Sugar Creek (36 page)

After they’d both filled their plates and Rachel was cutting into her pork chop, she felt like there was an obvious topic to cover, so if her grandmother wasn’t going to bring it up, she would. “Well, this is it, Edna. Are you gonna tell me about Giovanni coming back or not?”

It was June, a year after she’d first come to Destiny, that Edna peeked out the window one day to see Giovanni’s turquoise Cadillac come rolling across the bridge as cool and leisurely as if he’d left just a few hours ago. Her heart nearly stopped beating. And she realized that somewhere along the way, she’d begun to believe he might really never come back. But suddenly he was here.

Except for those few moments of passion with Eddie, she’d stayed true to Giovanni, no matter how agonizing it was. She’d reminded herself over and over of Giovanni’s promises to her, and that she was always his number one. She’d kept her distance from Eddie as much as possible, because being around him without being close to him only tortured them both. But then again, not being around him was just another kind of torture.

Edna took a deep breath, then ran out the door to greet her fiancé. Oh Lord, he was still just as handsome. And his smile just as winning, intoxicating on sight.

“Edna, my
fiore,”
he greeted her as she ran into his embrace. It felt good yet strange to be back in his arms.
Because of all the distance that had stretched between them now for so long—the kind you could measure, but also the kind you couldn’t.

Finally, she pulled back and said, “Your mother?”

His smile faded—he looked sad but acceptant. “She is gone.”

“I’m sorry.”

He nodded somberly, but then his expression brightened. “However, as I had hoped, I convinced the rest of my family to come to America. They will arrive by summer’s end.”

They talked a few moments more until Giovanni said, “Now, your brothers—are they well? Everything has run smoothly here?”

“Yes, and yes,” she assured him. “They’re in the back field with Eddie right now, tendin’ the cattle.”

“And you, my dear—how are
you?
You have missed me, yes?”

For some reason, Edna’s throat nearly closed up at the questions. Both were…complicated. “I missed you somethin’ awful. And, well…you know I was sick in the winter.”

He nodded. “You told me in your letters.”

“The doctor was afraid I would die,” she said.

And it helped a little when Giovanni’s handsome face went grim. “Die?” He blinked rapidly, closing his hands over her shoulders. “I…did not realize.”

The memories still shook her, as well. “It was…terrible. And scary. I wished you were here.”

Giovanni pulled in his breath. “I am sorry for that, my fiore.” Then he smiled. “But you are well now and it is in the past. We can look to our future.”

Something in Edna deflated. His concern seemed genuine, but his willingness to brush it aside after just a few seconds made her feel…small. Like the darkest time of her life meant nothing to him. He didn’t care how she’d
suffered. He didn’t care how much she’d ached for him to comfort her.

“What is wrong?” he asked.

It was all so confusing now.

She’d had every intention of marrying Giovanni when he came back, every intention of forgetting her feelings for Eddie. But somehow, Giovanni’s long absence had made things between them feel…empty. And she began to realize that…maybe she couldn’t forgive him. For not being here when she needed him. Even if it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t been here. And Eddie had.

And in her heart, she knew if they stood any chance at all, she couldn’t keep secrets from him, like about how hurt she felt right now. And…even about Eddie.

She had to tell him—she had to just spit it out and not stop or it would weigh her down and make her even more miserable than she already was. “When I was sick,” she began, “Eddie took care of me.”

“Eddie, our farmhand?”

She nodded. And then she rushed ahead. With all of it. She laid her soul bare. She told him Eddie had fallen in love with her, and that before it was over, she’d developed feelings for him, too.

By the time she finished, Giovanni looked crestfallen. “You…love him?”

She could barely breathe. Just tell him. Be honest. It’s all you can do. “I’m afraid I do. But I love you, too—I swear it! And it’s tearin’ me to pieces.”

It was then that Giovanni’s face changed—from shock and confusion…to something simply sad but resolute. “This…is unacceptable.”

Edna tried to swallow past the lump in her throat and no words came.

