A Little Slice of Heaven

by Gina Ardito

  Smooth iced vodka became drain cleaner, scraping his gut. “What makes you think I had something to do with it?”

  Her grin turned mirthless as she traced the outline of her glass with a fingertip. “Because I had a reporter friend call Bergdorf’s Public Relations Department. They know nothing about a shopping spree and makeover prize, but they confirmed this year is their eightieth anniversary. Nice touch, made the sweepstakes concept more believable. Your idea?”

  Okay, time to come clean. “The anniversary part? No.”

  Hayley’s piercing blue eyes fixed on his face like a deer fixes on headlights. “I didn’t think so. This Lucinda Barrows came up with that one, didn’t she?”

  What happened to the woman who hemmed and hawed her way through the invitation to lunch? In her place sat a barracuda with a keen sense of purpose, razor sharp teeth, and a finely honed tongue. And the barracuda wanted an answer. Now.

  “Yes.”

  “So?” Folding her arms on the table, she shifted forward. “How’d you pull off this scam and why?”

  “A friend owed me a favor, and I called it in.”

  Like a chess player pondering her next move, she stroked her chin. “Hmmm. A friend and a favor. Sounds familiar. This wouldn’t be the same friend who owed you a tuxedo, would it?”

  He could have sworn he heard the Jaws theme as Hayley honed in on her target. But he brushed off the weirdness as if a goldfish swam by. “What if he is?”

  “Nothing.” The intense focus of her gaze relaxed, and she actually smiled. “But I’d like to meet him if an opportunity arises. Must be nice to have a friend who pays his debts with tuxedos and shopping sprees.”

  “Look, Hayley, this really is none of your business—”

  One manicured claw shot up, bracelets tinkling. “Wrong-o reindeer. If something has to do with Gianna, it’s my business. She’s more than my best friend. We’re like sisters. I’ve known her since we were five years old. Where were you when Frank told her their relationship was over by getting down on one knee in front of Gianna and her entire kindergarten class to propose to her assistant? On the golf course somewhere? In some big budget meeting?”

  An invisible cinderblock smashed his chest, sucking air from his lungs. “Jesus! This worm really did that?”

  “He really did.” Lifting her martini glass by the stem, she swirled the contents.

  “No wonder she left teaching.”

  Hayley slammed the glass down, clinking it against her bread plate. “She didn’t leave teaching. She quit working in that school. Do you blame her? I can’t imagine how she bore that agony until the end of June. The pitiful looks she endured every single day, the whispers behind her back, and a goddamn diamond flashing under her nose hour after hour after hour. But she refused to leave those kids before the school term ended.” With forked talons, she grabbed a warm roll, shredding bits of bread with ferocity. “So, I’ll ask you again. Why did you make up this sweepstakes thing?”

  Kyle imagined Frank’s head sat in her hands. A massacre of crumbs littered the forest green tablecloth. Picturing his own head among the mess, he looked out the wall of windows. Directly below them sat the rocky beach, and in the far distance, sailboats scattered over the shimmering Long Island Sound. To the right, a family of swans waltzed over the water’s surface, peaceful and placid. He kept his gaze on the swans until his blood pressure calmed. Then he faced an expectant Hayley.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  Checkmate. “I wanted to do something nice for her. After all she did for me, I believed getting her a new look for this wedding was the least I could do.”

  “The least you could do,” she murmured. “Okay, I can see that. I’m still not a hundred percent sure how you pulled the whole thing off, but I’ll let you keep that secret for now.”

  Thank God. Who knew Hayley would prove such an intriguing challenge? “Good. Are we done with the interrogation now?”

  “Not quite. I want to get a few things straight between us first.” With the flat of her hand, she brushed crumbs into a neat sawdust pile. “You don’t like me, do you?”

  After all she’d dragged him through since this meal began, he had no desire to pull his punches now. She wanted honesty, he’d give her honesty. “Not particularly.”

  To his surprise, she laughed. “Well, guess what, pal? I like you. And Gianna likes you, too, which makes me your new best friend. So I’m going to give you a little warning.”

