After the service, Melinda invited Tia to go downstairs for “coffee hour.” “But don’t worry, we won’t stay an hour. We’ll just grab some cookies and joe, say hey, and go.” True to her promise, they were ready to leave after just a few minutes, but Leo stopped them.
“I know you plan to take lunch to Roland and Julie,” he told her. “Do you need a ride to the hospital?”
“I’ll just take a taxi,” she said lightly.
“That’s no good,” he said.
“Maybe I can take you,” Melinda offered. “I have something this afternoon, but when do you plan to go?”
“I promised to be there by 2:00.”
Melinda looked disappointed. “That’s not going to work for me. Sorry.”
“I’ll take you,” Leo declared.
“But I—”
“No arguing,” he told her. “I’d like to see Roland again anyway. You know, to wish him well before his surgery tomorrow.”
“Well, uh, okay.” She glanced over to where Natalie was chatting with some women her age. Probably telling them the exciting news of her recent engagement.
“I’ll come by a little past 1:00. Give us time to load things up.”
She thanked him, and then she and Melinda left. “Do you need to pick up anything at the grocery store?” Melinda asked as they got into her car. “There’s a Whole Foods nearby.”
“That’d be great,” Tia told her. “I’d planned to ride Julie’s bike, but this would be a real time-saver.”
Tia and Melinda had fun grocery shopping in Whole Foods. Melinda seemed to have a strong interest in cooking, asking lots of good questions. “Maybe you’ll let me volunteer to help on the Pacific Pearl someday,” she said as they carried the bags out to the car. “Let me work with you in the galley to see how it’s done. I think it would be fun.”
“Watch out, I might hold you to that offer.” Tia set her bag in the backseat.
“Seriously, I hope you do.”
Tia tried not to think about Leo as she tied on one of Julie’s aprons and started to prepare her uncle’s favorite Italian dish, cannelloni. Of course, trying not to think about something was as good as obsessing over it. As she rolled the freshly made pasta dough into tubes, she let her mind wander. She was curious as to Natalie’s reaction to Leo’s offer to give her a ride today. Most likely, Natalie would see this as a friendly gesture of goodwill for his boss’s husband. Nothing more. But Tia wasn’t sure she’d be that generous if she were in Natalie’s shoes. Not that there was any chance of that. For starters, she couldn’t afford Natalie’s fancy shoes—she frowned down at her bare feet—and they wouldn’t look right on her anyway!
To help get her mind off Leo and what she knew could never be, she turned on the Bose player in the kitchen. She wasn’t surprised to discover a Beatles CD already in it—her uncle’s favorite. As she chopped fresh oregano, basil, onions, and mushrooms, then browned Italian sausage and mixed eggs and cheeses and cream, she cranked up the music and danced to the old tunes.
She was just grooving to “All My Loving” while chopping a lemon cucumber to go into the fabulous green salad she was creating when a sound behind her made her jump. Holding the chef’s knife like a weapon, she whipped around.
“Sorry!” Leo held his hands up like a criminal. “I rang the doorbell but no one answered. Then I knocked and—”
“How did you get in here?” she demanded, still wielding the knife.
“The key under the flowerpot.” He held up the key. “Sorry to startle you.” His serious face broke into a big grin. “Although I have to admit I enjoyed the show.”
She rolled her eyes as she laid down her knife, wiping her hands on the apron. “Just how long were you standing there?” she demanded.
“Long enough.” He laughed.
She reached for the knife again, waving it menacingly at him. “You obviously are unaware of how feisty we Italians can be. Particularly in the kitchen. And particularly when we’re being spied upon.”
“Sorry.” He held up his hands again. “Wow, something in here smells amazing.”
“It’s cannelloni,” she said in a testy tone, turning back to her salad. “And since you nearly gave me a heart attack, I’ll let you be the pack mule to get everything loaded into the car while I freshen up.”
“You look pretty fresh to me,” he said as he snatched a missed cucumber slice, popping it into his mouth.
She glared at him as she turned off the music. What would Natalie think if she could hear her fiancé talking like this? Probably nothing. Tia sighed. She was probably making it into much more than it really was.
“Sorry to come early.” He pulled up a stool at the island. “But I was in the neighborhood and figured I’d just stop by.”
“In the neighborhood?”
“Yeah. My parents live just a few blocks from here.”
“Oh. I didn’t know.” She wedged a small vase of flowers that she’d picked from the yard into a corner of the picnic basket she’d unearthed in the garage.
He gazed out the window. “But their house doesn’t have this stunning view.”
“It is pretty, isn’t it?” She paused to look out. “This morning it looked so magical with the fog sort of melting away. I took some photos on my phone.”
“Nice.” He pointed to the bag of carrots. “Mind if I have one?”
“Help yourself. I assume you weren’t at your parents for a meal then?”
He laughed. “More like a meeting.”
“A meeting?” She snapped the lid onto the salad bowl, setting it in the cooler along with several Ziploc bags of ice.
“Wedding planning.” He scowled like a six-year-old tasting brussels sprouts for the first time.
“Oh.” She returned to filling the picnic basket with place settings.
