“Oh dear,” Evelyn said. “I don’t usually eat Indian food. Too spicy.” She looked at Freddie. “Sorry.”
“Why are you looking at me?” Freddie asked. “My family’s from Hong Kong.”
“That’s close to India, isn’t it?”
Freddie frowned. “Probably not as close as you think.”
Another awkward moment passed before Evelyn added, “I don’t like Chinese food either.”
“Mom,” Candace snapped.
“What?” her father answered. “Your mother’s never been good with geography. Or spice.”
“Oh no…” Evelyn said with a gasp. “Was that racist?” She was looking at Freddie again.
“I don’t … can you ask someone else at the table?”
“I … I’m mortified,” Evelyn said, bringing a tissue to her eye.
Antonia nodded. “Oh yeah, I can see where Candace gets it from now.”
“Please don’t cry,” Freddie said, leaning over to pat her hand. “I don’t like Indian food either, and I failed tenth-grade geography. I probably couldn’t find Canada on a map.” Freddie looked at me and mouthed, Do something. What was I supposed to do?
“Um, so … it’s been a pretty warm spring.” Weather. Yup, you could always count on the good ol’ weather small talk. “It’s nice to be outside after a long winter.”
“Do you like the outdoors, Joseph?” Candace’s father asked.
Or not … weather was bad. Freddie shot me a “how could you?” look. But really, I didn’t think there was any winning this.
“I do.” Joey nodded.
“I see,” Michael said, nodding too. “Did prison—being locked up—strengthen that appreciation?”
Candace shot her father a pretty terrifying look. “Dad.”
“Just making conversation.”
Antonia dropped her hand heavily by her plate, making her cutlery clatter. “Is there something you would like to say about my brother, Michael.”
“Oh, I have a lot I’d like to—”
“Here’s the food!” Freddie shouted. “Oh, and it looks wonderful. Not too spicy at all.”
My mother and Zaki and the caterers placed dishes all over the table. They were all smiles. Once my mother thanked the caterers she turned to the group and said, “Sorry for the delay, everyone. I am Summer and this is Zaki.”
“Hello,” Zaki said. “Thank you so much for inviting us to share this beautiful dinner with you.”
Everyone nodded.
Yes, that’s what we needed. My mother and Zaki. They didn’t know what was going on, so everyone would have to behave themselves.
The caterers left, and my mother was just about to sit down beside me when she said, “Oh! I forgot the sprouted grain bread and hummus. Zaki, could you come with m—”
Without even realizing it, I had grabbed my mother’s wrist.
She looked down at me.
“Don’t go,” I whispered through my teeth.
She patted my hand. “I’ll be right back,” she said with a nervous chuckle. Then leaned in and whispered, “Don’t be awkward, dear.” Then she pried her arm from my grip and she and Zaki left.
“Was that the Zaki?” Evelyn asked Freddie. “Guru Zaki? The author?”
Freddie nodded.
“You won’t tell him what I said about not liking spicy food?”
“What will you pay me?” he said deadpan.
More tears came to Evelyn’s eyes.
“Oh no!” Freddie said. “I was joking. Trying to lighten the moment. I…” He looked back to me for help.
I didn’t know what to do! I cleared my throat. “Well, the food smells wonder—”
Just then a crash sounded at the other the table. Nonna’s wineglass had spilled onto her plate.
She must have knocked it over when she had made a grab for the knife.
“No!” I shouted, getting to my feet. Yup, that a-hole red squirrel had crept nearly right up to the table.
“Nonna!” Joey yelled. “Put down the knife.”
Nonna didn’t drop the knife. No, instead she pinched it by the blade and whipped it right at the squirrel.
I screamed. Couldn’t help it. But I quickly recovered. “It’s okay!” I shouted. “It’s okay. She missed.”
I charged the squirrel, waving my hands at it, shouting, “Shoo, tree rat. Shoo.” But the little jerk was holding its ground, up on its back legs, chittering.