  Now, he held up a hand. “Save the speech. I’ve already heard Claudio’s. If I hurt Gianna, he’ll make me suffer. I don’t need another of her protectors on the warpath.”

  The waiter returned with their salads, and Hayley stabbed a plump cherry tomato with her fork. Again, Kyle’s imagination veered to Frank, but this time, the casualty of Hayley’s anger transformed into the worm’s heart.

  “Gianna doesn’t need protection from anyone.”

  She swallowed the heart—er, tomato—in one gulp.

  “That’s where the warning comes in. Everyone thinks she’s a doormat because she’s so generous and giving. But the exact opposite is true. Gianna Randazzo is the toughest broad I know.”

  Despite his intention to remain impassive, a snort of disbelief escaped his lips.

  “Scoff all you want, Kyle, but I’m telling the truth. She’s had a rough time the last six months. Turns out she’d built her castle on a mound of sand. But by God, she never gave anyone the satisfaction of seeing her pain.”

  Her fingers toyed with the breadcrumbs, providing an image of sand running through an hourglass.

  “Think about what she had to put up with. How much guts she had to stay in her classroom for eleven and a half weeks while Rachel prattled on and on about plans for her wedding. Do you know anyone else who would have the courage to stand up to the gossipmongers in the teacher’s lounge? Would you be able to paste a smile on your face and pretend nothing was wrong if someone had publicly humiliated you like that?”

  “Probably not—”

  “I couldn’t, either. But Gianna did. That’s why I’m warning you. If you’re not in this for the long haul, you should stay far away from her.”

  “Well, that’s a little difficult if you expect me to play the attentive suitor at this worm’s wedding, isn’t it?”

  “Not at all,” she replied, spearing a curly lettuce leaf. “So long as you and Gianna agree your act is for appearance’s sake, there’ll be no problem. But this…” She paused a moment, eyes scanning the ceiling as if seeking the proper word from among the recessed brass lighting fixtures. “…This gift of yours goes beyond the realm of appearances.”

  “So are you going to tell her not to take advantage?”

  “Hell, no! Matter of fact, since you can’t tell her the truth, I’ll take credit for the gesture. If she asks, I’ll say I finally unloaded that two point five million dollar house on the bluffs and used the commission to buy the spa package. That is, if you don’t mind.”

  As if he had the power to stop her. “Go right ahead. As long as she goes and Lucinda takes care of the details, I don’t care what you say or do about this.”

  “Good. Because I’m going to make sure she doesn’t chicken out.” She stirred the Cosmo, and then ran her tongue across the swizzle stick. “But I don’t want you thinking because you threw around some influence, you’ll be able to take advantage of Gianna’s Texas-sized heart. That day at Madison Elementary, if her precious cherubs hadn’t been there, she would have kicked Frank’s and Rachel’s butts all over the schoolyard. In fact, I’d bet Frank proposed to Rachel in the classroom because he knew Gianna would kill him if she could. The next guy who tries to hurt her won’t be as lucky.”

  The more she spoke, the more Kyle found himself enjoying this side of Hayley Jeffords. The thorny and righteous side. “Why do I get the feeling you never liked Frank?”

  “Because I didn’t,” she replied with a grimace.

  “Yet you like me?”

  In one lon
g gulp, she drained the Cosmo.

  Like a child seeking parental approval, Kyle waited, gaze never leaving her face, searching for some clue in her expression.

  “I like you fine so far. But there’s one other thing you should do if you want to stay in my good graces.”

  “Oh?” To control his trembling hands, he reached for a roll and split it open. Why did her approval matter so much? He couldn’t explain the why, but accepted that he suddenly craved her good graces as if she offered water to his parched life. “What’s that?”

  “Call your sister and let her know you’re all right.”

  With a pat of butter hovering in mid-air, he paused to grin. This was the nosiest town he’d ever visited. And yet, he was beginning to enjoy life in the suburbs. Sure beat the backstabbers he’d always considered his friends. Here, each person was judged on his own merits. Not on his bank account or address. Which brought him full-circle to Colette. “I’ll call my sister on one condition.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You tell me what’s going on with Gianna and a bank loan.”

