AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Now he doesn’t want to acknowledge me anymore. He is convinced that my being with him puts me in danger. He wants me to return to London."
"Are you going to?"
"No," I swallow. "No," I say with more vehemence, "if he thinks he can snap a finger and I obey him, then he has another think coming."
"If that isn’t true love, what is? He is worried about your safety and you are worried about him. The two of you found each other." She raises a shoulder, "The circumstances were a little, what you English might call dodgy, but that only adds to the excitement, I am sure."
"Nonna," I open and shut my mouth, "you can’t say things like that to your granddaughter-in-law; and at a funeral too."
"You’re right."
"I am?"
"I am not nearly as drunk as I should be at the funeral of one of my favorite grandsons." She glances around and a waiter materializes with a tray of drinks. She snatches up a snifter of whiskey, then holds it up to me, "To Alessandro."
I opt for the wine, then raise my wineglass, "To Xander."
She drinks from her own glass, then stares into the depths of her whiskey, "He wasn’t what he seemed you know?"
"Xander?" I frown, "Are we talking about the same laid-back man who loved to paint and who was the most charming of all the brothers?"
"He was all that, and brilliant at his painting too. A genius ahead of his time, some would say." She takes another healthy swig of her whiskey. "I loved him more than anyone else, maybe even Michael sometimes." She glances around the room, "And the boys know it. But what they didn’t realize was that he was also confused."
"Confused?"
She glances at me, "Let’s just say, he felt something for Theresa, but never told her so. Not because he couldn’t, but because he wasn’t sure if he loved her. Because she wasn’t the only one he was interested in."
I straighten in my seat. "You mean there was someone else he loved?"
"Not one…" She stares at me meaningfully.
"Oh, so you mean he slept around?"
"He did," she glances away, then back at me, "and not only with women."
"Oh," I take a sip of my wine, "which is normal, right? People are attracted to both men and women sometimes."
"Not in Sicily, they aren’t."
"Oh, please," I scoff. "Sicilians are not exempt from who they are drawn to, and I don’t understand why you are speaking like this about Xander, considering we’ve just come from his funeral."
"When you are old like I am, you are always only one step ahead of death, and you never know when it’s going to catch up with you."
A shiver runs down my back. "That’s…"
"The truth," she cuts in. "I’ve learned it’s best not to fuck around when you have something to say."
I laugh, then turn it into a cough, "Didn’t expect you to use that word." I take in her determined features, "You’re a force to be reckoned with, Nonna."
"So are you."
"I am?"
She tilts her head, "You’d have to be for the Capo to marry you. You do realize that he broke the norm when he did so."
"And that’s a problem…?"
She raises a shoulder, "I’d have been happier if he’d married a nice Sicilian girl, who’d have stayed home and given him kids, but it wasn’t to be."
