Serena's Choice
By Jennifer Ransom
Copyright © 2013 by Jennifer Ransom
Cover art by Design Dept.
All rights reserved.
Please take a moment to check out my other books on Amazon. Jennifer Ransom's Amazon Kindle Books
Join my email list and I'll give you a free book!
You'll also receive alerts about other free book
specials and new releases.
Click here to follow me on Twitter
Be sure to like my Facebook page here!
This is a work of fiction. References to actual people, places, and events are used to lend authenticity to the novel and are used fictitiously. All characters, dialog, and events are from the author's imagination and are not real. Any resemblances to real people, places, events, or dialog are coincidental.
This book may not be copied, scanned, or reproduced in any way without permission from the author.
Chapter One
Serena tasted the cream of artichoke soup and instructed the soup cook to add more seasoning. She constantly had to check the food—the soups, the sauces, the sides, the dressings. But that was her job. She threw her tasting spoon into the stainless steel sink and barely heard the clatter of it above the other noises around her.
It was deafening in the kitchen with the sounds of pots and pans clattering, dishes banging down on counters, the staff talking and shouting and cursing. Serena thought sometimes that her ears would burst with the noise.
Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket—no way she would have heard a ring in all that noise. She fished her phone out of her chef’s jacket pocket, looked at the incoming call, and walked into her tiny office as she pressed the button to answer her grandmother.
“Hey, Nonna,” Serena said.
“Hey, cara,” her grandmother said, using the affectionate Italian name her grandmother always called her.
“I’m sorry to have to call you with bad news,” Nonna said. “But your mother has passed away. It was very unexpected.”
Serena felt like the floor was moving out from under her.
“What do you mean passed away?”
“Cara,” Nonna said. Her voice was weak and strained. “I’m sorry, honey. Adrianna died about an hour ago. I would have called you sooner but I’ve been at the emergency room hoping for a better outcome. She dropped to the floor in the diner. She was making salads for the dinner crowd and she just fell down. The doctor said she died before she hit the floor. It was her heart.”
Serena couldn’t speak. She sat down in the chair behind her desk.
“I can’t believe this,” she said. “I just talked to her last night. She seemed fine.”
“I know,” Nonna said. “She was fine until her heart stopped. I’m in a state of shock about it.”
Serena was in a state of shock, too. In fact, she didn’t believe it. It wasn’t possible that her mother was dead. Serena was certain there had been some sort of error on somebody’s part. The doctor? Nonna? She needed to get to Luna Bay so she could see that it was all a mistake.
“Will you be able to come home?” Nonna asked.
Serena tried to focus her thoughts. “Of course, Nonna,” she said. “Of course. I’ll be there just as soon as I can get there. I’ll leave right away.”
“Thank you, cara. I’ll see you soon. Be careful on the drive. I love you,” Nonna said, her voice cracking before she drew in a ragged breath.
“I love you too, Nonna. I’ll be home soon.”
Serena hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket. This was not happening. Her mother couldn’t be dead and she was going home to see for herself. First, she had to call the executive chef, Daniel. Daniel, who wasn’t even at the restaurant when he was supposed to be. Daniel, who had sloughed off his chef duties to Serena, the sous chef. Daniel, who was difficult, at best. Daniel, who the staff despised.
Serena had been working at Bridgewater’s for three years, and in that time, Daniel had gradually reduced his time in the restaurant and put everything on Serena. She was sick of it. She was sick of him. It was true that he was a talented chef who had trained in Europe. Bridgewater’s signature dish was Daniel’s creation, steak rubbed with his special blend of spices and served with a fiery balsamic blackberry reduction. Steak Daniel was ordered more than any other entrée the restaurant featured. It had been written up in the New York Times. But Daniel was arrogant about his skills, and now he paid little attention to Bridgewater’s. When he was there, he spent most of his time in his office with his phone in his hand, texting, Serena assumed.
Bridgewater’s menu featured mostly European food with a heavy leaning toward French cuisine. A few months ago, Serena had suggested adding pasta primavera to the menu, and Daniel had scoffed. “We’re not an Italian restaurant,” he had said, dismissing her by looking down at the phone in his palm.
Serena had grown up in an Italian restaurant, and her goal was to be the head chef of an Italian restaurant, in Atlanta or another large city. She had already been putting out feelers to restaurants in Atlanta, although she was willing to leave the city. But Serena wasn’t worried about that in that moment. She was looking for Daniel.
Of course Daniel was nowhere to be found in Bridgewater’s. She dialed his cell. On the fourth ring, Daniel answered.
“This better be good,” he said when he answered. No hello.
“Daniel, I just found out my mother died. I’ve got to go home right away.”
Silence on Daniel’s end. Then, “I’m sorry, Serena. I know that’s tough. Do you have someone who can cover for you?”
“I thought you might do that,” she said sharply. She’d had just about enough of him.
“Oh,” he said. “Yeah, I guess I can do that. How long do you think you’ll be gone?”
“I have no idea,” she said, getting more and more pissed at Daniel. Did the man even have a mother?
