Caterina

by Patricia Paris

  “There is.” Caterina uncorked a bottle of cab franc. “A good rule of thumb is, the bigger the wine, the bigger the bowl. For reds to show their best qualities, they need to have room for their bouquet to develop. A bigger bowl also allows for room to swirl the wine.”

  “Is that really necessary?” a fortyish-looking man sporting a close-trimmed beard and a Nat’s cap, asked.

  “If you don’t, the wine police aren’t going to come haul you off,” Cat joked. “But there are a couple of good reasons to do it. When you swirl your glass, it allows oxygen into the wine to open it up. That will round it out and give it a softer nature. It also releases a wine’s aroma, so you can smell more of it, and since we taste with our noses first, you’ll enjoy it more.”

  She started to pour the first red. “We’re going to taste three different reds. This is our 2014 cabernet franc. It’s a medium-bodied red. It does very well in Virginia’s climate, and some experts consider cabernet franc to be one of Virginia’s best red wines. I’ll let you be the judge.”

  Cat set the bottle down on the station sideboard. “Take a sip. Then take a taste of your fourth appetizer, which is a rosemary cracker with goat cheese and a dab of blackberry preserves, and, as we did with the whites, be aware of how the food affects the taste of the wine when you take your second sip.”

  After her swirling spiel, Cat noticed all eight of her charges gave their glasses a couple of twirls. A few held the glass to their noses and scented the wine’s aroma before tasting it.

  As they were tasting and talking amongst one another, she heard her phone buzz on the shelf below the sideboard and glanced down at it. Liam’s name and number showed on the screen. She knew he planned to take Riley to her grandparents after he picked her up from preschool, so she hadn’t expected to hear from him. She let the call go to voicemail.

  “Go ahead and rinse out,” she said, when she saw everyone in her group was ready to move on. “Our second red is a petit verdot, cabernet sauvignon blend. It’s a fuller-bodied wine.” She explained the wine’s properties. “Because petit verdot has a big flavor, you want to serve it with big flavor foods that the wine won’t overwhelm. We’ve paired it with Manchego cheese, toasted walnuts, and cranberries, on the same rosemary crackers as the last sampling.”

  Cat picked up her phone. “While you’re tasting it, I need to return a quick call. I won’t be more than a minute, and then I’ll answer any questions you might have.”

  She stepped away from the tasting station and called Liam back.

  “Hey, sorry I couldn’t take your call,” she said when he answered. “I’m working one of the tasting stations. My group just started on their second red, so I’ve got a minute or two.”

  “No problem. I dropped Riley off at her grandparents and am on my way back. Any chance you can join me for dinner? I could swing by the winery and pick you up.”

  “No can do. We’ve got a full house, and El needs me to work another station at six. Did everything go okay with Riley?”

  “I’ll tell you about it when I see you.”

  Caterina glanced at her station. They were still sipping and tasting and looked like they were enjoying themselves as they shared their impressions. One of the couples had mentioned that they were going out to dinner after the tasting and had asked if anyone wanted to join them. Two of the other three couples accepted the invitation, and they were already, it seemed, becoming new friends.

  “I’m going to have to get back to my group in a minute. I told Eliana I’d help out if she needed me tomorrow, but I should be free after six if you want to get together.”

  “Okay, let’s plan on dinner, then. If you don’t have anything going on Sunday morning, we can go back to my place, and you can stay the night.”

  The prospect of having Liam to herself all night sounded delightful. “I’d like that,” she said, “but why don’t I meet you at a restaurant closer to you? That way, you won’t have to wait around if I get pulled into something in the afternoon.”

  Cat glanced at her station again. “Sorry, Liam, but I need to go. I’ll call you tonight, and we can pick a place.”

  After disconnecting, she returned to her group, but her thoughts lingered on Liam. He hadn’t wanted to talk about Riley, and something in his tone when she’d asked made her wonder if something had happened to upset him when he dropped his daughter off at her grandparents.

