Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Gianna
My mother taught me how to make the best Sunday gravy anybody has ever eaten.
She also taught me that men process emotions differently than we do.
I mean differently than women do. She used to say she subscribed to the philosophy that women should be June Cleaver in the house, Julia Child in the kitchen, and Xaviera Hollander in the bedroom.
Okay, June Cleaver was the mom in that old show Leave It to Beaver. I looked it up after Mom told me. The house was clean, the kids were clean, and things were organized. That sort of thing. I watched a couple of episodes. I think it’s a funny, sweet show.
Everyone knows Julia Child. She pretty much created the whole foodie thing. She shared cooking techniques and… Okay, you know. The point is that the second thing my mother said a woman needs to be is a great cook. I don’t know why she didn’t pick a famous Italian cook.
Anyway, my cheek feels like he’s still kissing it.
Oh wait. Xaviera Hollander. I looked her up, too. She was a very famous prostitute. So, my mom is telling me I can keep a man happy by keeping house well, cooking well, and making love well.
Okay. Now back to the situation at hand. My cheek feels like he’s still kissing it.
I know I’m a rotten person for just lying there and pretending to still be asleep. In my defense, I was having a hard time speaking because of the smoke inhalation… uh, like five hours ago. Yeah, that’s not a defense.
The bottom line is he starts talking, and I’m afraid he’ll switch to platitudes if he knows I’m awake.
You know what I mean, right? He can tell me anything when he isn’t worried about my reaction.
You know what I mean, right? Wow. Two times with the you know what I mean, right?
Question. I can’t help it. I feel guilty about how I pretended to be asleep.
So, I guess I’m doing my best to justify myself.
Anyway, back to the fun stuff. My cheek feels like he’s still kissing it.
He’s been gone for probably fifteen minutes but I swear the feeling of his lips on my cheek just lingers there.
I’ll be a very, very happy girl if it lingers there forever.
I concentrate on the feeling. I suppose I think if I concentrate on how it feels, then I won’t stop feeling it.
But I stop feeling it because I open my eyes and it’s six or seven in the morning and a nurse is busy checking my oxygen levels while an intern listens to my chest with her stethoscope.
I have to sit up and breathe in and out and do a test where I blow into a tube about the size and shape of an empty toilet paper roll.
There's a gauge that runs along it. They like the results and make me do it three more times before announcing I have no permanent damage to my lungs.
They tell me they’ll check me out around lunchtime if I promise to do a follow-up visit with my doctor, and I make the promise.
Soon, I’ve got the back of the bed elevated so it’s almost like a chair, and I’m watching the morning show.
I haven’t watched the morning show in a long time.
I want to enjoy it, but there’s nothing that interests me and I want to get out of the hospital.
The good news is I have a good rapport with the intern and when she’s walking by, I call her and convince her to check me out earlier. I get into a rideshare at ten to ten in the morning and get a ride to the house. The moment I arrive, I want to kill my brother. Metaphorically, I mean.
Well, I mostly mean that metaphorically.
The house is still livable. Two rooms and one bath will have to be rebuilt.
That’s okay. Mom and Pop have a room in the other wing, and Kyle’s room is in that wing, too.
He’s in the room that used to be mine. These two rooms were my mom’s sewing room and Pop’s office.
Damn it all, I’m going to have to manage the insurance and everything.
Mom and Pop won’t follow up too efficiently if it’s just for their benefit.
I walk in and glance around to see if Kyle is loafing around somewhere. I mean, of course, he didn’t run right to the door and greet me with some big, relieved smile and an even bigger I’m sorry, but it doesn’t hurt to hope, does it?
It does hurt. It hurts a lot how he just constantly needs attention and then disappears once he gets what he needs. It also hurts in the realest sense right now because I’m still a bit banged up from yesterday.
I head for the kitchen. No sign of Kyle there, either. If he’s been around there will be cereal bowls stacked to high heaven in the sink, and empty peanut butter jars. He’s a fiend for peanut butter. The only good thing he’s a fiend for.
I reprimand myself for that thought, and walk down the hall to my, um, his room. I knock. “Kyle?” I wait a beat. He rarely answers. “I’m coming in, Kyle.”
I open the door and see the bed hasn’t been slept in and nothing has been touched.
I hear the front door open and close and hurry back to the front room.
