Catch a Falling Star (15 page)

Marta raised an eyebrow that said she doubted that it was studying that went on, then leaned forward and said to Mr. Lombardi, “Grandpa, you owe me five bucks.”

“Have you been betting Marta will fail her exams again?” Giuliana said, plopping down in the seat across from Natalie. “Because I keep telling you, she needs internal motivation, not external motivation.”

Mr. Lombardi had his wallet out and handed a five over to Marta who looked a little less glum on seeing it. She stuffed it in her pocket.

“It works, doesn’t it?” Mr. Lombardi said, putting his wallet back.

Then Carl came in, a big man with a big voice. “Everyone else already here then? Of course, you guys had the day off.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Giuliana said. “You’re the man. Hey, when you get a chance, you wanna come over and take a look at my dishwasher? It’s not washing the dishes.”

“Yeah, I’ll come by,” Carl said, pulling the chair out next to Giuliana.

A minute later, a pretty brunette with a baby in her arms walked in and sat by Paolo and Benjy, and Mr. Lombardi scrambled to get a high chair wrestled into place. No one remembered to introduce them so the woman just leaned over and said, “Hi, I’m Kathy. You must be Natalie.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Natalie said.

Kathy gave her a smile. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Which meant Joe
had
been talking about her and Marta wasn’t exaggerating. That thought made her blush a little.

Mrs. Lombardi came by with a steaming pan of lasagna, which she put on a trivet in the center of the table. She tapped Marta with the oven mitt. “Move next to your mother, Joe wants to sit next to his friend.”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to interfere with the hand holding,” Marta said in tones of the deepest possible contempt and Mrs. Lombardi swatted her with the oven mitt again. She moved as grudgingly as possible.

Joe had a pitcher of water in hand and swooped in to sit next to Natalie as soon as Marta vacated the seat.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” she said, and smiled.

“So this is the family,” he said, giving her a little grin. The baby started to cry and he winced.

They were loud, and noisy, and obnoxious, and
wonderful
.

• • •

“Nice girl,” Ma said after Joe got back from bringing Natalie home. They’d all settled in the living room. Paolo and his family had gone home to tuck the kids into bed, but everyone else was still there. The television was on but no one was watching it.

“Yeah,” he said, taking the empty seat next to Giuliana on the sofa.

“A little quiet,” said Dad from the armchair in front of the television.

“That’s ’cause no one can get a word in around you guys,” Marta said without looking up from her smartphone, which, thank you, Marta.

“You been dating long?” Giuliana asked, although she did look up from the magazine she was leafing through.

“We’re not dating at all,” Joe said. “She’s just a friend.”

“I think we’ve all seen the way you look at her,” Carl said, and that was what he needed,
Carl
weighing in on the situation.

“Yeah, well, she’s got a boyfriend. And he is older, richer, and smarter than me.”

“She ain’t married to him, right?” Carl said.

“No.”

“I didn’t see an engagement ring, right?”

“She’s got a boyfriend,” Joe said in case Carl hadn’t heard him the first damned time.

“So?” Carl said. “How many boyfriends did Giuliana go through before she met Tony?”

“I wasn’t really paying attention,” Joe said, frustrated.

“A lot,” Carl said. “Like fifty.”

“Maybe not
fifty
,” Giuliana said, flipping through the magazine. Marta rolled her eyes.

“Point is,” Carl said, “a boyfriend is just a boyfriend. You want her, you got to let her know you want her.”

“I think she knows.”

“You
think
,” Carl said with heavy sarcasm. “Here’s the thing, Joe. You want something in life, you go after it before it gets away.”

“
She’s got a boyfriend
.”

“Not if she decides she likes you better. Not if you show her you’re the better deal.”

“I’m not the better deal.”

“Joe!” That was Ma, sounding scandalized. “I can’t believe you’d say a thing like that about yourself!”

“It’s true,” he said stubbornly.

“It’s not true, and it doesn’t matter,” said Carl. “You put yourself out there. You got to take the risk. You show her, Joe.”

“You know, maybe if you were better at managing your own romantic life,” Joe said, beyond exasperated, “I’d be inclined to take your advice.”