“Okay,” Daniel said. “Keep in touch and let me know when you’ll be back.”
Serena ended the call and went out onto the floor of the restaurant to find the manager, Scott. She told him her mother had died and Scott was appropriately sympathetic.
“Daniel said he’ll be looking after things while I’m gone,” Serena told him. Scott gave her a look that said, yeah right. Maybe they were catching on to Daniel, she thought fleetingly. But she didn’t have time to dwell on the politics of Bridgewater’s. She had to get home.
Serena raced to her apartment. She threw clothes without thinking into her suitcase. Then she went to her closet and chose a black knee-length dress. For a funeral, she thought as tears began to roll down her cheeks. She got into her car and headed out of town, toward Luna Bay.
It was only after she had left Atlanta and been on the road to the Gulf for a while that she thought about calling Jeff. The fact that she hadn’t considered calling him right away when she heard about her mother told her something crucial about their relationship. But wasn’t that the way Serena wanted it?
Jeff had come into Bridgewater’s late one night with several co-workers. They had finished a brief for their law firm and were celebrating. It was late for the restaurant, but not too late. The table got a little rowdy. Jeff demanded to see the chef. Of course Daniel was not available, so Serena went out.
“I just want you to know that this food is the best I’ve ever had,” Jeff said. “I want to compliment the chef.”
Serena’s dark hair was pulled back and she had on her chef’s apron. “Well, thanks a lot,” she said.
After their table finally left, Jeff hung around and asked Scott to see the chef again. Again,
Serena went out to the floor of the restaurant.
“What time do you get off?” Jeff had asked her. “Because I’m going to a blues club and I’d like it if you could join me.”
Serena had blushed then. She wasn’t used to such bold behavior from men. But she was also tired and frustrated with Daniel and his non-appearance at the restaurant. So she responded boldly back.
“I’d love that,” she told Jeff. “I get off in a few minutes, so if you can wait for me over there,” she said pointing at benches inside the front door. “Then we can go.”
Jeff waited, and they went to the blues club and had a careless time drinking beer and dancing to the blues music. Serena and Jeff had been dating, if you could call it that, ever since. He was busy as an associate attorney and she was busy as a sous chef, and their schedules rarely meshed. But they had become intimate with each other. They had a lot of fun together.
But on that drive to the coast, Serena admitted to herself that her relationship with Jeff was lacking an emotional quality. It wasn’t going anywhere permanent. She knew that. Jeff knew that, too. And now, on the road to home, Serena knew she should call Jeff and let him know about her mother, but she didn’t even want to.
So, she didn’t. It was unlikely that Jeff would even notice her absence.
Chapter Two
About five hours later, Serena turned onto her grandmother’s road and drove toward the cottage she had grown up in. Her father, Paul Miller, had died in a hurricane when she was so small she couldn’t remember him. She and her mother and grandmother had shared the cottage all of Serena’s life. She grew up working in Rossetti’s, learning how to make bread and pizza and pasta dishes. Recipes for the restaurant had traveled from Italy, then New York City, when Serena’s great grandparents had moved to the coast. Her great grandmother started the diner after World War Two, while her husband worked with other Italian immigrants on a shrimp boat they scrimped and saved to buy.
Serena knew the family history well from her grandmother. Camilla Rossetti moved to Luna Bay with her husband, Serena’s great grandfather, in 1946. She was pregnant with Serena’s grandmother, but didn’t know it at the time. After they arrived, they lived in a tent for a while, on the bay, but when it became obvious that Camilla was pregnant, another Italian family living on the bay took them in. They had all had their tough times, but Luna Bay became established as an Italian enclave, a community of Italians helping each other out.
After Serena’s grandmother, Elena, was born in 1946, Camilla decided to open an Italian eatery. The highway ran right along the beach with an exit to Luna Bay. Camilla discovered an abandoned Victorian house on the bay, left there by wealthy oil people who had lost all of their money. Camilla figured out who the owners were and contacted them. She offered to pay them rent on the house, with an option to buy it down the road. She was very shrewd, Serena’s grandmother always said. The poor oil family took Camilla up on her offer and Camilla and her husband, who spent his days on the boat, and her little baby moved in.
It wasn’t long before Camilla opened Rossetti’s Italian Diner. She had learned a lot from her relatives while living in New York and working in their shops and small restaurants. She had learned a lot from her mother, Maria Pavoni. After the war, there were travelers and truckers on the highway and Camilla intended to take advantage of that and turn her cooking into money.
Camilla moved her family to the top floor of the old house and turned the bottom floor into Rossetti’s. Gradually, word spread and her food became well known on the highway. Elena grew up in the restaurant, on Camilla’s hip, and then started carrying her own weight. Elena married an Italian boy that had also grown up in Luna Bay, Antonio Fontana, Serena’s grandfather. Rossetti’s became so famous that famous people stopped by while they were on the road. The walls were lined with photos of them, including Frank Sinatra and music and film stars from the fifties, sixties, and seventies.
