Giuliana studied the piece. The filigree base and delicate fluted shapes with their gemstone edges wouldn’t look out of place gracing a tiered confection. She could see it now, Anne in white lace, her veil thrown back, Alonzo’s handsomeness matched by his dark suit, the both of them arm in arm beside baked layers swathed in ivory icing and crowned with—
“We can sell it,” Allie said, her voice brisk.
Giuliana gaped at her. “Sell it? Why would we sell it?”
“I could ask you that very same question, about the Tanti Baci land.”
Oh, had she walked into that one. “Maybe you think I should have discussed my plans with you—”
“ ‘Maybe’?” Allie leaned forward. “Of course I think you should have discussed your plans. With all of us.”
Giuliana swallowed. “We should wait until I can talk to Stevie, too.”
“I’ll give her the highlights,” her sister said through her teeth.
Penn ran a hand down the long length of his wife’s hair. “Take it easy, sweetheart.”
Her gaze didn’t waver from Giuliana’s face. “I’m afraid to take it easy, Penn. If I take it easy, the next thing I know we’ll all be out on the street, our belongings piled around us.”
Giuliana winced. She knew exactly how that felt, since that had been her on the night of the fire. “The farmhouse isn’t part of the deal.”
“Why is there a deal?” Allie asked, throwing up her hands. “I don’t get that.”
Fear that her sisters wouldn’t had been the very reason Giuliana hadn’t shared her plans with anyone else. Though she wanted Allie and Stevie to see it her way, she’d known she was risking her relationship with them by going through with the sale. So she’d put off revealing it as long as possible.
“You know it’s dragging us all down,” she said, looking at each of the people around the table. Liam hadn’t joined them, but was instead standing off to the side, half in shadow. “Not so much the Bennetts, but their stake is much smaller than ours. For the rest . . .”
“We’re not drowning.” Allie shook her head. “Since the first wedding last summer, we’ve been coming up for air more and more often.”
“But for how long can we sustain all the swimming?” Giuliana countered. “You and Penn have to fit in your duties here and the lives you have going in Southern California. Stevie and Jack have other projects besides their obligation to Tanti Baci. The limo business for Steve and then Jack’s My Aching Back vineyard.”
Allie opened her mouth, closed it. Giuliana breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she’d made sense to her sister. “You see—” she started.
“What I see is what you don’t,” Allie interrupted, her voice hot. She rose to her feet. “ ‘Duty.’ ‘Obligation.’ Maybe that’s how you feel about what we have here, but Stevie and I, and Penn and Jack, we see . . . we see . . .” Her sister blinked rapidly, then she cut her gaze to Penn. “I’m not crying.”
“Your tears don’t bother me,” he said, sliding his arm around her hips and pulling her back down to the bench. Then he looked at Giuliana. “Neither am I bothered by juggling the winery and what’s going on down south. Family’s become pretty important to me.”
“And, obviously, to me, too,” Jack added. “I think I can speak for my wife and say—”
“Nobody gets to say but me!” Giuliana didn’t want to hear another word. “That’s the point. I’m the one who has the opportunity to make the hard decision, and I’m making it for all of us.”
“Jules.” Allie scrubbed her face with her hands. “Look, I know it was looking bleak a year ago. And it hasn’t been easy since, either. But come on, give us a chance—”
“I don’t believe in second chances.”
Allie jerked back. “What? Of course you do. You agreed to give it a year . . .”
Her sister went silent. “Oh, Jules . . .”
Giuliana looked away. “Oh, Jules, what?”
There was another tense silence, then Allie spoke again, her voice hushed. “You never actually thought it would work, did you? Edenville didn’t want to see us give up. And your sisters were pressuring you. So you granted us these months in order to appease me and Stevie, or your conscience, or the community at large—probably all three.”
So her sister did finally understand.
But from the look on Allie’s face, not in a way that led to forgiveness. The night took on a chill that Giuliana felt as she slid off the bench. Standing beside the table, she tried thinking of a way to end the conversation. “I . . .” She rubbed her forearms with her opposite hands, attempting to bring warmth to her flesh. Right hand at her left wrist, she stiffened.