“Give me your knife,” Nonna said, waving at me.
“No!”
“I won’t miss this time,” she said, struggling to get to her feet, but the wedding throne was so heavy, she couldn’t move it back so she could stand. The most she could do was rock it on the uneven ground.
“Nonna,” Antonia said. “Just sit. We’ll take care of the squirrel.”
“You never take care of the squirrels. You say you’re going to take care of the squirrels, but—”
She tried to push herself up again, but when it didn’t work, she gripped underneath the seat and tipped it up—
“Antonia!” I shouted. “The chair!”
It was tipping … and Nonna was falling back into it!
Antonia lunged across the table to grab the armrest, but it was too late.
“Nonna!” Joey shouted, jumping to his feet.
I ran to Nonna. Joey, Candace, Antonia, and Josie were already helping her to her feet, with my knife still clutched in her hand.
“Is she okay?”
“I think so,” Joey said.
“Candace,” Michael said, getting to his feet. “It’s not too late. This can’t be how you want to spend the rest of your l—”
“Dad, please—”
“No,” Antonia shouted. “Let him say what he wants to say. He thinks his little princess is too good for my family.”
“No,” Candace said. “No, it’s—”
“She is!” Michael shouted.
“My brother is too good for her!” Antonia shouted back.
“Everyone!” Freddie shouted. “The food is going to get cold if we don’t—”
“Evelyn, we’re leaving,” Michael said, throwing his napkin on the table and stomping off.
Evelyn swiveled her way out from the picnic table and hurried after him. Candace wasn’t far behind.
“We’re going too,” Antonia said, grabbing her nonna’s elbow.
“Toni…” Joey pleaded.
“No.”
“At least let me help you get to the boat.”
Freddie and I stood in front of the pergola and watched the fractured family head off across the lawn.
“Do you think they realize they’re all headed to the same dock?” I asked.
Freddie shrugged. “You know, I’m starting to think Candace might be onto something with this whole curse thing.”
“You think?”
Freddie just sighed …
… and smoked?
Well, he wasn’t smoking. The smoke was rising up behind him.
I shook his arm. “Freddie! Fire!”
Someone must have knocked over a lantern when they left—it had caught the bottom edge of the gauze hanging over the pergola and flames were now racing up the side.
Freddie took a quick look over his shoulder. “Let it burn.”
* * *
The gauze did burn itself out pretty quickly. Being spring, everything outdoors was still pretty damp.
Candace’s side of the family left the retreat first in her boat while Joey and his grandmother sat on the porch with Kit Kat and Tweety.
“Where’s Antonia?” I asked as I headed over. Freddie decided he was going to enjoy the meal despite the burned-out-pergola.
“She’s down at the water,” Joey said. “She wanted a moment.”
I nodded. “I’m going to go talk to her.”
“I doubt she’ll listen,” Joey said with a sigh.
“You go try, Erica,” Kit Kat said. “We’ll take care of Joey and his grandmother.”
“
Yeah,” Tweety said. “I think they could both use a drink.”
I sighed. Hopefully it would just be iced tea again and not the twins’ homemade whiskey.
I meandered my way over to the steps leading down to the water.
Okay, maybe now wasn’t the best time to talk to Antonia, but it was a time, and I was thinking that was as good as it was going to get.
I found Antonia sitting on the swing seat by the water. It was pretty buggy with the sun going down. She must be in a bad state if she was willing to sit out here. I walked over the rocks to get to her. The swing was back near the treeline. There wasn’t a lot of room by the shore.
I didn’t exactly know how to start this conversation, so I just sat down beside her.
“Listen,” Antonia said after a moment, “I know you think I’m a terrible person—”
“I don’t think that.”
“Joey means everything to me.”
I nodded. I believed her. Unfortunately I also believed that he meant everything to Candace. I caught her looking at me from the corner of my eye.