  Hayley slid her salad plate to the side. “Gianna wants to open a daycare center in town. She’s got her eye on a property near Villa Mare—a doctor’s office. Dr. Weber’s retiring, and she’d like to convert his old examining rooms into classrooms.”

  Kyle shrugged. “So what’s so hard? She could probably make a pretty good return on an investment if she keeps costs down and tuition high.”

  A golden eyebrow arched as she tsked. “You don’t know her at all, do you? Gianna doesn’t care about making a pretty good return—at least, not a monetary return. In fact, she wants to cater to families who can’t afford to pay exorbitant tuition.”

  “Like Mrs. Melendez.” The idea popped into his head like an overblown soap bubble.

  “Exactly.” Hayley used her swizzle stick as a pointer aimed at his nose. “Her return on investment comes in the form of educating little minds to guarantee them a bright future. A pretty ambitious dream that will take a sizeable amount of money, time, and effort.”

  Cupping a hand under his chin, he considered what Gianna faced. Lots of red tape, politics, and gambling. All things with which she had no experience. He, on the other hand, thrived on what Trump had always called, “The Art of the Deal.” Maybe he should offer to help Gianna with this negotiation. A quid-pro-quo kind of thing. “So, this daycare center is Gianna’s Aegean stables.”

  Hayley did a double-take. “Huh?”

  He sighed. “The phrase comes from Greek mythology. One of Hercules’s great labors was to clean out the Aegean stables. They housed three thousand oxen for ten years with no one ever mucking out the stalls. Comparing something to the Aegean stables is like saying it’s almost impossible.”

  Hayley cocked her head like a quizzical bird. “Is there a reason you need to rub your Ivy League education in my face?”

  “Touché,” he replied with a mock salute.

  “You just can’t help yourself, can you?” With her swizzle stick baton, she waved off any apology he might have attempted. “Whatever. Now you know why I think she’s got guts. Our Gianna’s like Hercules, taking on the tasks no one else wants.”

  Our Gianna. He shouldn’t like the way that phrase sounded, but he couldn’t help the warmth flooding his veins when his heart repeated those two simple words.

  My Gianna.

  Fire spread through his bloodstream, hot enough to ignite his flesh from the inside out. With a quick glance at the swans still gracing the waterline, he pasted a serene expression on his face and reached for his water goblet. Two or three carafes should be enough to quench the heat in his soul.

  ****

  John F. Kennedy International Airport sat directly on Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn. The trip from Setquott Beach meant a ninety-minute drive for Gianna, but she looked forward to the long car ride. Enforced solitude allowed her time to think about where her life headed and what she could do to stop the downward spiral. As of yesterday, she no longer worked at Villa Mare. She couldn’t live with the knowledge Mom and Dad supported her while her teaching degree went unused.

  Thank goodness for Mrs. Melendez. She’d called earlier that morning to say CompTech had offered her a job. Beginning Monday, she’d require Gianna’s services to watch her three little ones from seven in the morning until about five at night.

  Gianna was thrilled at her new employer’s good fortune. Although the salary wasn’t terrific for an entry-level position, the job would provide Mrs. Melendez with health insurance, a steady income, and the measure of pride her ex-husband’s abandonment had stolen over a year ago.

  Impotent anger made Gianna grip the steering wheel until her knuckles whitened. Why did men always run out when things got rough? Why did they think a better life waited just around the corner? A life apart from the women who supported, nurtured, and found themselves discarded when their usefulness or good looks diminished? Or were women blinded by an all-consuming need to belong to someone? Anyone?

  She nearly shouted her frustration, but bit her tongue. From an early age, females were taught they could have everything in life if they’d simply strive to acquire it all. And “everything” included a family. But despite what ardent feminists might proclaim to the contrary, a family, to most women, meant beginning with a husband. So the vicious cycle began. A boatload of single women fishing for Mr. Right in shark-infested waters, each hesitating to throw less-than-keeper-material back for fear of winding up alone.

