Serena's Choice - Coastal Romance Series (2 page)

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It was after midnight when Serena
pulled into the driveway of her grandmother’s house on Luna Bay. It
was late, but the lights were on and Nonna greeted her at the door.
Her grandmother looked more frail than Serena had ever seen her.
Nonna felt frail as Serena leaned down to hug her grandmother. Both
cried as they hugged.

“What happened, Nonna? I don’t
understand.”

“I don’t understand it,
either. But the doctor said it was her heart. That seems right. Your
mother’s heart was broken after your father died. Broken for a long
time.”

Serena led her grandmother to
her bedroom and helped her to bed. She went to the kitchen where she
found the makings for tea and brewed her grandmother and herself a
cup. She carried a bottle of brandy and two glasses with the tea.

Elena accepted the tea
gratefully. Serena sat by her bed and poured two small glasses of
brandy.

“My only child is gone,”
Nonna said. “My only child. I never dreamed it would end up like
this. Never.”

“I can’t believe she’s
gone,” Serena said. And grandmother and granddaughter sat together
until Elena fell asleep. Serena went to her old bedroom and unpacked
her suitcase. The bed was beckoning her and she fell into it. She
sipped her brandy and checked her phone. Jeff had actually texted
her. “How about we go out tonight?” he said. But Serena was too
tired to answer, too tired to contemplate her relationship with Jeff.
She fell asleep knowing the next morning would be harder.

Elena opened the door to
Serena’s bedroom early the next morning. “I’m sorry to wake you
up, cara,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of things to take care of
today.”

“It’s okay,” Serena said.
“I’m getting up.”

Elena had made coffee and eggs
and toast for Serena.

“You didn’t have to cook,
Nonna,” Serena said.

“Of course I did. My
granddaughter’s here.”

After breakfast, Elena and
Serena went to the funeral home to choose the casket and make the
arrangements.

“Where is she now?” Serena
asked.

“She was brought here from the
hospital this morning. We’ll be able to see her soon. I was
thinking we would have a visitation tomorrow evening. Does that sound
all right to you?”

Serena could not wrap her mind
around a visitation. She could not wrap her mind around the fact that
her mother was dead. When was she going to wake up from her
nightmare? When was her grandmother going to tell her it was all a
terrible mistake?

“Nonna, I can’t believe this
is happening. I just can’t believe it.”

“Me either, cara. Me either.
I’m just trying to hold myself together to get through this.”

“I’m sorry. I know I should
be more help in this. A visitation tomorrow sounds right. Will Father
Maconi do the service?”

“I think so. He’s so old
now, I’m not sure. I need to contact the church to finalize
everything. I think Adrianna wanted a Catholic funeral, even though
she hadn’t been to mass in a long time.”

Serena agreed. Her mother had
struggled most of her life, but she still considered herself a
Catholic. “A lapsed Catholic,” she had told Serena more than
once. A Catholic funeral it would be. Nonna would feel good about
that, and Serena wanted to make her grandmother feel good as she
grieved the death of her only child.

After breakfast, Nonna called the
church. The secretary who answered the phone said that Father Maconi
would definitely do the service. That was fitting. Father Maconi had
known her mother her entire life. He had known Serena her entire
life, though she also was a lapsed Catholic.

“
I’ve got to get to the
diner,” Nonna said after all of the arrangements had been made with
the church.

“
Can’t they handle it without
you?” Serena asked. “You have suffered a loss.”

“
No,” Nonna said decidedly.
“They can’t handle it without me. And now your mother isn’t
there, and it’s even harder on the staff. I’ve got to go. Can you
come with me?”

Serena drove her grandmother to
Rossetti’s. It was still early and the lunch crowd wouldn’t be
there for an hour or so. They walked into the restaurant. Serena was
struck right away with how seedy the place had become. The booth
seats were tattered and torn, the linoleum floors looked dirty and
worn. Serena walked back to the kitchen, the place she had learned
her craft, and was horrified at the condition it was in. It looked
greasy and filthy. She knew that the diner had stopped making its own
bread after she left, and the bread oven was an unused and dirty
appliance stuck over to the side of the kitchen, taking up valuable
space.

