The Calendar Brides (21 page)

“We had a project,” Emma said.

“A very special project,” Rachel confirmed.

“Yeah, look!” Tiny took another calendar from the box and flipped it open. Good heavens, it was Emma! Mrs. January! It was such a pretty picture with snowflakes all around. Near the bottom, a caption read.
We met in History but had good Chemistry.
Nona chuckled. “Is this about Donny? And him taking your seat?”

Emma nodded, then Claire encouraged, “Turn to February!”

She did, and oh, how beautiful. Lots of little Valentine hearts and lace floating all around! And right there in the center sat beautiful Claire.
When we met, I saw stars.

Nona smiled. “That’s your Brad,” she told her, “the science teacher.” Nona was getting the hang of this.
 

She eagerly flipped the page, expecting to see Rachel, Emma and Claire’s baby sister, but Angie was there instead. Oh! How enchanting she looked! And, she wasn’t wearing workout clothes! Nona studied her image against the background of boats with full sails. “Did you actually pose by the sea?”

“Oh, no,” Angie said. “Photoshop.”

Tiny explained that it had something to do with putting background images behind photographs. She’d done it for all the months. And Angie’s was March.
He ran into me and sparks flew.
“Ha-ha,” Nona said. “That’s right! I’d nearly forgotten about how you and Jason met.” She glanced around the room. “But why wasn’t Rachel next? Didn’t you go in order?”

“Birth order,” Emma explained. “Oldest to youngest among all of us.”

Nona smiled, deciding that made sense, then turned to April. “Oh, Haley!” she proclaimed. “You look just like a snow fairy princess, even with all the rainbows around.”

“That’s just what we said,” Susan announced from the corner.

“
Love, Set, Match
,” Nona read. “Aw, that’s sweet, Haley. You and Peter always have so much fun playing together.”

She found Bev bedecked with wildflowers. Her caption read,
Two tickets to paradise.
Nona burst out laughing.
 

Nona turned to Bev and raised her brow. “Is this about—?”

“Actually, when I wrote it, we’d barely met. I just figured, you know. Whoever is lucky enough to get me will be one happy camper.” She lifted one shoulder. “I’m a D’Amato woman, after all.”

They all roared at this, until Nona had to dab her nose with a tissue.

Jane was next in June.
The dance goes on.
“Ah,” Nona said, picking up on it. “You’re referring to that waltz thing?”

“Is that what it was?” Lena asked, giggling.

“Don’t worry, Lena,” Trish replied. “None of us had it figured out, either.”

“Speak for yourselves,” Tiny said. “Who do you think thought of the band photo background?” Nona looked closer, seeing the setting appeared to be a dance floor, surrounded by tables draped in white linen and bearing lit candles.

Nona was almost scared to turn to Tiny’s page, fearing it would be loaded with food. And, it was! Heaps upon heaps of delicious-looking Fourth of July fare beneath a darkened sky illuminated by fireworks. “
Better than a barbecue
.” Nona chuckled. “Coming from you, that says a lot!”

“It’s true,” Tiny confessed. “Jimmy does it for me. He has since the very first day.” She paused a second, as if remembering. “Okay, maybe not that one. But since a few weeks later. I was definitely crushing by middle school.”

Zoe laughed lightly. “Yeah, we all know you were!”

“Girls,” Nona said, pausing to take a sip of wine. “This is wonderful. What a beautiful gift.”

They all looked at each other, as if bursting with some further revelation.

“Go on!” Zoe urged. “Turn to me!”

Oh, there sat Zoe in a sunny wheat field, but her dress was very retro, almost like something out of New York in the sixties. Peasant-blousy. Dillon probably loved it. Nona wondered if she’d really wear this one to her actual wedding and asked.

Zoe’s smile lit up her whole face. “Of course!”
 

Made for each other.
Nona shot Zoe a fond look, so glad she’d found her perfect partner. And extra glad they were going to make it official. “I know you love him dearly,” she said.