  CATERINA ROUNDED THE corner into reception on her way out to meet Liam, and saw Lucia and Marcella sitting close together on one of the library couches, leafing through what looked to be several eight-by-ten photos.

  “What are you two up to?”

  “You might want to look at these,” Marcella said, “see if you know what they’re about.”

  Cat walked into the library. “I’ve only got a few minutes, but what’s up?”

  “I found these pictures when I was restocking the closet in the room Damien stayed in when he was working on that holiday piece,” Lucia said. She held up a large manila envelope. “This fell off the closet shelf and landed on my head. I’m surprised I didn’t see it up there before this. I always check the rooms after guests leave to make sure they didn’t leave anything behind, but it’s flat, and it could have gotten pushed to the side of the shelf where I might not have noticed it. The pictures were inside.”

  Lucia handed Cat the small stack. “It’s weird that it would have just spontaneously fallen on your head after a couple of months.”

  “I don’t think it was spontaneous,” Marcella said. “I think it was Rosa’s doing.”

  Caterina looked at the top picture. A shot of her, Liam, and Riley standing in front of the tree they’d decorated for the open house. She remembered the three of them posing for it when Riley was hanging candy canes.

  She shuffled it to the back of the stack and looked at the next one. Caterina angled her head and narrowed her eyes, squinting to take in all the details. The picture—one of Liam carrying Riley, who appeared to be asleep—was taken at night. The backdrop was hard to make out in the low light, but she recognized his front porch in the shadows.

  Cat furrowed her brow. Why would Damien have a photo of Liam outside his house? From the angle it was taken, it had probably been shot from across the street. What would Damien have been doing in Liam’s neighborhood, taking pictures in the dark?

  She looked at the next shot. It had captured Liam and Riley walking through a parking lot. There was a low-profile building behind them, and on the side of the building, a fenced-in area that contained several plastic playhouses, some small picnic tables, and other items that led Cat to believe it must be Riley’s preschool.

  Still another photo showed Liam sitting in a booth at some restaurant with a redhead. In the background she could see Riley standing next to a fountain with a fish spouting water from its mouth.

  She went through the rest of the stack, becoming more confused as she did. There were a few more of her, Riley, and Liam, together and alone at the open house, but most of the pictures wouldn’t have had anything to do with the assignment Damien had been working on.

  When she reached the last two shots, she felt her heart rate slow. One showed Liam and her walking out of his house together. It was the night they’d first made love. She had Liam’s boots on. It was the night Mitch had tried to burn down Serendipity. The final one must have been shot through the front window of Liam’s living room. It showed her and Liam in a passionate kiss.

  “Okay,” she said, “this is freaking me out. Why would Damien have these pictures? They have nothing to do with a photo exposé on the holidays in Loudoun County, or whatever the hell he said he was doing.”

  She pulled several of them out and waved them in the air. “These are all of Liam in random places. His house, some restaurant, Riley’s school. And these,” she tossed the two that had been at the bottom of the stack onto the coffee table. “What are these supposed to be? Was Damien following us around for kicks? Is the guy a voyeur or something? I mean
, seriously, this is just creepy!”

  “I don’t know what it means,” Lucia said, looking concerned. “I agree it’s very strange, though. And worse, I’m sure Eliana has no clue about any of this. If it turns out he’s got some kinky habit, it’s going to devastate her. She told me just this morning she thought she was falling in love with the guy.”

  “Oh, that’s great!” Marcella leaned back and crossed her arms. “She finally meets someone she doesn’t think will fall apart if she risks a serious relationship with them and it doesn’t work out, and he might turn out to be a Peeping Tom—or something worse.”

  “What do you mean, someone she thinks won’t fall apart if they have a serious relationship and it doesn’t work out?” Lucia asked.

  Marcella shook her head. “Nothing. I…It’s not my story to tell. Something that happened a long time ago. I promised El I’d never say anything.”