Liam stepped out of the shadows. “Giuliana?”
She hadn’t looked at him since taking her seat at the picnic table. Now wasn’t the time to meet his eyes, and she didn’t, instead moving her gaze around the grass. She bent to look under their seats.
Jack stood up. “Jules? Looking for something?”
“My bracelet.” She ringed her fingers around her wrist, trying to remember when last she’d been aware of wearing it. “It’s not here.”
Penn clambered from his seat. “Maybe I can help—”
“No, no. Never mind.” She couldn’t take their assistance after the argument. “It doesn’t matter. It wasn’t worth anything.”
At that, Liam receded into the shadows again. Giuliana took it as her signal to head away. Another night on her office love seat wouldn’t kill her.
“Jules,” Allie called.
She kept on walking. “What now?”
“Just a little advice is all.” Her sister paused, then spoke again. “You can’t find what you don’t go looking for.”
18
“We could have gotten drunk in the wine cellar at your house,” Penn complained, looking with distaste at the sticky surface of the bar in front of him.
“I shouldn’t have listened to Allie and instead stayed at the farmhouse and watched over my wife,” Jack said, then glanced at his brother-in-law. “Fine, fine. Allie was right. My hovering was making Stevie crazy.”
Liam paid scant attention to them. He was lining up his second round of double shots in alphabetical order: gin, scotch, tequila, vodka, whiskey. Jack winced. “You know that isn’t a good idea, buddy, right?”
“Very good idea,” Liam replied. “Love this place. Came with Seth on his twenty-first birthday.”
Jack looked around. “Was it this seedy then? And if so, why are we here now?”
Liam grinned at him. “I’m in a seedy sort of mood.”
“He’s halfway to shit-faced,” Penn declared.
Liam shoved at his half brother’s shoulder. “Take that back.”
Penn looked around Liam and spoke to Jack. “Have you ever seen him like this before?”
“No.”
“That’s because I suppress”—Liam said the word slowly and it came out two perfect, crisp syllables—“my appetites. Not like dear old dad.”
“Shh,” Penn cautioned.
“Why? For God’s sake, everyone’s aware he catted around, Penn.” Liam added a throaty growl to his voice. “You know, rowr, rowr.”
His brother grinned. “Okay, just for that I’m glad I came, though I wish I had my video camera on me.”
“You.” Liam pushed his brother’s shoulder again as the other man kept on grinning. “Why do you have to be the smiling one? People say we look enough alike to be twins, but I’m not laughing all the time like you are.”
He caught Jack rolling his eyes and swung on his stool to confront the other man. “Zis true. Oops.” He turned to face his brother again, his head revolving faster than his body. “It’s true.”
“Uh . . .”
His finger poked Penn in the chest. “Explain.”
“I’m happy?”
Liam shook his head, suddenly morose. “I think you’re right. I could hate that about you.”
“And you’ll hate me even more if I let you go thro
ugh with this,” Penn murmured. He started sliding shot glasses out of Liam’s reach.
Sighing, he watched them go. “I wish Seth was here. Seth would let me get drunk in peace. ’Stead I’m drinking with Penn, the Nosy Parker brother.”
“Yeah, that’s me,” the other man agreed, “whoever the hell Nosy Parker is. But even when you hate me, you still love me.”
Liam grabbed the glass of whiskey before it went the way of the gin, scotch, tequila, and vodka. He curled it protectively against his chest. “I really do, you know.”
Over his head, Penn exchanged glances with their other companion. Liam called over his shoulder, “I love you too, Jack.”
The prince of Ardenia laughed. “You’re just full of that feeling tonight.”
“I know,” Liam said, nodding. “ ’Swhy I’m gonna dance with every single woman here. I’m gonna spread my love around.”
Jack cast a look about the room. “I think you’re out of luck, my friend. They’re clearing the floor for a karaoke competition.”
“Karaoke. Hell.” He hung his head, and then a brilliant idea occurred to him. “Let’s go to another bar.”
