Cherry Grove Susan X. Meagher

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

that he wasn t listening to her advice. Gina and I directed Vincent to the
bar, where he smiled at her and cuffed her on the cheek. Your old man s
a pain in the ass sometimes, isn t he?
Gina smiled at him and shrugged. He s the same.
Screw him, he said. He s lucky to have you. Promise me that you
don t let him get to you.
She made an X with her index fingers and said, Giuro.
That s my girl. He signaled the waiter and said, Seltzer with a
lime. When the waiter walked away, he said, I like to make your
grandma think I m drinking.
You re not? Gina asked.
Fuckin heart pills make me sick when I drink. Doctors just wanna
take an old man s fun away. Thank Jesus I can still go to the track.
Gina wrapped her arm around him and kissed his cheek. I love you,
Grampa.
234
Cherry Grove
He gently pushed her away. Enough! If I let you kiss me, all the girls
will want to. He moved in my direction. Won t they? His eyes lit up
like Gina s did when she was teasing me. I couldn t resist and placed a
kiss on both of his slightly stubbly cheeks. See? he said, beaming a
smile at my girlfriend.
I think we re gonna take off, Gina said. I ve got to get up by five.
Lazy, huh? the old man chuckled. Everybody in the company
should be so lazy. He kissed her cheek and squeezed her shoulder. Be
strong.
I will.
It was nice to meet you, Mr. Scoggins, I said.
I forgot your name already, honey, but I ll remember how pretty you
are.
Thanks. What the hell. There are worse ways to be remembered. I
hope to see you again.
Come for tomatoes, he said as we left.
We made our way through the people gathered around the dessert table
and escaped to the relative quiet of the massive hallway. Thank God
that s over, Gina sighed. I always want to go to family parties, but I
almost always wish I hadn t.
I took her hand and squeezed it. What about tonight?
Eh, tonight wasn t too bad. Sorry I didn t introduce you to most of my
relatives, but they ll be there the next time.
Okay, I said, deciding to wait for a better time to dig a little more dirt
from the fertile Scognamiglio fields.
235
Chapter Twelve
s soon as Gina got home from work the next day, she lay down on
A the chaise in the sun and fell asleep. It was rare for her to take a
nap, but we had been out a little late, and I d kept her up for a long time,
kissing every part of her I could get my mouth on.
I don t know why, but I fell in love just a little bit more with her last
night. Maybe it was because I got more of a sense of what she d had to
overcome to get what she wanted out of life. Or maybe it was because I
saw how resilient she was when her family treated her like shit. She was so
goodhearted. Most people would have told their father to fuck off and
stormed out of there. But Gina let him bitch and let it slide right off her.
That s admirable in my book. Anyone can get into a fight, but most
people can t let people ride them and not have it ruin their evening.
But I wonder why she loses her temper so quickly with me? If she
detects even the slightest bit of deceit or disrespect ka-boom! How does
that jibe with letting her family bust her chops? I don t think it does, but
that s sure what happens.
Hi, a sleepy voice said, stirring me from my thoughts.
Hi. I got up from the table and sat on the edge of her lounge chair.
Feel better?
Yeah. A little nap was just the thing I needed.
You hungry?
Starving. Want that lobster roll I promised?
Yeah, unless you don t wanna drive that far.
Mmm& I know another place that s almost as good. We could get
there in half the time.
236
Cherry Grove
Sounds good. But I still get to drive.
)
We went to a place in Ocean Beach a little shack that didn t even
have chairs. So, we ordered our lobster rolls and a couple of beers and
walked to the beach.
It seemed as if Gina knew this beach like I knew the research library at
NYU. She guided me up the beach about a hundred feet and indicated
that I should have a seat. I noted that the wind was in exactly the right
spot to blow the hair out of my eyes. I knew she d picked that spot on
purpose. Damn, she s cool!
I had questions about Gina s family lots of them but I didn t want
to interrogate her. So, I tried to be a little subtle. So, I said, you seem
tired today. Did last night take a lot out of you?
Not really, Gina said. It wears on me after a while having to get up
so early.
I didn t buy that for a minute. Gina got up early every day. And we
hadn t stayed out very late last night. But I could see either she didn t
realize last night had sapped her strength or she didn t want to talk about
it.
I was going to have to be more direct. How did you and your brothers
decide on who got which ferry route? That was pretty direct.
She cocked her head in question at my query from out of left field, but
she answered immediately. My brothers had been on my dad for years to
get him to let them run a line independently. We didn t all work together
very well, and we d sort of taken to our own little fiefdoms, but nothing
was formally set in place. Not long before my twenty-fifth birthday, my
father said he was ready to let us separate the ferry lines.
Do you think he waited until he thought you were old enough? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne