Chapter Sixteen
“Nonna!” Franny’s voice woke Mari from a dead sleep.
It took a moment for her brain to register that she was no longer swaying on a ship. Her bedroom came slowly into focus.
Her return home was met with hugs, kisses . . . a good meal and an early bedtime. Because Luca was busy in the kitchen and Brooke had put Leo down by the time Mari was back in her apartments, the family reunion would have to wait.
“Nonna?”
“In here, tesoro,” Mari called out.
Franny bounced through the bedroom door, stopped when she saw that Mari wasn’t out of bed. “Are you sick?”
Mari sat up and patted the space beside her. “They call it jet lag.” And since she’d woken up at two in the morning to toss and turn until she could fall back to sleep, it wasn’t a surprise the clock was glowing a time of eight a.m.
Franny crawled up onto the bed. “Mama said not to bug you, but I knew you’d be awake.”
Brooke was right, but Mari wasn’t about to correct Franny.
Mari yawned and tried to blink the sleep from her eyes. “Did I miss anything while I was away?”
Franny chewed on the question for a minute, then opened the floodgates. “You know my friend Leah from school?”
Mari only knew the name, not the girl. “Yes.”
“She cheated on her math test, and Mrs. Rosen caught her. She was sent to the office and her parents were called. They sent her home early. Which I don’t get. Don’t you think if you get in trouble cheating, you should spend more time in school and not less?”
Mari didn’t have the chance to answer.
“Leah said she went home and watched TV the rest of the day. Her mom was mad cuz she had to leave work. And Leah had to take the test again, only with Mrs. Rosen standing over her the whole time. And now she has to sit in the front of the class, and Mrs. Rosen takes her phone away from her every day.”
“None of you need a cell phone at school,” Mari said.
“Yes we do. Sometimes the tablets don’t work right, and the teachers let us look things up on our phones.”
“But Leah can’t do that.”
“Which sucks.”
Mari lifted a brow. “Excuse me.”
“Well, it does.”
“Leah made that bed by trying to shortcut her education by cheating. I hope you can learn a lesson from your friend and never try and do that yourself.”
Franny rolled her eyes. “Math is easy. Mrs. Rosen thinks I will be able to get into an algebra class when I go to middle school next year. Most kids don’t do that until their second year.”
Mari brushed a finger over Franny’s cheek. “I’m proud of you.”
Her grandbaby wasn’t really a baby anymore. Before long she’d be a teenager and her worries would be about which boy would be asking her to a dance.
Mari instantly thought of James and his girls. She wondered if Trevor had asked Ellie to prom. And if he did, how James handled it.
“Franny?”
Brooke’s voice called from Mari’s living room.
“In here.”
“You didn’t wake up your nonna, did you?” Brooke asked the question as her voice drew closer.
“No.”
Mari chuckled and pushed the blankets away to get out of bed.
Brooke looked beyond the open bedroom door. “Franny! I’m sorry, Mari. I told her not to come in if she didn’t hear you moving around.”
Mari stood and grabbed her bathrobe that sat on the chair beside her bed. “You never have to worry about bothering me. Pretty soon Franny won’t want to share her morning with me.”
“Still . . .”
“Nonsense. Where is my grandson?”
“Luca is in charge this morning. I’m taking this one to school. And we’re going to be late, so go grab your backpack and your lunch from the fridge.”
“Yes, Mama.”
Mari smiled as Franny left the room. Hearing her granddaughter refer to Brooke as her mama was always a blessing. Luca’s first wife, and Franny’s biological mother, was not a part of Franny’s life. And for the brief amount of time she was, all she did was cause chaos and pain.
Brooke was the blessing Mari truly thought Paulo helped with from wherever he was now. She showed up at the perfect moment in her oldest son’s life and never left.
“You look like you got some sun,” Brooke told her.
“Hard not to when it’s hot and you’re surrounded by the ocean.”
She stumbled into the kitchen and headed straight to the coffee maker.
“Did you meet anyone new?”
The image of James swam in her head. “We met a lot of people and had a great time. I didn’t realize how much I needed a change from my routine.”
“Do you think you’ll do it again?”
“Maybe.”
Franny’s footsteps came in fast. “Ready.”
Brooke headed to the door, then stopped. “I have an online conference call today at one. If Luca can’t get away, can you—”
“Yes. And stop asking. You know the answer is yes. I haven’t seen my grandson in ten days. You’re going to have to pry him away from me.”
Brooke smiled. “Thanks, Mari.”
“Now go. And don’t get any ideas from that friend Leah.”