“Did you think it would be? That I would accept this? A woman who loves another?” Then Giovanni pointed toward the bridge, his eyes downcast. “You must go, Edna.”

“Go?” She sucked in her breath.

His brow knit and sorrow laced his voice. “Do you think I am stupid? I have my pride. I will not play the fool to a woman, ever. Pack your things.”

Oh Lord. She shouldn’t have told him about Eddie. At least not so soon; she shouldn’t have just blurted it out. Yet she’d had to or she would have burst. And she’d known it would hurt him, yet…she’d never imagined this. “But what about…us?”

He drew back as if she were crazy.
“Us?
There is no
us.
You destroyed
us.
You betrayed me.”

“But Eddie and me, we never…we never…” She looked down, shamed, yet then lifted her gaze back to his. “I stayed true to you, Giovanni, ’cause I love you. And maybe I said all this too fast, too soon, but I thought I should be honest. I still wanna marry you.” Or she’d thought she had before he’d ordered her off the farm. She’d felt she should honor her commitment, try to move past the things that had come between them while he was away.

“You would expect me to marry you
now?”

She drew in her breath. “I thought we could…work through it. And I thought…what with you bein’ gone so long and all, that you’d at least try to understand.”

Giovanni looked at her for a long while, his expression still desolate—and still unrelenting. “You are not the girl I thought you were. Innocent, sweet, obedient. Someone who would stand by me no matter what. I was wrong about all of that. And after I chose you.”

Edna blinked. “Chose me? What do you mean?”

It was only now that his eyes turned colder, harder. “Have you any idea how many women desire me? And I chose you. Even back in Italy, there were beautiful women everywhere. And I chose you. Even when I found out one of them was carrying my child, I chose you. I returned ready to marry you because I loved you above all of them. I was willing to give up my child for you.”

It was only now that his eyes turned colder, harder. “Have you any idea how many women desire me? And I chose you. Even back in Italy, there were beautiful women everywhere. And I chose you. Even when I found out one of them was carrying my child, I chose you. I returned ready to marry you because I loved you above all of them. I was willing to give up my child for you.”

She watched, stunned, as Giovanni raked his hand through the air, as if it were nothing. “The pregnancy, that was a mistake. I was not careful enough.”

“That’s not the point! You had sex with another girl! Lots of other girls, it sounds like!”

But again, he played it off as being trivial. “It is nothing. It is what men do. I did not love them. I always planned to marry you.”

Edna had never been more taken aback, or more outraged, in her life. He’d…thought she was so innocent that she’d let him have affairs on the side! She’d been his number one, but not his only one. “You think I’d put up with that? You think I’d wanna marry some two-timin’, cheatin’ bastard?” She might love Eddie, but her feelings for Giovanni had been just as strong, and she’d never been more wounded. Her hands curled into fists, which she pounded into his chest, shoving him a step back.
“And to think I pushed Eddie away for you!”

“And now you will go off with your hayseed farmer and live a life of poverty, when you could have had all this, with me.” He motioned around him to the farm, his jaw now set in anger. “You are a stupid girl. But no matter. Carlotta will be happy to come to Destiny and live the life you could have had, and then you will see how foolish you are.”

The man was…unbelievable. He belittled her for having feelings for another man, yet he thought it was nothing to sleep with God knew how many other girls

And then it hit her—the telegram. From Italy. And the note on the back.

And as the next words left her, something deep inside Edna changed, darkened, hardened. She stood up a little
straighter. “No. You gave the farm to
me.
As a promise.”

“A promise that I would marry you. Which I was willing to do. Until just a few moments ago.”

“You also promised to be faithful to me,” she pointed out, sure, stalwart.

“Well, that silly note is not legal—you must know that, you foolish country girl.”

“Quit calling me foolish,” she snapped. “We’ll see who’s the foolish one here.”

And then Edna silently made a promise—to herself: that she would never again allow anyone to hurt her, push her around, or break her heart.

