California Dreaming: Four Contemporary Romances

by Casey Dawes

“Bueno.” The hotel owner turned on her heel and left, muttering under her breath.

  “Cousin?” Elizabeth asked. “She doesn’t seem at all like you. She’s very … ”

  “Serious?” He shrugged. “The women in my family tend to be fire-breathing dragons.”

  A waitress walking past the table glanced in his direction and blushed. He fired off rapid Italian to her with a smile that would make any woman’s heart melt.

  The waitress’ blush deepened. She nodded and hurried off to the coffee bar.

  My, he was a flirt. She’d better tread carefully.

  “So now that we have solved the great problem of the little tomato, we can get acquainted,” he said to Elizabeth. “I assume you are traveling alone, or you would not be here by yourself, attacking small, defenseless vegetables.”

  She smiled in spite of her determination to keep him at a distance. “I’m here with my daughter.”

  Marcos looked around the room. “And where is she?”

  “With a friend from college. They went dancing.”

  “Dancing. It is good. Do you like to dance?”

  The young waitress placed a coffee on the table and stared at Marcos with adoring eyes.

  Elizabeth ate a forkful of salad while he chatted with the server in Italian. She did like to dance, but she didn’t want to leave the door open for any kind of invitation … even if he was attractive.

  “Yes, I do,” she said once the waitress left.

  That’s not what she meant to say.

  He smiled at her. “Then we should do it!”

  She shook her head. “No, we shouldn’t.”

  “Ahh,” he said. “You don’t know me. Perhaps I can change that. Will you come to dinner some night so we can learn more about each other?”

  She smiled and shook her head.

  “We could go to a place quite near here. We’ll tell my cousin, the dragon feroce, where we are going. We can even walk there from the hotel so you don’t have to get into a car with a strange man. What do you say?”

  “We’re leaving Italy in three days.” It was as good an excuse as any.

  “Then I will have to work fast. Say you will come.”

  “But my daughter … ”

  “I’m sure she can have dinner one night without you as you are already without her.”

  Elizabeth took a sip of wine. A date with a charming Italian was tempting, especially since she’d spent the last twenty years of her life avoiding anything remotely risky.

  Still, she hadn’t had a date since she broke up with Bobby three months ago. What could be safer than a date with someone she’d never see again? A simple dinner with no strings attached. Everything in control.

  She glanced at Marcos. He certainly didn’t look like a mass murderer.

  He smiled as if he knew what she was thinking, picked up his coffee, and sipped, his eyes never leaving hers.

  Bad idea. He was way too tempting. And the last time a man had made her forget her better judgment, she’d wound up giving up her lifelong dreams.

  She shook her head. “So, other than accosting strange American women in your cousin’s dining room, what do you do for a living?”

  “If it will convince you to come to dinner with me,” he said, “I will tell you more about myself, while you enjoy your food. That is, if you don’t mind me interrupting your lonely thoughts.”

  She had a feeling he’d tell her about himself whether she gave him permission or not. But since she didn’t have anything better to do, she said. “It’s fine.”

  The waitress came with Elizabeth’s dinner.

  “I am a negociant,” he began. “I create my own wine blends for resale outside of Italy. I also have two small vineyards of my own — one here in Italy that has been in my family for generations. You should come see it! With your daughter! Yes … that would be good!”

  She needed to derail that thought. “What kind of grapes do you grow?”

  “In Italy,” Marcos said his voice more matter-of-fact. “I stick to two types of grapes — it’s a small vineyard — mainly for family. We grow sangiovese, what you call Chianti, and Pinot Grigio. Where do you live?”

  “California.”

  “Ah … California. I would like to buy a vineyard in California, but Napa is too dear. It must be nice for you to live near there.”

  She shook her head. “I live down by Santa Cruz on the central coast. They have vineyards there, too. And not so expensive.”

  “A good excuse to go to Santa Cruz, then.” Marcos smiled at her and held her eyes with his.

  She could melt into those eyes.

  But she wouldn’t let herself.

  She broke her flaky fish up into little pieces as she asked, “Are you married?”

  He frowned. “No. no longer.” He took a sip of his coffee. Then he smiled. “But I, too, have a wonderful daughter. She is in Milano.”

  “How old is she?”

  “Gina is twenty-one.”

  “The same age as my daughter.”

  “We have much in common then. You will need to come to dinner with me after all.”

  She shook her head. “We leave for home in — ”

  “ — three days,” he finished for her.

  She nodded and took a bite of her fish. The silence lengthened as he sipped his coffee. She met his eyes once again and their warmth softened the mistrust within her.

  He touched her hand, the tip of his fingers gentle and tentative. She was startled, but she didn’t pull away, even though she should. The gesture awoke a bit of life inside her that had been slumbering for a long time.

  “Now that you know I am an honest hard-working man, will you please come to dinner with me tomorrow?”

  Oh, she wanted to. The idea was insane — her mother wouldn’t have approved.

  But her mother hadn’t approved of her since she’d become pregnant with Sarah.

  It was only dinner, she told her mother’s inner voice. At thirty-eight, surely it was permissible to try something new. “Okay,” she said, almost in defiance.

