I nodded, grinning at the sudden light that shone from his handsome face. “When would you like to do it?”
“How about Sunday?”
“Sunday?” Sunday was only a few days away. And the day after that was the gala. Things were moving faster than I thought.
Matthew nodded. “We’ll join them for midday Mass and then go to my grandmother’s for dinner. We can tell them then.”
My palms felt clammy. This was new. Calvin had never had family to impress, and even then, the stakes were so much different. Would Matthew’s family be accepting of me and all my terrible flaws?
But his grin was blinding, and even through my trepidation, I knew this was the right thing to do.
“All right,” I said. “Sunday.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Matthew
“Stop humming,” Frankie said from the backseat as I turned off the West Side Highway.
“Stop snapping,” I said, but did as she asked instead of continuing my rendition of “I’ve Got the World on a String.” “I got a little song in my heart, Frankie. What’s so wrong with that?”
“Yeah, Mama. What’s so wrong with that?”
I chuckled at the drawn-out vowels in my niece’s pronunciation of “wrong.” Despite Frankie’s best intentions, Sofia was sounding more and more like a character from Goodfellas.
“You should have her audition for A Bronx Tale, Frankie,” I said. “She’d fit right in.”
Frankie made a rude gesture that I could see through the rearview mirror, then went back to messing with Sofia’s hair.
“I don’t know what you have to be so chipper about. You only woke up a half an hour ago.” She looked me over irritably through the rearview mirror. “God, I hate men. All you need is ten minutes and you can walk out the door looking like a GQ model.”
I turned up Tenth Avenue and tipped my hat to one side. “If it makes you feel better, it took me closer to fifteen. I had to shave.”
I’d even picked out my clothes the night before, like I was a ten-year-old kid getting ready for school pictures. Gray tweed suit, Nonno’s felt fedora, my favorite red tie that had more than a few memories attached to it by now.
“Today’s a big day for me,” I added. “Bringing a girl to church and all.”
Frankie snorted, but there wasn’t much humor in her eyes. Just like last night before I’d left for work, when I’d told her we needed to pick up Nina on the way to Belmont. I knew that look because I gave it to her often enough myself, and it felt like I’d seen it nonstop for the last year. She hadn’t stopped looking at me that way since I’d told her that Nina was coming today. She didn’t know why, but my sister wasn’t stupid. Maybe she was in the dark about the engagement, but no one was going to believe that Nina was just a friend.
And despite my sister’s obvious disapproval, the fact couldn’t have made me happier.
Frankie glanced down at Sofia, then covered her ears. “I still don’t think you should bring her home until she’s not married anymore.”
“Mama!” Sofia wiggled out of Frankie’s hands, mussing up her hair again.
“Sofia! I just finished tying that! Now, hold still.”
So I chose to ignore Frankie’s worries as I turned onto Seventy-Fourth Street, then drove up Central Park West and around the block so I could pull up directly in front of the townhouse. Nina stood outside in the sun, dressed to the nines in a light blue coat over a cream-colored dress, with matching lace gloves. A small cluster of feathers and silk was pinned to her glossy, golden hair, a fishnet veil dropped just over one side of her brow. More than ever, she looked like a classic film star, plucked out of my dreams for this fine spring day. A perfectly put-together lady, whom I would take great pleasure in dirtying up later on.
“She looks like a princess!” Sofia squealed.
“She looks like something,” Frankie muttered.
I turned around and pointed at her. “Be nice.”
Frankie held up her hands in mock surrender while I got out.
“Hiya, doll,” I greeted her with a quick kiss on the cheek. “You look like a million bucks. I like that hat.”
Nina flushed as she touched the netting. “It’s a fascinator, actually—my grandmother’s, once upon a time. It’s not too much, is it?”
I smiled. She looked so uncertain despite the fact that she was so damn perfect. “It’s church, baby. It’s never too much. Nonna still wears a veil, if you can believe that.”
