The Gift

by Kim Pritekel

  “And,” Oscar added. “We’ll get you a fresh roll of potica.”

  Lizbeth Horvat stood from the couch followed by her husband and took a few uncertain steps toward Catania. “No, no. I take care of this.” She reached up a bony hand and gently rested it on the uninjured side of Catania’s face. “You good girl,” she said, her accent thicker than that of her husband. “I do want fresh roll, though.”

  Catania smiled, relieved. “You got it.” She accepted the small hug from both husband and wife, then was led out by Oscar, who closed the door softly behind them.

  Once they were in Catania’s apartment, he turned on her.

  “What the hell are you doing?” He stood and looked at her, hands on hips as he shook his head. “I have to blame this on pain meds, because you’re a better investigator than this.”

  “I know,” she murmured, running her hand through her hair. “Fuck. I’m sorry, Oscar. I really am. I just…I don’t know.”

  He walked over to her and placed a beefy hand on her good shoulder. “Nia, you can’t let yourself get paranoid. Not now. I don’t know, maybe I can talk to Price. Maybe you need a few days off—”

  “No!” she practically shouted. “That fucker tried to kill me. If you think I’m backing away now, you’re as crazy as he is.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Catania: Now, you remember what we talked about, right?

  Matteo: You mean your face looking like a zombie apocalypse?

  Catania: Part of my face being very bruised, yes. You saw the picture I texted you.

  Matteo: Yes. Looks cool.

  Catania rolled her eyes from where she sat in her Jeep outside of the Aberdeen House. She used her good hand to chicken-peck her response.

  Catania: Glad you’re amused. I’m sitting outside the house. Grab your jacket and don’t forget your key, your phone, and the dessert plate that Ally gave you to bring.

  Knowing he wouldn’t reply but simply follow her directions item by item until he’d fulfilled the requests, she set her phone aside and waited. She didn’t go in because she didn’t want to frighten anyone she ran into. As predicted, her face looked worse than it probably would the entire time it healed. It and her arm felt equally bad, as well. The truth was, she had no desire to head to Jason and Karen’s house. She was tired from dealing with pain all night and just wanted to be wrapped up in Ally all day.

  But, that wasn’t to be. Despite the fact that Karen was hosting Christmas at her house, she’d helped Ally earlier that morning, but the rest of the day at Aberdeen House was on her little gorgeous waitress to make happen. So, Catania had kept her word that she’d spend at least part of the day with her family. She had, however, sent them an email the previous night explaining what had happened—though she outlined it as an accident—and warned them that she was pretty banged up.

  She knew for them it was simply a heads-up, but Matteo would shut down if he saw her hurt, or anything so radically different than what he was expecting. By knowing and seeing it ahead of time, he could create a fantasy in his own mind, whatever it was he needed to, to deal with it emotionally and understand it in a non-empathetic way.

  Like clockwork he opened the passenger door in exactly four minutes forty-four seconds, as he always did when she waited for him outside. She looked over at him to give him a chance to soak in the swelling and bruising of her face.

  “Wow,” he said, reaching a hand up for what she knew he was intending to be a gentle touch. The contact nearly sent her through the roof as pain exploded through her head.

  Grabbing his hand, she gave it a quick squeeze before letting it go, then started the engine.

  ****

  After the drama of shocked looks and cries of “Holy shit,” Catania sat on a stool in the kitchen as Leonardo stood next to her, helping her with the sling she’d brought with her. Her arm was hurting and the sling helped to stabilize it a bit, but she couldn’t effectively put it on herself.

  “How’s that?” he asked softly, meeting her gaze. There was a new softness in his. Since they’d come out to each other, a closeness had grown between them that wasn’t there before. It was a quiet understanding that, though they loved their family, they were alone in their secret. “Too tight?”

  “No, it’s not bad. Actually, pull that a tiny bit more.” She watched him tighten the sling so her arm was held a bit closer to her body. “Great, thanks, Leo.”

  “Karen, do you have a Sharpie?” he asked his sister-in-law, who was counting out napkins out of a large package.

