Caterina

by Patricia Paris

  Caterina picked up another avocado. “I never would have expected to run into you shopping at Whole Foods.”

  “Man’s gotta eat.”

  Words…progress. “What are you going to do with those avocados?”

  He tied a knot in the bag and dropped it into his basket. “What do you think I’m going to do with them?”

  Cat shrugged. “I don’t know, hide behind something outside and throw them at me when I’m walking back to my car? They’ve got to be as hard as rocks, except for that last one. It’s overripe and would probably splatter like a water balloon on contact.”

  He rolled his jaw. Prickly man.

  “Just a guess. You know, considering our brief history.” She gave a smarmy smile. He’d earned it. “But anyway,” she said with a dismissive wave, “you can’t be planning to eat them, unless you wait several days—five, six maybe.”

  Liam cocked his hip, assuming a look that smacked of condescension. “And why’s that?” he asked, all smug, acting like he really didn’t care why either way. She felt tempted to give him a concrete reason to dislike her, like ramming him up against the produce bin with her shopping cart. She never would, of course, but…

  “They’re not ripe.” She reached into his basket and pulled out the bag he’d just dropped into it.

  “What are you doing?” He grabbed for it. She held it out to her side.

  “Doing you a favor. One you don’t deserve given the way you treat me, and which I’m sure you won’t appreciate. But I won’t stand by and allow these little fruits to be blamed for a tasteless meal, when the fault would be entirely yours for expecting more from them than they’re able to give yet.”

  “They’re avocados,” he said with a smirk, and absolutely no clue. He reached for the bag again. Again, she held it out of his grasp.

  “Are you intending to eat them tonight?”

  “For Christ’s— “ Liam put his hands on his hips, glowering. “They’re for my sister-in-law. She needs them for dinner tonight and asked if I’d pick some up on my way over.”

  “Wow. That’s a lot of words.” Caterina tore open the plastic bag, dumping the avocados back into the bin. Liam gaped at her. She picked out four perfectly ripe ones, put them in a new bag, tied it off, and handed it to him.

  “You can tell your sister-in-law I said you’re welcome.” She smiled tightly, spun on her heels, and gripped the handle of her cart.

  She had more shopping to do and was quite positive the temperature would feel a lot less frosty in some other aisle.

  CATERINA AND HER sisters sat around a large, round table in the solarium with three of their girlfriends. This was the first girls’ night they’d had in a while because they’d all been so busy, and before quitting her job at Caulfield’s, Cat rarely had a night off.

  Most of the guests were out for the evening. If anyone came back early and needed something, all they needed to do was follow the sounds of laughter and easy conversation drifting from the solarium.

  “You need to include these on the fall and winter menus, Cat. They’re wonderful.” Lucia scraped her spoon around the inside of a miniature pumpkin shell to get out the last bit of filling.

  “And they’re so adorable.” Jenna, who managed Twining Vines, a favorite local restaurant, and someone they’d all known since their school days, leaned forward, and picked up a bottle of sauvignon blanc from the center of the table. “You could do a whole Harvest Sides selection served in baby pumpkins.”

  “Since I was using you gals as a test group, I’m glad you like them. I’ve already got plans along those lines, Jenna, including some desserts: pumpkin mousse, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin brulee.”

  “Customers will love that.” Jenna filled her wineglass, passed the bottle to Marcella who sat to her right, and then flashed a toothy smile at Caterina. “If you need someone to test the brulee, or any of the other desserts, I’m willing to make the sacrifice. What are a couple of pounds for friends?”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Cat promised.

  “I can’t wait to see Serendipity when it’s done,” said Anna. She and her twin, Reese, who rounded out the group, had been in the same class with Cat and Marcella every year since junior high. They’d bonded early on, sharing their experiences as twins, and had been friends ever since.

  Anna raised her glass. “I think we should toast your future husband, Luch, for designing you and Cat the boutique hotel and restaurant of your dreams.”

