Mari lifted her chin and smiled. “You’re wise. Yes, that will work.” She walked past Brooke and headed for the apartment.
“Mrs. D’Angelo?”
“Yes?”
“The price?”
Mari paused, sniffed the herb in her hand, and stood silent for a moment before telling Brooke a number.
It was the cost of a studio in a bad neighborhood.
“That’s ridiculously low,” Brooke argued.
Mari lifted a finger in the air. “No air conditioner.” She lifted a second finger. “No elevator.” A third. “A toddler’s kitchen.” A fourth. “Laundry is downstairs in the back of the restaurant, and the only time you can use it, even if you want to, is after hours. Of course, you’re welcome to use my set at any time.” Her thumb came up last. “My family is loud. Loveable, but loud.”
Brooke didn’t hesitate. “I’ll take it.”
A breath.
A pause.
“Good.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“You did what?”
“I rented the apartment on the top floor.”
“The guest room,” Luca corrected her.
“We need the money.”
“We’re fine.”
“Pass the wine.”
Luca stared at his mother as she casually asked for wine as if she’d just talked about finding a sweater for Franny.
“Mama.”
“Grazie,” she said to Chloe, who handed her the wine but looked just as concerned about the conversation as any of them.
“This is our home,” Gio said.
“It’s still our home.”
“With strangers inside it?” Luca insisted. He glanced at his daughter as she dug into her dinner like a starved child.
“You worry for nothing.”
“Mama!” Chloe’s voice rang in the room.
“You have nothing to worry about. I’ve vetted the tenant.”
Luca almost choked on the word. “Tenant. Do you hear yourself?”
“What about Franny?” Gio asked.
“Exactly!” Luca pointed at his daughter.
Francesca stopped chewing her bread long enough to look up at the mention of her name.
“Adventure runs in her blood. Francesca will be fine.”
Luca looked at his brother. “We can get out of it.”
“Of course we can.”
Mari’s hand slapped the table. “I have never led this family astray. You will respect my decisions until I’ve proven I’m unable to make responsible decisions. These past few years have been difficult on all of us. We can use the money. And with a renter, we have a new set of business expenditures we didn’t have before. We need them.” She took a deep breath. “Now. I expect nothing less than the hospitality we extend to our family with our new tenant. They have rented the space fully furnished. So, if there is anything upstairs that you’d like to hold on to, I suggest you get it now. They are returning next week.”
There were very few times in Luca’s life that he wanted to defy his mother with his whole being.
This was one of them.
“Francesca needs stability,” he argued.
“She’ll have it.”
“With a stranger walking in and out?” Gio shouted.
Luca appreciated his younger brother’s support.
“A stranger today is a friend tomorrow.”
“Or an enemy,” Luca growled.
His mother turned to him. “When did you become so cynical?”
“When life proved I’m right.” Breath hit his lungs hard. He shook off his thoughts. “Don’t you think we at least deserved a moment of your time to discuss a decision that would affect all of us?”
Mari paused, lifted her glass of wine to her lips. “Some decisions in life are felt and spontaneous. And they are perfectly right. You’d do well to remember that. Your father proposed to me on such a moment. Picking flowers in a field.” Her smile turned wistful, and her eyes glazed over in memory.
Luca hesitated to say more before she continued.
“He handed me that pathetic display of flowers and dropped to his knee. We were children.” Mari caught Luca’s gaze for a second. “In life, you’ll have moments when you know you’re doing the right thing. For me, this is one of those times. Let’s eat.”
The need to argue more was hot on his lips.
Dishes passed between them in silence. The only one who seemed unfazed was Franny, who was nearly done with her dinner, whereas the rest of them hadn’t begun.
“Mama . . .”
Mari ignored Luca and said, “The new waiter seems to be catching on quickly, don’t you think?”
And just like that, the conversation about the tenant was dismissed.
Or swept under the carpet, as the case was.
Later, after Franny was tucked into bed and all was quiet on the floors below, Luca walked up the stairwell to the top floor and into the guest room of their family home.
“You’re late.” Gio had already beat him to it.
Luca took the seat opposite his brother, his arms spread on the sides of the chair. “What the hell is she thinking?” His eyes traveled around the space that had always been their sanctuary. As children, they’d used it to escape the chaos of the restaurant and grown-ups. As teenagers, they’d entertained their friends. As adults, they’d invited family and friends for long stays without them getting underfoot.
“I knew I should have moved up here at the beginning of the year,” Gio said on a hard sigh.
“No one could have seen this coming.”
Gio shook his head, reached for the beer he had on the coffee table. “There’s more in the fridge.”
Luca waved him off.
“Maybe this is a good thing.”
“Excuse me?” Luca said.
Gio shook his head. “I don’t know. A sign. For me. Where am I supposed to entertain a woman, Luca? My mother’s home? This has always been the space.”
Luca hadn’t even thought of that.
Gio’s sexual wings had been snipped with his mother’s actions.
“What are you thinking?” Luca asked, knowing exactly what his brother was going to say.
“I need to be on my own. It’s time.”
If there was something Luca understood more than anything, it was the desire to shift gears. But the one time he’d tried that, it backfired. Raising Franny with his mother and sister close at hand to give her what she needed from strong women was important. The last thing his daughter needed was a jaded father being the only influence in her life.
“What? No argument?”
Luca lifted himself from the chair and decided on that beer after all. “No argument. A request.”
“What’s that?”
“Help at the restaurant until we can find more staff.” Luca cracked open the bottle, took a drink.
“Of course, Luca. I’m talking about getting my own place, not removing myself from this family.” Gio spread his arms wide. “Even if I found a wife, this space wouldn’t do for us for long. Not with the babies I want to have.”
“Find the wife. Then move into my floor. Franny and I can take this one.”
Gio laughed. “Have you forgotten the tenant? And this is one bedroom. Franny will be a moody teenage girl before you know it.”