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Sofia had to smile at that. It did indeed make her feel better to know that, although her family created ninety percent of her headaches, they were also there to help put her back together. She knew she was loved, even if the heathens had eaten all the marinated mushrooms. But really who could expect restraint around Ma’s antipasti plates?
Sofia often wished that she had inherited some of her mother’s culinary genius, but aside from a few staple recipes, she made do with prepackaged frozen meals. She was too exhausted to cook by the end of the day, and making her mother’s recipes designed to feed the masses felt like a waste for just her. She relied on nights like this to satisfy her cravings. So yeah, she was bummed about missing out on her favorite mushrooms, but she could still feel the love.
“Lead the way, and thanks for the wine.” She took a deep sip and swirled her glass in the light. The nearly black wine glinted with ruby highlights, while bright berries and tart cherries burst on her tongue. The Montepulciano cleansed her palate of her lingering sugar binge and called to mind her mother’s red sauce, which included a generous glug of the dark wine. “Did you screw up again?”
“No!”
“Then why are we drinking Ma’s favorite wine?”
“For once it’s not me. It was open when I got here,” Seth whispered over his shoulder as they headed for the kitchen. “Maybe we’ll find out now that our slowpoke has arrived.”
Sofia jabbed him in the ribs with a hard finger, his yelp supremely satisfying.
The warmth and noise of her mother’s kitchen wrapped her in a hug even before Jo left the stove to do the same.
“I was getting worried. You should have called.” Josephine Valenti’s frown managed to contain disappointment, frustration, humor, and love, all at once.
“I got caught up at the office.” Sofia leaned in to kiss her smooth cheek out of long-standing habit.
“That office… Enough, I won’t get into that now. I hid some mushrooms in the fridge for you.”
“You are the best mother ever. I am sorry I was late. Last-minute snag on the Chu project that I had to untangle.”
“Bah! Nothing is more important than family. Come. Sit.” She turned and yelled, pitching her voice toward the raucous family room. “Time to eat! Everyone washes.” This last was said with the same stern tone of warning with which it had been delivered since Sofia was a toddler. In a home full of children and construction workers, it was one of Ma’s golden rules.
Her father entered the room first, followed by Enzo and Frankie. The trio had obviously been biding their time with the preseason baseball game on the family room TV, but the lure of Josephine Valenti’s table was stronger than any team loyalty. Good-natured tussling broke out as they all attempted to wash up in the kitchen sink. Sofia found herself in the middle of a whirlwind of damp hugs, arguments, and laughter. Family.
She sat in her chair at the table, the same space she’d occupied since she’d left her high chair. Few things brought her comfort in the swirling chaos of this world. The soothing repetition of waves at the ocean. A glass of good red wine. Her seat at this table. Chocolate was another, so she was hoping her mother had splurged on dessert.
To her right, her mother sat at the foot of the table. Or rather, she would sit there once every dish was arranged to her liking and everyone had a full plate and glass. Enzo and Frankie, matching chocolate brown heads bowed together, arguing over who would get the first slice of lasagna, sat across from her. There was another comfort in knowing that her younger siblings had bickered since birth and would continue to the death.
Her father sat at the head of the table, his smile benevolent if a bit weathered as he looked down on the family he’d created. Stocky and broad-shouldered, skin a tough leathery brown after years in the California sun, he looked as immovable as the mountains outside her window. Unlike those bare peaks, his own crown was sporting more frosty gray than it used to. Sofia couldn’t help but wonder if today was the day he’d feel his age and announce that he was retiring.
Next to her dad sat her cousin Seth, who’d recently needed convincing that he did, indeed, deserve his seat at the table. The only one who shared her own golden features, he looked more like her brother than her own. He joked with her like he was another big brother, too, and in truth he was the closest thing she had to that anymore.
Which brought her to the empty chair on her left. The chair no one had the heart to move, or the courage to speak of. Gabe’s chair.
When her big brother had decided to join the army for a few years before settling into the family business, Sofia had been jealous. Sure, she’d been at college, but it was only San Jose State. With campus only half an hour away, she’d lived at home in Menlo Park, while Gabe had been off seeing the world. His deployment had left a hole in their family unit. A hole that had become permanent when he’d been killed in action three years ago. The resentment she’d felt around him leaving had solidified into righteous anger that he was never coming back. Three years later and the hole in their family was just as large, and she was still struggling to make sense of the new normal. But nothing was getting solved on that front tonight.
Sofia brushed aside her melancholy and reached for her own slice of lasagna and garlic bread. As one of four children, she’d learned that if she didn’t move fast, she’d end the meal hungry. Seconds were for the quick and the bold. She had even better chances if she kept everyone else talking.
“Hey Seth, where’s Zia Elena and Zio Tony?”
“They decided to extend their European holiday by a week. Apparently Spain was too tempting to miss.”
“And Brandy?” Seth’s girlfriend had become a regular fixture at their family dinners. How long would it take Seth to make things permanent? Sofia was betting under a year.
“She’s working the evening shift at Flipped to cover for someone out sick. She’s sorry to miss this.”
“You’ll take her a plate.” Josephine scooped a square of lasagna onto a plate and set it aside, thereby decreasing the amount left to be fought over. Seth wiggled his eyebrows knowingly.
“Yes, ma’am. I sure will.” There was bold avarice in his gaze as she moved the plate, and it gave him away.
“I will call her tomorrow to ask how it was.”
His tone dropped comically like a scolded child. “Yes, ma’am.”
Tucking in with vigor, Sofia moaned in delight. Her mother’s signature spicy red sauce, made with only the freshest Gilroy garlic and the favored Montepulciano wine, burst on her tongue. The creamy ricotta soothed the fire in her mouth and the crispy brown edge bits crunched delightfully between her teeth, leaving behind a nutty goodness.