  “Uh, you know what, Leo, look in that drawer over there by the phone. It’s basically a junk drawer,” she said, indicating the drawer at the end of the counter near the French doors that led out back.

  Doing as he was told, he walked over to it, moving things aside until, with a cry of victory, he hipped the drawer closed and walked back to Catania. He gave her a mischievous grin. “I get to be first.”

  “What are you doing?” she asked, slightly irritated and slightly amused. “Oh, Leo, no. I’m a professional.”

  He smirked. “Yeah, well I was a middle school student when you felt the need to write the lyrics to ‘The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow’ on the cast on my leg.” He met her gaze through his bangs as he pulled the cap off the black Sharpie. “Remember that?”

  She gave him a devilish grin. “Just be nice, okay?”

  “Mamma, did you bring that photo album?” Dino asked, sauntering into the kitchen. He glanced at Leo, who was carefully writing on Catania’s cast. “Oh, I’m next.”

  “What photo album?” Antonia asked.

  “The one you said you was bringing. Melanie wants to see it.”

  Catania raised an eyebrow. “You’re still with Melanie?”

  “Hey,” he said, resting his hand on the counter next to where she sat on the stool. “It has been the happiest nine weeks of my life. In fact…” He pulled his class high school class ring out of his pocket, the large, bulky silver highlighted by a large ruby at its center. “This baby got me through four championships. Figure I’ll get lucky again today.”

  “Wait, what are you going to do with that?” Leo asked, Sharpie frozen mid-stroke.

  Catania let out a groan. “You’re going to propose with your class ring, Dino?”

  “What?” the handsome twenty-five-year-old asked, looking baffled. “It’s just a placeholder, Nia,” he said, grinning at everyone like she was making the stupidest point ever. “I’ll buy her the real thing after she says yes.”

  “Why didn’t you buy her one before?” Karen asked, glancing at him from the stove where she was transferring dinner rolls from a cookie sheet to a basket.

  “Have you priced engagement rings, Karen?” he asked. “I mean, they’re expensive!”

  “Says the guy who pays no rent, no car payment, no insur—” Catania ticked off on her fingers before she was interrupted.

  “Hey, I’m a man,” he pronounced, a hand spread defensively on his well-developed chest. “I got material needs, ya know? Do you have any idea what it costs to look like this?” he asked, indicating his muscular body and modern haircut. “These clothes? I have an image to project, an image of the d’Giovanni family to project.” He grabbed the Sharpie out of Leo’s hand. “You know what,” he muttered, scribbling something before throwing the marker onto the counter and storming out of the kitchen.

  Those left behind all glanced at each other, surprised. Catania shook her head. “Let’s hope it wasn’t the happiest nine weeks of her life and she escapes.” After a moment, the room burst into laughter.

  ****

  Dinner had been eaten and the paper plates and plastic cups Karen had insisted on using—to Antonia d’Giovanni’s horror—had been tossed or put in the recycle bin. Catania’s arm was beginning to make its presence known via an increasing, dull ache. She had an appointment with her orthopedic surgeon the following morning, but at the moment, all she wanted was to go home, take a pain pill, and vanish from the world.

/>   Needing to be alone, as her family could be entirely too much, she wandered around her oldest brother’s workshop and creative area. Karen hadn’t wanted a huge mess in the house—again to Catania’s mother’s horror—so long tables had been set up in the four-car garage portion of the building, which was heated, for the big meal. Truth was, with this bunch Catania didn’t blame her one bit, especially since Paul had shown up with three of his kids, all pretty much unattended monsters. Even their grandparents weren’t quite sure what to do with them.

  The family was mainly being kept in the garage area as well as what Dino kept referring to as Jason’s “man cave.” Jason kept telling him to grow up. In that area was a large TV, a dartboard, and a pool table. She’d been playing darts with Leo and their father for a while, but the jerking motion of throwing the darts against two very competitive men was taking its toll on the pain scale.