  “I’ll drink to Antonio anytime.” Lucia’s eyes sparkled, dark glistening sable, as she tipped the rim of her glass, and took a sip.

  “I finally figured out who he reminds me of. David Gandy,” Jenna said, and then panted for Lucia’s benefit.

  Marcella furrowed her brow. “David who?”

  “Oh, poor little sister.” Eliana, who sat on Marcella’s other side, patted her arm. “David Gandy, the model. Not that I’d expect you to know who he is, since clearly, you couldn’t care less about fashion or updating your wardrobe.”

  “I’ve got better things to do than waste my time looking through fashion magazines.”

  “That’s okay, honey, the rest of us have your back. If you ever find someone you’re interested in enough to want to get his attention, we’ll dress you.” Eliana winked at Marcella.

  “Okay, thanks.” Marcella refilled her glass. “I should be able to sleep nights now.”

  Eliana chuckled. “So how about it, Luch? You think Antonio looks like Gandy Candy?”

  Lucia angled her head, looking thoughtful. “I can see the resemblance, but I think Antonio’s better-looking.”

  “Gee, that’s a surprise,” Cat said with a laugh. “I have to admit, I’m as clueless as Marcella who David Gandy is, but he must not be too shabby if he looks like Antonio.”

  “Yeah, the scenery’s been improving a lot around here lately. First Antonio, then Liam.” Eliana blew on her fingers, giving them a shake. “We’re surrounded by hotties here at the Bonavera Winery.”

  “Who’s Liam?” Anna asked.

  “He’s our hunky contractor.” Marcella dipped her head in Eliana’s direction. “El’s lusting after him.”

  “I seem to recall your jaw dropping the night we met him, too,” Lucia said teasingly, pinning their youngest sister with an amused air.

  “My jaw didn’t drop. I’ll admit I had a wow moment, but that was just the initial shock of seeing him for the first time. The difference is, I can appreciate beautiful things without slobbering all over myself, unlike some people.”

  Eliana balled up one of the paper napkins that said, What’s a nice girl like me doing without a drink, and pitched it across the table at Marcella. “I didn’t slobber. I just happen to have dewy lips.”

  Marcella sniggered as she ducked the wadded ball.

  “What do you say, Cat?” Anna, who sat on her immediate right, nudged Caterina with an elbow. “Are they exaggerating, or is this guy really as good-looking as they say?”

  Cat shrugged. “I guess you might find him attractive if you can get past his surly attitude, but good luck with that. I’ve never seen him when he wasn’t scowling, and I don’t find angry or sullen men particularly attractive.”

  “Okay, time to change the subject,” Lucia said, interjecting. “For whatever reason, Cat and Liam both seem to dissolve into foul moods at little more than the mention of the other’s name, and this evening is for catching up with friends and having fun. So, subject closed.”

  “Agreed.” Eliana lifted her wineglass. “To fun, and good times with friends.”

  Fine by me, Caterina silently approved. Lucia was right. Liam Dougherty could turn her mood sour quicker than the smell of rotten eggs could turn her stomach. She cringed. She couldn’t think of a more offensive odor.

  “Does everyone have plans for Thanksgiving?” Cat asked. “I’ll be cooking dinner here since I’m not working at the restaurant anymore. If you aren’t already committed, there’ll be plenty of food if anyone wants to join
us.”

  “If I can bring crazy Flora and Russ with me, I’d love to come,” Jenna said. “I planned to make dinner for the three of us, but I’d much rather be with a larger group. I think Russ might be a keeper.” She lifted her hand and crossed her fingers in the air. “But exposing him to my peculiar aunt for several hours with no one else for her to focus on could send him packing before he realizes what a great catch I am.”

  “Trust me, he already knows what a great catch you are,” Lucia said. “I saw the way he looked at you when Antonio and I doubled with you guys.”

  Jenna caught her bottom lip between her teeth to contain the grin threatening to swallow up her face.

