When Love Finds a Home (9 page)

"Children, it's
time," Mr. Pagonis's voice boomed. The sound of running feet filled the
house.

"Don't run," Mrs.
Pagonis and her three daughters-in-law called out at once.

Anna leaned over to Rona, who
was sitting to her right, and murmured, "They've yelled it so many times,
they don't even realize they do it anymore."

The children positioned
themselves randomly around the table and the Pagonis family members and their
guests joined hands.

Rona tried to block out her
own father's voice as Mr. Pagonis's deep clear voice said grace. Even though
they were at Gina and Julian's, it was obvious to Rona that the elder Pagonises
still ruled over their brood. After a hearty chorus of amens, the children
disappeared into the kitchen where they would eat.

Chapter Nine

As Anna's family settled down
to the table, Rona tried to remember the names of those she had already met.
There were so many names she wasn't sure she'd be able to remember them all. To
her right was Karla's highchair, then Tammy with Katie to her right. Rona
watched as Tammy's twins tried to absorb all the activity going on around them.
Watching them and listening to their laughter while they worked on the snowman
only served to reinforce her determination that none of them would ever have to
return to the streets.

She glanced at Anna. She
appeared to be a decent person. In fact, the entire family seemed like good
people. Rona found herself hoping that she and Tammy could find full-time work
and it would not be necessary for her to steal from Anna or anyone else.

Anna started the introductions
and Rona set about committing them to memory. At the foot of the table sat
Julian's wife, Gina. Her twins were perched in highchairs on either side of
her. She was short with blond hair and robin's-egg blue eyes. A little farther
down on her right sat the muscular Pietro and then his wife, Lupie, whose high
cheekbones and aristocratic nose suggested her ancestors might have walked
among the ancient Aztec tribes. Next to Lupie sat the patriarch of the
boisterous family, Stefano Pagonis. Rona had seen men like him around the
fishing docks when her mother would take them with her on her occasional trips
to purchase fresh fish for one of the many meals she prepared for her husband's
business associates. They were hearty men who worked hard, always striving to
make life better for their children.

She estimated Anna's father to
be in his mid-sixties. His hair was completely silvery-gray. Even with the
slight thickening around the middle, which she surmised hadn't been there
during his prime, he was still an imposing figure. Beside him was Mrs. Pagonis,
a robust woman with salt-and-pepper hair. It didn't require much intuitiveness
to understand that here was the heart of the family. Next was Polly, wife of
the missing eldest son, Hector. There were already touches of gray in her short
brown hair. When Polly smiled and welcomed them, Rona felt an underlying sense
of gentleness about the otherwise rather plain woman. At the head of the table
between Polly and Anna was the wiry Julian. He had the highchair of his
youngest daughter, Ellen, next to him. Like his siblings, he possessed warm
olive skin and ebony hair.

When the introductions were
completed, there was a new flurry of activity as lids were lifted from the two
blue-on-white tureens that sat at each end of the table. As the steam rose up
from die large bowls, the air filled with the fragrant aroma of lamb stew. The
table looked as if it had been prepared to feed a hungry army. In between the
tureens sat large platters of bread and chunks of cheese and bowls of olives.
Mr. and Mrs. Pagonis began filling bowls with the savory-smelling stew.

"We hope you like lamb
stew," Mr. Pagonis said as he passed bowls over to Tammy and Rona.

"It smells
delicious," Rona said as she inhaled deeply.

"It's the perfect day for
it," Tammy agreed as she helped the twins with their bowls.

"How old are your
twins?" Gina asked. "Jason and Susan just turned five." She
nodded to the children on either side of her.

"They're four,"
Tammy answered as she brushed a hand over Katie's towhead. "How old is
your youngest?" She nodded to the chattering Ellen, who sat perched in a
highchair beside Julian.

"She's three and getting
to be quite a handful."

Rona blocked out the
conversation as she added bread and cheese to her plate. A bowl of
almond-shaped olives was passed to her. They were a dark eggplant color, not
the black olives she was accustomed to eating. She glanced at Anna's plate and
saw she had taken six or eight. Unsure about them, she took two from the bowl
and passed it to Tammy. She tasted the stew and could barely suppress a moan of
pleasure. She had grown up on thick hearty fish stews and soups. After a
tentative taste of the sharp, salty olive, she regretted not taking more.

"What kind of olives are
these?" she asked Anna.

"Aren't they delicious?
They're Kalamata olives. I love to eat them with salads or with bread and
cheese."

"Where are you girls
from?" Mrs. Pagonis asked.

"Michigan. Miami. San
Antonio," Rona, Anna and Tammy piped in unison.

Rona cringed as the entire
room grew still and all eyes turned toward them. Without missing a beat, Tammy
spoke up.

"Rona is from Michigan. I
was born in San Antonio and then moved to Miami several years ago."

Rona noticed Mrs. Pagonis
watching Anna, who was concentrating on her food.

"Gina, this is a really
great batch of stew," Julian said as he helped Ellen tear her bread.

"It's Mother Pagonis's
recipe," Gina replied.

Several times during the meal,
Rona glanced up to find Pietro watching them.

After dinner the men
disappeared into another room as the women worked together to clear both the
dining room and kitchen tables where the older kids had eaten. Julian's twins
whisked off Katie and Karla.