Zoe appeared misty-eyed. “I didn’t know he’d propose when Tiny took that shot, but…” The others lowered their glasses. She had their full attention. “I was kind of hoping.”

Everyone cheered and clinked glasses, toasting to Zoe and Dillon, the most recently engaged among them.

Lovely Lena was surrounded by September foliage, the turning leaves picking up the highlights in her hair.
You’re music to my ears.
“That’s very poetic, Lena,” Nona said.

“And romantic.” Claire sighed.

Trish looked lovely in a circle of pumpkins and gourds.
My hot Italian dish.
“That’s short and to the point!” Nona exclaimed with a laugh as the others howled and catcalled. “I like it!”

Trish beamed, and Nona turned to Susan in November. My, she made a beautiful bride.
Be my baby,
the caption read.
 

“Sounds like someone’s trying to be her guy!” Rachel chirped.

December was white with snow again and rich with pine trees and sledding. Rachel smiled amidst it all, saying,
I reached for the stars and you gave me the moon.

“Did he do that, Rachel?” Nona asked kindly. “Really?”

She nodded. “More than you know, Nona. More than you know.”

“He does all right for an old man,” Trish teased. Though somehow her teasing sounded lighthearted. Nona wasn’t sure what had changed about Trish, but lately she’d started to mellow. Perhaps she was just growing up.

“He’s not
that
old,” Lena stated.

“Not any older than me,” Bev announced.

“Doesn’t matter,” Nona whispered to Rachel. Then she addressed them all. “Time is of no consequence in matters of the heart.”

“That’s what we believe, too, Nona,” Emma said.

“Which is why…” Tiny continued.

The girls looked at Rachel because they knew she was bursting.

“We’re sending you to Sicily!” Rachel shouted.

Nona felt like her toe had hit something and she’d tripped. “What?”

“The calendars, Nona,” Bev explained.

“Yes,” Jane said. “We made them for you.”

“Me?”

“We’ve been raising money,” Susan informed.

“
Lots
of money,” Trish confirmed. “I’ve been keeping track.”

Angie added with glee, “We’re up to two thousand in preorders!”

“Preorders?” Nona asked weakly, certain she was missing something.

“Yeah,” Haley added. “And we’re about to go real time!”

Nona’s head spun. “Real time?”
 

“Live at local businesses,” Lena explained. “Like at Dave’s.”

“A bar?”

“And the jeweler’s,” Rachel said.

“At Sweet Confections, too,” Haley added.

Zoe nodded. “Everywhere!”

The fog began to lift in Nona’s brain. “You’re all raising money for me?” A lump rose in her throat.

“For you and Luigi,” Emma said.

Rachel stepped forward and took her hand. “It’s just like you said, Nona. About matters of the heart. Time is of no consequence…”

“Except for one thing,” Jane said. “There’s no time like the present.”

Nona was overwhelmed by their love and their gesture. “This is so wonderfully generous, but I can’t let you—”

Trish set her chin, looking stubborn like her mother. “We already have.”

“It’s
a done deal,” Bev stated flatly.

“That is, unless…” Rachel’s brow creased with worry and she released Nona’s hand. “You’ve changed your mind, and don’t want to go?”

They explained the whole thing then, about how they’d arrived at the concept, then followed it through, with each of them contributing. Publically they were fundraising for a
historic preservation trip
. Though Lucia didn’t feel that she and Luigi were really
that
old
.
When she questioned them further, they explained it was sort of a ruse—that their real intent was getting her back to Italy so she could be with Luigi. They’d offered the cover story about her memoirs as protection. On the off chance things between her and Luigi didn’t work out, she could return to Chandelier head held high, and none of the locals would know the difference. They’d believe her to have been away doing precisely what the calendar ads purported, verifying details for her personal life story. And, to ensure she got there safely, Rachel would travel with her, and not leave until Nona assured her everything was okay.