“Me and Bianca do just fine,” said Carl. “You know what? We love each other. Bottom line. Can’t stand each other some days, but what the hell. We know what we got.”

“You leave him alone,” Ma said to Carl, making Joe feel about twelve years old. “He has to live his life the way he feels right doing. You just be her friend, Joe, if that’s what she wants and that’s what you want. You be a good friend to that girl, and you never know what’ll happen.”

Yeah, I’ll get invited to the wedding
, Joe thought with a sigh. He knew what happened to a girl’s best friend.

And then he thought,
Maybe Carl’s right
, and the very idea that Carl could be right was so shocking he had to go take a walk to wrap his mind around it.

• • •

Natalie was in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies with Matthias — not festive cut-out cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and candy canes, sprinkled with colored sugar, or pfefferneuse, a German specialty of Mrs. Bauer’s, but plain chocolate chip cookies. It seemed very important to him.

Brianna was trying her best to ignore them, but she was at the kitchen table putting together a proposal for Janine McIntyre and her company’s annual black-tie dinner, and they were a little hard to tune out.

“I need a break,” she said. “I still haven’t done the grocery shopping, so I guess I’ll get that out of the way.”

“We just used up the last of the eggs. Oh, and we’re almost out of flour.”

“Got it,” Brianna said, making a note on the list they kept on the refrigerator. “See you in a bit.”

They both called out goodbyes to her, and Brianna wondered how long she could conceivably stay at the grocery store. Long enough for the cookies to bake and Matthias to go home so she could quit eating her heart out over the way he smiled at Natalie? She doubted it.

She locked the front door behind her and saw Joe pull up to the curb in his pickup. The pickup was obviously running today but seemed to have developed a sputtering cough. He climbed out with his book bag over his shoulder and waved at her. He slowed and she realized he saw the Lexus just down the curb from where he’d parked. His happy expression turned glum.

“You guys have a study date this afternoon?” Brianna said.

“Yes. I suppose that’s — ” He nodded toward the Lexus. “’Cause it doesn’t belong to anyone in this neighborhood.”

“Yep,” Brianna said. “I’m sorry, she probably forgot. If she weren’t my little sister, I’d have to say she’s a little bit of a flake.”

Joe adjusted the shoulder strap. “I hope he’s a nice guy.”

“He is. Polite, kind, generous, down to earth. Not evil in any way, shape, or form. Damn him.”

“It sucks.”

“You know,” Brianna said, “if life were fair, you and I would go out for a drink, discover our mutual attraction, and live happily ever after.”

“Yeah.” He didn’t seem inclined to take her up on the offer. “Thing is, I’m … ”

“Stuck on her. I’m sorry, Joe.” She wanted to tell him
Natalie really likes you, it was just that Matthias came along before the two of you could get any traction,
but that didn’t seem like it was going to make anyone feel better, so she said, “Do you want me to tell her you stopped by but I told you she was busy? Or — ”

“No,” he said. “I’ll just — ” He made a gesture that encompassed going up to the door and enduring whatever happened next.

“Okay,” she said. “Dakota’s in the back, so you don’t have to worry about getting flattened again. At least not physically.”

“See you around, Brianna,” he said, and squared his shoulders to face what was in store for him.

• • •

Natalie couldn’t believe she’d forgotten that she’d invited Joe over to study for their final exam, and she didn’t quite know what to do when he showed up at the door. Except invite him in and say to Matthias, “This is my classmate Joe Lombardi. We’ve got finals coming up and he promised to help me study.”

“Good to meet you, Joe,” Matthias said, and introduced himself.

“Something smells really good,” Joe said, apparently oblivious to any awkwardness as he put his bag on the table and sat down.

“Chocolate chip cookies,” Natalie said. Now what?

“My favorite, especially when you make them.”

That sounded closer and more intimate than they actually were, but Joe was calmly unloading his book bag on the table. “You think Brianna will mind if I scoot her stuff over?”

“Uh, Joe,” Natalie said. “I — ”

And then Matthias came to her rescue and said, “I should be getting along and let you two study.” But that wasn’t what she wanted, either. Still, she had promised Joe she’d study, so she was just going to have to do what she’d promised.