“I won’t,” Franny said. “Bye.”
“See you after school.”
And just like that, they were gone.
Mari dropped her head to her chest. She could really use another hour of sleep.
One glance at the coffeepot, and Mari diverted to her bathroom to wake up in the shower.
James didn’t bother trying to go back to sleep when his eyes popped open at four thirty in the morning.
He took advantage of the fact that his girls were at their mother’s until after school. He caught up on the local news on his phone, drank a half a pot of coffee, and headed to the office.
Sitting behind his desk before any of his employees arrived gave him the quiet he needed to catch up on his emails.
Emails he intended to take care of while he was on his vacation.
But then Mari came along.
A very welcome distraction.
He’d thought twice about texting her when he’d first gotten out of bed. But he wasn’t sure if she kept her notifications off on her phone when she slept and didn’t want to wake her.
Even though there was only a three-hour time difference from where they’d been on the ship, those three hours often messed with your sleep for a couple of days.
He fully expected his body to crash early.
But for now, it was coffee and willpower.
At a quarter to eight, he heard AJ outside his office door.
“You’re back?”
“I’m pretty sure I put that on the calendar.”
“I thought for sure you’d wait until midday.”
“I didn’t do nearly enough while I was away to sleep in.”
AJ walked completely into the office. “Vacations are known to do that.”
James nodded his agreement. “Anything happen?”
AJ took a seat across from him.
“The Mission Valley project caught a snag. Our guys were down for three days, but everything is back up and running now.”
“What happened?”
“A hydraulic line sprung a leak.”
“Oh shit.”
“Ken caught it. Took a few days to get it replaced.”
“It couldn’t be overnighted?” James asked.
“That was overnight.”
They were having problems with their parts vendor, and this just added to them. “That’s unacceptable.”
James spent the morning chasing issues and filled the afternoon with on-site meetings.
He left the office at eleven thirty and seriously considered stopping by Little Italy before his Mission Valley meeting. Even though Little Italy was beyond the Mission Valley project.
Instead, he settled for a phone call.
In his car, James set off and dialed Mari’s number.
She answered on the second ring. “Hi.”
“Good morning.” Hearing her voice put a smile on his face.
“Almost noon,” she corrected him.
“How did you sleep?”
“I woke up in the middle of the night, fell back asleep, and found my granddaughter at my door, calling my name.”
“Ahh, she missed you.”
Mari sighed. “She did. It’s good to be home.”
“Nothing like your own bed.”
There was noise in the background James couldn’t identify. “Where are you?”
“In my office.”
“Is someone yelling?” He thought for sure he heard a man hollering.
“One of the chefs,” she said like it was a daily occurrence.
“Is there a problem?”
Mari paused.
The yelling grew. Not that he understood what was being said. Whoever was making the noise was speaking Italian.
“He’s unhappy with the tomatoes.”
James couldn’t help but laugh. “Tomatoes?”
“It’s a restaurant. Our sauce is fresh. If the tomatoes are bad, the food is bad.”
“Can your customers hear that?”
Mari laughed. “Most of the time. If it’s too much, Luca or I will calm things down. Otherwise, it adds to the experience. Chefs yelling to perfect their meals only benefits the customer.”
James pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road. “I’ll try and remember that.”
The sound of something hard hitting the phone, or perhaps the phone hitting something hard, stopped their conversation.
“Mari?”
She didn’t respond. He did hear her voice but only fragments of her conversation.
James recognized the name Luca from whoever was talking. Then something about basil. After that, whoever was talking switched to Italian, and he didn’t catch a thing.
Mari fired off something fast before the sound over the call became clear.
“I have to call you back,” she told him.
“No hurry. I have meetings all afternoon. I’ll call you tonight.”
“You don’t . . . Okay,” she stuttered.
She hung up before he could say goodbye.
He imagined her marching into the kitchen, her small frame getting into the space of a chef twice her size, and her reminding him who was boss.
James could hardly wait to see that in person.
“You didn’t meet anyone?”
“There were thousands of people on the ship. I met plenty of people.”
Ellie looked down her nose at him. “Weak, Dad.”
“Sooo basic,” Madison added.
“What did you expect? That I eloped and brought you home a step-mommy?”
“Ewhhh, cringe.”
James laughed at his daughters. “Getting out was a start, okay. I probably should have done it sooner.”
“You think?” Ellie’s sarcasm screamed at him. “I mean, you’re getting old.”
“Ouch.”
“Are you going to book another cruise?” Madison asked.
“I haven’t even unpacked from this one. No.”
“What about a dating app? They have them for seniors.”