It wasn’t the time to talk to
her grandmother about the condition of the restaurant. Serena grabbed
an apron and started cooking for the lunch crowd. Nonna went to the
big pot of minestrone that was always on the stove and checked it
out. She added some salt and pepper. Serena watched Nonna go back to
the tiny office and sit down in a chair. Serena was going to be
handling lunch.

Several hours later, Serena took
off her apron and went to her grandmother.

“
Nonna, we need to go now. The
staff can handle dinner and close down. I’ve talked to them and
they understand.”

Elena looked up at Serena then,
but it didn’t seem that her eyes were focusing completely.

Serena took charge. “Nonna, we
have a funeral to plan. We’ve got to leave the diner for a few
days. Don’t worry. I’ll check on things for you. But for now,
we’ve got to go.”

Elena stood and Serena took her
arm. They walked together out of the diner and to Serena’s car. It
hurt Serena to see her grandmother in this shape. She had lost her
child, and Serena had lost her mother. They both were stunned and
getting numb.

Back at the cottage, Serena led
her grandmother to her bedroom and helped her get ready for bed.

“
I’m sorry, cara,” Elena
said. “I guess everything finally got to me today. The diner seemed
so empty without her.”

“
I know, Nonna. I still can’t
believe it.”

After Nonna was settled, Serena
went back to her room. She put on a gown and got into bed before
checking her phone. Daniel had sent her a message asking when she
would be back. Lazy bastard. Having to work for a change.

Jeff had sent another text.
“Where are you?” he asked.

Serena thought for a moment
before she texted Jeff back.

“
I’m in Luna Bay. My mother
passed away unexpectedly. I’ll be gone for a few days.”

Serena turned out the lamp on the
bedside table. A few minutes later she heard the signal that said a
text had come in. She picked up her phone.

“
I’m sorry, Serena,” Jeff
texted. “I wish I’d known. Is there anything I can do?”

She texted back, “No,
everything is being taken care of. Thanks. I’ll let you know when I
get back.” She wasn’t sure she was going to do that, but it was a
way to end the text conversation. She did not want to continue it.

Serena fell asleep thinking of
everything she and Nonna would have to take care of the next day.

Chapter
Three

The funeral home put the details
of the arrangements in the local newspaper. All of Rossetti’s staff
and friends from Luna Bay and the coastal area attended the vigil.
Nonna found Adrianna’s baptismal candle, and it was placed on one
side of the casket.

Serena arrived early, and she and
Nonna spent time with her mother. Adrianna looked peaceful and
beautiful, lying in her casket. Her long dark hair was flowing onto
her shoulders and arms. Nonna placed a rosary in her child’s hands.

There were so many people at the
vigil that Serena was distracted from the reason they were all there.
She talked to people she hadn’t seen since high school. Regular
customers of the diner kept up a steady chatter. When it was over,
she and Nonna went home exhausted. The next day would be the hardest,
the day of the funeral.

At the funeral, Serena and Nonna
held tightly to each other’s hands as Father Maconi sprinkled holy
water and asked for eternal rest for Adrianna. The sweet smell of
incense filled the chapel. Finally, the casket was moved to the
nearby cemetery. The grave was blessed with holy water and incense.

“
O God, by Your mercy rest is
given to the souls of the faithful," Father Maconi said in a
voice that was becoming feeble. “Be please to bless this grave.
Appoint Your holy angels to guard it and set free from all the chains
of sin and the soul of her whose body is buried here, so that with
all Thy saints she may rejoice in Thee forever. Through Christ our
Lord, Amen.”

But Father Maconi didn’t stop
there. He continued with another prayer, one for women.

