Chapter Twenty-Two
Mari stood under the weight of her friend’s and employee’s surprised stare.
Sergio, their bartender and friend that went back two decades, could catch a fly in his gaping mouth.
Salena raised an eyebrow and smirked.
Mari wiped her hands on the towel she’d taken from the kitchen and set it down. “Tell Luca to take over. The girls and I need to become acquainted. Without interruption. I’ll talk to my son later.”
The twins were rigid, scared stiff.
Mari didn’t have to guess if their father knew where they were, any more than she had to guess that Mari’s entire family would know what had just been revealed within minutes.
She walked around the bar and motioned for the girls to follow her. “Let’s take a walk.”
Privacy was not going to happen on the patio of her restaurant. Instead, Mari led them out on the main street, past the other establishments, until they emptied into the piazza.
The lights strung between the buildings illuminated the space that was filled with tables and chairs. Weeknights that weren’t in peak season meant they weren’t at risk of being overheard.
Mari pulled out a chair. “Sit. Please.”
Like puppets, the twins did as they were told.
The girls kept looking between each other.
“You have questions,” Mari said.
Ellie was the one that nodded.
“Ask them.”
Poor girl, her hands were shaking.
Mari tried to put her at ease. “As long as they are appropriate, I will answer them honestly.” There was no reason to lie now.
“Are you married?”
That, Mari wasn’t expecting.
The girls tracked her down thinking she was married? That she and James were, what . . . having an affair?
Mari leaned forward and placed a hand between them on the table. “No, sweetheart. My husband passed away ten years ago.”
They both physically relaxed, if only for a second.
“You thought your father was having an affair?”
“He was keeping secrets,” Ellie said as if that was proof of an extramarital affair.
“Does James know you’re here?”
They both shook their heads.
“Then he isn’t the only one keeping secrets,” Mari chided.
Madison finally spoke. “We didn’t want to say anything to him until we knew for sure.”
“I commend that. Getting the facts straight is always the best approach.” Mari paused. “Is that why you came here? To learn if I was married?”
They nodded in unison.
“I can see by the looks on your faces you still have questions.”
Ellie was the bold one of the two. Something Mari realized by how James described her. “Why are you guys keeping it a secret?”
“Your father did that for me. I loved my late husband. I didn’t think I would ever want to date again. Then your charming father snuck into my life.” Mari placed a hand to her chest. “I wanted to make sure this wasn’t some passing attraction.”
“But you’re taking dance classes together.”
Mari tilted her head to the side. “I’ll ask you how you know that in a second. But those classes are where your father and I have realized we’d like to be open about our relationship. He planned on telling you about us after the weekend.”
“Oh,” Madison said.
Ellie hung her head and sighed. “We shouldn’t have come,” she said just above a whisper.
Mari didn’t agree or disagree . . . verbally.
“If you don’t trust your father enough to ask him directly about me, maybe there is something I don’t know about his character.” The statement was meant to bait them. And it worked.
“Dad’s great!” Madison said quickly.
“Everyone trusts him.”
“Most dads and moms, when they’re divorced, fight. Dad hangs out with Mom and Clayton all the time,” Madison rattled on.
“We can talk to Dad about everything.” Ellie stopped herself. “Almost everything.”
Mari hid her smile.
“He doesn’t have girlfriends. I mean, he hasn’t dated anyone in a long time.”
Ellie scooted forward in her chair. “Yeah, he’s not a man-whore.”
Mari clicked her tongue. “Young lady!”
“Sorry. I mean, f-boy or—”
“I know what you mean,” Mari said. Sadly, she’d heard all the terms raising her own kids.
“He’s not that guy. Did he tell you he owns his own business?”
“But he isn’t married to it. He always has time for us.”
The twins tripped over each other as they went on and on.
Mari let the girls boast on their father’s behalf, selling him as boyfriend material.
By the time they exhausted their lists of attributes, Mari learned that James had more patience than their mother when they were learning how to drive.
He loved animals, even though they didn’t have any.
He couldn’t cook, but they never went hungry.
He went to all Ellie’s games, and all the science fairs.
He liked to give gifts. And finally, he liked to dance, even though it embarrassed the both of them.
The girls were just as charming as their father.
One of Mari’s neighbors walked past and hesitated. “Mari, buonasera. How are you?”
“Va bene. You?”
“Good, good.” Her neighbor glanced at the girls, who Mari had no intention of introducing at that moment. “I won’t interrupt. Let’s have coffee soon. I want to hear about your trip.”
Mari smiled. “I’ll call.”
“Ciao.”
Mari turned back to the girls.
