Chapter 4 #2
“I told you, I don’t want to be late,” she explained, taking a few hasty sips of orange juice, which was 60 percent pulp, just the way she liked it. I can taste the vitamins better then! She’d once claimed. “Today is…special.”
Lilly didn’t question what was so special because an uncertain expression crept across Delfina’s face.
“Mom,” she said quietly, biting her lip. Shit, Lilly knew immediately what the next question would be. “When are we going to visit my dad?”
Her heart fluttered nervously. It had been easier when they’d still lived in Italy. There, she’d been able to tell her daughter that her dad was too busy and L.A. too far away to visit. Unfortunately, she no longer had that excuse and she’d promised her, so…
“Soon,” she said firmly. “Things are a little stressful right now…”
“You always say that,” Del whispered accusingly.
Lilly swallowed. For her nine years, Delfina was ridiculously smart. She got that from her, not the idiot.
“Mom!” she said more firmly. “You said we’d visit him when we moved to L.A. We’ve been here for weeks. So…when?”
When the thought of it no longer made her sick. So probably never.
She had only told Del who her father was.
To her parents, her best friend, and the rest of the world, she’d claimed she had no idea, that he was a drunken mistake and that even his face was a blurry, misshapen mass in her memory.
She wished so much that it were true. How she wished not to remember every second with Austin like he was the lead in her favorite damn movie, the one she watched in slow motion every week.
But she hadn’t been able to lie to Delfina when she asked about him, even though her father obviously didn’t want anything to do with her.
She hadn’t been able to tell her parents or Daisy, though.
They would have insisted she take legal action against Austin and force him to pay her child support — even though she wanted absolutely nothing from him.
She didn’t want money, she didn’t want an apology, and she didn’t want any contact.
But she also wanted Delfina to be happy, and her daughter had gotten it into her head that her dad hadn’t visited her in Italy because he’d never met her and didn’t know how amazing she was.
God, she wanted to protect Delfina and she hated the thought of her getting hurt, but…
she had the right to at least meet her father in person, whether he wanted it or not, and she would make sure that happened.
Just not now.
She rose when the doorbell rang, happy for the interruption. “That’ll be your grandma,” she said, smiling. “We’ll talk about it later, Del, okay?”
Delfina lifted her chin. “Sure,” she replied tersely, and jumped out of her chair, grabbed her backpack from the one next to it, and hurried down the stairs to open the door for her grandmother.
Lilly rubbed her face wearily, but followed. The house had two doors. The front door led directly into the showroom and the side door opened into the hallway where the stairs led to the first floor and separated the workshop and showroom.
Delfina had already thrown open the door and was hugging her grandmother before Lilly reached the landing.
“We have to go, Gran, and not to school. I have to go somewhere else today. But I can’t be late.”
“Okay, okay. Let me just say hello to your mother,” she replied in amusement and wrapped Lilly in a quick hug.
“Thanks for taking her, Mom.”
“I’m glad to. It’s good to get out of the house.”
Lilly translated that as: Your father is having a bad morning.
“Are you okay without us?” Lilly asked. Until a few weeks ago, she and Delfina had still been living with her parents.
Her mother would never admit it, but she needed the help and the distraction.
Lilly’s dad had fallen a few months ago and broken his hip and knee.
He'd been in constant pain since the surgeries to fix both. This led to endless frustration and bad moods, which he took out on her overwhelmed mother. Her mother was still fit for her age, but she hadn’t been able to drive him from point A to point B, constantly care for him, and take care of the house on her own.
So Lilly had spent a lot of time getting the dirty house back in order, driving her father to doctor’s appointments, and tidying up the garden so her parents could sit comfortably outside – they had both been far too pale.
Delfina had played a lot of Uno with her grandpa when the pain kept him in bed… and had learned a lot of new curses.
Being so close to her parents had made things easier, but it had also driven Lilly crazy.
Constantly having to listen to her parents’ life advice had driven her nuts even as a teenager.
So, she and Delfina had moved out as soon as she found this building.
Her father was feeling much better too, but still…
“Are you keeping up with the cleaning?” She hesitated.
“I could get you a housekeeper or a caregiver if…”
“Lilly, you can’t afford to pay a cleaning lady for us,” her mother reminded her gently. “All your savings have gone into this workshop.”
She sighed. Naturally, her mother was right, but she’d beg Daisy for money if necessary. Her best friend was filthy rich — a baking influencer. But she knew her mother wouldn’t hear of it.
“I’ll come by this afternoon as promised,” Lilly decided aloud. When she moved out, she and her parents had come to an agreement that she would visit at least twice a week to help them with whatever needed to be done.
“Yes, we can help,” Del jumped in, nodding. “I love Uno and I make Grandpa laugh when he’s sad.”
When they had first arrived, her daughter also noticed how bad things were at her grandparents’ house.
It was so bad that Lilly had been downright ashamed for having put off the move for so long.
The worst was over now, but it had broken her heart that her cheerful and outgoing mother had spent so many weeks practically alone — and she was obviously enjoying the time with her granddaughter very much.
“Darling, you’re thirty, and you certainly have enough work and responsibilities. You should use your free time to go out a bit…to look for a man. Delfina needs some male influence.”
Del glanced down at her feet and Lilly snorted.
What free time was her mother talking about?
And when she did have a quiet moment, she certainly wouldn’t waste it having awkward conversations with a man who would explain to her that he found her situation too complicated because nothing was more off-putting than the sentence: I have a nine-year-old daughter.
She and Del functioned well together, thank you very much!
Would it be nice to have help with everyday life sometimes?
Yes! But if the price was having to date and meet new men, she wasn’t going to pay it.
She had no interest in a man. She hadn’t found anyone attractive enough to even give them a chance in years.
Plus, if she went out too much and brought strangers home, it would be too confusing for Delfina, and…
besides, she didn’t need anyone. She could satisfy her needs on her own — or with the help of a whisk (at least, that was what she’d told Delfina when she’d been caught rummaging through her drawers).
“Thanks for the tip, Mom,” she replied calmly. “Have fun, Del.” She kissed her daughter on the head and waved goodbye to the two of them as they walked toward the parking lot at the end of the promenade.
So...she had work to do, and hopefully, she’d be undisturbed for the next six to eight hours!
Adrenaline and familiar anticipation sparkled through her veins and she smiled. She could finally fire up the furnace again!