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One more pang of guilt as I remembered yet another secret I was keeping.
Lea’s kids all immediately chimed in, as eager as ever to join the fray.
“Dad, Zio said ‘hell’ in church, so why can’t I?” asked Tommy.
“Lea, come on.” Mike rubbed his face wearily, then grabbed one kid by the collar and the other by his sleeve. “Let’s not do this here, huh?”
I had a feeling Lea had been gearing up for this moment with Mike behind closed doors. Sometimes I wondered if Mike enjoyed sparring with his wife. Lea had always been the type to boss people around, and he generally didn’t seem to mind it. She’d been doing it since they were kids, when Mike was an apprentice mechanic in Nonno’s shop and Lea helped balance the books. But right now, the guy just looked exhausted.
“Take the boys back to the house with Sofia,” Lea ordered, handing their fourth baby, Lupe, to Mike. “And for God’s sake, don’t let Father Deflorio hear them talking like that on your way out.”
Sofia’s face dropped with irritation, but I shushed her with a look and nodded my head, indicating she should follow her uncle and the boys back to Nonna’s.
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” I said to Matthew after they were gone. Church was never going to be the best place to introduce his married girlfriend to the family.
“Stop.” His reply was curt and not to be disobeyed.
Nina, however, wasn’t about to be overshadowed. Instead of allowing Matthew to shield her from the rest of us, she pushed around him until she was facing Nonna. Smart, that one. Nonna hadn’t even uttered a legitimate word, but Nina knew exactly who was in charge.
“Hello, Signora Zola,” she said with a polite wave. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Nonna, however, wasn’t a pushover. Lea was louder, but she took every cue from our grandmother. And every grudge.
Sofia Zola, the elder, stopped in the middle of the church and examined the speaker as if she had only just realized Nina was there. Her dark eyes looked almost as black as her dyed hair, fixed on Nina like she was a speck of dust that needed to be cleaned up. It was an expression my sisters and I affectionately called the Look of Death. We had practiced it in the mirror since we were little. But only Nonna’s original masterpiece could stop people in their tracks and impart infinite words without a single one spoken.
To her credit, Nina didn’t cower or flee. She looked like she wanted to. But she didn’t.
Then, instead of answering, Nonna turned to Marie and Joni, pushing lightly on Joni’s back so they would start moving out of the church. The rest of the pews were nearly empty. We all filed out in a jumble. I, for one, was eager to get a little fresh air, for more than one reason.
“I love your fascinator, by the way,” Kate pushed ahead of me to tell Nina. “Very Jackie O.”
Nine smiled. “Thank you.”
“Doesn’t make it all right for you to be here, though. Not after everything you’ve done to my brother.”
My jaw dropped. Kate was never this, well, Lea-like.
Joni and Marie immediately started giggling.
“Yo!” Matthew’s voice reverberated around the church, hinting of the thunder of God.
“Maybe I should go,” Nina murmured to Matthew.
“What?” He whirled back to her. “No. I asked you here. I didn’t know the vultures would descend the second we showed up. In a church, for God’s sake.”
“Why?” snarled Lea. “Wasn’t she married in one?”
I swallowed. Matthew had never been violent toward any of us, but at that moment, I really thought he might smack Lea for her smart mouth. He and Nina were trapped in the middle of all of us, and we were no better than harpies, ready to peck out her eyes for what? Existing?
Matthew glanced at me. I didn’t know what to say. But the way my brother’s shoulder fell broke my heart a little.
“I’m sorry,” Nina tried again. “I don’t understand. Did I do something—”
“Yes, you did something wrong,” Lea mimicked her cruelly. “You took my brother for a ride. You wrapped him around that little lacy finger of yours and made him fall in love with you. And then you ruined his life. He lost his job because of you. Did you know that?”
The memory of hearing that Matthew’s leave had turned into him permanently losing his job washed over me, as did my own anger. Aside from the recent bad news, I’d been living with happy Matthew for the last few months, but before that, he’d been more depressed than when he’d come back from Iraq as a broken Marine. This woman had been responsible for that and more. And she might do it again.
Matthew glared at me like he knew what I was thinking. But I only raised my chin. I wasn’t going to feel sorry for loving my family.