“I think we’ll just sit tight in this one for a while.” Penn signaled the bartender and a second later there was a big mug of black coffee in front of Liam. “Give you a chance to sober up before we climb back into the limo. I believe I’m really glad I brought the big car now. It has the smoothest ride.”
Liam took a sip from the double whiskey he’d been hoarding. “I want to be drunk the rest of my life.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
Penn thought he was kidding. “ ’Cause walking the straight ’n’ narrow hasn’t gotten me shit,” Liam explained. “Best times I ever had was when I was acting out of character.”
Jack nudged the coffee closer.
“You don’t believe me?” he said. “I made out with the girl and then I married the girl, all the while arguing ’gainst my better self. Greatest days of my life.”
Yeah, it was starting to make sense to him. The solution was clear. “If I stay drunk, see, I won’t remember how that was and I’ll be happy being lonely.”
Penn put the coffee in his hand. “Your logic is a little waterlogged, bro.”
It was true he couldn’t keep his mind going in one direction. It wanted to go backward. It wanted to see Giuliana in his bed that morning, her beautiful golden skin, her tender mouth. Then it rushed off to remember her as she’d been in the farmhouse yard, coming clean about the sale, looking agonized as Allie made the connection that her big sister had never truly believed in saving Tanti Baci.
I don’t believe in second chances. She’d said that.
The bartender passed by, a paunchy guy with a crew cut and a colorful tattoo. “Maybe that’s what I need,” he told his friends, pointing. “What is that? The Tasmanian Devil?”
Then something flashed in the light and his gaze shifted, catching on the wrist of a second person behind the bar. It was a woman and she wore a bracelet, a gaudy thing that almost hurt his eyes to look at. No. What hurt was . . .
The reminder of Giuliana’s missing bracelet. No, what hurt was . . .
He’d bought her that bracelet.
Whether it was some male gene that caused him to overlook detail or some self-protective instinct that had resulted in selective blindness, he’d not paid attention to what she’d regularly worn around her wrist for . . . the last year? Had it been that long, or just a number of months? Whatever the answer was, there was a clear recollection now in his head.
A holiday street fair. Ferragosto—the Feast of Assumption. They’d wandered around, hand in hand, happy. Oh, God, so happy.
She’d stopped at a jewelry booth and put out a gentle finger toward bright and shiny things hanging on a stand. He’d watched her stroke a pretty bauble—made by mouth-blown glass beads they’d been told by the artisan. The ones that attracted Giuliana were the smallest of the gleaming objects, the size of BBs. Especially hard to make, the old Venetian said, but more valuable because of it.
She liked the bracelet that was strung of beads of blue—like Liam’s eyes, she declared. He’d bought her a different bracelet though, one that used those same small bits of glass, but between each minute sphere stood a lustrous bead of gold. The added element to remind them, he’d thought then, that they’d someday celebrate their golden anniversary.
God, what a foolish romantic he’d been.
So out of character. So not like the cold fish he’d become in order to prove himself a better man than his tomcat father. His head went woozy again at the conflicting animal metaphors. Or maybe it was because of the whiskey he drained.
The empty glass clinked on the bar top. The second bartender swiped it up and again his gaze caught on her bracelet. Giuliana had given up on hers, despite what Allie had said. You can’t find what you don’t go looking for.
A thought struck. Lurching to his feet, he headed for the exit. In the entryway, Penn and Jack caught up with him. “Hey, where you going?” his half brother asked.
Liam thrust out his palm. “I need the keys. I need the keys to the limo.”
“Uh, I don’t think so.” Penn shoved his hand in his pocket.
“Just give me the damn keys!” Liam yanked on his brother’s arm, hard enough that his hand came free, the keys dangling from his fingers. He lunged for them, just as Penn tossed them to Jack. With a grunt of frustration, Liam changed direction.
“Jack—”
“Is there a problem here?” Kohl Friday asked as he came through the door. Grace Hatch was hovering a few steps behind him.
