Casa Parisi (26 page)

"How long have they been out there?"

"A couple of hours, but they should be back any minute. There's a bus group coming in for a tour and Luke is going to let Jaden help him take them around."

"Jaden will be taking over before long."

"He might, but he has to finish his education first," Natalie said.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucia spied her niece over by the wine racks chattering a mile a minute to an older man. "I'll be back, Natalie. It looks like I need to rescue that gentleman from Carly."

"Please do. She's wearing me out today."

Lucia walked over and took Carly by the hand. "Let's leave this nice man alone so he can read about the wines, shall we?" Then she spoke to the man. "I hope she wasn't bothering you."

"Not at all, Miss. She's actually quite entertaining."

"How well I know," Lucia said. "Enjoy the winery and excuse us, will you?" When they were out of earshot she addressed her niece. "How would you like to help me?"

"Are we going to do something fun?"

"Not everything is fun, Carly. Sometimes we do things because they need to be done. That's why they call it work." Lucia ruffled Carly's hair.

Carly crossed her arms over her chest. "I know what work is, Aunt Lucia."

"You do?"

"I help Mommy and Daddy and they give me money."

"Pardon me. I should have known."

"What are we gonna do?" Carly asked. "Are we gonna make wine?"

"Good heavens, no. Aunt Lucia doesn't know how to do that. We're going to go to my office and I'm going to show you how we order the labels for the wine bottles."

"The big stickers on the bottles?"

"We call them labels, not stickers. Your daddy and I decide what we want to put on them and then somebody makes them for us."

"Like pictures and stuff?" Carly asked.

"Yes, like pictures and stuff and we write something about the wine."

"Like it tastes like cherries and peppers?" Carly wrinkled her nose.

"How did you know about that?"

"Juliet told me."

"She did, huh?" Leave it to Carly to remind her of Juliet.

"Can we go see her?"

"Not today, Carly. She's not here."

"She's pretty. When I grow up I want to be pretty like her." Carly's eyes got dreamy and her body swayed slowly from side to side.

"You're pretty already."

"You mean it?"

"Of course I mean it. Now let's tell your mother where we're going."

SOME TIME LATER, LUKE poked his tanned, handsome face through Lucia's office door. As always, his smile was infectious. "So this is where you're both hiding."

"Daddy!" Carly lunged at her father and wrapped her arms tightly around his legs. "We're not hiding, Daddy. We ordered stickers for the bottles."

"Aren't you something," he said, his hand on her back. "Now why don't you go find your mother and see if you can help her for a while? I want to talk to Aunt Lucia."

Carly scrunched up her face. "Grown-up talk?"

"That's right, now get going." He patted her on the behind to urge her along. "Don't bother anyone or get into any trouble on the way."

"I won't Daddy," she yelled as she ran off.

Luke sat down and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Boy, it's hot out there today. I'm not complaining, though. It's good for the grapes."

"What's on your mind?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing. We haven't had a chance to talk much since you came back from Atlanta and you seemed different to me."

"I feel different." Lucia kicked the door shut with the toe of her shoe and filled Luke in on the things she hadn't shared with him about the trip to Atlanta. Without going into intimate details, she told him how she'd reacted to being at Paula and Kristen's and how she'd opened up to Juliet later that night.

"You needed to do that," Luke said. "You needed to talk to someone besides me."

"It wasn't that talking to you didn't help."

"I know," Luke said. "But talking to her was better."

"I guess it was because I've felt better ever since and I haven't been drunk all week." Lucia fidgeted in her chair, avoiding eye contact with her brother. She wanted to tell him about her feelings for Juliet, wanted to get it all out in the open.

"You look like you want to say something."

"I do," Lucia said. Luke didn't miss much. "And I'm afraid of how you'll react."

"Whatever it is, you can tell your big brother. You know that."

"Okay, you asked for it." Lucia took in a deep breath and blew it out. "I've grown very fond of our winemaker. In fact, I care about her a lot."

