The Sweet Spot (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“It is pretty cool,” Sawyer admitted in a whisper to Ani as they followed Bobby around the wide-open space.

“So you’re finally thinking of leaving your
little place above Mama’s?” Bobby asked Sawyer conversationally. “Plenty of space here for your girly massages,” Bobby grinned teasingly. He had asked Sawyer out years ago when she’d first moved to the neighborhood and started coming to the fish market, and he liked to tease her that one night with him would turn her around for good. 

Bobby was old school Italian
, good looking in a macho, well-muscled, gold-chain wearing, hairy-chested way, raised in the North End of Boston. He always said that it served him right, falling for a lesbian when he opened up his fish market in the South End instead of in his own neighborhood.

“Too liberal
here,” he always teased Sawyer. “Come back to the North End with me and I’ll set you straight over a nice bowl of pasta,” he promised her time and time again.

“Don’t even think about setting up
any cameras in here Bobby,” Sawyer warned teasingly. “There won’t be any girl/girl action here. Ani and Raffi are moving in with me.”

“Everything ok?”
Bobby asked Ani in concern. Jordan, Ani, and Raffi had been coming into the fish market together for years, and Bobby knew them well.

“Yeah,” Ani replied softly, avoiding Bobby’s gaze.

“So you’re going to give us the lesbian discount right?” Sawyer interrupted, sparing Ani any further explanations.

“I’ll give you the boyfriend discount if you invite me over for a threesome with
you and that hot Brazilian babe you’ve been seeing,” Bobby replied with a devilish grin, tracing a finger lightly over Sawyer’s nose.

“Man you’ve got
it bad!” Ani laughed at Bobby. “Give it up already Giovanni, she’s never going to give up girls for you. Legions of men have tried and failed before you.”

“Ah, but none of them had the Giovanni magic,” Bobby countered, pulling Sawyer into his arms and planting a kiss on her lips.
“I feel her softening from time to time,” he murmured against Sawyer’s mouth as she returned his kiss teasingly.

“It’s true,” Sawyer admitted laughingly, “I do have moments of weakness when I consider letting him join in just once….” She grinned at her sister as Bobby finally released her.
“Especially when he wears these tank tops.” Sawyer squeezed Bobby’s muscular bicep appreciatively.

“Well then for
God’s sake, take him to bed with you and Nicky for the discount!” Ani exclaimed with a grin, running her hands over the exposed brick wall in the kitchen. “Because I really love this place!”

There were
a few details that Ani and Sawyer had to hash out with Bobby before they signed the lease, but twenty minutes later, they all agreed on the conditions, and Ani and Sawyer had their new home.

“It’s an amazing place A,” Sawyer admitted as they drove over to the private all
-girls school Raffi attended to pick her up. 

“It is,” Ani agreed softly, lost in thought as she gazed out the car window
at the wrought iron gates of Raffi’s exclusive school. “It’s a little strange that she goes to school here isn’t it?” Ani commented as she and Sawyer waited for Raffi to come down the steps of the school.

“Raffi?”
Sawyer asked her sister in confusion.

“Yeah
, compared to where we went to school, how we grew up,” Ani answered thoughtfully.

“It’s certainly a different life,” Sawyer replied carefully.

“I wonder what mum would have thought about Jordan and all of this,” Ani murmured wistfully, motioning to the school with her hands.

“She would have loved him
, and she would have been thrilled that Raffi has all these opportunities,” Sawyer answered pointedly.

“Mum
really loved Bast you know,” Ani told her sister seriously. “You were too young when she died to notice those things, but she loved him like a son. She loved him like her own, Soy, and she used to tell me not to worry, that he would notice me when my curves came in and love me forever.”

“Ani,” Sawyer sighed, at a loss for words.

“When she knew she was dying, she held me in her arms and told me not to give up on him. She told me Sebastian was a good Irish lad and he’d make a fine husband and father one day,” Ani murmured.

