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“That’s sacrilegious, Grandma,” Alyssa teased.
Nancy laughed. “Forgive me. I’ve never spoken ill of Martha’s Vineyard before. What’s for dinner?”
Rico spoke poetically about his five-course meal— the salad, the pasta, the fish, the meat, and the dessert, along with the fine Italian wines from the most intoxicating regions, which Nancy couldn’t wait to try.
“This is an appropriate pre-dinner wine if you’d like a glass,” Rico said, spinning the glass in his hands to show off a label of a tree, its limbs spread out beneath an inky-black sky peppered with stars.
“Very much so,” Nancy said.
“Count me in!” Janine called from the next room.
By the time wines were poured for Janine and Nancy and lemonades were fixed up for Maggie and Alyssa, Rico had had enough of Alyssa in the kitchen.
“It’s time for me to take over,” he explained, swatting her out to join the rest of them in the living room.
Alyssa laughed and bounced onto the couch beside Nancy, cuddling against her. “Grandma, I’m so glad you’re here.”
Nancy’s heart swelled.
“And this man you’ve brought!” Alyssa continued, lowering her voice slightly. “He’s really something.”
Nancy’s cheeks burned with embarrassment as both Maggie and Janine leaned toward her, captivated and eager for gossip.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Nancy said timidly. “It doesn’t always feel like real life.”
“It never does in the moment,” Janine agreed.
“Alyssa’s in one of those whirlwinds right now, too,” Maggie teased.
Alyssa reached across the coffee table and swatted Maggie playfully.
“Yes! The Italian. Have you seen him again?” Nancy asked, having heard all about Nico.
“She went out for coffee with him this morning before he went to work,” Maggie said, batting her eyelashes.
“We’re just friends,” Alyssa insisted.
Maggie gave Nancy a pointed look. “She keeps talking about their ‘incredible connection.’” Maggie waved her fingers in air quotes.
Nancy beamed, knowing it had been a very long time since Alyssa had sensed a deeper connection with someone.
“Not to change the subject,” Alyssa interjected, although that was clearly her plan, “but Hunter wrote me today and sent photographs of Lucy! Look.” Alyssa turned her phone toward Nancy, who swiped through photo after photo of little Lucy (who, admittedly, looked much bigger than she had only a few weeks ago). In several, she rode a carousel as Hunter stood next to her horse and held onto her to ensure she didn’t fall.
“They look happy,” Nancy breathed. “Both of them.”
Alyssa’s eyes glinted.
“I sobbed when she showed them to me,” Maggie admitted.
“But we’re just so happy our girl is okay,” Janine added.
Not long before dinner, Kostos emerged from upstairs, looking well-rested, his eyes fresh. He kissed Nancy on the cheek and greeted the others joyously as Rico gathered them up and deposited them in the “formal” dining room, where they hadn’t dined yet. The table had been set with immaculate china, presumably Teresa’s, and the three wine glasses for non-pregnant people had already been filled with the wine Rico had deemed appropriate for this particular course. Nancy sat between Alyssa and Kostos, across from Maggie and Janine, as Rico served them the first course: stuffed artichokes that shimmered with butter. Just before they tucked in, Kostos raised his glass, saying, “To new friends and new adventures.” And the rest of them agreed.
A worthy cook in her own right, Nancy was floored by this meal. Every morsel was divine, an explosion of flavor across her tongue, and every course defeated the previous as the best in the mix. Occasionally, they forgot to speak to one another, as they were entranced with their meal, lost in it.
But, during the brief pause between the fourth course and their dessert, Alyssa spoke about this and that, her hands flying over the table as though she’d become even more Italian since they’d gotten there. And then, abruptly, she stopped speaking, and her jaw hung open as she stared at something across the dining room.
“Alyssa? Are you all right?” At first, Nancy thought maybe she was choking, that she couldn’t breathe.