  So now, she was wandering in the area where Jason hadn’t told anyone they weren’t supposed to go, but nothing had been set up for the holiday gathering in that space. It was obviously his workshop area, a corner that had a dusting of wood chips and scraps from his woodcarving. A stereotypical workbench, the envy of most hands-on kind of people, ran along an entire wall. She noticed something interesting hanging on the wall beside the pegboard that lined the wall behind the workbench.

  A long, narrow iron frame was mounted to the wall, about four feet long and hung vertically. Iron rings were attached at six-inch intervals, dark brown pots set in them that perfectly resembled wooden water buckets about four inches high and six inches around, including some sort of dark blue material inside them to resemble water. There were six buckets in all.

  “There you are. Your mom is looking for you.”

  She turned to see Jason stepping up beside her. He looked from her to the mounted art and back. “What is this?” she asked.

  He gave her a boyish grin, reaching up to adjust his ever-present Denver Broncos baseball cap. “It’s my bucket list.”

  Catania burst into laughter of the obvious irony. “That’s awesome. Did you make these?” she asked, reaching out and touching the cool clay with her fingertips.

  “Yeah. Just pinch pots, no biggie. And then,” he said, pride in his voice as he carefully removed the top bucket from its holder and brought it down to Catania’s eye level. “This,” he said, poking the “water” inside. “It’s a candle gel. Have you seen those gel candles?”

  “Yeah, I used to have one in 1998.”

  He chuckled. “Yup, same thing, dyed blue.”

  She reached in and smiled at the cool, springy material. “So, is it your bucket list just for the fun irony, or does it truly signify your bucket list?”

  “True blue bucket list. This one, for instance,” he said, lifting the one he held. “It’s to signify my marriage to Karen.” He grinned, leaning down to whisper. “Don’t tell her, but I stole one of the flowers from her bouquet and dried it. It’s in here,” he added, again poking the blue gel.

  Catania smiled. “I won’t say anything, but I bet she’d be really touched by that. Karen was a bucket list item, huh?”

  He shrugged, replacing the bucket in its ring. “I love Karen a lot, but really it’s more about finding stability. You know, with my mother and her issues, moving from place to place, boyfriend to boyfriend, bouncing me from family member to family member…” He leaned back against the workbench.

  “How is your mom?” Catania asked softly. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her. Her drug and alcohol use had all but shriveled her up to a bag of bones.

  He shrugged, crossing powerful arms over his chest. “I haven’t seen her in about three years.” He snorted. “Doubt I’ll ever see her again. She wasn’t in good shape.” He glanced at her, studying her for a moment. “You know, Catania, you’ve really made good of yourself. I’m sure you parents are really proud.”

  “Thanks. And hey, our father is proud of you, too. I do, however, think he wonders what the hell happened to the others.”

  Jason chuckled. “Eh,” he said, shrugging again. “I think Leonardo may actually do something. I do think he should come out already.”

  Catania bit her bottom lip to not burst into laughter. “Yeah. But the others…” She just shook her head.

  “The one that surprises me is Paul.” He shook his head then glanced down at her cast. A grin spread over his face. “You look like you belong in middle school, everyone signing that thing.”

  “I know, tell me about it. Leo started it.” She watched as he dug through a few drawers in the workbench before he produced a black magic marker. Popping the cap, he scrawled a quick word in small, neat letters: ouch. Catania chuckled. “Yeah, pretty much.”

  “Well, hey,” he said, lightly tugging on her long-sleeved button-up, which she’d worn as she could roll the broken arm sleeve up and the shirt didn’t have to go over her head. Her shoulder and face were still in a lot of pain, too. “Your mom is looking for you. They’re looking at pictures.”

  Together, the two walked over to the recreation area where the matriarch, Karen, Dino and Melanie, and one of Paul’s children were huddled on or around the couch as Antonia flipped through the pages of a large photo album that sat in her lap.

  “This was the snowman the boys built,” Antonia was saying. She glanced up when Catania entered the room. “Nia, you remember the weekends at our lake house when you were little?”