“You know he went to prison because of me, right?”
I nodded. “I heard something about that. But I don’t think you can blame yourself for that. Joey made his own choices and—”
“Did you hear what it was? Why I was sick?”
I shook my head.
She stared at me a bit longer. I think internally debating whether or not she should tell me her story. “Eating disorder. Anorexia. Joey went to jail because I was starving myself to death.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“But still … you can’t blame yourself for being sick. Anorexia is a disease.”
“Right.” By her tone I was thinking she didn’t buy that at all. “Anyway, the point is after Joey got out of prison I made a promise that I would look out for him. He’s got such a big heart. It gets him into trouble sometimes.”
I looked out to the water. “Candace has a big heart too. I can promise you that.”
Antonia scoffed and dropped her hands between her knees. “I’ll have to take your word on that, but either way, that’s not my problem with her.”
“Okay.” I was really hoping she wasn’t going back to the crying thing because—
“Joey needs someone who can look out for him. Help him make decisions with his head. Not his heart.”
I frowned. I didn’t want her to bring up the crying thing again, but I also hated it when I didn’t have my arguments ready. “Candace isn’t stupid. I think together—”
“Come on,” Antonia said, dropping back against the swing, really screwing up our rhythm. “We both know that Candace is one of those chicks who needs taking care of.”
“Not true.”
“She’s crying all the time!”
Aha! I was ready for this one. “That’s not fair. Her maid of honor was murdered the night before her wedding.”
Antonia turned her head to look at me. “Erica, come on. She cried the first time we met. Because she was so happy to meet Joey’s family. She cried the second time because we told her about Nonna, and she felt like she already knew her. She cried when—”
I put a hand up. “Okay, I get it. You have a list. But … so what? She expresses her emotions with tears. It doesn’t mean—”
“She’s needy. Joey will spend his life trying to meet all those needs.”
Frick. I should have known I came unprepared to this fight. Antonia had obviously been thinking about this for a long time now. She’d had months to prepare her arguments.
“She’s going to kill him.”
“Kill him? Okay, that’s a wee bit dramatic.” I shook my head, but kept my eyes on the lake. That kind of ridiculousness didn’t deserve eye contact.
“It’s not,” she said, straightening up. “I mean, she’s not going to kill him, kill him. Like Lyssa.” She made the sign of the cross. “You know, God rest her soul and all that. But my brother is like this big, lovable, dumb dog. I mean, he’s smart—but look at all these accidents he’s been having trying to get her to stop crying.”
“I was under the impression that when Joey can’t fix things, he”—I moved my hands around like tinkering with something … or kneading bread? I don’t know what I was trying to do—“he, like, fixes things.”
“Well yeah, but he doesn’t usually drive nails through his hand,” she said. “I think it’s because he’s distracted and upset, and he knows he will never be able to make Candace happy.”
“Again, that’s not fair. I’ve known Candace for a lot longer than you. She’s usually a happy person. Almost, you know, unbelievably happy. She frequently bakes cupcakes just to share with other people. Who does that?” I mean, I might make cupcakes for myself, but not to share with other people.
“Look, I know she’s your friend, but would you want her marrying your brother?”
I squinted. I had no idea how to answer that. I couldn’t actually imagine my mother having more children. Let alone a boy. I mean, there was Caesar of course. A picture of Candace marrying Caesar popped into my head.
“See? Even you think it’s ridiculous.”
“No, I—” Dammit, Erica, focus. “I just wish I could change your mind about Candace.” I was racking my brain trying to think of something that I could tell her to change her mind. Some story or example where Candace was really badass that might make her see things—see Candace—in a different light. But the pressure kept making the cat wedding pop up in my mind and it was really hard to think. Maybe I was suffering from smoke inhalation. My brain did feel oxygen deprived. “I think if you got to know her a little better, you might…?”
The look on Antonia’s face shut me down.
“Well, maybe you could, for the wedding, just try to…?”