  Lucia sighed. “We can talk about that later.” She gave Marcella a look that said, and we will talk about it. “But right now, we need to figure out what to do about this. Do we show Eliana these pictures and see if she knows anything about them? Do we confront Damien? I mean, obviously, something’s not right here, and our sister could get caught in the cross fire.”

  “Where’s El now?” Caterina asked.

  “Damien picked her up about an hour ago,” Marcella said. “I ran into them as they were leaving. Eliana said she’d be home late, but I didn’t ask where they were going.”

  Cat glanced at her watch. “Look, I’ve got to run or I’m going to be late. There’s nothing we can do right now, and I told Liam I’d stay the night, so I won’t be back until tomorrow. Let’s check in tomorrow afternoon after we’ve had a chance to mull over the possibilities and think about the best course of action where El’s concerned. Until then, I vote we keep these to ourselves for the time being and not say anything to her.”

  “Okay,” Lucia agreed and glanced at Marcella. “You good with that?”

  “Yeah. Maybe one of us will be able to come up with a reasonable explanation, although I can’t imagine what that could be.”

  “Would either of you mind if I tell Antonio?” Lucia asked.

  “Fine by me. He might know something we don’t.” Cat gave the rest of the pictures back to Lucia. “Maybe you should put those somewhere El won’t stumble upon them before we get a chance to talk to her.”

  “Will do,” Lucia said. “And in the meantime, I think I’ll do some research to see what I can dig up on Damien Roth.”

  “The truth is not for all men,

  but only for those who seek it.”

  Ayn Rand

  A blustery, February wind whipped the hair around her face as Caterina hurried across the winery’s gravel parking lot toward her Jeep. She held the collar of her navy-blue, wool peacoat together with one gloved hand, to block the chill. Her mind swirled with a dozen questions but supplied no satisfying answers.

  A shiver raked through her as she pulled out of the parking lot. She reached down and turned the seat heater on full blast. Spring couldn’t get here soon enough. She wasn’t a skier, and although she’d always treasure the memory of playing in the snow with Liam and Riley, she wasn’t a fan of the white stuff. If everyone she loved didn’t live here, she could move to California or southern Florida and never look back.

  Ahead of her in the distance, the sky burned gold and orange to the west, splashing through a jigsaw of dark, marbled clouds, as the sun slipped behind the rolling silhouette of the Blue Ridge. She never got tired of sunsets. They were as diverse as the people she knew, some so vibrant, the sky could barely contain them, others, a soft whisper of powdered-blue and pastel-pink promise of fair days to come.

  Although the dark rumpled clouds hanging over the mountains provided a dramatic contrast to the fiery color of that evening’s sky, their looming drama seemed more a portent of unsettled rather than calm days ahead.

  It made her think of the pictures Lucia had found. Were they just pictures that meant nothing? Or was there more to them? Something that could cast a shadow over the lives of the people she loved? If it weren’t for the ones of Liam taken at various places other than the winery, they wouldn’t have seemed odd. But like Lucia and Marcella, Cat could think of no reason Damien would have them.

  Should she tell Liam about them before she and her sisters had a chance to ask Eliana or Damien about them? What purpose would it serve at this point, she wondered, as she merged onto the Harry Byrd Highway and headed toward Round Hill where she and Liam were meeting for dinner.

  A short while later when Cat got to the restaurant, she saw Liam’s truck parked near the front entrance. She pulled into the empty space beside it. Liam lived in Round Hill and had picked the restaurant. It was a casual Italian eatery that she hadn’t tried before but, based on the reviews she’d read after he’d told her where to meet him, looked promising.

  When she walked inside, she spotted Liam at a table next to a large stone fireplace at the back of the cozy dining area. He glanced up from the menu he’d been studying, looked toward the front entrance, and watched her cross the room.

  “Hey, sorry I’m a little late,” she said when she reached the table. “Marcella and Lucia stopped me on my way out to show me something, and I got caught up.”

  “No big deal. I think the servers have another three hours or so left in their shift before they start itching to get out of here.”

  “Yes, well, I think it’s important to be prompt.”

  He grinned. “There’s a revelation.”

