A VERY BOSSY CHRISTMAS by Loring Kayley

Author:Loring, Kayley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Two

Maddie

I WISH GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER

So. Much. Seafood. It smells like an Italian aquarium in the Cannavale kitchen, and Declan was not kidding about his nonna not liking me.

Mamie is surreptitiously pouring whiskey into a glass of Coke behind the matriarch’s back, and Nonna is eyeing me suspiciously after being told that I’m Declan’s new girlfriend.

“Oh yeah?” is all she says, frowning. She looks like a miniature Robert De Niro in drag—but kinda pretty! I guess the festive Christmas apron that says Baking Spirits Bright is being worn ironically. “Hmph.” She goes back to stirring a cauldron of fish broth.

“It’s very nice to meet you…”

“Francesca,” Mamie tells me since Nonna does not offer her name.

“Francesca. That’s a beautiful name. Declan’s told me so much about you.”

She glances back at me while adding fresh basil, salt, and pepper to the broth. “This is what you are wearing to my dinner?” She shakes her head, frowning even more intensely. “Not smart. Or maybe you don’ wanna eat my food?”

Everyone else is wearing either sweats or oversized trousers, and yeah, I should have listened to my hot fake boyfriend. “Oh, I very much plan to eat your food, Mrs. Cannavale. Declan did tell me to change what I was wearing, but I…” No use finishing that sentence since she isn’t paying any attention to me. She’s too busy pouring mussels and clams into the fish broth.

Mamie comes over to hand me the Jameson and Coke, which I gulp down immediately. God bless her, she was not stingy with the whiskey. She takes the gift bag from me and holds it up to show Nonna. “Look what Maddie brought you. A gift from her hotel!”

“Open for me,” she mumbles as she pours oil into a huge saucepan.

Mamie pulls out the shot glass with the Cleveland skyline etched onto it. “Cute, right? It’s Cleveland. Your favorite city after Sicily.”

Nonna eyes it warily. “Hmph.” She flicks her hand in the air. “Put away somewhere. I got no time for it.”

Mamie turns and rolls her eyes at me, grinning impishly. “She means thank you for being sooooo thoughtful.” She pops the shot glass back into the bag and places it on a chair by the kitchen table because every inch of the counters and tables in here are covered with ingredients and plates and platters and baskets of food.

Guess I should just start listening to Declan. He was right about the pants, and he was right about his parents and nonna not caring if I bring them gifts or not. But I had to do something. Especially if some woman who’s dated two Cannavale sons is going to be here tonight.

He said he met her in college, and they were on and off for a decade. A decade. I wonder if he had sex with her in this house. I wonder how much he still thinks about her. All this time I’ve known him, he’s probably been in a bad mood because he was upset about her.

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