  God, what a depressing thought! Put on some music. You need something to take your mind off your morose opinions.

  She loosened her hold on the leather-covered wheel, flexed her fingers to get the blood circulating, and then flipped on the radio. The Fifth Dimension’s “One Less Bell to Answer” blared through the speakers.

  Great choice—not! A flick sent the scanner far from the oldies station—light years away—to progressive rock. At least today’s musicians had more sense than their older counterparts when it came to song lyrics. Instead of whining, “Why did he leave me?” like Marilyn McCoo, Shirley Manson of Garbage defiantly proclaimed, “There’s no way in hell I’d take you back.”

  Turning the volume to max, she sang along with Shirley at the top of her lungs. With each word that left her lips, another dram of courage returned. Until, at last, Shirley’s fading vocals ushered in a new resolve.

  Hayley was right. She couldn’t give up. She’d take a night job, work as a cashier in the local supermarket if she had to. Whatever she had to do to get her childcare center up and running. She’d have to wait longer to achieve her dream, but she’d already waited ten years. What was another year or two? Sometimes in life, the harder things were to accomplish, the more you appreciated once you attained them. Her daycare center would be no exception.

  Stuck in the usual traffic on the Belt Parkway, she glanced at the car in the center lane. In the back seat sat a young boy wearing a cowboy outfit. The thought struck her heart like a poisoned dart. Tomorrow was Halloween.

  At Madison Elementary, today would be the annual holiday celebration. The children would bring their costumes to school and change into them right after attendance was taken. Since the sun shone brightly today, the kindergarten classes would hold a parade outdoors. Four times around the bus circle near the front entrance while proud parents snapped photo after photo of their precious darlings dressed up as fairy princesses, monsters, or popular cartoon characters.

  What she wouldn’t give to be there now! The sigh that escaped her lips heaved frustration into the air around her, fogging up a small portion of the windshield. Still, she refused to give in to self-pity.

  Think positively.

  When—not if, but when—her facility was established, she’d hold the very same type of celebration for her little ones. When she found the right building, one with a plot of land, she might even grow pumpkins, and let the children pick one for each class to decorate. Another reason to want Dr. Weber’s old office with th
e little garden and an arched gateway in the back.

  But, no. Best to stop thinking about Dr. Weber’s place. She was unlikely to find the funds to lease the space before a stupid bagel shop or coffee franchise moved in. As if Setquott Beach needed another of those…

  The boy in the car suddenly stuck out his tongue. God, all this time he must’ve thought she was staring at him! Screwing her face into a silly expression, she stuck out her tongue. His little body convulsed into such a fit of squirming giggles his car seat barely kept him restrained. The imagined sound of his laughter brought the first smile of her day.

  Please stay sweet, she silently implored the impish face in the back seat. Don’t grow up to be one of those men always seeking the new and improved version…

  ****

  Gianna was supposed to meet her parents outside of baggage claim. While various suitcases and packages revolved slowly around three active carousels, she scanned the throngs for a familiar face. One by one, hands and heads leaned over the conveyer belt to retrieve a piece of luggage, and then disappeared into the sea of nameless arrivals.

  Fifteen minutes passed. Still she saw no sign of Mom and Dad. Could she have the wrong flight information? She glanced at the scrap of paper in her hand and at the LCD display on the back wall. No. Right airline, right flight number, right arrival time. So where were they? Maybe they missed the flight?

  Ha! Not Mom, the self-proclaimed Queen of Punctuality. Because their flight left Rome at six a.m., Mom probably insisted she and Dad arrive at the airport no later than eleven the night before. A long-standing joke in the Randazzo family, bring something to keep you occupied when you had an appointment. If she could, Mom would get you to your destination a full day ahead of schedule.

  Thinking of her parents, she relaxed until a firm hand clamped down on her shoulder. “What’s a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?”

  With a gasp she whirled to stare up into a pair of deep brown eyes. His bronzed face split into a proud grin, and every frazzled nerve crackling in her spine quieted. “Trolling for senior citizens to lure out to the boondocks with me.”