My mom sees me and starts to instantly fuss. “Gia! Dio mio! Honey!”
She rushes over and hugs me. Then, she starts the assault.
“Honey, you come in the kitchen and sit. You need to eat. I’ll make you a nice breakfast. I just brought home some wonderful cornetti, fresh, from that little bakery you love. And you stay for dinner, okay, oh Gia!”
She comes back and hugs me again and then starts dragging me to the kitchen.
“Mom. Mom,” I pull back. “Mom!” I can’t like and tell you cornetto vuoto with pistachio cream doesn’t sound like the best possible thing on Earth but I can’t eat right now. I’m too charged up. She looks at me, worry in her eyes. “Mom, I’m fine. I’m more worried about the house and you and Pop.”
“We didn’t know anything until we came home from the store, honey, I’m sorry. We came by to visit but they chased us away.”
“Mom, just, just stop, okay? I’m fine. It’ll be fine. I can’t stay. I have to get ready for work.”
“Work?”
“Yes, work. I just was wondering if you’ve seen Kyle.”
Her face hides nothing as she answers me. “No, I haven’t seen him. Was he here? Gia? Was he here last night?”
I hug her and kiss her cheek. “No worries, Ma. I’ll ...”
A knock on the door interrupts us. I go to answer. It’s the workers who are going to be putting up a temporary wall around the damaged portion of the house. I called them from the hospital. I quickly sign some papers and give them our insurance information.
And now my energy is beginning to flag. “Mom, I’m going to head home and get ready for work. If you or Pop need anything, let me know, okay? I know you guys can handle things, but I’m here if you need me.
She smiles. “Gia, you are always our little protector. Go, we’re fine, but you better take care of yourself or I’ll ...”
“Okay, bye Ma, love you.”
I slip out the door before the conversation can get longer. My mind instantly turns back to Kyle.
I get home and take a shower, taking long enough to soothe the sore places before getting out and dressing. I try to focus on the day, but I just can’t get the coincidence of Kyle appearing and the fire happening all on the same night.
Something is going on, and Kyle is hiding because of it.
I head to the store and Ham is the first one to see me walk in. “Gia! What the hell? You shouldn’t be here.”
“Don’t start, Ham. I already got an earful from my mother. I don’t want to talk about anything but work, you hear?”
“No. You need to hear it!”
“Yeah, well, I’m going to inherit this company, Ham. You want to be on the new owner's bad side?”
“I’m too important to you to get on your bad side,” he says.
“Seriously, though. Please, Ham. Just let me be.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He walks back to the front, giving me a last worried look before dealing with a customer.
I head back to my office and shut the door behind me.
I start to go over inventory and truck arrivals and order sheets, but my mind just won’t stop seeing Kyle stop and turn around at the door of the house.
I think about how he yelled for me to not go in.
Did he look guilty? Could he have set the fire for insurance money?
God, no. Mom and Pop would get the money. He wouldn’t get a dime. Then, why? What was going on with him? I go round and round with no answers.
Then, I start thinking of the circles Kyle runs around in and my mind starts going down a different path. He’s owed people before, bad people. My mom and pop have paid a few off, only to have Kyle fuck things up again.
Was the fire set by someone going after my brother? Does he know?
I decide I need a distraction. I think of Colton and, on a whim, I call the fire station.
I get a young guy by the name of Wyatt, so I ask for Colton. He tells me Colton is on a call. So, I go for the next best thing. “Hey, I know he’s on Vantage St. I’m his friend from college and I want to surprise him while I’m in town. Could you give me the house number?”
I make myself all cutesy and Wyatt gives in.
I spin quite a story that I hope doesn’t get back to Colton, but I have the information I wanted.
And by the way, I’m no creep. I just know his street from the conversations we’ve had in the store.
We’ve talked about our neighbors and the best shopping and stuff and it just came up.
Anyway, I decided to leave work a bit early. Ham looks relieved. “You get some rest, okay, Boss? I’ve got things covered.”
“Thanks again, Ham.” I give him a wink, “and you’re right. You’d have to work a hell of a lot harder than that to get on my bad side.”
I head out and for the first time that day, my mind isn’t filled with thoughts of Kyle. I pull up to Colton’s house twenty minutes later. I breathe deep and then, I walk up to his door and knock.
My thoughts are not on Kyle right now.