Promise Me A Rainbow (44 page)

“Joe, I really don’t think it’s such a good idea for you to see Della—”

“Before you say anything else, Margaret, let me tell you this. I know what you’re doing with Della. I know you keep her stirred up all the time about Catherine.”

“Oh, Catherine does an excellent job of that all by herself.”

“Because you
want
to get back at me. I know you think I won’t tell Michael. But the truth is, Margaret—Maggie—I think he already knows. I’m damn sure he suspects it. So this is how it’s going to be: you get Della out of here or I’m going to make sure Michael doesn’t just suspect. I’m going to tell him why I can’t come to this house or anywhere else you’re going to be without at least one of my children along.”

“Don’t be silly, Joe. Michael wouldn’t believe you.”

“He’d believe Fritz.”

Joe wasn’t positive that Fritz had seen anything that time in the kitchen—except that after the incident Fritz had stayed well away from Margaret if she could. Fritz suddenly stopped wanting to go along with Della and her on their shopping sprees, stopped mentioning her flashy Aunt Margaret at all except in passing. He’d learned one thing for certain about Fritz. She didn’t do anything without a reason.

“So what’s it going to be, Maggie. Are you going to get Della out here, or do you want to go back to working for a living like you did before you latched onto Michael?”

Margaret stared at him coldly, then smiled. “You really are a jerk, aren’t you, Joe?”

“You keep interfering with me and my children and you’re going to find out just how much of a jerk I am. I want to see my daughter. Now.”

It surprised him that Della
came so quickly. He had underestimated Margaret’s influence; one look at Della’s face told him she was only here under duress. A sudden image filled his mind, one of Lisa at that age. How much she reminded him of her—in looks, at any rate. But then, Lisa, too, had been rebellious, particularly when her family had said no to her accepting the attentions of one Joseph D’Amaro.

“You remind me of your mother,” he said, and her look softened for a brief moment.

“Not enough,” she said.

He let the remark slide. “In one of our recent discussions you accused me of treating you like a child. I have been doing that—mostly because you’ve been acting like one—like a spoiled, vindictive brat. You’ve wanted to hurt me and in the process you’ve hurt your brother and sister as well. For the first time in my life, I’m ashamed of you—”

“
You’re
ashamed of
me
! Really, Daddy—”

“Yes! I’ve been ashamed of you. But I don’t blame you entirely.”

“I’m not going back home.”

“I understand that you feel that way. But our differences—whatever they are—aren’t just ours, Della. What happens between you and me affects the rest of the family—Charlie and especially Fritz. That’s why I’m here. I want you to come home now so we can have a family meeting. I want to get all this out in the open. I want the younger kids to understand what’s going on—why you feel the way you do and what’s happening with me.” He believed he would carry her out bodily if he had to, but he still wanted to offer her a chance to behave better than she’d been behaving. “That’s all I have to say. Will you do that? Will you come home?”

He stood there, trying not to say the things he needed to say. He was an impatient man, always had been; and Della had already pushed him to the limit. He’d never taken from another human being the kind of grief he’d taken from her.

“I don’t see what good it’s going to do,” she said finally.

“Maybe none. You’ll just have to decide whether or not the possibility that it might help everyone involved is worth your time and trouble.” He decided not to stand over her for an answer. “If you’re coming, I’d like for you to do that right away. I don’t want to keep Fritz up any later than I have to.”

He turned and left, not lingering, not looking back. Michael was just turning into the driveway.

He decided not to avoid Michael, and when the car stopped, he opened the door and got in.

“I want to talk to you,” he said.

“Won’t Della go home with you?”

“I don’t—”

“Hell, Joey, you can’t blame the kid. If you’re going to let her catch you and Catherine in bed together—”

“Michael, Fritz and Charlie were in the house. Do you think I’d take Catherine to bed with my children there?”

“
You
said you had a woman in your bed—”

“I wasn’t there, too, Michael. Just Catherine.”

Michael shook his head. “You’re not making any damn sense at all, Joey. You know that, don’t you?”

“Well, that’s why I want to talk to you. Catherine is pregnant.”

“Oh, fine! She got that way from
not
going to bed with you, I guess!”

“That’s cute, Michael. No, she got that way exactly—”

“For God’s sake, don’t give me the details. You know I expected to hear this kind of thing from you when you were a kid. I expected to hear it with Lisa. But goddamn it, Joey, you’re thirty-eight years old! Thirty-eight years old, three kids, and you’ve gotten some woman in trouble!”

“Not some woman—Catherine. But I don’t think she considers it trouble.”

“So what is it? Some kind of blessing in disguise?”

“Catherine thought she couldn’t have children. That’s why her husband divorced her. He wanted children and she couldn’t have them.”

“So here you come along and fix that right up,” Michael said.

“Yes.”

“And now you’re thinking you’re pretty hot damn stuff, I guess.”

“Well, yeah, Michael, I sort of . . .
do
,” Joe said, trying not to smile.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph. So now what are you going to do?”

