, whispering in her ear, making her smile. Flynn could tell her daughter was nervous, and so could Carmen.
“Are you ready for your big surprise, Ma?” Eva, standing with her husband, James, nudged her head in Gia’s direction and mouthed, Say something .
“Si, si, that’s me, excited.” Madonna santa.
Cami was standing with Hugh—Gia and Eva had driven to New York City last weekend and had basically kidnapped the handsome director and the love of her daughter’s life.
This was the first Carmen had seen of the couple.
They’d spent the entire week getting reacquainted at the beach house, and Carmen had a good feeling that they would go the distance this time and her daughter would get the happily-ever-after she deserved.
Cami looked at Carmen with a crapola expression on her face and took a step in her direction.
Bruno patted Cami’s arm. “I’ve got this, bella.” He smiled at Carmen and took her hand in his, leaning in to whisper in her ear, “You don’t have to worry, amore mio dolce.” My sweet love. “I’ve got you.”
“You do.” She stroked his cheek. “I love you.”
“And you’ll really love me tonight.” He waggled his silver eyebrows at her. “Or I should say you’ll really love Officer Bruno. I’m picking up my uniform before we open, so let’s get this show on the road.”
Carmen laughed, and the tension left her body.
She turned her smiling eyes on Gia, who was laughing along with everyone else.
Bruno had made sure they’d heard him, even though she knew he had been embarrassed that the girls had discovered they enjoyed a little role-playing.
“You are a good, good man,” she said, and kissed his cheek.
“I am, otherwise you wouldn’t have finally agreed to set a wedding date.” He got a crapola look on his face, but hey, it served to delay her daughter’s big reveal a little longer, as everyone wanted details.
While they were distracted, Carmen tiptoed to the side of the restaurant and reached for the edge of the tarp.
A familiar voice said, “Uh-uh, no peeking.”
She turned to see Sage and Jake smiling at her. “You two, you don’t miss a thing, do you?”
“We don’t.” Sage lowered her voice. “Don’t be nervous, Nonna.”
“What if I don’t like it?” she whispered. “I don’t want to hurt your mother’s feelings.”
“Ms. Rosetti, trust me, you’re going to love it,” Jake said.
“I do trust you. You’re a good boy.” She glanced to where her daughters were huddled together, no doubt making plans for her wedding. “Now take the tarp down so I can see it without an audience, and you’ll be my favorite grandson-in-law.”
“Hey, I thought that was me.” Lila’s husband Luke approached with his twenty-month-old stepdaughter in his arms and a smile on his handsome face.
Carmen held out her arms. “Come to your bisnonna, bella.” She cuddled the little girl while sidling closer to the wall, whispering to the baby, “You pull on that for your bisnonna, si?” She wiggled her finger at the edge of the tarp.
“Si.” The baby nodded and yanked on the tarp, with a little help from her bisnonna, of course. “Me do!” The baby cheered.
Carmen didn’t hear her family’s responses. She stood speechless, staring at the beauty her daughter had created for her. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she took in each member of her family sitting at their table at the back of the restaurant below the words La Dolce Vita—The Sweet Life.
They were all there, her girls with their partners and their families, happy, laughing, and eating.
She pressed her fingers to her lips and looked around for Lila.
She was there just behind her—all her girls were, standing together, tears in their eyes and smiles on their beautiful faces, their partners standing behind them.
“A bambina,” Carmen said, pointing at Lila’s baby bump in the painting.
“Zia guessed it wasn’t the flu and asked if she could include the baby-to-be in the painting.”
“Bambina s ,” Eva corrected, doing a little shimmy shake. “We’re having twins!”
The news brought more tears and more laughter and teasing, and then Carmen saw it and gasped.
The family went quiet. The customers who’d joined them did too.
She walked to the mural and crouched, reaching out to draw the tip of her finger over her daughter’s signature: Gia Rosetti .
She nodded and stood, walking to Gia. She cupped her daughter’s face in her hands.
“You are a gift, and I thank God for you every day and for blessing you with a talent such as this.”
“You like it, Mama?”
She put an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “How can you ask? It’s like you painted my heart on the wall. It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
“Ma, you do know that God blessed your other two daughters too, don’t you?” Eva said, linking arms with Cami.
“Yeah, Ma. You’re not supposed to have favorites,” Cami said, her eyes shining with laughter.
“We need to find out if we’re having boys or girls, babe,” Luke was whispering to Lila, unaware in his obvious panic that everyone was listening to him.
“Because if we’re having two more girls, and they’re anything like those three together”—his face went slack—“or you and your cousins, I need time to prepare myself.”
Everyone broke up laughing, Luke’s cheeks becoming flushed as they teased him. Then Eva must have taken pity on him, and in that beautiful strong voice that God had gifted her with, she sang “Sweet Life” by Paul Davis, and Cami joined in.
Soon everyone was singing, everyone but Carmen, whose gaze moved over her family and friends. Her life had not always been easy—she’d faced financial hardships, betrayals, and tragedies—but through it all she’d had her family and friends to lean on. She’d been blessed with a sweet, sweet life.
“Come, we eat now!”