Page 51 of Keeping Lucy

“I see.” Maybe I did. Maybe I was starting to get a better picture of the man I’d married. Or not. Who knew? It was very complicated.

Dante flicked on the turn signal and slowed down, turning into the entrance of a trailer park and following a dirt track around the outer edge of the park, until he pulled to a stop. “Your mom lives here?” It was quite different from the sweet little house I’d remembered them living in when I used to babysit.

“Yep, for now at least. Which just means Dad’s between scams, or cons, or tricks, or whatever the fuck he does.” Stef shoved the car door open abruptly, grabbed her bag from the seat and said, “Fuck, let’s get this over with already.” Dante watched her walk around the front of the car and stomp up the steps, irritation obvious in every line of her body as she banged on the door.

“Is that all true?”

“Pretty much.” Without another word, he got out of the car, waiting for me at the steps when Stef stepped inside. He gestured for me to go in ahead, holding the screen door open for me. Giovanna was standing at the stove, wearing an apron, a cigarette dangling from the side of her mouth. She was a small woman, and her shoulders were more hunched than I remembered, her once-black hair streaked with gray. The whole trailer reeked of tobacco. It made me want to gag.

“For fuck’s sake, Mom, put that thing out.” Stef moved to the dining area, opening one of the windows and gesturing for me to sit near it. “Now, Mom, or we head straight back out the door.”

“Well, hello to you too,” Giovanna grumbled, dropping her cigarette in the sink. Then she caught sight of Dante and her face almost split in half, her smile was so big. “There’s my boy! Look at you, so like your father.”

I caught Stef’s eye roll and felt a squeeze of sympathy for her. It was clear which of her two children was Giovanna’s favorite. Dante submitted to her hug before coming to sit next to me at the table. Giovanna went back to stirring the pot on the stove, ignoring us. She’d barely even glanced at me. Talk about fucking weird.

I pulled my coat tighter against the cold coming in through the window.

“How was your Christmas?” Stef’s tone was aggressively annoyed.

Giovanna shrugged. “Your father was expecting some money, but it didn’t come, so we just stayed here.”

“How lovely for you.”

I noticed that Giovanna didn’t ask them about how they’d spent the holiday.

“What are you making?” Dante was obviously the peacekeeper in the family.

“Ravioli. But we’ll have to spread it out, I didn’t realize you were bringing someone else with you.”

“Yes, you did, Mom. I told you on the phone. This is Lucy Cooper. She used to babysit Stef back in Esperance, you remember?”

Giovanna gave me the once over, then turned her attention back to the stove without saying anything more. I sat there, trying to remember if she was always this odd. I gazed around the trailer, looking for anything that might jog my memory. My eyes fell on the picture of Venus that Dante had told me about and a blush spread across my cheeks. I shot him a look, blushing some more when I found his eyes on me. He shifted, pulling his coat closer around him. The action shot heat to my core. Was he trying to hide an erection?

The whole time all this was going on, Giovanna was stirring the food, not paying any attention to us. I felt the tension building in Stef until she finally spat out, “Fuck this.” She pulled a present out of her bag and threw it on the table. “I’ll wait in the car.” The screen door slammed shut behind her, making me jump.

“That girl. Always so disrespectful.”

The muscles in Dante’s jaw bunched up, like he was grinding his teeth. Even with the open window next to me, the atmosphere in the trailer was stifling. Giovanna lit another cigarette and left it hanging from the side of her mouth as she pulled bowls from the cupboard. I shot Dante a desperate, frantic look. I couldn’t stay here one second longer.

“Sorry, Mom. Something’s come up. We can’t stay for lunch.”

She gave us a look of mild surprise. “Suit yourselves.”

I didn’t really know what to say as we got to our feet. The usual platitudes seemed more than a little out of place.Thanks for lunch?No.It was lovely to meet you?Hardly. “Um, bye.” That would have to cut it, and on that note, I went outside and joined Stef in the car.

“So, yeah, that’s Mom. In case you’re wondering, I live in Seattle because it’s as far away as I could get from her.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well. It is what it is.” She suddenly sounded much older than her years.

Dante’s frown was heavy when he came out, closing the door gently behind him and getting in the car.

“How much did you give her?”

“Not much.”

“Fuck, I don’t know why you even bother.”

---