Rachel was aghast. She’d long since forgotten her dinner. “What then?”

“Well, Giovanni was convinced it wouldn’t hold up in court. And he brought Carlotta over and married her and moved her into the house here. Dell and Wally went home to Kentucky, but I stayed with Eddie—I married him, in fact.

“Only that’s when old Giovanni got himself a surprise. Carlotta’s pregnancy
proved
he hadn’t been faithful to me, and what he wrote on the back of that telegram
did
hold up in the local court. That’s right, I pursued it. I took the orchard from him because he wronged me. Him and Carlotta bought the farm where she still lives today, but losin’ the orchard left him to start out with nothin’. In the meantime, your Grandpa Edward and me made a home here for many a happy year. It was him who decided we should plant the whole property with apples, in fact. And
that
,” she said, “is the end of my story.”

Rachel just let out a breath. Whoa. “That’s some freaking story, Edna.”

Edna just gave a succinct nod. “Told ya back when I started it was a good one.”

Rachel’s mind swirled. “So this baby Carlotta was
carrying—and that Giovanni was willing to give up—that was Mike’s father?” She couldn’t help wincing at the last part.

Her grandmother nodded again. “But reckon that’s why I don’t tell the story. I’ve held a long grudge against the Romos, but I figured there wasn’t no reason to tell anybody about that. It’s just too hurtful a thing.”

“Indeed,” Rachel agreed, horrified.

“Somethin’ you should know, though. For what it’s worth, I believe Giovanni truly did love me—in his twisted way. Some men, back then, really believed that kinda double standard was okay, a man’s right. And I also believe Giovanni really loved Carlotta and their children. As far as I know, he never cheated on her after they married. Fatherhood seemed to settle him down. That’s another reason I saw no need to tell folks about his wanderin’ eye—and penis.”

“You know,” Rachel said, unable not to voice the thought, “if you
had
told the whole story, the rest of the Romo clan might have understood why you took the orchard. It might have avoided this whole family feud thing.”

Edna just shrugged. “Figured it was easier to let ’em hate me, and for me to just hate ’em back, than to let ’em know what a snake their beloved Giovanni was. Figure it’s easier to hate a stranger than to hate your father or your grandpa.”

“Wow,” Rachel replied, seeing her grandma in a whole new light. “That was…big of you, Edna.”

But her grandmother only shrugged again. “Maybe, maybe not. Giovanni changed somethin’ in me that day he came back. I ain’t never been the same since. Lost my innocence, I guess. Believe it or not, I was a shy, sweet girl before that.”

They both laughed at the very idea of Edna being sweet, or shy, but Rachel believed it. The old pictures of
Edna on the piano gave away the truth about who she’d once been.

“I’ll tell ya one more thing,” Edna said, pointing her fork at Rachel before scooping up some potatoes from her plate. “You’re makin’ a mistake leavin’ Mike.”

Sheesh—double whoa! “What? First of all, I’m not
leaving
Mike. He and I are just…you know, a casual fling, as I’ve made very clear all along. And besides, you just told me the Romo you once loved
cheated
on you—and you think I should want one of my own?”

Edna merely shook her head. “You’re missin’ the point, darlin’.”

“Then enlighten me.”

“The fact is, it’s a toss-up whether it was right or wrong of me to keep the orchard—it all depends on how ya look at such things. I was angry and hurt, and when I realized that piece of paper was the only bit of power I might ever have in this world, I used it to strike back at him. But the older I get, the more I think Giovanni’s family had a right to their legacy—they shouldn’t have lost somethin’ just because he was a jackass. And I shouldn’t have taught my family to judge all Romos by the actions of one. And I shouldn’t have taught you all to look at the whole world in such a harsh way.”

Rachel let out an exasperated sigh. Good God, how many times did she have to explain this? “Edna, this has nothing to do with how I look at the world.” Or she didn’t think it did anyway. “I’m leaving because I have a life somewhere else. And because I’m proud of what I’ve built. And because…”