  “So.” Cat looked at Anna and Reese. “A couple of lovebirds and one eccentric aunt. What about you two?”

  “Jeff’s coming home from school, and Mom’s planning the traditional family feast, so Anna and I will be expected there. If we even suggested we might be thinking of going someplace else for dinner, we’d never hear the end of it.” Reese exchanged a knowing smile with her twin.

  The rest of the evening sped by. Caterina hadn’t laughed so much in a long time, and it made her realize just how much she’d given up for her career—and for Mitch. Friends were important. She wouldn’t fool herself. She knew she’d obsess over Serendipity, but she would make a conscious effort to ensure her life didn’t become so unbalanced again.

  MOONLIGHT WASHED OVER the vineyard, a hushed glow bathing row upon row of the gnarly vines that had sustained her family for two generations.

  Caterina wrapped the quilt her mother made for her when she went off to college around her shoulders to ward off the night’s chill. Her sisters had all received one when they left the nest for the first time, too. Cat’s had graced her bed at school, her apartment in New York, and now remained back in the room that had been hers since childhood.

  She loved the soft pastels of the interlocking circles, how delicate they looked against the white background—double-wedding-ring—that’s what Mom had called it. The pattern was predictable, yet pretty. It appealed to her sense of definition and order.

  Definition and order. Cat sighed. Her life was about as well-defined right now as an amoeba. Since leaving Caulfield’s, she’d done little more than drift from day to day, filling in for Lucia when needed, helping El with tastings, and, between the few catering jobs she’d picked up, doing whatever busywork she could invent to avoid the dogged restlessness constantly nipping at her very soul.

  She breathed in the night’s crisp, late-autumn air—cold enough she felt the bite of it against her nostrils—and looked out over the vineyard. The Blue Ridge loomed in the distance, low and long, a snaking shadow in the night beneath a clear, star-filled sky. Solid, grounded…what she wouldn’t give for a little solid ground right now.

  She needed to find something interesting to do until Serendipity opened—something other than handling the continental breakfasts and afternoon setups when guests were in residence and the occasional catering job or picking up the slack when Luch and El needed backup. She wasn’t sure what that could be yet, but she couldn’t take much more of this rudderless coasting.

  A sudden, deeper chill made her shiver. Clutching the quilt tighter around her shoulders, Cat turned and went back inside, pulling the balcony doors shut behind her. She folded the quilt and laid it on the bed, smoothing it out over the thick white down comforter that enticed her to remain nestled under its warmth longer than she should most mornings, now that the mornings had turned cool. With so little going on in her life, she could be easily seduced to burrow in for a few extra hours of blissful sleep, if it wouldn’t make her feel even less purposeful.

  It was late, almost midnight. She’d usually be sleeping by now, but didn’t feel tired. Probably still wound up from their girls’ night. Cat smiled lightly. It had been fun. They needed to make it a more regular event.

  A rustling sound drew her attention toward the balcony doors. They stood slightly ajar. The white, floor-length, voile curtains wafted against the glass panes. Frowning, Caterina walked over and closed them, latching them this time. She thought she’d shut them when she’d come in, but apparently not all the way.

  She looked around the room, not sure what to do with herself. It felt downright cold. Maybe because she’d left the French doors open for the last twenty minutes while she’d been out on the balcony contemplating how to jump-start her life before she got too punchy.

  She retrieved the quilt she’d just arranged so neatly across the bottom of the bed, and wrapped it around herself like a cocoon. When she turned around, she froze mid-step. She stared at the balcony doors, then shook her head.

  “Okay…no. I latched you. I’m sure this time. There’s no way you could have just drifted open again.”

  She marched to the doors, latched them again, gave them a rattle, and then turned and faced the room.

  Silence greeted her, but she suspected she might not be alone. When unexplainable things happened around the Bonavera home, there was a good chance the family ghost had something to do with it.

  Unlike Marcella and Eliana, who’d always been open to the possibility, Caterina and Lucia had been reluctant to believe their great-aunt Rosa haunted the place. After everything that had happened over the last six months, though, they no longer doubted their ancestor’s presence.