"What do you mean by a lot?" Luke asked. He sat up straighter.

"I have feelings for her, Luke. Do I have to draw you a picture?"

"Good God, Lucia. She's not even a lesbian and I thought she had a boyfriend."

"She told me she has feelings for me."

"Feelings as in she loves you kind of feelings?"

"She didn't use the word love. She said she was attracted to me."

"Christ. You could get hurt. Have you--" he rolled his hand around in a circle.

Lucia shook her head. "Almost, but we didn't go through with it." She let that fact register and then asked him what he thought of her and Juliet being together.

"What do I think? I think she's special. I'm nuts about her. My family is nuts about her and everyone here loves her. Hell, I feel like she's my other sister."

"Then you approve."

"Would it matter to either of you if I didn't?"

"I'd prefer it if you did. I'm sure she would, too." Lucia leaned back in her chair. She closed her eyes and sighed. "It feels good to get this out in the open."

"Here's the thing."

Lucia sat up, eyes wide open. "Uh, oh. Here it comes."

Luke held up the palm of his hand. "Hold on. All I was going to say was that if she finds out being with a woman isn't right for her she might end up leaving us."

"I've thought of that, Luke."

"It would kill me to see you broken-hearted."

"I don't want to be broken-hearted. It's just that I don't know what else to do. I feel the way I feel and I can't change that."

"What if she doesn't feel the same?"

"I'm scared out of my wits about that, but I have to trust her and hope for the best. I don't believe she would ever want to hurt me or you."

"I don't either," Luke said. "Not on purpose. At any rate, you'll always have my support no matter what." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "I've got to get to work. That tour bus will be here any minute. We'll talk more about this later, okay?"

As soon as Luke left, Lucia called Juliet only to get her voice mail. After trying two more times within the next hour, she started to consider that Juliet might be avoiding her calls and after a few more unsuccessful attempts she started to wonder if something could be wrong. Finished with her work, she let Luke and Natalie know she was leaving for the day. It took no more than a minute or two to get to her car.

JULIET SAT AT her kitchen table late Sunday afternoon drinking a glass of spring water while she waited for Andre to arrive. Ever since she had roused herself out of bed she'd been tempted to call Lucia, almost had a few times, but something had stopped her. Andre was coming and it would be better to make that call after he was no longer in the picture. Besides, she was almost positive Lucia would want to see her and that meant she would have to tell her he was coming or she'd have to tell her a lie. Both options struck her as equally unpleasant.

Sabrina jumped up onto the table and rubbed against Juliet's arm. She always got on the table and stretched out in front of Juliet whenever she was seated there. All attempts to break her of the habit had failed, confirming Juliet's belief that cats cannot be trained. Cats go where they want to go and do what they want to do and there's not a lot you can do to stop them.

"Do you still love me now that I'm a lesbian?" she asked Sabrina, trying the word on for size. The little cat stared at her blankly, clearly not the least bit interested in her identity or sexuality.

"That's what I like about you." Juliet reached out to pet Sabrina. "You're easy. You love me no matter what as long as I feed you, pet you, and change your litter."

Andre's arrival ended Juliet's conversation with her cat. When she opened the door to her apartment, he erupted through the threshold with his usual panache. After dropping his bag on the floor, he went to kiss her, but an instant before his lips made contact, she turned her face forcing his kiss to land near her left eye.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked. He stared as if he didn't recognize her. "Are you mad because I'm late? I couldn't help it."

"Not at all," Juliet said.

"Something's wrong. You've been acting weird lately."

"I have not and nothing's wrong," she replied. He was looking at her as if she had two heads. So far this was not going smoothly. "Do you want some coffee?" she asked in an attempt to ease the tension.

"No thanks. I'm buzzing from the three cups I had on the road. Speaking of which, I've got to make a pit stop before I do anything else."

"Go ahead, but then we have to talk."

