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Ginny waved him away, brushing popcorn off her skirt. “Don’t rush us.”
He laughed, and she couldn’t help smiling. Infectious, that laugh of his.
When she turned back, Louise was giving her an odd sort of look. “He’s leaving this fall, you know.”
“Sure.” He’d said as much before. Back to his family, the one he didn’t talk much about, even when Ginny showed a friendly interest. That’s what she called it, notbeing nosylike Avis said. “What about it?”
“I simply wanted to make sure he hadn’t indicated otherwise to you.”
Ah.She remembered Louise’s rule about romantic entanglements.
Maybe she’d been watching, when, during the funeral scene at the end, Ginny had sniffled, and Freddy had offered her his handkerchief with a brief squeeze to her hand. “I hate war,” she’d whispered to him, after trying to blow her nose quiet-like.
“You should. We all should,” he’d said, and Ginny knew there were stories hiding past the haunted look on his face, before he turned back to the screen and the movie rolled on.
But that wasn’t flirting, just because a man didn’t want her dripping all over the theater and they’d exchanged a few words during a movie.
“Don’t you worry, Louise,” Ginny said, patting her hand comfortingly before the older woman pulled away. “Remember, I’ve got a beau in the service.”
Even saying it made her feel a twinge of guilt. Better get that package in the mail fast. Mack’s letters weren’t so long as they once were, warfront life keeping him busy and all, but he still hinted that he wanted to hear from her more often.
Louise didn’t look entirely reassured. “Just be sureyouremember that.”
Ginny tried to brush it off. Just a stern old spinster trying to smother romance anywhere she suspected it could spring up. Still, she couldn’t help wondering if Louise knew something from Freddy’s past, something unsavory, something that might make her want to warn Ginny away.
Stop that.It’s your imagination.
She meant well, ol’ Louise, probably. And besides, she’d bought them all popcorn too, so that squared things up from Ginny’s perspective.
She was just wondering whether she’d have to choke down another scone back at the library when Gio started hollering. And everyone turned to stare at a shadowy figure who ducked out the theater’s back exit.
twenty-two
MARTINA
JULY 11
It must have been a mother’s instinct that made Martina’s pulse race the moment she saw Gio freeze in the theater aisle. She guessed the cause even before he pointed toward the back door, before the awful words fell from his lips.
“It’s Da!”
There he was, leaning against the side wall in the flickering shadows cast by the projectors, watching them. Patrick. From the distance, it was impossible to tell for sure, but Martina felt him look right at her before opening the back door, tucked beside the screen, and slamming it behind him.
“Da? Where?” Rosa cried, swiveling toward where Gio pointed. Before Martina could think, her son was running toward the door Patrick had just exited, letting another burst of bright sunlight into the theater.
Faster than she could have imagined possible, Martina chased Gio down the alley, calling his name. But he didn’t stop, kept running toward the street. She snatched at his shirt just before he hurtled blindly off the sidewalk and into the street, bustling with traffic. A delivery truck’s horn blared at them as she gripped his arms.
“Never run away from me like that again.” Her voice shook,but for once it sounded every bit as commanding as Mamma’s. “What if your sister had followed you?”
Whatever shock he’d felt from the near miss in the street faded, and Gio wrenched his shoulder away, looking in all directions. Patrick was nowhere to be seen. “Let me go! Mamma, I saw him.”
Anger flared. How dare Patrick stare at them like that? If she hadn’t acted quickly, both of the children might have been struck and killed.
The next words fell as easily from her lips as the memorized prayers of her childhood. “That was not your father, Gio.” And all the saints could stand in judgment against her, but she didn’t feel one bit of guilt looking directly into her son’s face and lying.
What was happening to her?
“But I saw him too!” Rosa insisted, joining her. The others were watching from a distance, none of them wanting to interfere, but Martina noticed, gratefully, that Freddy ran over to step between them and the road, in case Gio decided to run again.
