Luscious (24 page)

Olivia drifted back down into sleep. She felt heavy, as if she were sinking, but something kept pulling her back up. She had been dreaming of Romeo and Juliet, but she itched.

She opened her eyes. They itched too. She tried to rub them but couldn’t move her hand.

She looked at it and gasped. Sean was asleep with his head on the bed, his fingers clutching hers. She slid away from him, wondering why he wasn’t in the bed with her. God, she was so tired. Maybe she’d go back to sleep. She rubbed her itchy eyes, then stared at her hand. What was wrong with it? It was all blotchy and red. She pressed both hands to her face, finding it swollen.

Strawberries. Alessandro.
Oh
my
God.
Sean.
Her heart pounded as her sludgy brain tried to sort through what had happened. He’d come back?

The door opened.

“
Cara!
You’re awake!” Nonna Lucia rushed to the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know,” she croaked. If Nonna was here, how long had she been sleeping?

Sean lifted his head, blinking.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him, pulling the covers up to her chin. If her face looked anything like her hands, she wished she could cover that too.

He pried her hand away from the blanket and held it. “Marilyn Russo called to tell me what had happened. I couldn’t leave. I had to make sure you were all right.”

So he was still leaving, then. Disappointment made her feel like an even bigger fool, but she hid her embarrassment with anger. “I’m perfectly fine. Don’t let me hold up your travel plans.” She yanked her hand out of his grasp. “I don’t want your pity. You were right to leave. I’m staying in Verona, and everything is going to be fine.” Oh God, just saying it made her skin itch like crazy. She clenched her hands into fists to keep from scratching. “Just go. I don’t want you here.” The last word ended in a wheeze. What the hell was wrong with her? It had to be the strawberries, but she’d never reacted this badly before.

Sean didn’t budge. In fact, he moved closer, making her breath come even faster. She wanted to hit him. She wanted to throw herself into his arms. “Get out!” she sobbed.

Nonna opened the door. “I think you’d better go for now.” Her sympathetic expression made Olivia feel like screaming again. Nonna was supposed to be on her side.

She turned her face away as Sean moved toward the door, waiting for it to close behind him before she lost it completely. She felt Nonna’s hand stroking her hair. “What happened,
cara
?” her grandmother asked softly, when her sobs turned into whimpers. “You’ve always been so careful about strawberries.”

She reached for a handful of tissues and mopped her face. “I’ve never gotten that sick. I thought a few hives would get Alessandro to leave me alone and buy me some time to hide out in my room for a while.” Another tear slid down her cheek. So she’d tried to escape from her life again and had almost succeeded permanently. “Running from my troubles doesn’t work out so well for me, Nonna.”

“It didn’t work out well for me either,
cara
.” Her grandmother sighed. “I have a story to tell you.”

Nonna helped her to sit up, then handed her a drink of water. She sipped, letting the cool drink soothe her throat and watching her grandmother pace slowly across the room.

“Benito and I met at
la
Sagra
dell’Uva
when we were children, only eighteen. Sofia Conti and I were best friends and the belles of the ball that year. There was an orchestra in the courtyard and people dancing everywhere. He saw me. And I saw him. That was it, for both of us. Love.”

Nonna cleared her throat. “It was very romantic. We danced every dance together, spent every waking minute together after that night. My parents were horrified.”

“Why didn’t they like him?”

“It wasn’t that they didn’t like Benito, so much as they didn’t like his father. Pasquale Capozzi had quite a reputation with the ladies and he was considered to be a little bit crazy. The more my parents disapproved, the more I rebelled, sneaking out, telling lies, until they were afraid I would run away with him, like our Juliet Capulet.”

“Were you going to?”

“Of course, but my parents planned a vacation to America and insisted I accompany them. I kicked and screamed the whole way. I didn’t make it easy for them. They were hoping that time and distance would cure me of my childish infatuation.”

“And did it? Did you forget him?”

The stricken look on Nonna’s face told her the story was going somewhere bad in a hurry. She braced herself. She already knew the ending. Now she knew the beginning. The middle was probably an absolute train wreck.

Nonna raised her chin. “No, he forgot me. While we were gone, my parents received word from Sofia’s parents. She was going to marry Benito Capozzi and they hoped we could make it back for the wedding.”

