Once Upon a Winter's Heart (2 page)

“But I
told
you I was coming—and that I'd be here this evening.” Emma dropped the dishrag into the sink and placed a hand on her mother's shoulder, forcing her to turn around, face to face. Locking eyes with Saundra, Emma was determined to get to the bottom of this. “You
knew
that, Mom. So why are you acting like you didn't? Or that you need to be here when you knew I was on my way? What's up?”

Her mother looked uneasy as she fingered her pearls, pressing her lips tightly together as if trying to come up with an appropriate answer.

“What is going on, Mom?” Emma studied Saundra closely…something was not right.

“Nothing's going on.” Saundra looked down.

“I can tell something's wrong. What is it?”

Saundra folded her arms across her front with a stubborn look.

“Does this have to do with Dad?” Emma demanded. “Did you guys get in a fight?”

“Fine. If you must know,
I've left your father
.”

“What?”
Emma blinked. In all the years…all the fights…her mom had never left her dad before. Not that Emma knew of anyway.

“You heard what I said, Emma. I've left him. I'm finished. I'm done.” Her mother's lower lip trembled slightly as she reached for a tissue from the box that Nona always kept on top of the old refrigerator.

“But why?”

“Why?”
She looked at Emma with teary eyes. “Because—because it's over—that's why. And please, do not tell Nona about this. She is already stressed over losing Poppi and there's her blood pressure to consider. I don't want her to find out that her only son is a miserable excuse of a husband—not to mention a cad.” And now she turned away and hurried from the room.

Emma just stood there feeling dazed. Poppi had died yesterday. And now her parents' marriage was over as well? Not to mention Nona's health was suffering. What more bad news awaited her? She hadn't heard from her younger sister yet…hopefully Anne and her son, Tristan, were okay—although the recent divorce had probably taken its toll on both of them. Emma shook her head sadly as she opened the old fridge. Perusing the assortment of covered Tupperware containers and casserole dishes, trying to find something suitable for dinner, Emma realized that her family was quickly coming unraveled.

“Oh, Emma,
dolce
,”
Nona exclaimed as she came into the kitchen, where Emma had just finished setting the table. “You're here!”

Emma embraced her grandmother. “I am so sorry about Poppi.” Emma choked back the emotions flooding her. Nona looked so old and drawn. Her skin was the color of parchment and her soft white hair had fallen out of her bun, hanging around her face in wisps, giving her the appearance that she was hanging on by a thread.

“Yes, yes…so am I,
cara mia
.” Nona continued to hug her tightly. “But he went peacefully, Emma, in his sleep. You cannot ask for a better way to leave this world.” Nona released Emma. Now both of them had tears running down their faces.

Nona pulled a lace-trimmed hanky from her cardigan pocket and Emma reached for a tissue. “I can't believe he's gone.” Emma blew her nose.

“Yes…but we cannot keep crying like this forever now, can we?” With trembling hands, Nona used her hankie to blot her own wet cheeks.

“I miss him so much,” Emma confessed.

“I know,
dolce
.” Nona tucked the dampened hanky back into her pocket. “This morning I called out to him…and then I stopped myself…remembered he is not here.” She sniffed.

“It will get easier…” Emma assured her. “In time it will.”

Nona nodded, but her dark eyes did not look convinced.

“Mom started to make dinner,” Emma explained.

“Ah, yes, the roasted chicken.” Nona wrinkled her nose. “Is that what I smell?”

“It got burnt.”

Nona just shook her head. “Your mama,” she said quietly, “is not such a good cook still.”

Emma smiled. “I know.”

“But there is plenty of food here.” Nona waved to the old Frigidaire. “Everyone in the neighborhood, the church, even the bookstore patrons…they all have been bringing me food. As if I might starve to death.” She shook her head then looked around. “Did your mother go home?”

“No. She's still here.” Emma was unsure of how much to say.

Nona frowned. “Where is she?”

“I think she went upstairs.”

“Why is she still here?” Nona's dark eyes narrowed with suspicion.

Emma just shrugged.

“Something is wrong.” Nona lowered her voice. “With your mama and papa. I know it's so. Saundra is trying to keep it from me. But I can feel it in my old bones.”

Without saying a word, Emma simply nodded. “I heated up the lasagna for us,” she said lightly. “I think it's ready to serve now.”

“Lasagna.” Nona sighed. “Poppi loved my lasagna.”

“I'll go see if Mom wants to join us for dinner.”

Nona's dark eyes flashed with concern again. “Tell your mama that there is no sense hiding anything from me, Emma. I will figure it out…eventually.”

Emma gave her a sad smile. “I'll let her know.”

“And I will open a bottle of rosé.” She sighed. “I think Poppi would like that.”