  She hung her coat over the back of her chair and sat down across from him. “It’s good to see you smile, even if it is at my expense,” she said and glanced around the room. “This place is charming, and it’s so cold, I would have come just to sit by this fabulous fire. It feels wonderful.”

  “Glad you approve. Riley and I come here when we’re going a little more upscale. Even though it’s casual, she insists we wear nicer clothes because, in her words, they have tablecloths and nice plates, and the people bring you your food, and everything. I think it’s really because she likes to play dress up.”

  Caterina smiled lightly. “What girl doesn’t?”

  She could easily picture his daughter, in her animated way, saying something just like that. Cat smoothed her napkin over her lap, then regarded him. “Speaking of Riley, how did things go when you dropped her off yesterday? When we talked last night, you said you’d tell me about it when we got together. Everything okay?”

  Liam shrugged, his frown telling her everything wasn’t.

  “Riley didn’t want to go. She cried on the drive there, and if I wasn’t worried they’d make things even worse than they are, I would have said screw it and told her grandparents she wasn’t coming.” He picked up his fork and started twirling it through his fingers, almost absently. “I felt like an ogre leaving her, but if I tried to explain my reasons, it would only have upset her more. And she’s too young to understand, anyway.”

  Their server, a tall redhead with clear blue eyes and a runner’s build, stopped by their table. “Are you ready to order?” he asked. Caterina hadn’t considered the menu yet. She was about to ask for a few more minutes when Liam suggested a caramelized onion pizza.

  “That sounds perfect.” She handed her menu to their server.

  When they were alone again, she resumed their conversation. “From what you said before we were interrupted, I sense there’s more going on with Riley’s grandparents than being upset she’s not able to remember her mother.” She reached across the table and took Liam’s hand. “I’m not trying to pry, but I care about you both, and I can tell it upsets you. If you want to talk about it, I’ve got two ears willing to listen.”

  He stared at their joined hands a moment before meeting her eyes and then said, “I got a letter a while back notifying me that Sylvie’s parents wanted to file for custody of Riley.”

  “What?” Caterina stared at him, her mouth parted in stunned sh
ock. “That’s absurd!” she said with a snort when she got over her disbelief. “You’re a wonderful father. No judge would ever rule to take Riley from you.”

  “My lawyer said the same thing. Not without just cause.”

  “There is none!” she asserted, incensed on his behalf. “Don’t they know how devastating that would be to Riley? My God, if they love her, why would they even contemplate putting her through such a thing?”

  Liam shook his head, as if he’d asked himself the same thing a hundred times. “I don’t think they’ve honestly considered what’s best for Riley. Sylvie was their only child, and in their eyes, especially her mother’s, their little girl could do no wrong. Whatever happened, whatever trouble she got into growing up, it was always somebody else’s fault. Sylvie was self-absorbed, and if she didn’t get her way, she’d pull some kind of stunt for attention. Which is what I think she was trying to do when she OD’d…but they blamed me for her death. Still do.

  “I’m convinced that, in their own convoluted way of thinking, getting custody of Riley would be like getting a piece of Sylvie back. It would also be a way to punish me for making their daughter so miserable she ended up taking her own life.”

  “Which you know you’re not responsible for, agreed?”

  “Yeah. I’ve thought a lot about what you said, about not being able to own someone else’s choices. You were right. It helps to keep things in perspective. It might not change my guilt in their eyes, but at least I’ve been able to start letting go of some of it.”

  “I’m so sorry you’ve been dealing with this, Liam. Have they actually filed papers?”

  “I don’t think so. Or if they have, no one’s notified me yet. My lawyer responded to the initial letter from their attorney, informing them we’d fight any attempt to change custody. We never heard back after that. It’s been several months, so maybe their attorney advised them they didn’t have a case. That doesn’t mean they won’t still try. The last thing I want is for Riley to be thrust into the middle of a custody battle. The only thing that would come of that would be more strained relations, with my daughter suffering the most from the fallout.”