The Things You Kiss Goodbye by Leslie Connor

Author:Leslie Connor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-03-10T22:00:00+00:00

Twenty-seven

REGINA COLLETTI WAS UP AND COOKING. TONY AND I both knew it the minute we reached the bottom of the stairs. He stopped and sniffed. I did the same.

“Pasta fagioli,” we both said at once.

“She must be having a really good day,” Tony added.

In her kitchen, Regina sat on a stool next to the stove. She pushed a wooden spoon around the inside of a saucepan.

“Ah, good,” she said when she saw us. “Tony, carry that pasta to the sink and pour off the water. Bettina, take that knife. Mince that basil.” She pointed to a cutting board on the table. “Grate us a nice little mound of that Parmesan, too.”

“Nonna, what meal is this?” Tony asked. He glanced at the clock.

“What does it matter?” Regina asked.

I was just glad Tony would be staying, at least for a while. It was a walk back in time for me to sit in my old neighborhood with the scent of basil filling my head and the flavors of garlic and soft cannellini beans sliding over my tongue. Of course, Regina kept bossing both Tony and me.

“Put more basil on yours,” she said. She pinched up the herbs in her fingers and reached across the table to sprinkle them in my bowl. She gave herself a nod of approval. This was the sort of Regina-thing that made Tony laugh in an acquiescent way that I found contagious.

Sitting in the kitchen with Regina and Tony, I forgot my real-world self a little more with every mouthful. But as soon as Tony and I had washed and dried the bowls, Regina told him to leave us.

“Go practice that horn,” she said. As soon as he was gone, she leaned toward me. “Did you know,” she began, “when I was a girl, I had a forbidden boyfriend?”

Nice opener.

“I think of it every time you come,” she said. She reached forward and patted my hands. “You bring it all back, you make me remember.”

Oh, great. Go me!

“I see you, and you are a young, gorgeous girl and it was the same time in my own life. Well, I was younger—fourteen. I was just in high school, and Ricky was just out,” she said. “So, a boy, an older boy at that.” She shook her finger. “Not allowed in my papa’s house. Ricky had a job sweeping up and cleaning the johnnies at Saint Barnabas Roman Catholic Church and that’s where I met him. We took a shine to each other, first glance. Sometimes it’s just that way. That church was not a nice place to work. Ricky told me all he got was a scolding for every job he ever did there. He always wondered why they kept him, but they did. He was the oldest boy in his family and he was earning money to help out at home. Sad, because he was as smart as any of the boys who got to go to college.”

Regina paused, looking out the small window over my shoulder. I saw the curved, square reflection of light shining in her cocoa-brown eyes.

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