A fresh pang of sadness went through Emma as she went off to find her mother. How was it possible that Poppi was gone?

“Is this about New Year's Eve?” Nona asked her daughter-in-law as they were finishing up their dinner.

Saundra looked down at her empty wine glass, shaking her head no.

“What happened on New Year's Eve?” Emma asked.

“Nothing,” Saundra snapped.

“That's right,” Nona said. “
Nothing
. You are making a mountain out of a mole hole.”

“You mean mole
hill
,” Emma said quietly. Nona had always gotten her metaphors and euphemisms mixed up.

Nona waved her hand at Emma. “You know what I mean,
dolce
. Your mother is still having hurt feelings for New Year's Eve—almost a month ago.”

“What happened?” Emma asked her mom again.

“Your father humiliated me,” Saundra told Emma. “That's what happened.”

“Yes, Rob was not on his best behavior,” Nona sadly conceded. “And all this time—four weeks later you are still angry at him? What about forgiveness, Saundra?”

“I've given that man thirty-six years of forgiveness.”

“That is marriage,” Nona patiently told her. “You love each other. You hurt each other. You forgive each other. You move on…always forward.” She sniffed. “Until it is over with.”

Emma reached over and put her hand on her grandmother's. “You and Poppi had a very special love,” she said gently. “I don't think a love like that can really be over with. Do you?”

Nona's brow creased. “Maybe not.”

“Well, the kind of love Poppi gave you was a whole lot different than what Rob has given me.” Saundra spoke in a wounded tone. “It's too bad Poppi didn't teach his only son how to love his wife better.”

“Poppi taught by example,” Nona told her. “Maybe Rob wasn't watching. And he makes his own choices. We all do.”

“And don't forget there are two sides to everything,” Emma pointed out.

“You're blaming me?” Saundra scowled at Emma. “Your father made a pass at Patty Hiatt on New Year's Eve, right in front of God and everyone, and you're blaming
me
for it?”

“Rob had too much to drink,” Nona said calmly. “You admitted this to me yourself.”

“Everyone had too much to drink,” Saundra argued. “It was New Year's Eve.”

“Nona's right,” Emma said. “You need to forgive and forget…
move on
, Mom.”

“I did move on, Emma. I moved out.”

Nona pushed her chair back with a weary sigh. “Please,
scusa
me. I am tired.” She slowly stood. “I am going to bed now.”

“I'm sorry,” Saundra said with genuine concern. “I didn't mean to talk about this tonight. I knew it would upset—”

“No, no.” Nona held up her hand. “We made you talk about it, Saundra. And it is good for you to talk about it. Get it out into the open. A festering wound cannot heal.” She leaned over and kissed her daughter-in-law's cheek. “Forgive him while there is still time,” she said quietly. “Because you never know,
cara
. You never know…”

Emma started clearing the table, wishing for something positive or hopeful to say, but coming up empty. Nona came over and kissed Emma's cheek. “Thank you for coming to me,
dolce
.” She glanced over at Saundra, who was still sitting and frowning down at her plate. “If your mama stays the night, you will have to share the guest bedroom together.”

Emma gave Nona a knowing look. “Well, I can't imagine that Mom will want to spend the night away from her fancy Sleep Number bed that she's always bragging about.”

“And that just shows how much you know.” Saundra got up, carrying her dish to the kitchen.

Nona's brows arched. “Sleep well,
cara mia
,” she told Emma as she left the dining room.

Emma waited until she heard her grandmother's bedroom door close. “Mom, are you really spending the night here?”

“I am.” Saundra started running water into the kitchen sink.

“What about Dad?”

“What about him?”

“Does he know where you are?”

“No.”

“Won't he be worried?”

Saundra shrugged as she tied on Nona's apron. “I doubt he'll even notice I'm gone.”

“Mom.”
Emma slowly extracted the dish drainer from beneath the sink and, taking her time to arrange it just so on the counter, she literally bit her tongue. It would only make matters worse if she spoke her mind and said something truly hurtful. “Mom…you know that Dad has just lost his father and now his wife has gone AWOL. Don't you think that's a lot to put on a man his age? What if he gets so stressed out that he has a heart attack or a stroke or something?”

“Your father just had a physical before Christmas. According to Dr. Maxwell, he's fit as a fiddle.”

“Even so.” Emma reached for a clean dish towel. “He must be worried.”

“Good. I hope he is.” Saundra shook a finger at Emma. “Now don't you go telling him where I'm at—you understand?”

“The games that people play…” Emma removed a clean dish towel from the drawer.

“Do you mind washing?” Saundra wiggled her red glittering fingernails in front of Emma. “I just got a manicure on Monday and I'm not sure how well these gels hold up in dishwater.”