As Rona had suspected, Tammy
seemed completely at ease with these women. It was almost as though she had
known them her entire life. Even after the tables were cleared and the dishes
washed and put away, they continued to stand in the kitchen and talk about
their kids.

"They'll be there all
night," Anna mumbled at Rona's shoulder.

"We do seem to be out of
the loop," Rona admitted.

"I'm going to show Rona
the rest of the house," Anna called out. Gina smiled and gave a slight
wave; the rest continued discussing the woes of childbirth.

As they left the kitchen, Anna
turned to her. "Do you really want to see the rest of the house?"

She shook her head. "Not
really."

"Do you play pool?"

"A little." Rona
smiled and rubbed her hands together.

Anna stopped and glanced back
at her. "Why do I feel like I'm about to be hustled?"

"I can't imagine what you
mean."

Anna led her to a huge game
room. Besides a regulation-size pool table, there was a lengthy bar running
along the side. A pin-ball machine sat in one corner, and what she thought was
an air hockey table sat across from it. In addition, there were four card
tables with chairs in the area between.

Anna began to rack the balls.
Four pool cues were in a stand in the corner. Rona hefted each of them and
chose the heaviest one.

"I saw that," Anna
called from the table.

Rona shrugged. "I just
wanted to see if they were all the same."

"Yeah. Sure."

"To prove to you that I
play fair, I'll let you break," she offered.

Anna eyed her. "That
doesn't make me feel any better."

She stood back from the table
as Anna leaned down to break. She was so busy admiring the way the jeans
stretched over Anna's rear that she was caught off guard when Anna stood
suddenly and turned around.

"Your turn."

She had to look at the table
before she realized Anna had
already
broken the racked balls. At least, she had made an attempt. The cue ball was
caught up in the center of the cluster created by the horrible break. Rona had
spent much of her teenage years sneaking over to play pool in a small
family-oriented cafe and sports bar. It was one of few things that her father
had never discovered and put an end to. "You didn't leave me much."
After walking around the table to review possible shots, she quickly sank the
two, four and five balls in three consecutive shots.

"I knew it," Anna
said. "I knew you were hustling me."

"It's only hustling if we
place a wager on the game."

"You have a point there.
Isn't that what you were leading up to?"

Before she could reply, Julian
came in, followed by his father and Pietro.

"Annie Bella, shame on
you. I don't believe you were trying to hustle our guest," Julian called
out.

"To think I raised a
daughter who hustles pool," Mr. Pagonis said as he seated himself on a
barstool.

Rona turned and found Anna
looking a little shamed-faced. "You were hustling me?" Rona asked,
dumbfounded.

Julian patted Rona's shoulder.
"My sister put herself through college hustling pool."

"I did not," Anna
protested. "Dad, tell them."

Mr. Pagonis looked at Rona and
shrugged. "All right, I won't say my daughter is a pool shark; however, I
gave all my children the same amount of money to go to college. Anna must have
been very good at budgeting her money. With her two-hundred-dollar monthly
allowance, she was able to buy a stereo, a car and a small house."

"Dad!" Anna
exclaimed. "You're being horrible. I never did any such thing."

"Exactly how good are
you?" Rona asked.

Anna looked at her and smiled
before proceeding to clear the table.

Chapter Ten

Rona and Mr. Pagonis were in
the middle of an extremely close pool game. Ever the diplomat, Julian was
cheering on both players. Anna walked to the bar and took a bottle of water
from the small refrigerator. Pietro was leaning against the end of the bar.

"Dad, can I get you
something?" Anna called as she took the stool at the end of the bar.
"A bottle of water, a beer, pool lessons maybe," she teased.

"You keep laughing,"
he called back. "Any moment now, I'm going to stop showing her
mercy."

"In that case," Rona
called over to him as she sank the seven ball. "I'd better start playing
with my eyes open."

"I do believe the
gauntlet has been thrown," Julian crowed.

Rona pretended not to notice
as Pietro casually strolled over to sit beside Anna. At first she could hear
them talking about a house Pietro was building, but their voices quickly became
too low for her to hear. By the covert glances Pietro kept throwing her way,
she was certain their conversation involved her. She
was so busy trying to hear their conversation that she missed the next shot.

"Now, it is my
turn," Mr. Pagonis chortled. He quickly proved that his talent could stand
up to his bragging. He was about to lay up an easy shot on the eight ball when
Pietro's voice cut through the room.

"Are you out of your
mind?"

The three at the pool table
stopped to look at them.

"Pietro, you almost made
me miss my shot. What are you and your sister fussing about?"

"Nothing," Pietro
replied. "Anna's just being stubborn, as usual."

Anna glanced at Rona before
quickly looking away.

"Don't make me send you
two off to your rooms," Mr. Pagonis teased as he made the shot and won the
game.

"Pietro," Julian
called. "Stop tormenting Annie Bella. It's your turn."

"You take my turn. I'll
play after you," Pietro called.

"Oh, come on. You know
I'm no match for Dad." He looked at Rona and grimaced. "I barely win
when I play the kids." He took a cue. "The only good thing about
playing as bad as I do is that the misery doesn't last long."