“Oh my
God Ani, sometimes you’re straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel,” Sawyer sighed in resignation, reaching out a hand to wipe away the tears that were slipping out of her sister’s eyes. “You win, ok? I’m on your side. I love Jordan, but I get it, I really do. I get that fate has destined you and Sebastian to be together. But don’t ever forget that Raffi came from Jordan, and you wouldn’t have her without him,” Sawyer reminded her sister as Raffi walked over to them and climbed in the car

“How was your violin lesson?” Ani asked her daughter, kissing her hello and smoothing her bangs away from her face.

“Good.” Raffi was looking down at her phone and typing away in response to a text. “Caroline texted that daddy is still in surgery,” she looked up at her mother in concern.

“Ok,” Ani replied, pulling over and putting the car in park as she noted the concern in her daughter’s voice.
It wasn’t unusual for Jordan’s surgeries to run over, nor was it strange for his assistant Caroline to let them know, especially if Raffi had called his office or tried to reach Jordan on his cell phone. “What’s wrong sweetheart?”

“I just don’t know how all of this is supposed to work,” Raffi gulped. “What do I do if I’m supposed to be with daddy and he’s
still at work? Where do I go?”

“Oh Raffi,” Ani breathed,
turning around and pulling her daughter out of her seat and into her arms. “Nothing has changed, do you understand me? Nothing.” Ani pressed her lips into her daughter’s hair. “I’ll be with you every day just like I always am. I will pick you up from school after violin and I’ll be waiting at the bakery on the days you don’t have your lesson. You’ll sleep at home with daddy on some nights and some nights you’ll stay with me, but no matter what, I’m here for you every minute just like I always am. If you have plans with daddy and his surgery runs over, it will be just like usual when he’s late to come home. We’ll eat dinner without him and you’ll see him when he gets home. Okay?”

“Okay,” Raffi whispe
red, blinking back tears. “Will I wait at home or with you? I still don’t totally understand how it’s all going to work.”

“Well
, first of all, you’re going to have two homes,” Ani began, glancing at Sawyer for help.

“We found an amazing apartment today
, and guess who is going to move in with you guys?” Sawyer chimed in, leaning over and hugging her niece and sister.

“You?”
Raffi asked hopefully, still blinking back tears.

“Yes!” Ani exclaim
ed. “Won’t it be great to have Aunt Sawyer with us? And you’ll wait for daddy wherever you want if he’s late to pick you up. Both places will be your home, and if you want to wait for daddy at the brownstone tonight or any night, I’ll wait there with you,” Ani promised, glancing down at her own phone. “Caroline says that daddy should be out of surgery in a couple of hours, so why don’t we go back home and wait for him?” Ani suggested gently, opening her arms so Raffi could crawl back into the back seat and buckle up.

“Home, home, or home to A
unt Sawyer’s?” Raffi asked, still looking confused.

“Home, home,” Ani replied with a lump in her throat as she gazed at her daughter’s sad face in the rearview mirror.

“Okay, that sounds good,” Raffi replied softly, slipping her head phones into her ears and turning her ipod on.

“She’s going to be ok,” Sawyer mouthed to Ani when Ani’s eyes began to fill with tears.

“I know,” Ani choked, pulling the car away from the curb and driving them back to Sawyer’s place to drop her off.

“So how much homework do you have?” Ani asked Raffi after they got back to the brownstone and were relaxing in the kitchen with an after school snack.

“I have a new book report,” Raffi announced, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she reached for a cheese and tomato sandwich from the plate of tea sandwiches that Ani had made for her.

“W
hy the face?” Ani slid a bowl of grapes over to her daughter. “You love to read.”

“Yeah but this is a mystery book report,”
Raffi complained with a sigh, “and I’ve read all the Nancy Drew books already.”