How could life with Luigi be anything but wonderful?
Lucia thought with a sigh. It was almost like she could sense it… The fine aroma of wildflowers wafting in her direction, sailing on ocean winds as they combed through her hair. There stood her Luigi, arms outstretched, beckoning her forward through lilac fields.
Cara mia
, he said, love brimming in clear blue eyes,
come.

Lucia swallowed hard and whispered the only words she could offer. “Thank you…”
 

The girls squealed and rushed to embrace her, chattering happily.

Her lips trembled, and she envisioned Luigi’s kiss, his strong arms carrying her away. If he could still walk, that is. The truth was she simply didn’t care. If Luigi couldn’t walk, she’d carry him.

She laughed through her tears, and spoke with cheery determination.

“It’s never too late for love!”

Chapter Nineteen

Luigi

Twelve weeks later, Luigi stood at the docks awaiting the arrival of Lucia’s ferry. He’d been breathless with anticipation ever since receiving the news. If his great-grandson hadn’t received confirmation by text message from Lucia’s granddaughter Rachel this morning, he would have believed the whole thing to have been a dream. Instead, this was clear reality and he was hanging on tight.
Imagine. Me and my Lucia, together again.
He’d prayed for it, beseeched the heavens for it, but never in a thousand eons had trusted this day would come. The fates had been so cruel.

When Lucia had been ripped from him those many years ago, it was like something vital had been torn from his flesh. His heart, or better yet his lungs—for he could scarcely breathe without her. He’d only been half joking when he’d threatened to throw himself from that cliff. What was life without Lucia, other than a pit of darkness? Eventually, the light seeped through and his friends, as well as his family, had convinced him to marry. He’d resisted, until receiving word, via a mutual friend, that Lucia had found an American husband for herself.
 

Teresa had been a good woman and a solid wife who’d borne him four children. She’d cared for him and catered to him, enduring his endless days at sea and required nights away. And when he’d come home stinking of sweat from hauling in the nets, she’d bathed him and massaged his sore shoulders. He’d come to love her in a way that spoke of endurance and commitment, and mutual ambition in tending to their children. But never in that all-consuming way he’d burned for Lucia. For he’d been the moon and she the sun. They were inexorably bound to each other. There could never be another to make him feel that way. None had come before, nor would ever come after. Even at his ripe old age of eighty-nine.

Luigi didn’t know how many years he had left, but his mind was good and his spirit was strong. And his body… Well, even though he hobbled just a bit—due to that time his leg had become entangled in the ropes—it was just as strong as well. He longed to pamper and love Lucia, even more so today than he had at fifteen. And now, by the grace of God and thanks to her wonderful granddaughters, he’d been granted the opportunity. The ferryboat appeared on the horizon and Luigi’s chest clenched. What would she think of him after all this time? Would worry mar her features when she first beheld him? Would she believe she’d traveled all that way for nothing more than an old man?

Luigi straightened his cap, determined to stay positive and think only good things. To remain focused on
l’amore
and what that glorious emotion promised. That those God had meant to be together would forever stay entwined: in spirit, then hopefully in body, should his heavenly father desire. Luigi made the sign of the cross and said a silent prayer as her boat docked, its engines heaving with delivery. He would love Lucia always, as long as his heart endured. For his faraway love had returned. His Lucia had come home.

Epilogue

Sicily

The following winter, the granddaughters and their men arrived. Tiny carried her little baby, a girl named
Lucia
after her great-grandmother. Lucia and Luigi welcomed them warmly to their small cottage by the sea for a hearty fish stew served with strong Italian wine. While their place wasn’t large enough to accommodate everyone overnight, Luigi’s family had graciously opened their homes as lodging places so everyone had somewhere to stay. Luigi walked with a limp and steadied himself on a cane, but he was still as handsome as ever, especially in his new seafarer’s whiskers. He’d kept his promise to Lucia, too, by making her feel like the happiest bride alive.