“No problem at all,” Jack said, just as he pitched the ring to Kohl, “as long as you hang on to these.”
Aggravation had Liam seeing red and his head was swimming with booze, but he could clearly make out Kohl’s gleeful expression. “Well, well, well,” the other man said, twirling the key ring on his forefinger. “Who would believe golden boy Liam Bennett drunk off his ass?”
“I’m going to knock you off your ass,” Liam promised, and gathered himself to charge. Just as he was about to spring, Kohl tossed the keys back to Jack. Liam followed the arc, swinging around, his movement deflecting the force of Kohl’s big fist against his jaw. Still, it was enough to destroy his balance.
“I owed you that,” he heard the other man say as he fell. Then his head hit the ground, hard, and the dim foyer went black.
Someone was trickling water over his face. He sat up, sputtering. “Jesus. Now you’re gonna drown me?” The small circle around him—Penn, Jack, Kohl, and Grace—looked relieved. “What the hell is wrong with you people?”
“It was the most effective way to keep you here. You’ve been drinking.”
“So you should commit murder?” There was a lump on the back of his head, but the blow had sobered him more than he liked. “I just wanted to look for the bracelet in the limo.” But hell, why was he going to do that when Giuliana wasn’t interested in doing it herself? It’s not worth anything, she’d said.
“Oh.” Jack winced. “We thought you were going to get behind the wheel.”
The paunchy bartender arrived on scene with a double shot of whiskey. “On the house.”
Grace made a little sound. “Should he have that, what with the head injury?”
Liam grabbed the glass and downed it, the burn at his throat overriding the ache in his head. “I have a lot more hurting me than that,” he told the woman. Then he clambered to his feet, swaying a little. Penn grabbed his arm and Liam eyed his brother, albeit a little blearily. “I really, really want to get drunk.”
This time nobody tried to stop him as they gathered around the bar again. He wondered if they were maybe paying the place to water down his drinks, though, because his buzz was only at the half-numbing state when a pair of karaoke candidates took to the small raised stage. Shocked, Liam glanced into his glass, then back up at the would-be singers. Maybe he was drunker than he thought, because it looked to hi
m as if Kohl and Grace were taking up microphones.
The most silent man in Edenville, the one who went to bars on his way to yet another drunk and disorderly, was opening his mouth to . . . sing. Jesus. It was the song, “Cruisin’ ” that Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow had sung as a duet in a nineties movie. Liam didn’t have an opinion on the professionals’ performance. But these amateurs . . . they stank.
When they finished up to applause and returned to the bar, Grace flushed, Kohl with a proprietary hand on her shoulder, Liam could only stare at the former soldier. “Shut the fuck up, Liam,” the other man said, even though not a word had passed between his lips.
“But—”
“When you love a woman, maybe you forget your freakin’ image for a second. Maybe you take that big stick out of your ass and take a chance on something even bigger.”
Liam’s hand tightened on his latest whiskey. What was this fixation everyone had with the stick up his ass? Annoyance rose, and then . . . hey. Was Kohl maybe a closet genius? Hadn’t Liam expressed that very sentiment earlier in the evening? “Walking the straight ’n’ narrow hasn’t gotten me shit,” he murmured, repeating himself. Maybe he needed to forget his image. Maybe he needed to . . .
Take a chance.
Take a chance that you can convince her to stay.
That was it! Liam decided he couldn’t let Kohl Friday prove to be a bigger fool than he. His thought process hiccupped. Something was wrong with that last statement, he knew it, but he didn’t have time to puzzle out the answer. Instead, he jumped to his feet, staggered a little, then steadied himself by putting his hand in someone’s platter of nachos.
“Christ, Liam,” Jack complained.
He ignored him to find his half brother Penn’s face in the slowly revolving room. “Get Giuliana here,” he ordered. “I gotta song to sing.”
Liam didn’t know what Penn said to get Giuliana to the bar. He didn’t know how many mugs of coffee he downed waiting for her. He did know it was a hundred bucks he handed over to the karaoke emcee to give him a turn the second she showed up.
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