Like You Read About (19 page)

“Yeah I know, like I said, it wasn’t cool, and I’m sorry.”

“Keep it in check and we’re good.  She’s very important to this company, and she’s very important to me. I’m not going to put up with any crap.” Dan was firm, but smiled at the man, he knew coming in and apologizing like this wasn’t likely to be an easy thing.

“Thanks
, man.”  Raj breathed a sigh of relief and stopped the tapping and shaking.  “So, does she have a sister, or a friend?”

“Seriously?”  Dan shook his head, “Her sister is married and her friend,
Kaelyn, is pregnant, so I can’t help you out.  You know if you stop acting like a bonehead you might actually find a girl on your own, you know.”

Raj chuckled, nodded in agreement
. He knew he was an idiot, and he dragged himself out of the chair, gave a mock salute, and wandered off to fix something.  Dan set himself back to him monitor, wrote a quick email to Cora and got back to work.  His sweet girl was downstairs and it made it hard to think about work sometimes.  He’d much rather spend his time thinking up things to do to make her smile.  It also didn’t hurt that usually after all that smiling she started with the kissing, which led to the groping, which led to the naked time. 

He could spare a few minutes to place an order for some more charms for her bracelet.  That seemed to be a hit with his girl.  He liked that she already wore a tangible mark of his affection and possession.

Two weeks later, he added a strawberry to her bracelet, to remind her of how he loved her delicious kisses.  For St. Patrick’s Day he added a four-leaf clover made of sparkly green hearts, he took her to opening day and put a baseball on.  He was building memories, literally and figuratively.

Chapter 28

After dating a couple
of months and practically living together, they decided it was probably time to meet the ‘rents.  They decided Easter weekend was as good a time as any.

On
Saturday, Cora was up and dressed and waiting for Dan to come back, he’d run home to make sure Lance was all set before they’d began their weekend of insanity.  Hopefully it would be okay, Cora was definitely the more freaked out of the two, she felt like she had the most riding on it, her mom was unpredictable and his sisters, who he lovingly called “The Coven” intimidated her in theory alone, never mind practice. 

Climbing in to Dan’s Honda
, they headed out to see her mom.  There was a family event set up today with a buffet lunch, and her sister would be here for tomorrow with her husband and the kids.  Taking a few slow deep breaths, she climbed out of the car, squeezed Dan’s hand, and led him towards her mom’s apartment.

Knocking as she opened the door she peeked in, “Hey mom, are you here?  I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet.”

Her mom came out of her room dressed and wearing a very large hat.  Deep breath Cora, it’s a hat, not a poisonous snake.

“Mom, this is Daniel Santagata, Daniel, this is my mother, Beatrice O’Malley.” Smile plastered on, trying not to shake.

“Please call me Bea, everyone does.” Her mom smiled and then giggled, Cora wondered if her meds had been mixed up today.

Dan, so calm, so even keel, took her hand and kissed the back of it
. “I can see where Cora gets her beautiful eyes from.  And it’s really nice to meet you; Cora has told me a lot about you.”

“Probably what a pain in her ass she thinks I am
,” her mother grumbled.

“Mom
,” exasperated Cora rolled her eyes. “Please, I really want you to get to know Dan, he’s important to me. Let’s head down to the lunch, I reserved us a table.”

A woman on each arm
, Dan led them downstairs to the community dining room where they proceeded to have a pleasant meal, her mother even behaved enough to keep her mouth quiet about stories she had no right telling.  Including the time Cora closed her sister in a footlocker while they were stationed in Germany.  Her sister had asked for it, although she denied it now. Thirty years later and Cora was still catching crap for it.  And of course, the story Cora still held locked inside, too afraid to let this wonderful man know how broken she was.

As they were leaving
, Bea leaned in to give Dan a hug and a kiss on the cheek and whispered in his ear, “Take care of my Cora, she deserves to be the one getting the care for a change.”

He nodded and smiled, and after all the goodbyes were said he drove Cora home and just snuggled up and held her tight
. Knowing she was only halfway through what was likely to be a very stressful weekend for her, his parents, sisters, spouses, nieces and nephews, etc. were a LOT to handle, and his sweet little Red was shy; he just hoped everyone at his mom’s behaved.

Sunday morning they got up early and met Dan’s parents in Rever
e at their parish, St. Anthony’s of Padua.  A definite change of pace from Saint Susanna’s, old school gothic compared to her modern new age, it was beautiful, but just one more thing to intimidate her.  Who the hell's idea was it that they meet his parents at Mass, when they couldn’t talk, and his parents could judge how Catholic she was.

Standing outside on the steps he held her hand tightly
. “It’ll be okay, honey. They will love you, I love you.”

“
Daniel,” Cora heard the voice before she actually saw anyone, then like a little salt and peppered haired, whirling dervish came up and wrapped her arms around Dan. “It’s so good to see you, it’s been weeks.” 

Not l
etting go of her hand, Dan cleared his throat and peeled his mom off him, “Mom, Dad, this is Cora O’Malley, Cora, this is my mother, Theresa, and my father, Domenic.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. & Mrs. Santagata, Happy Easter, B
uona Pasqua.” Cora plasters on a smile, trying hard not to shake out of her new shoes.

“We’re Terri and Dom, Cora, and you’re even more lovely than Dan
iel described,” wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug and kissing both of her cheeks.

Pulling back
, Dan’s dad shakes her hand and smiles, “Buona Pasqua, Cora.  Let’s head in so we can get a decent place to sit, your sisters and everyone should already be inside, except Sophia, who is already at home starting some of the cooking, except the ham, of course. Just a normal Sunday for her and all.”

