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Ugh.

Maybe I could get James to toss that stupid thing into the creek tomorrow?

Nona didn’t say anything but just sipped whatever was in her mug and waited for Mom to continue.

“He went to silence it, but not before I saw the name on the caller ID.” Mom took another spoonful and spoke, her voice a little muffled by it. “Legacy Construction Group.”

Wait.

A construction group?

Nona lowered her mug. “I see.”

Mom nodded and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “I mean, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t see it, so I asked him about it, and he got all defensive but then let slip that they were coming tomorrow to do a quick survey of the property, but that it didn’t mean anything—”

“Scemo,” Nona muttered.

Agreed, Nona. He’s a total fool.

“And then he said he had other ideas about how to pay off the back taxes, and, Mom, you should’ve heard this idea.” My mom stood up and began pacing and talking with her hands. “It was ridiculous. I mean, there’s just no way it would work.”

But Nona perked up. “Now, wait. What was the plan—”

“So, I told him so, and then he had the audacity to say that I was just too scared to take risks.”

Well…

“Me?” Mom stopped and scoffed. “Please. I’m an artist. Every time I put my work on display for the public, I take risks. Right?”

Nona nodded. “Right, but—”

“Anyway, by then the tiramisu came out, but I wasn’t hungry anymore, so I told him I had a headache, and I left.”

“Well, we both know my tiramisu is better anyway,” Nona mused.

“True.” Mom chuckled and sank back into her chair before she picked up the ice cream spoon again. “You’re wrong, though…I was the fool in this scenario.”

Nona laid her hand back on Mom’s. “You took a chance, you went on a date for the first time in…what, two years? That makes you the opposite of a fool.”

Mom put the spoon back in the pint to wipe her eye. “What do we tell Gianna, the others, about that construction group? It’ll completely ruin their Christmas.”

Oh, Mom.

Despite having her heart broken on a date, she was still worried about me and everyone else.

Nona took a deep breath and patted Mom’s hand before letting go. “We tell them nothing because it may, in fact, be nothing, darling.”

Mom sniffed. “But we will need to start looking at other spaces to rent…not that there are any, who knows if I’ll ever find a place with that kind of light, and The Market—”

“Will be the place it needs to be this Christmas,” Nona said, her voice gentle. “And if it’s the last Christmas for our beloved Market, well then, we will make it a great one. But for now, I’d like to hear more about this ridicola idea of his.” She rose and poured herself more water from the kettle before the two of them went into the den.

I used the railing to creep back up the stairs to my room, my knees too wobbly to walk on their own now as my mind spiraled. I wanted to text James to ask him if he knew what was going on, but I doubted his father confided with anyone.

James had seemed so sure that his dad had changed.

Even I was fooled into believing it.

So, what now?