  “Bueno! You make me so happy, Elizabeth! Tomorrow then? I will meet you at the lobby at seven?”

  She nodded.

  He withdrew his hand, leaving lingering heat where his skin had touched hers. “And maybe while we have dinner I can convince you to come see my vineyard with your daughter.”

  She laughed. There was no stopping this man.

  And for once, in a very long while, she didn’t care.

  • • •

  Elizabeth stared at the craggy stone building cowering in the middle of an overgrown garden like a forgotten garden gnome. The mid-August morning Italian sun glinted off its second story window while a rusted realtor’s sign creaked as it swung in the late morning breeze. Even if she could read Italian, she wouldn’t be able to make out the letters. “It’s hard to believe my mother lived here as a child,” she said to her daughter.

  Sarah walked to the house and rubbed a dusty window and peered inside. “It’s rustic, that’s for sure. Looks like they were pretty poor.”

  Elizabeth nodded, still lost in thought. She hadn’t pictured poverty like this at all. Her mother had hid her background well, taking on the veneer of the immigrant middle class: It wasn’t what you did that mattered; it was only what people thought of you that counted.

  Elizabeth had learned the value of reputation from a master. Too bad she’d destroyed it at an early age.

  She put her arm around her daughter and pulled her close. Her eyes moistened.

  “Miss her?” Sarah asked.

  Elizabeth nodded forcing the mascara-ruining tears back. In spite of her disapproval, her mother had been a strong figure in Elizabeth’s life until her death a few months before
.

  Sarah patted Elizabeth’s arm with her hand, an awkward attempt at reassurance. Elizabeth looked at her daughter and smiled. “Shall we go get some lunch?”

  She linked arms with Sarah and they walked down the hill toward town. “I’m looking forward to your graduation from Berkeley. Things will be a little less tight and we can take more trips together. Maybe when you graduate, you can get a job at Long Marine Lab or the Monterey Aquarium. We can have lunch together once a week.”

  Even as she said it, Elizabeth realized a life like that would sound stifling to her daughter. Heck, it sounded stifling to Elizabeth! Sarah needed to create her own destiny.

  Unfortunately, that meant Elizabeth’s job as a mother was over. All she had was her small business in Costanoa and her memories. At thirty-eight, she was too young to be living only with her memories.

  The image of Marcos appeared in her mind and she stifled a smile. Her mother would not have approved of her dalliance with Marcos. Elizabeth glanced at Sarah. What was her daughter going to say about her impromptu date?

  “The trip’s been wonderful, Mom,” Sarah said, briefly resting her head on her mother’s arm.

  An edge to her daughter’s voice made Elizabeth stop walking. “But?”

  “Nothing.” Her daughter withdrew her arm from Elizabeth’s. “Can we talk about this later?”

  “Out with it.”

  Sarah sighed, took a few steps and perched on a nearby bench. “Last spring, I applied for a transfer to U.C. Davis. I got the acceptance letter right before we left. I want to go there in September.”

  “Not go back to Berkeley? But what about your studies? You’re doing so well! Why on earth would you transfer to Davis when you’re about to be a junior?” Elizabeth’s voice rose in pitch with each successive question. It was a good thing her mother wasn’t around for this change of events.

  “I’m good at the environmental stuff. And I care about the ocean. But it’s not my passion! I don’t want to spend my life examining mouse droppings. It’s just … I didn’t know what I wanted to do … when I met Rick at a party last year I became interested in what he was studying.”

  “Rick — the guy you went out with last night.” Elizabeth began to pace on the sidewalk. She’d worked hard to get Sarah on the right path. Now her daughter wanted to throw it all away for some guy.

  “Yeah. He’s a senior at Davis — studying culinary arts and restaurant management. I took a couple of weekend classes with him up there. I love it … especially the design and business sides.”

  “A restaurant? What on earth for? There’s no job stability.”

  “Mom, wake up. There is no job security anywhere.” Sarah got up and began pacing, too. “You own your own business, why can’t I? After we graduate, Rick and I want to find a small restaurant with some rooms to rent and create a destination spot. I’ll decorate, take care of the rooms, and handle the business side. He’ll do restaurant management and the food. It’s a great match.”

  Elizabeth slumped onto the bench. “Are you sure you’ve thought this through, honey?” Elizabeth asked. “You’ve put a lot into your studies at Berkeley. The restaurant business is so crazy, so insecure.”

  Sarah sat down and patted Elizabeth’s knee. “Don’t worry, Mom. It’ll be fine. We have lots of time to see if it works. And if we fail, we’re still young enough to do something else.”

  “Are you in love with him?” Is he good enough for you? What will people think if my valedictorian daughter owns a restaurant?

  Most important. Will you be happy?

  “In love with Rick? Maybe. I don’t know. He’s attractive.” She shrugged. “I like him. We have fun and work well together. I just don’t know if it’s the ‘forever’ kind of love.”

  Did that mean she was sleeping with Rick or not?

  A wave of uncomfortable silence arced between them.

  Sarah jumped up from the bench and held out her hand. “Let’s go! I’m starved!”

  After a moment, Elizabeth stood and cast one more look up the hill at her mother’s childhood home. The family had faced the unknown and crossed an ocean to a new life.