"That's what I'm here for." Andre pointed a finger at her, wagged it around and then poked her playfully on the tip of her nose. "Don't start without me."

"Don't worry, I won't." Juliet made an effort not to sound as cross as she felt. He was being his usual, good-humored self and for some reason it was irritating the hell out of her. Determined to get this talk underway, she sat in a chair in the living room and got herself ready. She had chosen the chair over the sofa to maintain her distance. She'd need it for what she was about to tell him.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked as soon as he reappeared.

"I wanted to talk about us." Andre sat on the sofa near her chair and draped his arm over the back. He had his usual take-charge confidence about him.

"What about us?" Juliet was stalling. It was easier to let him take the lead and hear what he had to say first. It might come in handy when it was her turn.

He frowned. "Maybe this isn't a good time. You're in a bad mood."

"I am not in a bad mood. And this is as good a time as any."

Andre moved to the edge of the sofa and leaned forward as if trying to get closer to her. "We've been dating for months and our relationship isn't going where I'd like it to." He paused as if he expected a response and when he didn't get one he continued. "I'd like to talk about how we feel about each other, our future together."

"We aren't going to have a future," Juliet said. She was proud of herself for coming right out with the truth, no delaying, no sugarcoating, no softening the blow.

"Are you serious?" Shock transformed his features. His eyes roamed around as if he thought he might find some answers written on the walls. Eventually, his eyes returned to her. "I don't understand. We've had a good time, haven't we?"

"We have. It's just that I don't feel the same way you do." Juliet wasn't deriving any pleasure from hurting a decent man. He'd always been good to her and none of this was his fault.

"How do you know?" Andre's earlier confidence vanished. His shoulders slumped, his face fell, and his body seemed deflated.

"I don't want to hurt you, Andre. You're a nice guy." She reached out and placed her hand on his forearm. "This is hard for me to say and I know it has to be hard for you to hear, but I don't want to be with you."

"Jesus. Why? Did I do something wrong?"

"It has nothing to do with you," Juliet said. For a moment she worried that Andre was about to cry. "It's about me."

"That's what women always say when they break up with you," Andre said.

"This time it's true." Juliet withdrew her hand.

"You know what I think?" Andre sat up straighter, some of his confidence regained. "You're stressed with your new job and you've been working too hard. Maybe today wasn't the best day to come here and bring this up."

"It's not my job and I'm glad you're here. I needed to tell you something."

Andre stared at her, a mixture of hurt and confusion on his face. A moment later he seemed to have figured something out. "You've met someone else, haven't you?"

"Yes, Andre. There is someone else."

Andre slumped backward and let his head fall against the sofa. He rubbed his hair. "I can't believe this. We were good together. I thought we'd get married, have children, and build a life. What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing's wrong with you. This person came into my life and made me understand that I could never be in love with you, not the way I want to be in love."

"You watch too much television," Andre said.

"That's ridiculous. I hardly watch television at all."

Andre sat up straight. "Forget I said that. All I meant was that all that romantic crap you see on television and in the movies isn't real life. It doesn't last. What counts in a relationship is a solid foundation of friendship, compatibility and trust."

"I couldn't agree more, but I want to find my soul mate, the love of my life. I want to be with someone who makes my head spin, my knees go weak, my heart race whenever I look at them."

"And you don't think you have that with me?" he asked.

"I know I don't," Juliet answered. He wasn't pushing her to reveal the identity of her love interest and she didn't want him to know it was Lucia.

"Oh, man. This is not what I had in mind when I came here, not what I had in mind at all." Andre stood up and began to pace.

"You'll find the right woman someday. It just can't be--"

Juliet was cut off by someone knocking on the door to her apartment. She went to the closed door and spoke through it. "Who is it?"

"It's me. It's Lucia."

"
Merde
! What are you doing here?" Juliet swallowed hard to hold in her rising panic. She'd never have thought that Lucia would show up at her apartment. What in hell was she going to do now?

"I thought about you all day and I had to see you. Can I come in?"