“Hmmm,” Ani studied
her daughter thoughtfully. “I bet I have some mysteries that you’ve never read.” She hopped up off of the kitchen stool. “Follow me,” she instructed Raffi, heading out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

“Oooh are we going into the attic?” Raffi asked e
xcitedly. Raffi loved the attic; it resembled an antique store and was filled with a lifetime of Jordan’s family heirlooms. Jordan was from an old wealthy Boston family, the brownstone had been in his family for generations, and most of the attic contents had been there for just as long.

Ani weaved her way through the
rolled up rugs, old paintings and furniture, until she came to a large old-fashioned trunk that was tucked into the corner.

“This trunk was my
great grandmother’s,” she confided, brushing the dust off of the top and lifting it open. “She sent it to my mother after my mother fell in love with my father and refused to return home to Ireland. My granny wanted my mum to have a piece of home with her in America.”

“What did she put in it?” Raffi asked curiously, peering inside.

“A little bit of everything,” Ani answered softly, pulling out a carefully folded hand crocheted lace tablecloth and a faded book of handwritten recipes. 

“Here is what I was looking for,” Ani announced with a smile as she pulled out a
stack of old children’s books. “Island of Ghosts!” she announced with a flourish, handing a book over to her daughter. “These were my mother’s books from her childhood and I loved reading them when I was your age.” Ani passed the rest of them over to her daughter.

“Some of these are in Gaelic,” Raffi replied, opening one of them and turning the pages with interest.

“Irish,” Ani corrected her daughter with a gentle smile. “My mother always said the language
of Ireland was called Irish.”

“Can you read it?” Raffi asked, trailing her fingers across the unfamiliar words.

“Only a little,” Ani confessed regretfully. “We took a class on Sundays after Mass, but I don’t remember much.”

“Can we go
back to your old neighborhood and visit Father O’Brien again sometime?” Raffi asked suddenly, referring to Ani’s childhood priest who had christened Raffi in Ani’s old church, much to the horror of Jordan’s protestant Boston society parents. 

It was the only time that Ani had brought Jordan to her old neighborhood and
her childhood church, and she’d insisted that the christening be simple, just the two of them. Father O’Brien had held Ani’s eyes as he murmured Raphael’s name and poured the water over Raffi’s head, and his eyes were moist when he handed Raffi back to Ani.

Ani had only brought Raffi back
to her old church once since her christening, in a moment of weakness two years ago when Jordan was away at a medical conference. They’d slipped into a back pew during Sunday Mass and Ani brought Raffi up to meet the priest who had christened her after the service was over.

“Yes,” Ani murmured softly, hugging Raffi to her.

While Raffi curled up on the couch in the den with the book that her mother gave her, Ani rifled through the cupboards and fridge, searching for something to make for dinner. The house was still pretty well stocked from the grocery shopping that Ani had done last week, and she began to pull out carrots, canned tomatoes, cream, and ground beef for a Bolognese sauce. Everything was so familiar and felt so right as Ani made her way around the kitchen assembling dinner, it was hard for her to believe that this wasn’t her home anymore.

“Smells good,” a quiet voice said from the doorway of the kitchen as Ani was just draining the spinach linguini.

“Jordan, I didn’t hear you come in,” Ani startled, as she lowered the pot into the sink.

“You made dinner,” Jordan observed, gazing at Ani with an unreadable expression.

“Raffi wanted to wait for you at home and I know how exhausted you are when you come out of a long surgery,” Ani’s voice trailed off awkwardly as Jordan continued to stand in the doorway staring at her.

“I lost the patient,” Jordan murmured, finally walking into the kitchen and sinking down onto a stool.

“Oh Jordan,” Ani exclaimed sorrowfully. “I’m so sorry.” She gazed across the kitchen island at her husband helplessly. Ani longed to walk over to Jordan and wrap her arms around him comfortingly, but every fiber in her body warned her not too.

“
He was only six,” Jordan whispered, staring across the kitchen at Ani in anguish.

“I know you did everything you
could for him.” Ani gripped the kitchen island to stop herself from going over to Jordan.