There was a knock on the window—Frankie, gesturing that we needed to get a move on. I checked my watch. Shit, it was past ten.
“All right, all right,” I said as I opened the passenger door for her. “Get in, baby. The Lord waits for no one.”
We managed to slip into one of the family’s usual pews at Christ Our Redeemer just before the big wood doors were shut and the organs and choir really started in earnest. It was the typical array of locals who still attended the Italian Mass in Belmont—a smaller group now than when Nonna was a girl, but Father Deflorio had his faithful flock who had been showing up every Sunday at eleven for the last forty years.
“Nice of you to show up,” hissed Lea from the pew in front of us, where she was busy wrangling her youngest in her arms while her husband, Mike, was doing his level best to shut the older ones up as the procession of ministers and the priest passed waving incense.
“Please. They’re just starting,” I retorted as I removed my hat and laid my coat over the back of the bench.
Nina followed suit, nodding politely at the row of sharply curious Zola sisters who were craning their necks around in front of us to examine her like she was a cut of meat at the butcher.
“Eyes front, ladies,” I told them. “God hates a gossip, you know.”
“Hush!” Lea hissed as the procession passed our row.
Father Deflorio nodded amiably toward us as if Lea hadn’t just scolded me like I was one of her kids.
“Yeah, hush, Zio!” Tommy, my oldest nephew, said, prompting echoes of “Hush! Hush!” from Pete and Sofia.
“Psst!” Nonna leaned over from where she stood near the end, scowling furiously at all of us, veil and all.
“See what you did?” I said to Lea.
Beside me, Nina chuckled. I grinned. Lea just scowled and turned back to help her husband quiet their kids, but not before glancing sharply at Nina again, who was now looking around curiously at the church’s ornate Romanesque interior.
“You good, baby?” I murmured to her, touching the outside of her hand, but not daring to do more than that in the church. Not with my sisters apparently watching our every move. Not knowing how nervous Nina was today about our news.
“I’m fine. But it seems like you need to behave,” she said with a nod toward my family.
I frowned. It was a little strange, the way they were acting. It wasn’t as though they had never met Nina before, even if it had been more than a year since she had seen most of them. There was something about the way all of them kept turning back to check her out like they were preparing for a knife fight in the alley. Or the way my grandmother hadn’t even said hello. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I faced the front of the church, hoping the awkwardness would calm down over the next hour.
Things went relatively smoothly. Nina stood when we stood, sat when we sat, and kneeled when we kneeled, only really looking like an outsider when she remained in her seat while the rest of us shuffled forward to receive communion. She particularly seemed to enjoy the second reading from the book of Daniel, which was the basis for today’s sermon.
“‘Daniel answered, “May the king live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.”’”
“Lionesses, I bet,” I whispered to her. “All of them.”
Nina elbowed me in the ribs, but her smile was genuine.
And so it wasn’t until the end, when the procession had completely gone and the doors were flung open again that Lea whirled around to me with a fin
ger pointed straight at us.
“What is she doing here?” she demanded.
I recoiled, automatically putting my arm in front of Nina, as if I could shield her from my sister’s wrath. “What the hell, Lea?”
“Matthew!” hissed Nonna, gesturing toward the altar and the giant crucifix hanging in the apse. A sort of “Shut the fuck up, Jesus is watching, and we’re in a church, Matthew” reminder to clean up my mouth.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “But seriously, Lea, what the hell?”
“Zio!” Not one to be outdone by her aunties, Sofia chastised me this time.
“Dad!” said Tommy. “Zio said ‘hell’ in church, so why can’t I?”
“Hell!” chirped Pete. “Hell, hell, hell.”
“Lea, come on,” Mike cajoled wearily as he grabbed Pete by the collar of his shirt and Tommy by the sleeve. “Let’s not do this here, huh?”
“Take the boys back to the house with Sofia,” Lea said as she handed the baby off to her husband. “And for God’s sake, don’t let Father Deflorio hear them talking like that on your way out.”
