Chapter 23
I looked suspiciously across the restaurant table.
Martha was… different.
She blushed, restless in her chair under my scrutiny, and I knew how rude that was, but I couldn’t stop watching her, trying to guess what was going through her head.
She had invited me to lunch, and that was fine.
Her behavior in doing it in the fact that she had done it in the middle of the week was what wasn’t normal at all.
She had a new haircut, makeup on, and smelled wonderful. She had even put on heels.
Martha was a beautiful woman for her age, very vain and concerned about her health. She just seemed… more. I knew only one thing capable of leaving us like that.
“I’m curious about the invitation,” I said, smiling.
“Trust me, I’m surprised I made it.” I lifted an eyebrow. She gave a little laugh and corrected herself in a rush. “Oh, Dio Santo, that isn’t what I meant, bambina. You know this old woman here loves your company, but I don’t like pulling you away from work.”
“It’s no problem. I’m on my lunch break. I’m grateful for the invitation. With all the running around Thor and I have been doing, me with VCG and my studies, him with the company, it’s been hard to find time for us to spend together as a family.”
She smiled, nervous.
The waiter approached to take our orders.
“Bring another water. No, cancel the water and bring a bottle of Chianti.”
When we were alone again, I stared at her more suspiciously than ever.
“Aren’t we going to eat?”
“There are more people coming.”
“Oh! … Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
Martha suddenly turned shy, then spoke bluntly.
“I’m dating. Lorenzo… Yes, that Lorenzo.
” I smiled, moved to see her smile, so youthful, love painted across her glowing expression as she spoke, her voice dripping with romance.
It was cute. “We found each other again when I went for my checkup. Can you believe it? One thing led to another, and, well, we’re together.
It’s a long story, and I’ll tell you the details another time.
Heithor is coming too, and I need your help telling him,” she revealed, then laughed.
“I know how that sounds. Good heavens! I’m a grown woman and in charge of my own life. I shouldn’t fear my boy.”
Her uncertainty, despite her effort to sound calm, I understood.
I reached for her hand across the table and squeezed it.
“It’s all right, auntie. I’m happy for you.
Heithor and I have been talking about inviting you to come live with us when our house is ready.
We know how much you value your privacy, but we worry about you, and besides, we don’t want you to be alone.
Pietra is moving on with her life, and I believe that once she gets married, they’ll want to keep having their own space.
So you can imagine how happy it makes me to know you have someone.
And as for Heithor, well, I’m here… He may get upset at first, but he’ll accept it.
Heithor wants your happiness as much as he wants his own. ”
“It’s ridiculous that I’m nervous, isn’t it?”
I laughed a little.
“It isn’t ridiculous. We both know the son you have.”
The waiter returned, served us, and left the bottle on the table.
“And I don’t need his permission, right?”
I picked up my glass, exchanging a conspiratorial look with her.
“Let’s toast to that!”
I didn’t want to discourage her, but we both knew the truth. Heithor was possessive and very protective of his girls. Lorenzo had better have balls.
“Does Pietra know?”
“Yes.”
“And what did she say?”
“She was happy.” She paused, laughing. “And she gave me back the advice I gave her when she and Nathan started getting involved. ‘Your boyfriend, not mine.’”
I choked, laughing.
“How cheeky!”
“Yes. I was blessed with unusual children.”
After Nathan asked Pietra to marry him, she decided to come back and finish her studies here. They were still living with Martha, but soon she would be married.
“Isn’t it strange that my ex-fiancé is now my boyfriend?”
“Surprising. Not strange… Relax, auntie. If you’re this nervous announcing a relationship, imagine when you get married?” I was teasing to loosen her up.
Martha drank more wine.
“Let’s not put the cart before the horse.”
“I can’t believe you found each other again after all this time, and I bet that, somehow, one of you was waiting for the other so you could make it official now that you’re free to do it. Well, at least, I hope he is.”
“Lorenzo is a widower,” she revealed.
“Did he have children?”
Her cheeks flushed. She seemed slightly flattered… and guilty.
“No.” And she added, embarrassed, “He said it didn’t feel right to have children with another woman. That he would only have had them if it had been with me.”
“It isn’t wrong to feel happy about that, auntie. Dio knows I would die of happiness and love if it were me. Children are a blessing. But I can’t stand the idea of Heithor having a child with another woman. I’m very territorial with his boys.”