Mass was not as stressful as Cora had thought and Dan
held her hand almost the entire time.  Getting in the car, Dan turned on some music to calm her down, singing along off key to his favorite song, one he sang to her often, Birdhouse in Your Soul by They Might Be Giants.  He always asked her to make a little birdhouse in her soul for him, and she always smiled and kissed him. There was so much more room than that for him in her soul, she just could never find enough words to articulate it properly.  As they parked in his parents’ driveway, he took a familiar pouch out of his pocket and added a new charm, today was a small bird. “This is the part of me that lives in your soul.” He took off her bracelet and placed the bird, kissing her wrist as he closed the clasp.

“You romantic fool, you are going to make me cry before we go inside and your family will think I’m crazy and emotional or we got in to a fight.”
She sighed, twisting the bird, how she got so lucky finding him she’d never know.

Dinner with his family was hectic and wild, his sisters and their kids and their husbands were all loud and boisterous.  She felt overwhelmed, even though his sisters, especially Maria, went out of their way to make her feel welcome. 

After dinner Cora was helping Mrs. Santagata and the sisters clean up the table and put away the leftovers, when everyone was in the kitchen Maria pulled Cora aside in the dining room.

“Cora, can we talk for a few minutes?”  Maria was smiling but Cora was absolutely panicked.

“Sure, what’s up?” Cora pasted on a smile, inside what she felt was not a smile, not even close.

“My sisters and I have gotten together and talked,”
‘Oh crap’
was all Cora could think as Maria went on, they’re going to take me out back and kill me. “We’ve never seen Dan happier.  We don’t know what it will take to keep you around, but just let us know and we’ll make sure he does it.”

Cora breathed
a sigh of relief, and then started to laugh.  “Seriously?  Could you threaten him into picking up his socks?  I mean, it’s not a problem now, but I could see in ten years it could be an issue.”

“Well probably not, we can’t get
our own husbands to do that kind of stuff, well except for Sophia, her husband is a saint, well a Rabbi, but he puts the rest, except for Danny to shame.”  Her smile is soft and she squeezed Cora’s hand.  “We like you, Cora, we want you around long term.”

“Thank you
, Maria, I don’t know what to say,” her voice was soft, she was overwhelmed by her kindness, “I know Dan really values your opinion.  He considers you one of his best friends. I know he talked to you before we started dating and I can never thank you enough for encouraging him, you helped give him the push to reply to my email, you changed my life.”

“You changed his life
, Cora, he’s happy, truly happy.  He’s always been cheerful, gotten along well with everyone had a positive attitude, but since you came along he is truly happy for the first time in his life.  It’s all you, and I’ll kick his ass if he ever does anything to fuck it up; I’ve got your back.  Welcome to the Coven.”

Maria gave Cora a hug and then went back to cleaning up, the sisters coming back in and out, obviously aware that their spokes-sister had done her job and said their peace.  Each one gave Cora a hug by the end of the day. 
When he drove her home that night he asked her about what Maria was yapping to her about, Cora just smiled and kept it to herself.

Chapter 29

As
spring approached so did Cora’s birthday, whenever Dan asked what she wanted she told him she had all she needed and dinner and a quiet night alone was all she wanted to make the day complete.  They had a nice dinner with her mother and his parents in the North End. Her mother enjoyed getting out and their parents got along really well.  His parents were sensitive to her mother’s situation, and never made Cora feel like she was bringing all kinds of drama into their family and never treated her mother with anything but dignity and respect.  It made Cora relax and it made Dan proud of his folks.

May
third dawned sunny and warm, Cora stretched in bed, Dan’s side cold. She sat up listening to see if he was in the shower or if he’d headed downstairs.  She smelled the coffee and decided he was downstairs, but before she could get up, she heard him coming up the stairs, “Stay where you are, do not move!”

“Um, ok
ay, can I pee?” she asked, she’d just woken up and nature’s call required some attention.

“O
kay, you can pee but then get your pretty ass back in to that bed, young lady.” She heard him struggling with the door as she headed off to the bathroom, if he was going to be cryptic and bossy he could get the door himself.

After taking care of business, washing her hands, and brushing her teeth she ran a comb through her wild red curls and hopped back into bed.  “O
kay, bossy, what’s up?”

“Well birthday girl, we’re starting with
breakfast in bed.” With a flourish, he put a tray with French toast, cantaloupe and banana and a glass of peach orchard juice on her lap.

“But you took us all out to dinner last
night, you didn’t need to do this too.” She smiled and he tucked a napkin in the collar of the T-shirt she was wearing, he loved her sleeping in his shirt. She dug into the delicious smelling breakfast, which wasn’t burnt at all. It had taken several tries but she taught him how to make French toast the right way.  She really loved when they cooked together, when they did anything together really.

After she finished breakfast and he finished his coffee
, they took a shower, tumbled into bed, and then after some acrobatic hot sex the like of which had Lance turning tail and running in the other direction, they showered again and got ready for the day.  He wouldn’t tell her where they were going but told her to dress comfortably because they might take a walk around the lake later.  She put on some yoga pants, a long sleeved T-shirt, and her sneakers and grabbed a fleece while she headed down the stairs.  More and more of their clothes had ended up at each other’s places lately.

When they headed out to the car
s, Cora noticed they’d been switched around, usually they took whose ever was at the end of the drive, but today the Honda was there and Ringo was tucked under the carport.

“So, are you going to tell me where we are going?”
she asked, wondering what her crazy boyfriend had up his sleeve today. He was always doing this, surprising her with “whisks” as he calls them, little day trips or overnights, or afternoon adventures, he’d just tell her how to dress and off they went.

After about
thirty minutes in the car, they pulled up to a bicycle shop.

Cora turned to look at Dan, “Are we renting bikes today?  Do you know you have completed just about every fun item I ever described as wanting to do in my emails
? You’re insane, Danny boy.”