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” Frankie murmured as Mike followed his wife’s orders.
“Stop,” I said sharply.
Nina shrank into my side, clearly uncertain where all Lea’s vitriol had come from. “Hello, Signora Zola,” she said with a wave at Nonna. “It’s nice to see you again.”
My grandmother continued to act as though neither of us existed, gesturing to Joni and Marie to start moving so they could all exit.
What. The. Hell?
Kate leaned across Frankie and touched Nina’s hand to get her attention. “I love your fascinator, by the way. Very Jackie-O.”
I exhaled with a bit of relief. Okay, so not everyone was going to be a giant bitch today.
Nina smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
“Doesn’t make it all right for you to be here, though. Not after everything you’ve done to my brother.”
“Yo!” I snapped as Nina’s face practically fell to the floor.
“Matthew, perhaps I should go,” she said.
Without even thinking this time, I grabbed her hand. “What? No. I asked you here. I didn’t know the vultures would descend the second we showed up. In a church for God’s sake.”
“Why? Wasn’t she married in one?”
It was Lea who said it, of course. Right now she was staring at Nina’s and my joined hands like we were about to torch the entire church.
“Aw, give her a break, Lea,” Joni broke in from Nonna’s other side. “I read in the Post that her husband is a real jerk and won’t let her go. Like I said last night, it’s not all her fault.”
So, that was it. The harpies hadn’t said a word to me about Nina over the last year or more since most of them had seen her last, but that didn’t mean they weren’t gossiping about us behind my back, especially since someone obviously told them she was coming today. And since everyone (especially Frankie) knew Nina was still married, they also apparently knew the shitty press version of the events. Fan-fuckin’-tastic.
I turned to question Frankie, who was messing with her bracelet, which looked perfectly fine. When she finally looked up, it was with a casual shrug, as if to say, “What did you expect?”
And with that, guilt punched me in the gut.
I should have known better than to do it like this. I should have prepared them first. I should have prepared her. I was just so damn starstruck, blown over by the fact that Nina de Vries had actually agreed to be my wife one day, and that she was finally ready to make it real. I’d stupidly believed my sisters and grandmother would be equally happy once they knew.
But somehow I had forgotten that at any sign of a threat, my family went from puppies to a pack of Dobermans, all snapping at the slight hint of a threat to the family sanctuary. When Joni and Marie started dating, Lea had been known to interview their boyfriends, and had actually asked one of Marie’s for a resume. Hell, I’d casually threatened more than once to pass some of my sisters’ boyfriends’ names on to my contact with the NYPD—and that was tame compared to some of the shakedowns I’d delivered as a mouthy teenager with an anger problem.
Once again, the pack mentality was out in full, right here in the middle of the church. It had just been a while—a really long while—since I’d been with anyone on the receiving end of it.
“I’m sorry,” Nina spoke up. “I don’t understand. Did I do something—”
“Yes, you did something wrong,” Lea snapped, apparently not caring at all that other parishioners were watching us curiously, or that her voice was echoing around the marble columns. “You took my brother for a ride. You wrapped him around that little lacy finger of yours and made him fall in love with you. And then you ruined his life. He lost his job because of you, did you know that?”
I turned around to glare at Frankie. This time she lifted her chin right back at me. Yeah, she wasn’t happy about any of this either. That little brat organized this entire coup.
“So, he lost his whole career, everything he cared about, not to mention you wrecked him for other women who could actually make him happy,” Marie counted out methodically on her fingers.
“And every time he thinks he’s rid of you, somehow you come waltzing back to stick your claws into him all over again,” finished Joni.
“I think that about covers it, don’t you?” Kate asked sweetly.
“I—I—” Nina looked at me helplessly. “Matthew, I—”
“It’s not just that,” Frankie said. “He’s been moping around this city for almost a year at this point, pining for a woman he can’t have.”
“No offense, Nina. You’re fabulous and everything, but you shouldn’t be here,” Joni said.
“Ever,” Kate added.
