Love's Funny That Way (The Wedding Ring Club 01) by Pamela Burford

Author:Pamela Burford [Burford, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Nonfiction
Amazon: B005Q07E76
Publisher: Harlequin Temptation
Published: 2011-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 11

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"Just a sliver for me," Amanda said.

Raven watched her friend's eyes pop as Grandma Rossi cut her a slab of Italian cheesecake that would choke a rhino.

"I said just a sliver!"

Grandma Rossi snorted as she plunked the heavily laden dessert plate in front of Amanda with a resounding thud.

Charli said, "Amanda, you've known my grandma for a quarter of a century. Have you ever known her to cut a sliver of anything?"

"You're too skinny." Grandma pinched Amanda's upper arm. "The men, they like something they can hold on to, capisce?"

She rested her plump, gnarled hand on Raven's shoulder. "How about you, little bird? You ready for seconds?"

"Little bird" had long been her pet name for Raven, although it was Grandma Rossi herself who bore a physical resemblance to a raven, widowhood having turned her wardrobe a uniform black nine years earlier. Otherwise she hadn't changed much over the years. Her iron-gray hair was still twisted into a tight bun on the back of her head, she still made the best gnocci in Queens and she still had an opinion on everything, most notably the disappointing marital status of her granddaughter and her friends.

Raven laid her hand on Grandma Rossi's. "Thanks, Mrs. Rossi, but I'm stuffed. Everything was delicious, as always."

Grandma Rossi squeezed her hand. "You're a good girl. How come you're not married?"

Raven grinned. "I can only tell you what I've told you the last couple of hundred times you've asked. I haven't found the right guy."

"My Carlotta, she tells me you got a fella. A nice boy. You get his ring on your finger, little bird. You're not getting any younger."

"I'm not so eager for this man's ring."

Grandma Rossi made a rude noise accompanied by a dismissive wave. She waddled to the dining room's ornate sideboard and lifted the carafe of espresso. Raven and her friends knew better than to insist the old lady sit and let them wait on themselves, and her. Grandma Rossi had moved in with Charli and her parents when Grandpa Rossi had passed away nine years earlier, and she fussed over the three of them with the same pugnacious zeal with which she'd fussed over her husband for six decades.

All this fussing did Grandma Rossi good, but in actual fact, the ninety-three-year-old needed plenty of fussing over herself, for everything from help getting dressed to remembering to take her potassium supplements.

And it wasn't just Grandma Rossi who needed assistance with day-to-day tasks. Her son and daughter-in-law, Charli's parents, were in their seventies, and it was a rare week when Charli wasn't called on to accompany one or both of them to the family doctor or some other specialist. She did the daily laundry and the weekly grocery shopping. She supervised medications, finances and the running of the house. All this on top of her career as a high school music teacher.

Charli was the youngest of eight siblings, her sisters and brothers all married and raising families of their own, ostensibly too busy to help care for the old folks.

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