“
We beseech Thee, O Lord, in
Thy mercy, to have pity on the soul of Thy handmaid do Thou, Who hast
freed her from the perils of this mortal life, restore to her the
portion of everlasting salvation. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

A few people followed to the
graveside, while the rest left to return to work or attend the
after-burial celebration of Adrianna’s life at Rossetti’s. Serena
was so numb by that point that she didn’t notice who was there and
who had left. As she took Nonna’s elbow to leave the graveside,
someone touched her arm. She turned. It took her a second to realize
that the person standing there was Jeff.

“
Jeff?” she said. She had
never noticed how blue his eyes were. She realized then that she’d
never seen Jeff in the daylight. “What are you doing here?”

“
I’m here to attend your
mother’s funeral, Serena.” He hugged her, then turned to Nonna
holding out his hand. “I’m Jeff Richardson, a friend of Serena’s
from Atlanta,” he said as Nonna took his hand. “I’m very sorry
for you loss. I wish we could have met under better circumstances.”

“
Thank you,” Nonna said.
Serena could tell Nonna was a little bewildered as to who Jeff was.
She had never mentioned him to her grandmother. What was there to
say? I’m going out with someone sometimes and we have sex together?
Hardly.

“
We’re going to the diner now
for a celebration. Can you come?” Serena asked Jeff.

“
Of course. Can I follow you
there?”

When she and Nonna were in the
car and Jeff was following, Nonna said, “You’ve never mentioned
Jeff before.”

“
I guess not,” Serena
answered.

“
He must think a lot of you to
come all that way.”

“
He’s a friend,” Serena
said. “I’ve known him for a few months. He’s a customer at
Bridgewater’s.”

“
Oh,” was all Nonna said.

Rossetti’s, closed for business
that day, was full of people there to celebrate Adrianna’s life.
Jimmy and Olive, a married couple who had been cooking for Rossetti’s
for several years, had made a lot of the diner’s signature dishes.
Lasagna, meatballs, baked rigatoni, shrimp and polenta, herbed
roasted chicken, garlic shrimp with angel hair pasta, and red snapper
with lemons were mounded on platters set on tables lining one wall.
Antipasto plates full of Italian cured meats, cheeses, olives, and
marinated artichokes were against another wall. Baskets held focaccia
bread with sundried tomatoes and olives, seasoned with fresh
rosemary. One corner of the diner was devoted to wine, both red and
white.

It was loud and crowded in the
diner, and Serena was grateful that so many people had loved her
mother. Adrianna was a gifted cook, and her creations had lifted the
souls of many customers. What would Rossetti’s do without her?
Things seemed in bad shape as it was. Adrianna’s cooking was
genius, but she had been no good at running a restaurant. And Serena
supposed Nonna had ceased to see the condition things were in. They
had been operating on reputation and Adrianna.

While Serena was contemplating
the condition of the diner, she heard the strains of a slow, jazzy
piano. Through the crowd of people, she saw Joe Campbell, the piano
player who had been with Rossetti’s for more than three decades.
Adrianna grew up with Joe and so did Serena. Elena was a young mother
when Joe started running his hands across the keyboard and singing
classic jazz at Rossetti’s. He had played with the greats in his
day, but he gave it all up to settle in Luna Bay. “That’s a hard
life, the music business,” he had told Serena once. She thought Joe
must be over eighty.

Serena wove through the people,
her eyes on Joe. When she stood beside him, he looked up and smiled.
Through that long day, Serena had held herself together, but when Joe
looked at her with his loving brown eyes, she lost it.

“
Oh, honey,” Joe said. He
patted the piano bench and she sat beside him. Joe put his arms
around her and she cried against his shoulder.

“
We’re going to miss your
mother, honey. It’s going to hurt us so much we think we can’t
stand it. And we’re never gonna forget her. But for now, Adrianna
would want us to help each other. And we will.”

Joe patted Serena’s head while
she cried. When she was finished, she kissed Joe’s cheek. She took
his brown, musical, magical hand in hers. “Thank you, Joe,” she
said as she looked into his warm eyes. “For always being here.”