  “Hello?” Caterina’s voice sounded tentative, barely above a whisper.

  She shifted her eyes from side to side. Rosa had never singled her out before, and it kind of creeped Cat out. They agreed that their deceased aunt seemed benevolent. Aside from locking Lucia in the attic once, and another occasion in the kitchen with Antonio, she usually didn’t mess with them too much.

  That could change though, if one of them did something to upset her. And since they had no idea why she haunted the place, that could be just about anything.

  So, yeah…she was a little creeped out, and not really in the mood to stay in her room to deal with a ghost on her own right now.

  Caterina went downstairs to the kitchen with the intention of sidestepping her ancestor and getting a late-night snack. When she entered the room, Marcella sat at the old family table they’d grown up sharing meals around, sipping a cup of coffee.

  “You’re up late,” Cat said.

  Her twin eyed her. “You too.”

  “Need to decompress before you can sleep?” Cat knew that even though Marcella had seemed to enjoy their girls’ night, having to be extroverted for an entire evening would have drained her.

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “I’m going to make myself a snack.” Cat walked over to the refrigerator, opened the door, and then looked over her shoulder. “You want something?”

  “Is there any apple pie left?”

  Cat looked inside. “Yep.” She pulled the pie out and set it on the countertop. “I think I’ll have the same. Want some whipped cream on yours?”

  “Pffft. You don’t think I want to eat it naked, do you?”

  Cat grinned, grabbed the can off the door, fixed them each a plate, and took them and the whipped cream to the table.

  “So, what’s got you up roaming the halls this late?” Marcella asked as she shook the can. She sprayed a dollop onto the back of her hand, licked it off, and then lathered her pie with a thick coating of fluffy white cream.

  “Just restless. I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t know what to do with myself.”

  “You could read. That usually helps me if I’m having trouble falling asleep.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t feel like it.” Cat took the can from Marcella when she held it out. She outlined her wedge of pie, then filled in the center with neat evenly piped rows. Picking up her fork, she cut the tip off the slice and put it in her mouth. “Mmmmm, so good.”

  “And then,” she said after swallowing, “Rosa dropped in for a visit. I wasn’t up for dealing with her on my own, so I bolted and came down here for a midnight snack.”

  Marcella propped he
r chin on her hand, eyeing Cat a moment. “I’m probably not going to be able to go up and fall right to sleep after that revelation, so tell me, what did Rosa want?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine. I’m not positive she was there, but the room got downright frigid, and the balcony doors kept opening on their own, even after I’d latched them.”

  “Sounds like Rosa’s M.O.,” Marcella agreed. “She has a thing for messing with doors and windows.”

  “Yeah, what’s with that?”

  “Don’t have a clue. It’s weird. She barely made her presence known to anyone but Mom while we were growing up, but now she seems to have taken an interest in us. It’s odd that she focused so intently on Lucia for a while, who didn’t believe in her.” Marcella looked thoughtful. “You two had that in common.”

  “If she’s trying to convince me she exists, she doesn’t have to. After everything that happened with Luch, I’m a believer.” Caterina mused over another bite of pie, then looked up at the ceiling. “Did you hear that Rosa? I believe in you. So, you don’t need to visit me to prove you’re real.”

  “Maybe there’s more to it than that.” Marcella pondered, biting her lower lip. “Maybe it’s not about her, or wanting you to believe. Maybe she’s decided to focus on you because of something…I don’t know, something in your life right now.”

  “Well, if that’s the case she’ll be disappointed. There’s nothing interesting enough in my life right now that anyone, alive or dead, would want to waste their time focusing on it.”

  “Could be that’s exactly why.”

  Caterina frowned. “Like what? She thinks I need a little excitement, so she’s planning to haunt me to jazz up my life a bit, or something?”

  Marcella shrugged. “Or something.”

  “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”

  Emily Dickinson