Page 45 of The Sweet Life

The sob she’d been holding back turned into a snort. “Yeah, right.”

It didn’t take long for her emotions to get the better of her again as they took one last look around the house. Then Jake reached for the light switch.

She cleared her throat. “It’s not too late, you know. If you want to keep the house, we can back out of the deal.”

He turned to her, his gaze searching her face. “You’d do that for me?”

“Of course I would. This is your home.”

He looked around, a half smile on his face, his eyes shiny when they came back to her. “Thank you. I appreciate the offer. But Alice made it my home, and she’s not here anymore. Besides, she knew she was dying and chose to sell the house. We need to honor her wishes.”

“You’re right,” she said as she followed him out the front door. “I just don’t understand why she bought a lavender farm and left it for us.”

“I have a feeling we’ll find out. You know Alice—she never did anything without a reason.”

“No, she didn’t.” She touched the blue door in a silent goodbye as Jake locked up one last time. “Nonna sent me home with a nice bottle of Cabernet and a chocolate cake. I think we should drink to a fresh start for you and me.”

“She gave you the bottle of Cabernet and the chocolate cake because you lied and told her we were celebrating me getting my law degree and taking over Alice’s practice.”

“Hey, you haven’t tried Nonna’s chocolate cake. You’d saywhatever you had to to get just a slice, and I got us the whole cake.” She linked her arm through his as they walked down the crushed-shell driveway to her car. “But weshouldcelebrate you getting your law degree and taking over Alice’s practice.”

“And our fresh start.”

“And our fresh start,” she agreed.

Chapter Fifteen

As they closed up the restaurant for the night, Gia asked her mother, who was wiping down the bar, “Why didn’t you tell everyone the real reason for the celebration tonight?”

Eva stopped restocking the wine to share a glance with their mother.

“I don’t believe you two. You’re keeping another secret from me, aren’t you? Let me guess, Cami has convinced Willow to move to LA? No?” Gia said when they rolled their eyes. “Then what is it? Because I know you two, and you’re definitely keeping something from me.”

“Come sit. We’ll have a digestif.” Her mother motioned for her to take a seat at the bar. Eva retrieved a bottle of sambuca and the coffee beans.

“This should be good if I need a drink before you tell me,” Gia grumbled as she left the cloth on the table she’d been wiping down and walked to the bar.

They closed at nine p.m. on Sundays, so it was still relatively early. Flynn wanted to get together later tonight for the talk she’d been putting off. It looked like this would be thenight for her to hear things she didn’t want to hear. She had a feeling Flynn was going to give her an ultimatum—either they date out in the open or it was over.

No matter that just thinking about ending things with him made her cry, she couldn’t date him openly. Even if he agreed to keep their relationship a secret, it might be best if they end it anyway, before someone got hurt. She was almost positive that someone would be her.

“You knew I was going to announce I was reinstating Sunday family dinners tonight,” her mother said.

“I did,” Gia agreed, “and I’m as happy about it as everyone else.”

Eva poured them each a glass of sambuca, adding three coffee beans to the top of each drink to symbolize health, happiness, and prosperity.

Carmen pulled out the barstool beside Gia. “I know you even better than you know me, cara, and how you felt about your sister joining us for dinner every Sunday was written all over your beautiful face.”

“Eva has dinner with us almost every night.” They typically shared a plate of the night’s special mid-dinner-service, but Gia knew Eva wasn’t the sister her mother was referring to. She’d hoped they could go a few hours without talking about Cami. Just because Gia knew she had to figure out a way to make peace with her baby sister didn’t mean she wanted to think or talk about it now. She needed time to work herself up to it.

Eva snorted and lifted her glass. “Salut.”

It sounded more likegood luck. Their mother continued looking at Gia with an eyebrow raised.

“All right, so the idea of breaking bread with Cami once a week doesn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies. But you’ll be happy to know that I’m prepared to work on my issues with her.”

“Bene, and my la dolce vita reminders will help with this, I’m sure.”

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