********************
It was after midnight when Serena pulled into the driveway of her grandmother’s house on Luna Bay. It was late, but the lights were on and Nonna greeted her at the door. Her grandmother looked more frail than Serena had ever seen her. Nonna felt frail as Serena leaned down to hug her grandmother. Both cried as they hugged.
“What happened, Nonna? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand it, either. But the doctor said it was her heart. That seems right. Your mother’s heart was broken after your father died. Broken for a long time.”
Serena led her grandmother to her bedroom and helped her to bed. She went to the kitchen where she found the makings for tea and brewed her grandmother and herself a cup. She carried a bottle of brandy and two glasses with the tea.
Elena accepted the tea gratefully. Serena sat by her bed and poured two small glasses of brandy.
“My only child is gone,” Nonna said. “My only child. I never dreamed it would end up like this. Never.”
“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Serena said. And grandmother and granddaughter sat together until Elena fell asleep. Serena went to her old bedroom and unpacked her suitcase. The bed was beckoning her and she fell into it. She sipped her brandy and checked her phone. Jeff had actually texted her. “How about we go out tonight?” he said. But Serena was too tired to answer, too tired to contemplate her relationship with Jeff. She fell asleep knowing the next morning would be harder.
Elena opened the door to Serena’s bedroom early the next morning. “I’m sorry to wake you up, cara,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of things to take care of today.”
“It’s okay,” Serena said. “I’m getting up.”
Elena had made coffee and eggs and toast for Serena.
“You didn’t have to cook, Nonna,” Serena said.
“Of course I did. My granddaughter’s here.”
After breakfast, Elena and Serena went to the funeral home to choose the casket and make the arrangements.
“Where is she now?” Serena asked.
“She was brought here from the hospital this morning. We’ll be able to see her soon. I was thinking we would have a visitation tomorrow evening. Does that sound all right to you?”
Serena could not wrap her mind around a visitation. She could not wrap her mind around the fact that her mother was dead. When was she going to wake up from her nightmare? When was her grandmother going to tell her it was all a terrible mistake?
“Nonna, I can’t believe this is happening. I just can’t believe it.”
“Me either, cara. Me either. I’m just trying to hold myself together to get through this.”
“I’m sorry. I know I should be more help in this. A visitation tomorrow sounds right. Will Father Maconi do the service?”
“I think so. He’s so old now, I’m not sure. I need to contact the church to finalize everything. I think Adrianna wanted a Catholic funeral, even though she hadn’t been to mass in a long time.”
Serena agreed. Her mother had struggled most of her life, but she still considered herself a Catholic. “A lapsed Catholic,” she had told Serena more than once. A Catholic funeral it would be. Nonna would feel good about that, and Serena wanted to make her grandmother feel good as she grieved the death of her only child.
After breakfast, Nonna called the church. The secretary who answered the phone said that Father Maconi would definitely do the service. That was fitting. Father Maconi had known her mother her entire life. He had known Serena her entire life, though she also was a lapsed Catholic.
“I’ve got to get to the diner,” Nonna said after all of the arrangements had been made with the church.
“Can’t they handle it without you?” Serena asked. “You have suffered a loss.”
“No,” Nonna said decidedly. “They can’t handle it without me. And now your mother isn’t there, and it’s even harder on the staff. I’ve got to go. Can you come with me?”
Serena drove her grandmother to Rossetti’s. It was still early and the
lunch crowd wouldn’t be there for an hour or so. They walked into the restaurant. Serena was struck right away with how seedy the place had become. The booth seats were tattered and torn, the linoleum floors looked dirty and worn. Serena walked back to the kitchen, the place she had learned her craft, and was horrified at the condition it was in. It looked greasy and filthy. She knew that the diner had stopped making its own bread after she left, and the bread oven was an unused and dirty appliance stuck over to the side of the kitchen, taking up valuable space.
It wasn’t the time to talk to her grandmother about the condition of the restaurant. Serena grabbed an apron and started cooking for the lunch crowd. Nonna went to the big pot of minestrone that was always on the stove and checked it out. She added some salt and pepper. Serena watched Nonna go back to the tiny office and sit down in a chair. Serena was going to be handling lunch.
Several hours later, Serena took off her apron and went to her grandmother.
“Nonna, we need to go now. The staff can handle dinner and close down. I’ve talked to them and they understand.”
Elena looked up at Serena then, but it didn’t seem that her eyes were focusing completely.
Serena took charge. “Nonna, we have a funeral to plan. We’ve got to leave the diner for a few days. Don’t worry. I’ll check on things for you. But for now, we’ve got to go.”
Elena stood and Serena took her arm. They walked together out of the diner and to Serena’s car. It hurt Serena to see her grandmother in this shape. She had lost her child, and Serena had lost her mother. They both were stunned and getting numb.
Back at the cottage, Serena led her grandmother to her bedroom and helped her get ready for bed.
“I’m sorry, cara,” Elena said. “I guess everything finally got to me today. The diner seemed so empty without her.”
“I know, Nonna. I still can’t believe it.”
Serena's Choice - Coastal Romance Series Page 1