Leo went to the stove where she’d set the cannelloni and took a deep whiff. “What did you say this is called?”
“Cannelloni,” she told him.
“Looks like lasagna.”
“It’s similar. Instead of layers of pasta and sauce and cheese, it’s tubes that are filled and then baked.”
“It looks amazing.”
“Do you plan to join us for lunch at the hospital?”
“Am I invited?” he asked eagerly.
“There’s plenty.”
“Count me in.”
She added another place setting, then covered the hot cannelloni with foil, using several kitchen towels and a tablecloth to insulate it before she nestled it on top. “Why don’t you take the basket and cooler out to your Jeep?” She pointed to the key still in his hand. “And put that back where it belongs.”
“Aye-aye, Captain.”
She frowned. “I thought you were the captain.”
“Of the boat. You’re obviously the captain of the kitchen.”
As he headed out with the basket, she went to her room for a quick cleanup, exchanging her sloppy cooking outfit for a crisp white shirt and a pair of khaki capri pants. But as she was brushing her hair down from her ponytail, she couldn’t help but second-guess her invitation to Leo. Why did I do that? Clearly she was a glutton for punishment.
11
“My sister really likes you,” Leo said as he drove them to the hospital.
“I like her too.” Tia knew this wasn’t exactly conversation fodder, but she didn’t really care, and for a short spell neither of them spoke at all. Tia pretended to be absorbed with the passing scenery as Leo navigated his way through the city. She was determined not to fall into her previous trap—attempting to fill the empty spaces with precarious conversation. That kind of chatter usually got her in much deeper than she intended to go. She knew better, but it was the way she was wired. Unless she kept her mouth closed, she tended to be an open book. Useless in poker and never very good at keeping secrets either. For whatever reason, Leo seemed to amplify these traits in her. Today she would be on her guard. She would put some boundaries into place.
“Yo
u’re being awfully quiet today.” Leo glanced her way. “Everything okay?”
“Sure.” She nodded.
“I hope you’re not still offended at my breaking in on your kitchen disco.”
She made an exasperated sigh. “No, of course not.”
“Oh, good.” He looked her way again. “So you’re really okay? Not mad at me? We’re still friends?”
She gave him her brightest smile. “Of course we’re still friends.”
“Good. So you’re just in a quiet mood?”
She nodded but felt guilty. It was as if she’d trained him to think she was quite the conversationalist and now she was shutting him down. And really, for what reason? She let another minute pass before she decided to speak.
“Did you make a decision about Natalie’s engagement ring?” She knew she was probably foolish to go there again, but the truth was, she was curious.
“No . . . not exactly. Although I did give serious consideration to what you said last night. It makes sense.” He sighed. “The problem is, I really can’t afford a ring like that. And to get it—especially with credit—feels like I’m setting us up for failure, you know? Like making her think she can keep up this lavish lifestyle that just doesn’t match up to what a boat captain earns.”
“That’s a good point. Does Natalie understand that? Does she have a realistic picture of what it will be like, I mean, after the wedding? My church back in Norton offers premarital classes to anyone getting married. My best friend Anna took them with her fiancé last year. I think it helped them a lot. Maybe your church has something like that.”
“Not that I know of, but it sounds like a good idea.”
“I’m no expert, Leo, but it seems like you need to have a realistic idea of what it will be like on your end too. I mean, how do you feel about Natalie being a successful attorney?”
“I’m okay with that.”
“Because some guys resent it when their wives . . . well, you know . . .”
“Make more money?”
“Yeah. Maybe it’s something that bothers older people more. Like my parents. It unraveled their marriage. Well, sort of.”
“What happened?”
“It’s a long story . . . but in a nutshell, my parents worked for the same accounting firm, but my mom got promoted to a managerial position. As it turned out, it wasn’t because she was more qualified, though. It was because she was involved with the boss.”
“That’s not good.”
“No. It was a big fat mess.” She sighed as she remembered how they’d been in the thick of it when she’d come down to San Francisco that summer.
“Are your parents still together? Did they work it out?”
“No. They’ve been divorced for about ten years.”
“That’s too bad. I assume you stayed with your dad since I’ve heard you mention him more than your mom.”
“Yeah. My mom and her new husband moved to Tampa. They had a couple of kids.”
“So you have half siblings?”
She nodded. “But I’ve never met them. My mom and I have pretty much lost touch.”
“Are you mad at her?”
“I was mad at first. But I’ve gotten over that. I realized a long time ago that my lack of forgiveness was hurting me more than it was hurting her. Back then I’m sure I wanted to hurt her . . . for the way she hurt my dad and me.”
“Man, that must’ve been tough.” He turned onto the hospital’s street. “You said ten years ago. Wasn’t that about the same time we went to sailing camp?”
“Yeah. Aunt Julie brought me down here because she’d hoped my parents would work things out.”
“Wow, that was a heavy load for a girl your age. To come down here knowing your parents were about to split up. Maybe that explains why you were so quiet that week, keeping to yourself in the galley most of the time.”
“I suppose I was processing a lot of stuff. Plus I was just plain insecure. Most of the kids on the trip knew each other. I was odd girl out. Of course, I also felt more comfortable in the galley.”
