“He’s back in Buenos Aires. He said he’d return in a day or two, but even if he did, which he didn’t, he’d be in no shape to run things. Every time I talk to him, he tells me everything will have to wait. He’s a mess. Please, Lily. I’m begging you. This isn’t about you and Max. It’s about all of us and our families.”
I groaned and then looked up at the ceiling. I was sure my mother would be happy to work at the store for another week—she seemed to love it, and she’d been having fun getting all of her friends to come by for fresh baked cookies and coffee, book club meetings, knitting lessons, and anything else she could think of to get folks to come and hang out in the store. “Seeing the store full makes more people want to come in and shop,” she’d said a few days ago with a perky smile. And she’d been right. The numbers didn’t lie. Of course, I had no clue where I’d land with the building, which was now tied to Max.
“Okay,” I finally said. “I’ll come. Can you check on a flight for—” There was a knock at my door. “Hold on, Keri.” I walked over and opened it, not expecting to see the stout green-eyed woman who stood there. “Mrs. Ferrari?”
The woman’s eyes looked puffy and the tip of her nose was red. She’d been crying.
“Leely, we must speak.”
“Uh, sure. Come in.” I lifted the phone to my ear. “Keri, I have to go, but if you can help me find a flight, that would be great.”
“I’ve already found one while we were talking. It leaves out of Santa Barbara in an hour.”
I debated for a moment. “Sure. Okay.”
“I’ll text you the details—thank you, Lily. You’re not only saving my ass but everyone who works here now.”
“See you soon.” I ended the call and turned to Mrs. Ferrari. She wore a flowery white and purple dress and had her brown and silver streaked hair pulled back into a bun. Compared to my own mother, she looked much older—more like a grandma than a mom. I guessed from the size of Patricio’s family, she’d started having babies young and didn’t stop until she had Patricio in her forties.
“Please have a seat.” I gestured to the little couch in my living room slash dining room. “Can I get you a glass of water or some coffee?”
She sat and held out her hand. “No. No, thank you. I won’t be long. I only came to speak frankly with you, from a mother’s heart.”
“Did you drive here by yourself?”
“Yes.”
“To see me?” I ran my hand nervously over my ponytail.
“Yes.”
I took a seat in the armchair. “What’s going on?” From the torn-up look on her face, it couldn’t be good.
“Patricio has told me about his lies.”
He did? Shocking. I’d half expected him to wait until she was home or on her deathbed before he ever came clean.
I folded my hands neatly in my lap. “I see.”
“Dis is why I am here, Leely. I know that my boy has his beeg head up his asshole. But he loves you, Leely. And he is a good, good boy. Do not listen to the lies these garbage people Coles tell you. They are low and despicable with no morals.”
Errrr… “Did Patricio send you here to say that?”
“No!” She shook her finger at me. “He thinks I went out for a walk on the beach. His car is crap, by the way, these German things drive like lumps of butter sliding down a cold river.”
Uhhh…okay. Can’t say I’ve ever heard a car’s performance described quite like that.
She continued, “But diss is beside the point, Leely.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “Did you know that Patricio’s oldest brother does not belong to his father?”
All right. Getting awkward. “I wasn’t aware.” Patricio always spoke about his family in general terms—“We make wine, we breed horses, my family is crazy.”
She went on, “Yes. I did not marry the man who first got me… What is it that you say in English? Knocked down?”
I tried not to smile at the appropriateness of her choice of words. I definitely felt like I’d been knocked down. Every morning, I got up and then I got down. On my knees. And talked to the monster—rarrr…ughhh…gaggg…
“You mean knocked up,” I offered.
“Si. Knocked up. But the man I felt this passion for was not a man who could be a good father.”
Oh. Now I understood where she was going. “Mrs. Ferrari—”
“Please. Call me Bibiana.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Bibiana, I appreciate that you came all the way to tell me this, but I’m not sure I have the same feelings for your son as he has for me.”
“I know this. I see it in your eyes, and it is why I am here. You must look forward, Leely, and see the future. Not only for you, but for your children. Do you want a husband who is broken with a broken family or do you want them to grow up loved with many people who will care for them always.”
“You know the answer to that, but it’s not that easy.” And it wasn’t as if I didn’t have family of my own.
“It is that easy. You commit to a man. You accept his heart. And then you live. It is that easy, Leely.”