Emma handed her mom the towel and moved in front of the sink. “Don't you think you're acting a little childish?” she said as she set the glasses into the hot soapy water, just the way Nona had taught her to do long ago. “Running out on Dad like this? I mean, if you really wanted to leave Dad, why couldn't you have waited until
after
the funeral?”

“It wasn't as if I planned it like this,” Saundra admitted as Emma rinsed a glass and set it in the drainer. “If Poppi hadn't died, we probably wouldn't have gotten into the fight in the first place.”

“I thought the fight was over Patty Hiatt on New Year's Eve?”

“That's what started it.…” Saundra slowly dried the glass.

“And if it's any comfort, I can understand how that would hurt your feelings,” Emma conceded as she rinsed another glass. “But like Nona said, that was weeks ago. It's nearly February. Surely if it wasn't bad enough for you to leave him back when it happened, you should be over it by now.”

“I honestly thought I was nearly over it, Emma. But this morning, well, your father and I were having coffee just like we usually do before work. And we were civilly discussing Poppi's passing and all that needed to be done today. Because Nona was determined to have the funeral service three days after Poppi's death. Anyway, we were talking and…well, your father had the audacity to point out that his parents' marriage was so superior…so much better than ours had ever been.” Saundra set the glass down with a loud clink. “And I'm sorry, but it just vexed me.”

“But that's true, Mom. Poppi and Nona's marriage was almost magical.”

“Yes, I'm well aware of that. But for Rob to throw that in my face the way he did—and here I've been helping with his mother.” She furiously dried the next glass. “And I was barely over New Year's Eve—” She turned to stare at Emma. “And you do recall that Patty's my best friend. At least she
was
. Well, it was just too much. More than I could handle. And I was so angry. And our marriage seemed so hopeless. Really, it's a sham of a marriage. Anyway, it was as if a light went on inside my head. And that's when I decided to leave him and come stay with Nona.”

“Did you tell him you were leaving him?”

“No, of course, not.”

Now they washed and dried in silence for a few minutes. Emma could not think of a single thing to say that would improve the situation. And, really, she rationalized, if she just left her mom alone she would probably go home, wagging her tail behind her. Emma smiled to herself as she scrubbed a plate—one night sleeping on one of those hard twin beds in the guest room and her mom's Sleep Number bed would be calling to her.

“So how are Anne and Tristan doing these days?” Emma asked, hoping to break the stony silence.

“Well, of course, your sister was devastated to hear about Poppi. And Tristan took it quite hard too, poor boy. You know, despite the wide gap in their ages, Tristan and Poppi had been getting quite close after Gerard left. I keep telling your father he should spend more time with his grandson, but does he listen to me? No, he would rather play golf in his spare time.”

“He plays golf in the winter?”

“No, of course, not. You know what I mean, Emma. Your father is always too busy—for everyone.”

“Do you think Anne and Gerard will ever get back together?” Emma set a plate in the dish drainer. “I mean they were married all those years. I would think that would mean something.”

“Don't forget it was a marriage of convenience. If Anne hadn't been pregnant, I doubt they would've married at all.”

“But Anne was in love with Gerard.”

“She was so young, Emma. Eighteen is far too young to know who you are or what you want out of life. Even Anne admits that she outgrew Gerard.”

“But he's Tristan's father and that alone should count for—”

“Really? What kind of father insists on moving his wife and child halfway around the world to some—”

“Florida isn't exactly halfway around the world, Mom.”

“It is to a nine-year-old boy who has friends and family right here.”

“He would've made new friends.”

“And family?” Saundra's brow creased. “Or doesn't that amount to anything?”

“Well…think about it, Mom. His great-grandpa just died. His grandparents seem to be headed for divorce court and—”

“You were always such a pessimist, Emma.”

“A realist.” Emma set a bowl into the drainer with a thud. “Why don't I finish this up, Mom? I know you've had a busy day helping Nona and plus there's the stress with Dad. You're probably exhausted.”

Saundra hung her towel over the chrome towel bar. “Thank you, dear. I appreciate that.”

Emma glanced curiously at her mom. “So are you really spending the night here?”

“I told you I was, didn't I?” Saundra squared her shoulders. “I even packed my bags. Come to think of it, they're still in my car. I better get them inside before my new moisturizer freezes out in the cold. At twenty dollars an ounce, I wouldn't want it to get ruined.”

“No, no…you wouldn't.”

As soon as Saundra stepped outside, Emma grabbed the phone and called her parents' number. To her relief, her dad answered on the first ring.

“Dad,” she said quickly. “It's Emma.”

“Oh, Emma, are you with Nona now?”

“Yes.”