“Ouch.”

“Sofia was pregnant, of course.”

Olivia dropped her head into her hands. “Of course she was.”

“She was my best friend. He was my first love. And I lost them both that day.”

Olivia lifted her head. “But I thought Sofia never married.”

The warmth that usually lingered in her grandmother’s eyes was absent. They were flat and dull. “Benito left her at the altar. He and his father disappeared. Benito came after me, told me the child wasn’t his, but I sent him away. He had made his bed, and I thought he should lie in it. Not too long after that I met your grandfather. He was a good man and I married him, even though I was still in love with Benito. Your grandfather always knew it, but he loved me anyway. On the day he died, I held his hand and I looked into his eyes. I knew I had wasted our time together, that I had thrown away a lifetime of love with a good man, a strong man, strong enough to love me without asking the same in return. Oh, I did love him eventually, but never quite enough, eh? Certainly not as much as he deserved.”

“You’re breaking my heart, Nonna. Where is the happy ending?” Her question drove the tears from her grandmother’s eyes and she smiled.

“You are the happy ending,
cara
. My blood, my life, my family,” she said simply. “You and Anna Maria and Paolo. Marlene and Joe too.” Nonna leaned over to embrace her. The comforting smell of lemons wrapped itself around her. “I should warn you that your friends are in Verona too. Marlene found the power of attorney papers in the filing cabinet and she’s fit to be tied. Did you really forget to return all her calls?”

Olivia looked away. “I’ve been having a little problem dealing with reality lately.” She wasn’t quite ready to face it now either. “But what about Benito? He betrayed you.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I still love him. Sofia’s dead. We’ve lived a lifetime without each other. We were so young, and life almost doesn’t seem real when you are just learning to live it. But it is. Your choices, good and bad, have more power than you could ever imagine. If I haven’t learned to forgive by now, it’s too late.” Nonna’s swollen knuckles patted her hand, and she shook her head slowly from side to side. “And I don’t want it to be too late,
cara
. I want to forgive him, just as you should forgive your Sean.”

“He doesn’t care if I forgive him or not, Nonna. He left me.”

“But he came back.” Her grandmother’s satisfied smile made her feel sick again.

“Not for long.”

“How do you know? You didn’t give him a chance to say anything,” Nonna chided. “He’s here now, isn’t he? Your mother said he spent all night by your bed. I think I was right. He cares about you.”

Anticipation began to flutter in her chest. Could Nonna be right? She threw off the covers and went into the bathroom to change into loose pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt to cover up the rash on her arms, legs, and chest. She was afraid to look in the mirror, but the swelling on her face wasn’t quite as bad as she feared. As long as she didn’t scratch, she might look normal by tomorrow.

“Marlene and Joe are in the kitchen,” Nonna warned, when she returned to the bedroom.

Of
course
they
are
. She would expect nothing else. Strangely, she felt no jealousy at all, just excitement. She took Nonna’s hand and drew her out of the bedroom, down the stairs, through the dining room, and into the kitchen. She looked for Sean, but didn’t find him.

Marlene looked up as Olivia reached the kitchen stairs and rushed to embrace her. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you! What were you thinking? You ate strawberries?”

“Temporary insanity.”

Marlene let go of her and fished a crumpled, twice-folded manila envelope out of her back pocket. It was the same one Olivia had stuffed into the filing cabinet the day she left Norton. Marlene’s eyes narrowed as she thrust the envelope into Olivia’s hands. “What the hell is this?”

“Power of attorney papers. Sign them and you’ll have everything you need to take care of the restaurant until we make other arrangements.”

“It’s not my restaurant.”

“It could be. It should be. You and Joe don’t need me around anymore. I just slow you down.”

Olivia kept her eyes on the envelope in her hands because she didn’t want to see the recognition in Marlene’s eyes. She also didn’t want to watch her friend struggle to say the right thing, the nice thing.

“Oh boy,” she heard Joe say. “Now you’ve done it.”

“That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard,” Marlene said vehemently.

“No, it’s not,” Olivia replied firmly. “It’s a small kitchen. There was nothing for me to do, so I left.”