In the middle of all of them, Nonna crossed her arms, presiding over them like a hen over her chicks while they pecked the hell out of a corncob. What did that make me? Used fuckin’ corn?
I snatched my hat and jacket off the pew. “That’s how you feel? Fine, then. We’re going. We don’t need this.”
I started towing Nina toward the aisle, ignoring the resistance on her end.
“Matthew, wait, I—”
“No,” I said sharply, glaring over her shoulder at my family members, who all wore matching expressions of disdain and worry. “I brought you here to see my family, but all that showed up were a pack of feral cats. You don’t need to put up with this, baby. And neither do I.”
“But, Matthew,” Nina protested gently. “They’re your family. You have to—”
“No,” I interrupted stubbornly. “I don’t.”
“Mattie?”
The voice behind me, plus the five identical expressions of shock and disgust facing me meant this was really, really not my day.
Because I knew the owner of that voice. That tone. I hadn’t heard it in close to ten years, nor had I wanted to. But some things you never forget.
Instead of closing my eyes and acting like I hadn’t heard, I put my hat back on and turned to face the proverbial music.
“Ah, hey, Sherry,” I said. “Long time.”
Nina’s fingers around my hand tightened. Yeah, she recognized that name.
It was one of those moments where time felt really, really heavy. When you reach your late thirties, some people haven’t changed at all. And others have aged a lot.
Sherry was the former. She was thirty-four now, but time had been kind to my ex-girlfriend, who was still petite, dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a body shaped like a Coke bottle and a come-hither smile that once made her the object of both boys’ and men’s fantasies for about a twenty-block radius, and made me the envy of most of my friends, even after I left for Iraq.
Once, she’d broken my heart; fuckin’ smashed it all over this neighborhood. Right now, though, I was wondering what the hell I’d ever seen in her compared to the woman next to me.
Sherry didn’t seem to pick up on that vibe,
though. Instead, her mouth curved to one side with the knowledge of a woman who knew she could wrap most men around her finger without even trying.
“I see you still like those old-fashioned hats,” she said. “Some things never change, huh?”
Sherry winked. Nina’s hand gripped mine so hard I thought she might break it clean off.
“I thought you moved out to Jersey,” I said. “You got married, right?”
She nodded. “I did, yeah. But, um, it didn’t work out. I’m back home for a bit now.” She gestured with pink-tipped fingernails toward a couple I recognized as her parents, who were chatting up Father Deflorio near the exit.
“Who’s this?” she asked, nodding toward Nina, who had dropped my hand and was standing quietly as she removed her gloves. “Your girlfriend?” The last word dripped with disdain.
“Hello,” Nina said loud enough that everyone could hear her. “It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Nina de Vries.”
She offered a handshake, and when Sherry took it, Nina closed her left hand over both of theirs, as if to give an extra grip. But no one paid attention to that. Not when we were practically blinded by a flash when a stream of light caught on a diamond that was no longer hanging from her neck, but in its rightful place on her ring finger.
Sherry’s mouth dropped as Nina pulled back her hands. “Is that—is that your grandmother’s ring?”
I pressed my lips together, trying and failing to hold back a giant fuckin’ grin. Suddenly, I felt giddy. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” Nina confirmed. “I’m his fiancée.”
“What?” Sherry blinked furiously as she glanced between Nina and me. “I—you’re—”
“Engaged,” Nina said. “That’s correct.”
Sherry frowned. “I was talking to Matthew, actually. Not you. It’s been a long time. We have some things to resolve, fiancée or not.”
I frowned. “Sherry, we don’t need to do this. It’s fine. Really. I’m over it. I moved on a long time ago.”
“Maybe you’re fine, Matthew, but I’m not.”
Nina took a subtle step forward. It was a small movement, but it put her squarely between Sherry and me, and I watched in surprise as my generally calm, reserved heiress became every bit the lioness as the women standing behind us.
The Honest Affair (Rose Gold Book 3) Page 25