“You speak Italian?” Madison asked.
“I do.”
“That’s sick,” Ellie said.
The piazza was clearing out. Even though it wasn’t terribly late, weeknights had a way of turning in early.
“Isn’t tonight a school night?” Mari asked.
The twins exchanged glances. “Yeah.”
“We should go.”
“Where are you parked?”
Ellie pointed. “A few blocks that way.”
“How many blocks?”
“Four, maybe.”
Mari stood, pushed her chair back. “Okay, let’s go.”
“We’re okay. We can . . .”
“I know my neighborhood. Too far that way can be a problem.” More like six blocks in the direction they indicated, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. “In the future, if you can’t find parking closer, use my lot behind the restaurant.”
“We don’t want to—”
“That wasn’t a request, Ellie.”
Ellie closed her mouth. “Oh.”
As the three of them walked to where the girls were parked, Mari told them her intentions.
“You know I’ll be calling your father.”
“Yeah.”
They sounded defeated.
“I did not come back to how you found out your father and I were in the dance class together, or how you knew to look for me here. And you should know that your father hasn’t been here, so you couldn’t possibly have followed him.”
The girls stayed silent.
“I would suggest you’re one hundred percent honest with James. Lies are like poo,” she said. “The more they pile up, the smellier they get.”
They crossed the street and kept going.
“What are you going to tell him?” Madison asked.
“That depends. What would you have done if I had been married?”
The only sound was a passing car.
“We didn’t think that far,” Ellie admitted.
“We wanted to protect him, you know?”
Mari chuckled. “Your father is capable of protecting himself. But that is what I will tell him. That despite your ill-advised intentions, they were executed with a kind heart.”
“He’s going to be pissed anyway,” Ellie moaned.
“As you would be if he spied on you and Trevor.”
“You know about Trevor?”
Madison slapped her sister’s shoulder. “Of course she does. She knew about Caltech.”
Four blocks turned into five.
“Where is your car?”
“One more.”
Mari stopped and looked behind them. “There was plenty of parking closer.”
“We didn’t know if you knew what we drove,” Ellie told her.
Mari wasn’t amused. “Don’t let me catch you parking this far away again. You may not be my children, but I have no issue with scolding you if it keeps you safe.”
They didn’t argue.
Two blocks shy of the part of town where crime and drugs were prevalent, Ellie’s car came into view.
“Arguing on the phone when you’re driving isn’t safe. Tell me now if you want to talk to your father first. I’ll give you that.”
The tight jaws and wide eyes gave away their fear.
“Maybe you should . . .”
That would have been Mari’s answer, too, if she was seventeen and having to confess her sins.
“Fine. Drive carefully,” she told them.
With timid waves and quick goodbyes, Mari watched the girls drive away.
They were just as James described.
Ellie had a fire in her belly.
Madison was more reserved.
And lovely. Both of them.
The walk back home was likely the only quiet she was going to get for a while.
Like it or not, Mari knew her omission of the truth about James was a lie in itself. Which meant her personal pile of crap needed to be shoveled out.
“Hey,” Chloe answered Salena’s call with one hand and dug into her popcorn bowl with the other.
“Guess who has a boyfriend?”
For a second, Chloe didn’t have a clue what Salena was talking about. But then the conversation they’d had for the past couple of weeks moved front and center in her brain.
Her mama. That’s who had a boyfriend.
Chloe’s hand stopped midway to her mouth and then dropped. “No.”
“Yes! She just walked out with two teenage girls after telling me that they were the children of the man she’s dating.”
Chloe’s feet fell off the coffee table and onto the floor.
Dante, who was sitting beside her, scrambled to keep the popcorn bowl from flying. “What is it?”
“Mama has a boyfriend,” she practically yelled before talking into her phone. “Was the boyfriend there?”
“No, just his daughters. I don’t think Mari had met them. It was all pretty tense.”
Chloe pushed the bowl farther onto Dante’s lap and stood. This was not news to sit on. It required pacing. “I knew it. I knew she was seeing someone.”
“Seeing who?” Dante asked.
“Do we have a name?”
“No. Your mama only said she was dating someone. And then asked that I tell Luca to take over in the kitchen.”
“Oh . . . shit. Did you tell him?” Chloe asked.
“I didn’t have to. Word spread like wildfire. Once I picked my jaw off the floor, I went to the kitchen. Luca was already on the verge of spontaneous combustion.”
Chloe paced. “Is she back yet?”
“No.”
“Okay, okay. I’m calling Brooke. If anyone can calm Luca down, it’s her.”
“I already texted Ryan. He’s calling Emma.”
Good, that took care of her brothers.