Page 25 of A Family Affair: The Vow
“Isn’t that just a surprise?” Lily studied him, waited for a response.
“Yup, it’s a surprise.” He didn’t want to ask the next question, but Lily might be the only person who’d tell him the truth, so he risked sounding a bit too interested and asked the damn question. “You don’t happen to know when the surprise happened, do you? Seems kind of odd that she let us all think she and her boyfriend were still together.”
“It is kind of weird, but I asked Pop about it because I couldn’t figure it out either and he said sometimes people put up brick walls to keep other people out. And he said it usually happens when somebody doesn’t want to face something they’re afraid of or something they want or maybe even apersonthey want to keep out…he said like you.” She scrunched up her nose, stared at him. “Why would Rae want to keep you out unless this is just like Nate and Christine all over again.”
“Lily, that’s enough.” Mrs. D shook her head in warning. “Vic won’t accept any more dinner invitations if you’re going to interrogate him about his personal relationships.”
“I’m not interrogating. Pop said that’s when you fire a string of questions and probably already know the answer. I’m only asking questions and providing information that could be important for Vic.” She smiled at him, her voice turning caramel soft. “In case, he wants her for a girlfriend.”
14
Lily’s housewarming party started at 2 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. Pop wore his thermal underwear beneath his sweatpants because the weather had turned nippy, and there’d been a pretty heavy frost the night before. Nate had space heaters running and he’d cleaned out his mother’s garage with the help of Vic Tramont and Josh Darlington. The Darlington boy was shaping into a decent young adult and Pop pegged that on Vic’s influence. When a young man asked a senior citizen if he’d like a padded chairanda beverage, well, that said something and that’s exactly what Josh did.
Lily and crew had decorated the garage with pink and purple streamers, purple and silver balloons, and giant fuchsia paper flowers. Three long tables were set up against the walls, two for food and the third for gifts, even though Lily saidno gifts requiredon the invitation.Your presence is present enough. The other tables were in the middle of the garage and that’s where guests could sit, eat, and chat about the “Angel of Magdalena,” a.k.a. Lily.
That girl sure was a blessing and people wanted to celebrate her joy at finally having her own place. Lily didn’t care that it was located above a garage, no siree. You would have thought it was a high-end condo overlooking a dotted skyline. The stairs to her apartment were in the back of the garage and she must have made twenty-five trips so far to show off her new place. Pop had ventured up those stairs with Miriam and hid a little note in her refrigerator along with a batch of Dolly Finnegan’s homemade strawberry jam. Lily sure did love her surprisesandshe loved strawberry jam—her mother’s and Dolly Finnegan’s.
Pop eased out of his padded chair, made his way to the first food table, and grabbed a plate and utensils. How was a person supposed to pick from so many choices, all of them must-tastes? Ham with brown sugar and pineapple, cheesy potatoes, rigatoni and meatballs… Lasagna… Three different kinds of salads… Antipasto… Hot peppers and garlic in olive oil… Homemade bread… And the desserts? Triple fudge brownies, cheesecake, cannoli, cupcakes with pink frosting, lemon bars, and pizzelles. The last made by yours truly. Pop squinted at the chocolate balls sitting on a lavender plate. Were those truffles? Sure looked like it. Homemade, no doubt. He’d heard Greta had started making the dark chocolate ones for Harry because he’d developed a taste for them, but he only got them on special occasions.Harry’s got to watch his waistline and his cholesterol, she’d said.
Pop loaded his plate with everything, thought about piling on a dessert or two, but decided against it. Those desserts deserved their own plate and after he finished this meal, who knew what his taste buds might want? Could be another helping of rigatoni or he might want the rigatoni, meatballs,andcheesy potatoes. He could always take the desserts “to go” if his belly was too full.
He was still contemplating the desserts when Harry flung an arm around Pop’s shoulders and said, “Decisions, decisions. How much can I eat before the heartburn sets in?” He laughed, his blue eyes sparkling. “I’ve gotten good at stopping long before I hit that wall, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.” He grabbed a plate, dumped a healthy serving of rigatoni in the middle, added two meatballs and moved on to the ham. “This sure is a nice spread.” His voice turned gruff, filled with emotion. “I’m really proud of our girl.”
Pop glanced across the room at Lily, felt the tears sneaking up on him. “She looks like an angel, doesn’t she? The pink bow and sparkles on her shirt make her light up.”
“She looks like an angel because she’s our angel, Pop.” Harry cleared his throat like he was two seconds behind a good cry. “She’s the whole town’s angel. What would we ever do without her?”