“I remember trying to get time with you that week. Unsuccessfully, I might add.” He pulled into a parking space.
“Oh, right,” she said sarcastically.
“It’s true.”
“As I recall, you were being pursued by every girl on the boat,” Tia said as she reached for the picnic basket.
“Even if that were true, do you think that was my fault?” Leo got out the cooler as well as her ukulele case.
“Of course it was your fault,” she teased. “You were so charming that the girls simply couldn’t resist you.”
He laughed. “Those were girls I’d known most of my life. We were just comfortable with each other. No big deal.”
“Hey, why wasn’t Natalie at that camp?”
“She was.”
Tia blinked. “She was?”
“You don’t remember the tall, awkward, skinny girl with braces and zits and mousy brown hair?”
Tia did remember a girl like that. In fact, she’d even felt sorry for her. She had liked that Leo was as nice to her as he was to the other girls. “Yeah, I do remember her, but not her name.”
“She went by Nattie back then.”
“No way!” Tia stared at him. “That was your Natalie?”
“Yep!” He laughed as they went into the hospital.
“I don’t believe it.”
“Well, then just ask her.”
“That’s crazy.” Tia shook her head. “Does Natalie remember me from that camp?”
“She didn’t at first. But I told her about you and then she got it.”
“You told her about me?” Tia glanced nervously at him. “What did you tell her?”
“Just that you were the cook.” He shrugged. “That’s all.”
“Oh.” She nodded, feeling both relieved and curious. Why didn’t he tell Natalie about the kiss? Was he embarrassed? But as they got into the elevator with several others, she knew this was neither the time nor the place for such questions. In fact, there probably never would be a time or place.
“Something smells good,” a middle-aged man said as the elevator went up.
“It’s cannelloni.” Leo pointed to the basket. “She made it.”
“Well, if it’s as good as it smells, you kids should open a restaurant.”
“That’s exactly what we’re doing.” Leo quickly explained about dinner cruises on the Pacific Pearl. “Hopefully we’ll start running them by midsummer.” The doors opened on their floor. “Look for our website,” he called as they exited.
“We have a website?” Tia asked.
“We will.”
“You’re quite the PR man,” Tia said as they went down the hallway.
“Thanks. I do what I can.”
Tia knocked lightly on Roland’s door. “Room service,” she called out as she cracked it open. “Sunday dinner for Mr. Sheffield.”
“Just in time too.” Julie waved them in. “Roland was starting to gnaw on the sheets.”
Tia laughed as she unwrapped the cannelloni and took it to Roland’s bed.
“Oh, my.” He took a long, slow whiff. “I must’ve died and gone to heaven.”
“Oh, Roland,” Julie scolded as she opened the basket. “Please don’t joke like that.”
“Sorry, honey.” He made an apologetic smile. “But what’re we waiting for? Let’s eat!”
While Julie set up the food on a side table, Tia laid a red-and-white checked tablecloth on Roland’s bed table. She set out his silverware, a wine glass (which she planned to fill with sparkling cider), and the small vase of flowers.
“Very nice.” He rubbed his hands together. “But where’s the food?”
“Here you go.” Julie set a salad plate before him.
“Ah, now that’s a salad.” Roland picked up his fork.
“How about if we ask a blessing first?” Julie suggested. She looked at Leo. “Care to do the honors?”
“Glad t
o.” They all bowed their heads as Leo said a simple blessing over the food as well as over Roland’s surgery the next day.
“Amen,” they all said together.
“Let’s eat.” Roland dove into his salad as the others filled their own salad plates.
“This is fun,” Roland said as Tia filled his wine glass and set a generous slice of bread by his salad plate. “I should come to the hospital more often.”
“Oh, Roland.” Julie shook her head.
Before long, Tia began dishing out the cannelloni, putting the first plate in front of her uncle. “Ah, this is what I’m talking about,” he said gratefully.
She refreshed his sparkling cider and added another slice of bread. “I just hope it’s not too much.” She suddenly felt concerned.
“Don’t worry,” Julie assured her. “He’s only going to have chicken broth and Jell-O for dinner.”
“Unless I sneak another portion of this under my pillow,” he teased.
“You need to save room for dessert,” Tia warned him.
“Dessert?” His eyes lit up. “Dare I hope that it’s what I think it is?”
She stifled a smile. “Well, you used to like my tiramisu . . .”
“Ah!” He sighed. “What a wonderful last supper.”
“Last supper indeed,” Julie scolded. “That is not funny, Roland.”
“Well, last supper before surgery,” he said as he used a crust of bread to wipe marinara sauce from his plate.
“I can’t remember the last time I had such a delicious meal,” Leo said as he went for a second helping of cannelloni. “Thanks for letting me crash your party, Roland.”
“Glad you could come,” Roland told him.
“The last time I tasted Tia’s cooking, it was good, but not this good.”
“What do you mean the last time?” Julie asked.
“Oh, didn’t Tia tell you that we went to sailing camp together about ten years ago?”
“You went to that camp?” Julie looked surprised. “So you two already knew each other?”
All Summer Long Page 10