“No, you freaking ran away like a coward. You slunk out the back door without even saying goodbye. You barely left a note, and when I found those papers, it scared the heck out of me. Nonna told me you put your house on the market. I couldn’t get you on your cell, and you wouldn’t return my calls. What the hell is going on with you? Are you really getting married to that chef? What the hell happened with Sean? He barely even said hello to us before he took off out the back door.”

Olivia ignored her questions. “Do you want to buy the restaurant or not? I already talked to Mamma.”

“Yes, I want it.” Marlene’s voice was tight and there were tears in her eyes. “I’ve always wanted it. But not if it means you aren’t coming back. Not if it means I lose my best friend.” Tears began to slip down her face. “Olivia, I was so scared when I found the papers, and even more scared when I heard you were sick. I thought maybe you had tucked your last will and testament into the cabinet too.”

Olivia gasped and gave her a hard hug. “Oh, Marlene! No! Never that. I just needed some time to think.”

“But what about the strawberries? If your
fiancé
hadn’t yelled so loud and if your mom hadn’t had an EpiPen in the first-aid kit in your room, you’d be a goner.”

“It was an accident. I swear. I’ll never touch them again. And he’s not my fiancé.” She held Marlene at arm’s length as a sudden thought occurred to her. “Hey, if you two are here, who’s running Chameleon?”

“We closed it,” Joe offered, with a wicked grin.

“What? You can’t just lock the doors. We’ll lose all our customers!”

Marlene crossed her arms. “Good help is hard to find.” Clearly, she wasn’t ready to forgive her completely.

Olivia let go of her. “You’re not the help anymore. Now you’re the owner.” She felt a weight lift from her shoulders. Speaking of help, Olivia looked around the kitchen. “Where’s Alessandro?” she asked. She needed to apologize and thank him for saving her life.

“I haven’t seen anyone in the kitchen yet,” Marlene replied.

Olivia turned to her friends. “You two feel like cooking dinner?”

“Hell no,” Joe said. “We’re on vacation.”

Olivia widened her eyes. “You can’t expect me to cook. I’m still recovering from poisoning my system.”

He didn’t look sympathetic. “Yeah, being stupid doesn’t get you out of KP.” He slung an arm around Marlene’s waist and led her toward the back door.

“Nonna?” Olivia asked. “Would you like to help me make dinner?”

“It will be my pleasure,
cara
. Believe it or not, it will be the first time I’ve had the opportunity to cook for Benito.” The misty expression on Nonna’s face reminded her of the pleasure she had felt when cooking for Sean. Her heart clenched.

“Where is Big Daddy, anyway?”

“With your father. They get along like a house on fire. Benito has been a long time away from wine. He’s missed it,” she said.

Olivia wasn’t sure she felt quite as forgiving as her grandmother. She was still a little peeved at Big Daddy for his behavior at the beginning of the summer and her grandmother’s story hadn’t improved her opinion of him, but for Nonna’s sake, she would try. “Let’s make him a welcome home dinner. I’ll check the walk-in and see what we’ve got to work with.” Olivia stepped into the cooler, wondering where Sean had gone. She was glad he had left out the back door and not through the front door with his suitcase.

She forced herself to turn her thoughts to dinner. As she stared at the shelves, she couldn’t breathe. Her throat began to tighten. Was she still reacting to the strawberries? No, this felt different, more like how she had felt her last day at Chameleon and the way she had felt earlier in the bedroom.

She forced her mind to clear. She would think about a menu when the dizziness went away. Her anxiety spiked. Deliberately, she thought about cooking dinner for the villa guests. Her head began to spin.

What the hell was wrong with her? Marlene had agreed to buy Chameleon, and her mother was fine with it. She should be thrilled. She was finally free, or at least, she would have been free if she hadn’t agreed to work at Villa Farfalla, an even larger and more complicated operation than Chameleon. She wheezed.

Oh God, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t stay at Villa Farfalla.

She leaned her forehead against the cool shelf.

Leaving Norton, she had feared she’d lost her love of cooking, but the last week had proved otherwise. She had enjoyed making the fennel soup, the pumpkin crème brûlée and all the other foods. The cooking class had gotten off to a rocky start, but she’d pulled it off and been proud of her students and the results of their work. She still liked to cook, but she didn’t want to cook at Chameleon, and clearly she didn’t want to cook here.