It was Pop’s turn to sniff. “Don’t know and don’t want to find out. She’s giving everybody a tour of her place, so I guess we should eat our food so she can take us on the ‘this is my place and there’s nowhere I would rather be’ tour. Doesn’t matter that we were here through all the phases of remodeling and have been here several times since. Or that I sneaked upstairs a while ago and stuck something in her fridge.” He winked. “When I’m with Lily, I’m seeing it all over again through her eyes. The purple walls and accents shift to lavender and dang if they don’t shimmer.”
“I hear you. When Lily’s around, the place lights up and it makes a person want to hang around and enjoy it. I told Nate I’m buying her a big flat-screen TV and I don’t care what he says because she’s my niece and I get to spoil her.”
“Dang, bet you’re adding surround sound, too, aren’t you?”
The smile said he’d guessed right. “Beck Durrell’s going to install it and I plan to have him add a few other gadgets as well. Dimmable lights, a cool doorbell with chimes, and some LED string lights. Of course, she’ll want purple.” A long sigh, followed by a shrug. “Once I convince Nate it’s not over-the-top spoiling Lily.”
Pop thought about how excited Lily would be with Harry’s choices. “Oh, she’s going to like those contraptions.”
“I plan to start working on Nate to remodel this area as well. It’s not like Miriam parks in the garage, so why not utilize the space? Nate’s going to hand me the lecture on how it’s not necessary and it’s too extravagant. But I want to do it and so does Greta. We can even add a mini exercise area for Lily. She loves using my treadmill and exercise bike, and if we hung a TV along one of these walls, she could log the miles and watch her favorite shows. Heck, you could even join her. What do you think about that?”
What Pop thought was that Harry didn’t realize he was talking to a senior citizen who’d been one for a lot of years. Still, Pop could get past his aches and pains if he kept moving. He did his stretches and walked, even lifted five-pound weights, and most days he felt just fine. It would be nice to sit on a bicycle and give his heart some exercise when it was too hot to walk. And if there was too much snow, a treadmill would do just fine. “If you can convince Nate, I’ll be happy to be Lily’s exercise partner. And if you’re fixing up this area for her, maybe you can add a spot for her to work on her crafts. Gina’s really got her into pressing flowers and Mari promised to teach her to make memory boxes.”
“That girl’s going to have a busier schedule than I do!” Harry added two scoops of cheesy potatoes, finished with a few carrot sticks. “Did you hear she wants to fill in as hostess at the restaurant? Wants to ‘experience more adult things’, whatever that means.”
“I’ve been hearing snippets from her, but I just listen. Figured sooner or later, the possibility would circle back around and Miriam and Nate would either shut it down or let her give it a try. What are they saying about it?”
“Nate’s definitely against it, and not because of what you might think. Or maybe it is.” Harry laughed, snagged a hunk of Italian bread, and put it on his plate. “He says Lily will get into everybody’s business and she won’t mean to, but she’ll start playing matchmaker with every unattached person who walks into the restaurant.”
Pop considered all of the matches Lily had been involved in one way or the other. “He does have a point but think of all the people she’s helped get together. They’re all meant-to-be couples. Who could fight that?”
Harry raised a brow, eyed Pop. “Who could fight it? How about the ones who aren’t looking for it...the ones who want to be left alone, or the ones who really are just coming to the restaurant for a meal, not to find their soulmate? I’m not saying I don’t agree with you, but I don’t want to lose my entire single clientele if word gets out that she’s playing matchmaker.”
Pop thought on that. “You could always put her in the kitchen, eliminate her exposure to the singles crowd.”
“Lily wants to be a hostess and you know I can’t deny that girl anything. Miriam’s lukewarm on the idea. She said Lily’s got her hands full at the bakery during the week, but she’d consider the weekends. I’m all for it as long as Lily doesn’t straight-out start matching singles at tables next to each other… And I can see that happening, can’t you?”
“I can picture it,” he said as he made his way to the table with the padded seat, eased onto the chair with a groan. “I don’t mind having a talk with her about keeping those matchmaker thoughts in her head and holding comments. I could also talk to Nate.”
Harry slid into the chair opposite Pop. “That boy is so damn protective of Lily. I know he just wants to keep her safe, doesn’t want anyone to hurt her feelings, doesn’t want to ever see her unhappy. But what I try to tell him is that’s all part of living and loving and caring about somebody. Youcan’tkeep them safe, and you have to accept that. You think I don’t worry about Greta and the kids every single day? Hell, I worry about Cooper. But what can I do other than to pray the Man Upstairs watches over them?”