And there was that look again.
“Maybe just for the photos? I mean, for the photos you have to … smile? No?”
She didn’t even shake her head that time.
“Okay, here’s the thing though.” I turned my body to face her. This was my big gun. Full force. She needed to pay attention. “Candace and Joey are going to get married. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want it or her parents don’t want it, they are getting married. They love each other, and Joey wants your nonna at the wedding, so Candace will move heaven and earth to make that happen—even if they do it at the courthouse.”
Antonia didn’t say anything, but I could see I was getting to her.
“Now it will break their hearts if you are not there, but they will do it.” Didn’t know if that was true, and I was probably overstepping, but I couldn’t stop now. “But if you do decide to come and you ruin their wedding, well, that will break your brother’s heart too.”
“Erica, I get that you want me to promise that I won’t do anything to disrupt the wedding, but I can’t do that. If there’s anything I can do to stop my brother from making the biggest mistake of his life, I’ll do it.”
“But it’s his mistake to make,” I said. “And it’s not a mistake.” I probably should have led with that. Not that it would have made any difference.
“I’m sorry,” Antonia said, getting to her feet. “Just … I’m sorry.”
I sighed. I couldn’t let her go yet. I didn’t want to tear any more rifts into the wedding, but I just had to ask her about the night Lyssa died. I didn’t want to believe she had anything to do with Lyssa’s drowning in some crazed attempt to stop the wedding, but someone other than Justin and Tommy had been at the gazebo that night. “Antonia, did you go to the gazebo at all the night of the bachelorette party?”
“No.” She looked me hard in the eye. “Why would you ask me th—” Realization hit her. “You think I…? Nice,” she said with a nod. “God, I hate this town.” She turned and walked back to the steps that led up to the retreat.
Yeah, we weren’t going to be friends.
I rested my head back on the swing. That had been a pretty firm no, but as Sheriff Bigly had pointed o
ut, people lie.
Not too much later, I spotted Candace’s boat coming across the water.
Once she killed the engine, she called out to me. “Erica?”
“That’s me,” I said with a wave. “You get your parents back to the mainland okay?”
“They’re going back to the hotel. What are you doing down here?”
“Oh, I just had a chat with Antonia.”
Candace got out of the boat and secured it to the dock. “I’m guessing you didn’t have any luck convincing her I’m not the worst thing that has ever happened to her brother.”
I sighed.
“Didn’t think so.”
She sat down beside me on the swing and I swiveled my head to meet her eye.
“You have any luck with your parents?”
She shook her head.
“You know what? I’m starting to think you have to approach this whole wedding thing differently.”
Candace frowned. “I do?”
I smiled. “You said I do. It’s funny because you’re a bride and—” I shook my head. “What I mean is this is your day. Yours and Joey’s.”
She smiled, but kind of sadly for my liking.
“You two are in love. This is your wedding. Screw everybody else.”
“I’m sorry, did you say—”
“Screw ’em!” I threw my hands in the air. “Try it. Screw ’em! It feels good.”
Candace blushed. “I don’t think I could say that. I mean it’s okay if you say it. I’m just not really comfortable with that particular phrase—”
“Oh my God—”
“That one either,” she said.
“Sorry.”
She smiled … devilishly.
“Wait … were you teasing me?”
“A little bit,” she said.
“Oh look at you, making the funnies,” I said, nodding. “Now you’re getting it. So say it with me now. Screw—”
“I’m still not really comfortable with that phrase,” Candace, said, wrinkling her nose.
“Okay, the point is your family loves you. Antonia loves her brother. But that doesn’t give them the right to ruin this day for you. Don’t let them ruin our day.”
Another smile came to the corner of her mouth. “Our day?”
I nodded. “Freddie and I have put a lot of work into this wedding.”
Just then Freddie walked down the stairs. “Hell yeah, we have.”
Down the Aisle with Murder Page 21