  “I do.” She sat down next to her mother when Paul’s eight-year-old hopped up and ran off to join those playing pool. She looked at the page of memories, smiling at some and rolling her eyes at others.

  “Look, Mel,” Dino said, tapping a picture of him around seven years old, shirtless and flexing his wiry, little boy muscles. “Even then I was built.”

  Catania gave Melanie a side glance, hiding a smile when the brunette rolled her eyes. Her attention was pulled back to the album at the sound of her name.

  “Here you are about five. Look, there’s Matteo!” Antonia said, the namesake in question not even lifting his eyes from the handheld video game he’d been given for Christmas.

  “Who’s that?” Dino asked, pointing at the third person in the picture.

  The image showed a very short and very young Catania standing in the middle of the kitchen at the lake house in socked feet, the little jeans she wore high waters. She smiled, assuming she must have been in a growing spurt. Part of her Buddha belly was exposed as her T-shirt had come up a bit as she drank from an olive-green plastic cup, both hands wrapped around it. Matteo stood nearby, tiny fingers curled into the back of her T-shirt as he looked up at someone who was handing him a bright yellow sippy cup.

  The person on the other end of that sippy cup wore dark blue jeans and colorful tennis shoes. She wore a striped T-shirt and had short, somewhat shaggy dark hair which hid most of her face as she was looking down at the two-year-old who just didn’t look so certain.

  “Oh,” Antonia said at her son’s question. “That is…” She stroked her chin as heavily plucked eyebrows fell in thought. “What was her name? She used to help out your Papa. Believe it or not, she wanted to be a plumber, such a young girl to want to get all messy. Such a sweetheart. Loved you kids. Papa?” she called out to Alberto, still throwing darts.

  “What?” he called back.

  “That little girl you teach, the ‘intern,’ you called her. What was her name?”

  “Oh,” he said, walking toward the couch, his unthrown dart twisting in his fingers. “Amy. Amy was her name.”

  “Amy!” Antonia slapped her palm against the glossy page of the album. She shooed him away before continuing with her story. “She helped your father with that bathroom off the kitchen. The toilet would plug up all the time.”

  “Did she become a plumber when she got older?” Melanie asked, leaning past Dino to look at the pictures.

  Antonia shrugged. “Don’t know. Her family moved away, I think.”

  “Show me—” Dino began.


  “Catania, it is thirty-four minutes past the time I was ready to go home,” Matteo said, glaring up at her from his game. “Furthermore, it’s fourteen minutes past the time you were supposed to take your pain medication.”

  Catania knew it was absolutely time to go, that Matteo had reached his limit. She leaned over and placed a kiss on her mother’s cheek. “We need to go, Mamma.”

  Antonia nodded, bringing up her hand to cup the side of Catania’s face, only for Catania to hiss in pain. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” She rained apologetic kisses down on the non-hurt side of Catania’s face.

  “Okay, while we’re all here,” Dino said, moving away from the couch and moving to the center of the room. “Melanie,” he said, holding out a hand to her.

  “Oh shit.” Antonia sighed, making Catania snort in amusement.

  “Now, everyone here, they all love you,” he began, her hand in his. “So, I figure, why not?” He reached into his pocket, Melanie’s gaze following the movement.

  Catania watched closely as her brother withdrew his hand, class ring gripped between thumb and forefinger. Melanie’s look of embarrassed confusion at the sudden spotlight he’d put on her melted to hope, and finally to shock and disgust.

  “Melanie,” Dino said, seeming to be warring with himself as he dipped into a weird almost-curtsy, finally falling to one knee. “Will you—”

  “Wait, wait,” she said, taking a step back, hands up and fingers waving in a pseudo-jazz-hands move. “Are you asking me to marry you, Dino?” she asked, voice hitching to a shrill pitch on the last word.

  He looked from the ring he held up to her face. “Well, yeah. Yeah, I am.”

  “With a class ring?”

  “Well, uh…” He looked back to the family, all of whom had gathered, with wide eyes, almost as though he were looking for guidance. Catania wished she had a bucket of popcorn.