“Here, you better take some of these with you,” she said, and found a plastic container that she lined with foil. She stacked some of the cooled cookies inside and gave them to Matthias, who said, “I’ll call you tomorrow,” and that felt good, and then he kissed her, just a quick affectionate kiss, like he wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t ceding anything to Joe, and really, men. Joe wasn’t even paying one bit of attention.

“I’m sorry, Brianna,” Natalie said.

It was Christmas Eve, cold but not snowy, and while some people had gotten the afternoon or even the entire day off, the dragon had made everyone work their usual hours. So Brianna had walked in at six to find no sign of dinner, and Jasmine and Dakota practically dancing with the need to pee. Natalie hadn’t let them out because —

“I ended up taking a nap this afternoon and I didn’t realize how late it was. I can — ”

“I’ll make a stir-fry,” Brianna said. This was the second time this week, and classes were over for the semester, so Natalie was done staying up and studying till all hours. Unless maybe this was the letdown from all that stress? Natalie put a lot of pressure on herself. But Brianna was worried.

“You know, Nat, a lot of people your age end up with mono.” She skirted around her real fear. “I think you should get tested.”

Natalie gave her the mulish look that Brianna was so familiar with. “I’m fine,” she insisted.

“Natalie, you haven’t been yourself since … Christ, it’s been since September. This whole semester. And it’s getting worse. Will you please just go to Doc Henderson and make sure you’re okay?”

Natalie wasn’t looking at her. She said something Brianna couldn’t hear.

“What?” Brianna said, feeling exasperated.

“I don’t want to go,” Natalie said, louder.

“Yeah, I
know
that,” Brianna said. “But I’d think — ”

“It’s all so perfect,” Natalie said. “I just … want it to be perfect for a little while longer.”

• • •

Natalie was out with Matthias, for dinner and a gift exchange. Brianna had helped her hunt down a first edition of
The Land That Time Forgot
, which she happened to know Mr. G did not have in his collection. Brianna and Natalie would exchange their gifts in the morning; Brianna had gotten her a sweater she’d coveted, and Brianna had no actual clue what Natalie might have gotten for her.

So here was Brianna with nothing better to do than work on a project for Once in a Lifetime. And when she looked out the window, she realized how ridiculous it was to be feeling sorry for herself over that, because coming up the walk was her father.
Remember that,
she told herself.
It can always get worse.

She sighed and met him at the door. “I thought we had a deal.”

“We did. I said I would leave. I didn’t say I wouldn’t come back. Merry Christmas, Brianna.”

He had an enormous package under his arm, gaily wrapped. She didn’t understand what he thought he was doing.

“Here,” he said, holding it out. “This is for you.”

She didn’t take it. “You shouldn’t have. I didn’t get you anything.”

“I know,” he said.

She had the idea that he would stand there forever, and it was cold, so she stepped back and let him inside. He put the present on the table and took off his coat like he was going to stay a while, and she might as well just let him know he wasn’t.

“I can’t do this,” she said. “You abandoned me. You abandoned us. You can’t just come back like nothing ever happened.”

“I know. I’m not pretending nothing ever happened. I had to save my life, Bree. It was the only way I could figure out how.”

He said it like he meant it, and for a moment she had a clear flash of memory from one of the times he’d tried to get sober, and her mom saying, “Just one little drink, Richard.” Although there were plenty of times when it had been Richard saying, “Just one little drink, Chrissy.”

“You left thirteen years ago,” Brianna said, hanging on to the anger. Beneath the anger was the pain and she didn’t want Richard to see the pain, to think that she had ever cared about him, and she sure as hell didn’t want to
feel
the pain. “You’ve been sober for five. Which means there were eight years in which you weren’t trying to save your life.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Bree,” he said patiently as he faced her. “I tried from the day I walked out, but it didn’t stick.”

“And then there’ve been five sober years in which you could have wandered in this direction. If you had wanted to.” She wished she hadn’t said that. That was the hurt coming out.

“I didn’t know it had stuck till now. Bree, there was no damned use coming back if I wasn’t going to stay sober.”

“It’s no damned use coming back anyway.”

“I know that.”

And yet he was still standing in her kitchen. “You don’t appear to.”