“Grazie, bambina.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“I would have made lunch at home to introduce him and, well… I thought a neutral place would be better. I asked Lorenzo to come fifteen minutes early.”
“Did you tell him about Heithor?”
“Sì.”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to reinforce it,” I joked.
This is where fate laughs in our face.
Martha’s smile stretched when a man who seemed to be in his early fifties, but very fit, gray-haired and with a full head of hair, came in…
… Dying when Heithor appeared right behind him.
The tension that had dissipated in our brief conversation returned twice as heavy.
Well, well, well… Here we go.
Heithor had the gaze of a hawk, inspecting every corner of the restaurant. He looked extremely relaxed and at ease, but I clearly saw the slightest narrowing of his eyes when Lorenzo walked straight to Martha and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
My husband greeted me with a quick kiss and pinned Martha with his stare.
“My daughter-in-law, Antonella Castellammare,” she said, very calm, gesturing to me, then to Thor. “Heithor Castellammare. Lorenzo Conte.”
The handshake was tense before we sat.
The waiter reappeared to take our orders and then left.
“And you would be?”
Martha answered with a confidence she hadn’t shown before and surprised me greatly, as much as it pleased me.
“My boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend,” Thor murmured, as if testing the word on his tongue, in a frighteningly calm way. “And when did this happen?”
“For a month now, I’ve been happier than I have been in years,” Lorenzo answered, with an absolutely lovestruck look as he gazed at his girl.
Martha melted. So did I.
Thor only looked as if he was having a very difficult moment, but he kept silent. Which was even more worrying, still, I forced myself to distract him.
If Lorenzo was nervous, he wasn’t showing it. He seemed to be handling Thor’s scrutiny very well while Martha gave a summary of their story.
“So you went to check if your heart was all right, and it got stolen, huh?”
“It was always Lorenzo’s.”
Her smile started shy and reached her eyes. She looked from me to Lorenzo, then to Heithor, where her smile withered until it disappeared. She cleared her throat.
The food arrived, and with it, some of the tension left us.
Thor, however, was absorbed. A silent stone. At least, that was what he showed. But I knew very well he was attentive to every movement of the couple.
Martha had always been very discreet about her personal life.
It was so good to see her happy. Not that she had been unhappy before. But love has a magical power over people, filling them with a good, contagious energy.
“… Heithor and Ella are building a house there,” Martha was saying when Lorenzo mentioned that he had bought a plot of land in the community where we would live.
“I have guns, too,” Thor broke his silence.
I choked, receiving mechanical pats from him, then smiled awkwardly at Lorenzo while Martha went pale. Heithor was studying the enemy.
“What Thor means is that he has a security company in partnership with Nathan. Nathan Evans is Pietra’s fiancé, our brother-in-law,” I said, squeezing his thigh under the table in warning.
“And we both have excellent aim,” he claimed, bored, drinking from his glass.
“Sì, caro mio. We understand that already,” Martha said in a hard tone. “And there will be no need to use it with Lorenzo. I can handle him better than you can.”
Heithor and she had a stare-down going on.
I smiled awkwardly at Lorenzo, and he returned the gesture. Well, this wasn’t going to get any better. I checked the watch on my wrist, giving my excuse a foundation.
“Well, I think it’s time for us to go. I’m very sorry. My lunch break is over, and I believe Heithor’s is too. We need to go.”
The goodbyes were strange, especially when Lorenzo announced that lunch was on him and, even so, Thor left bills on the table.
In the car, he turned to me, his expression very serious.
“Did you know she was… dating?”
“I found out shortly before you arrived.”
Thor nodded stiffly, then turned to the wheel and started the car. I touched his arm and eased into it, not wanting to be too direct in my reprimand.
“She deserves to be happy too, love.”
“I didn’t say otherwise, Ella. It’s just that…” He went silent.
“I know. Mommies and daddies date too.”
“That isn’t fucking funny,” he growled. “I don’t even know who he is.”
“She does.”
His jaw tightened, but he said nothing.
I let him have his moment of immaturity until he stopped in front of VCG.
“Pietra will already be back on Saturday, and I’m going to make dinner at our apartment, so we’ll get the whole family together. Including Lorenzo.”
“I’ll be busy.”
“Make time.”
He huffed.
“You should be happy for her.”
“I am,” he defended. “She’s my mother.”