“If there’s any way on Earth to do it, I’m going to marry her.”

“And what about Della? You’re not going to explain tonight to Della?”

“Michael, I wasn’t doing anything—”

“No, you never do anything, do you? You got some woman pregnant and you got this whole family torn up, but somehow you never do anything!”

“Catherine is not
some woman
! I love her, Michael. I
love
her. I didn’t find out about the baby until tonight. Catherine was sitting with a friend of hers at the hospital and I went there. I don’t think she meant to tell me she was pregnant, but she was so upset and I wouldn’t leave without knowing what was wrong with her. She was in rough shape, Michael—exhausted. I wasn’t just going to walk away and leave her like that. So I brought her home with me. Fritz fixed her toast and hot chocolate and she lay down on my bed to rest for a while. When Della came in, Fritz told her to be quiet because Catherine was sleeping in my bed. Della jumped to the wrong conclusion. That’s it.”

“That’s it,” Michael repeated. “That’s not
it
, Joey. Do you know how much trouble you’ve got? How in the hell do you get in this kind of trouble just minding your own damn business!”

“Michael, I don’t know. I just know I want to marry Catherine, and I need your help, man. You’re my brother. I need your help.” Absurdly he felt tears welling, but he fought them back.

“I should have been telling you to keep that thing in your pants, that’s how I should have helped. Jesus!”

“Well, it’s too late now,” Joe offered.

“Yeah, yeah it’s too late. Joey—”

“Don’t lecture me anymore, Michael. I’ve got to go. If my daughter decides to stay with you and not come to the house tonight, just try to be on my side a little bit, will you?”

But Della came, in typical Della fashion,
arriving just when he’d given up hope. He sat with Charlie and Fritz at the kitchen table, and he said nothing to her when she came in, letting her take the time she needed to save face for having done exactly what he asked. When she finally sat down, he took his time as well. They were his family. He looked at each of them, his children, his very fine children. He loved them collectively and independently, without reservation. They had all been through a hard time after Lisa died, but they had come through it together. It was this meeting that might tear them apart. It occurred to him that the last time they’d met like this had been to decide to sell the gnomes.

He cleared his throat. “I’m not going to beat around the bush. The first thing I want to tell you is that I . . . loved your mother. It was very hard for me when she died. Very . . . hard. Della, you and Charlie will know that probably more than Fritz.”

“I know it,” Fritz put in, and he realized that she did, because she was his solemn and wise little Fritz, and somehow she managed to know these things. He smiled at her before he went on.

“Anyway, I don’t think I would have made it if it hadn’t been for the three of you. I want to tell you that I still love your mother very much. I didn’t stop loving her because she died. I will always love her. No one—
no one
—can take her place. But I want to tell you that I love Catherine, too. It isn’t the same as what I felt for your mother, but it’s just as strong. She’s important to me, and I want to marry her. And I want to know what you feel about that.”

Fritz was the first with a question. “If you married Catherine, would she live with us?”

“Fritz,” Charlie said, “what kind of dumb question is that? Of course she’d live with us.”

“I just wanted to make
sure
,” Fritz said.

“Does she want to marry you?” Charlie asked.

“No,” Joe said, answering him truthfully.

“No? Well—if she—how can—
why
doesn’t she?”

“She doesn’t want to be bothered with us,” Della cut in.

“She doesn’t want to be bothered with
you
,” Charlie retaliated.

“She doesn’t want to cause a problem between me and my children,” Joe said, ignoring Della as she rolled her eyes upward. “I don’t know if she’ll marry me or not.”

“Does she love you back?” Fritz asked.

“Yes, I believe so.”

“Well, if she loves you back, she’ll marry you, won’t she?”

“That’s what I hope, Fritz.”

“Would she be like a mother?”

“I think Catherine would be whatever you wanted her to be. Like a mother or like a friend—or maybe both.”

“Or maybe neither,” Della said.

“I want to know how you’d feel about my marrying Catherine,” Joe said, looking at her sharply.

“Go for it, Pop,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, go for it,” Fritz assured him.

Joe was a bit taken aback. He’d been so concerned about Della, he hadn’t anticipated such ready acceptance from the other two. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say about it?”

“How about ‘good luck’?” Charlie added.

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” Della said incredulously.

“Did you hear Pop say he loved her?” Charlie said. “Read my lips.
He loves her
. Get real, Della.”

“Listen, Charlie, you’re nothing but a kid! You don’t know anything—”

“I know I like Catherine. I know she puts a spring in our old man’s step—”

“All right!” Joe said interrupting. “Fritz, do you or Charlie have anything else you want to say—to me, not to Della.”

They looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Then I want to talk to Della alone.”

“Why can’t we hear it?” Fritz wanted to know.

“Because I want to talk to Della alone,” he repeated. “Go.”

They stood up reluctantly, but they went without further comment.

Joe stared at Della across the table. How different she was now from the little girl he’d known. Charlie was basically the same—maybe all men were like that, just taller versions of themselves as boys. But not Della. She had become an entirely different person somehow.