She huffed. “It could happen.”
“No, it could not.”
“Sure, in 1902, my aunt—poor, humble tomato farmer’s daughter—went on ship for better life. She meet man with lots of money, and he’s on ship with parents and fiancée.” Leaning into me, she whispered, “Arranged marriage, bella. Terrible, terrible.”
“Did she save his life one night when he was hanging off the guardrail of the ship, considering jumping into the icy waters?”
She nodded. “Si. Terrible, terrible.”
“And his family took her out for a thank you dinner, and then she took him dancing with the other third-class passengers?”
Nodding, she wiped away an imaginary tear. “Yes, very romantic, no? And she made money juggling tomatoes.”
Another one who’d done it. Wow, we were quite the tomato resourceful family.
Throwing my arms out, I clipped, “You’re changing the plot of Titanic, Nonna, to the great tomato juggling Valtolina family with crappy luck on ships. Did hers hit the iceberg, too?”
“I tell you the story already?” she asked innocently as she went back to stirring whatever was in the pot.
“Yes, except in hers, she was juggling when the ship got hit, so she managed to provide food for people to eat until they were picked up by a passing ship who’d received their SOS.”
“Si, she tap it out with the—”
“Oh, my God,” I yelled. “She didn’t tap out a Morse Code SOS signal with freaking tomatoes, Nonna.”
“Well, you don’t want to hear brave journey of the Valtolinas, fine. Is your thing to lose.”
“Your loss,” I bit out through clenched teeth. “But don’t worry, I’ll just juggle some tomatoes to get me through it. Why did I think it’d be relaxing here?” I hissed as I dropped my head back to glare up at the ceiling. Noticing a red mark on the dark paint, I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please tell me the mark on the ceiling isn’t blood.”
“No, silly billy goat. I got it juggling tomatoes through great tragedy.”
Jesus Christ.
“Nonna!”
Realizing she was stirring a cooling-down pot, she turned the burner back on. “Anyway, you have date with Marcus. He’s strong mind of will. Good choice.”
I wasn’t falling into her pit of sanity again, so I didn’t correct her this time.
“It’s tomorrow night, but Mom and Dad are here, and they’re kind of…” I didn’t want to say insane after the great tomato juggling acts stories from her, but if the shoe fit.
“Embarrassing,” she threw out there. “Crazy,” she added.
Yup, that kind of covered it. “Dad’s already lost his mind over Marcus because of yesterday.”
There was a snort as her shoulders shook. “Very funny thing. The boy was blinded by you and make accident, and Lorenzo like bee in china shop.”
“A what?”
“Bee in china shop. Everything break.”
“God,” I groaned. “Will you quit it?”
“My great-grandmother, she break lots of china because of bee.” She made a tutting noise. “She have to—”
“Juggle tomatoes to earn money to repay it,” I guessed at the same time as she said it.
“Ah, you know the story.”
“Maybe I should cancel tomorrow night. I don’t think the poor guy deserves to experience my crazy family. What was I thinking?” I made to head back out the door when she grabbed my wrist.
“You think this crazy? You never hear of Townsends?”
“If they juggle anything, I’m out of here.”
Throwing her head back, she burst out laughing. “Ah, this will be fun, Adrienne. Anyway, I send to Orlando to see friends. I have date tomorrow, and Lorenzo drive me crazy with question if he know.”
“Who’s going to Orlando?”
“Lorenzo and Putri.”
“Ah, Mom and Dad. Do you think they’ll do it?”
Picking up three tomatoes from the counter, she began juggling them with a scary amount of skill. “Of course.”
“What if they don’t?”
Taking her eyes off the rotating tomatoes, she winked at me, still juggling them. “I have many tomato tales, bella. I tell one, Lorenzo will behind car wheel in second.”
Here’s the thing, Nonna could speak excellent English. She’d lived here for fifty-three years, for the love of Pete. What she loved doing was winding us up and driving us crazy, so she either pulled out stories or said incorrect phrases to do it. Actually, her cunningness wasn’t just limited to those two things, they were just her most commonly used methods of war.
She was also very good at making Dad and my uncles run away quickly, so I didn’t doubt she’d be able to pull this off.
Chapter Four
Marcus
I had so many ideas about where I could take Addy on our date. After careful deliberation—i.e., I’d weighed up the pros and cons of nine locations and decided on secret number ten, which had only come to me when Remy had suggested it—I’d ordered food from the best Mexican restaurant forty-five minutes away.
I’d just collected it in a bag with a pad that kept food warm, which we used for overnight work on the ranch, and was now picking her up from her new home.