  She would have to find her own courage to let Sarah run her own life and make her own mistakes.

  But what would she do instead of guiding her daughter’s life?

  Chapter 2

  Elizabeth’s low heels clacked in time with the muffled taps of her daughter’s flats as they walked down the street. She tried to concentrate on the faint rustle of the leafy trees and the scent of olive oil lifting from a dozen trattorias on their route. The warm air and murmur of voices in the background surfaced old memories: her five brothers squabbling at dinner, the rustle of her father’s newspaper, her mother’s iron hand that kept everything in order. They hadn’t been rich by any means, but they’d had enough.

  Why couldn’t Elizabeth be satisfied with the life she had? She frowned in concentration.

  “Mom,” Sarah said, linking her arm with Elizabeth. “It’ll be all right. This is why I didn’t want to tell you about the transfer. I knew you’d get all mopey and everything. It’s not the end of the world.”

  It’s the end of the world as I’ve known it. And I don’t know what to do next.

  “You need to get a life, Mom. Find a new man. Open another store. Go to college. Do something!” She practically dragged Elizabeth down the hill. “Let’s find the perfect place for lunch. One with rich Italian pastas, good-looking waiters and a view of the Mediterranean.”

  Elizabeth smiled at her daughter’s joy.

  They’d walked for about ten minutes, chatting about the sights, when Sarah stopped suddenly. “Wow. Look, Mom. You have to see this window. It’d be perfect for your store.”

  Elizabeth looked. Dozens of bottles of skin care products nestled in dramatic sea-colored scarves filled the window. Pictures of lush-lipped models with radiant skin framed the display. A sigh of joy escaped her and she floated in the door. She couldn’t wait to get her fingers in the sampling jars.

  Once inside she went from one counter to another, sniffing and touching the lotions and oils. Sarah was right beside her, grinning like an eight-year-old who had just presented her mother with her best school artwork.

  An older man appeared at her side.

  “Welcome to my store,” he said. “It is a privilege to have sophisticated women such as you,” his gesture included Sarah, “in my shop. Are you looking for something special?”

  “Not really.” Elizabeth grinned. Sheer flattery. And she loved it. “My daughter saw your display. It was so luscious, I couldn’t wait to sample the lotions.”

  He returned her smile. “Sensual, yes?”

  “Yes. I love the way fine lotions make my skin supple and smooth. Yours are silky.” She gestured at the scarves that were artfully arranged around the samples. They were the same style and design as those in the window. “These are quite beautiful, too.”

  Another smile crinkled under the man’s thick white mustache. “This is my family’s line of skin care,” he said. “And those scarves are my daughter’s designs. She does beautiful work, no?”

  “Yes, she does.”

  The man smiled proudly.

  “Can you tell me about the products?” Elizabeth asked. The discovery thrilled her. These products could bring new life to her shop.

  He glanced at her left hand and gestured for her to follow him to a far side of the store. “Here we keep our products for women who would like to find or keep a man.” A slight tinge of red crept up his neck.

  She had to laugh. “Grazi, but I am not looking for a man right now.” A guilty thrill went through her as she thought Marcos.

  Sarah nudged her arm. “Yes, you are, Mom.”

  “Hush.”

  The proprietor smiled. “You never know when yo
u’ll find the one of your dreams. Here, smell. We call it Amoré.” He held an open jar toward her.

  The scent was spicy with a hint of musk underneath. The imp who had been brought to life with Marcos’ touch shivered with sexual anticipation.

  “Why don’t you get some, Mom?” Sarah asked.

  Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t need a love potion right now.” What she needed to do was keep her head.

  She walked to the other side of the shop and pretended to examine the merchandise. Putting on her business voice, she said, “I’d like to be able to carry these in my day spa in California. Do you ship overseas?”

  “I am sorry, but no. We are a very small company, family run. We made the decision a long time ago that this was the size of company we wanted to be. This way, everyone works a little and everyone can enjoy life.” His gesture included the world beyond the store.

  Sounded perfect. She wondered if she could get the lifestyle in a bottle. “I’d like to buy some of your family’s lotions while I’m here, then.”

  “Benissimo! Let me get you a basket.”

  A half hour later, Elizabeth had a large bag and an even larger dent in her credit card. “Coming, Sarah?”

  “In a sec. I’ll meet you outside.”

  “Un momento.” The proprietor handed her a pink notepad paper. “This is the company we work with to produce our lotions. Perhaps they know someone who would export Italian products for your store.”

  Or help me create my own.

  Where did that idea come from?

  Elizabeth waited for her daughter on a park bench. Leafy trees arched overhead and the chirp of sparrows surrounded her. A young couple strolled by, arms linked, and heads touching in deep conversation.

  Beginnings. Sarah was right. Elizabeth needed a new beginning.

  She pondered the creation of her own line of lotions and smiled as she imagined a “Beauty by the Bay” skin care line featured in Vogue.

  Sarah breezed out of the store, a small bag in her hand. “Mom, now I’m totally starved. We need to find a place to eat soon.”

  “What’s in the bag?”

  “I’ll show you at lunch.”