In the end, he came to his own conclusions, which apparently all led to him being right, and I was just steps away from getting hitched. I finally told him I was tired and took back one of my pillows to cover my head to escape him. I think he was still lecturing me when I finally drifted off.
In the morning, we went downstairs to a madhouse. There were boxes of food covering the kitchen counter, the girls were talking a mile a minute with excitement, and even Gianna looked like there was some life in her. I was still too unsure of myself to face her, so I focused on the extravagance of food and the culprit responsible.
“Pop, what did you do now again?” He looked over from his place at the table where he sat, reading the newspaper and sipping his coffee.
“Who says it’s me?” I just raised my brow because who else is this overboard? Lance was already using his nose like a bloodhound. “I smell cannoli. Ah, unc, you didn’t disappoint.” He rummaged through the mountain of crap and pulled out five boxes.
“I’m not sharing.” He started to disappear, no doubt to pack his loot.
“Boy, you’re not having cannoli for breakfast; bring them back here. I’m gonna have them taken to the plane with the rest of this stuff in just a minute.” Lance grinned and pouted but did as he was told.
“What’s the rest of this stuff?” I looked around at the madness.
Pop started pointing out boxes. “Those are your mother and sisters’ cupcakes from Magnolias. Your uncle Garrett wanted cheesecake from Juniors, your uncle Marvin wanted Ray’s, your gramps and grandma wanted Katz, and Sheila wanted Davey’s ice cream.”
“So what, you bought out each of those places?”
“Nah, there’s only enough there to last until our next visit.” I’m not sure about his calculations, but whatever.
Things settled down, and I realized the girls were chattering away because of the day’s plans, which consisted mainly of going to the art museum, but what really had them going was what they were planning for the future, like, say in another couple of weeks to a month. “She hasn’t seen the tree since she was five. We’re bringing her back here for that.”
I would’ve said something about the ugly ass tree they stick up in Rockefeller Center every year, but Gianna actually had a light of excitement shining in her eyes. “You want to see the tree?” As ice breakers go, it wasn’t bad. She didn’t seem to realize that anything untoward had happened the night before, wasn’t being any more reticent than usual, but then she blushed, and I wasn’t sure.
Part of the staff started hauling off Pop’s loot while the rest made breakfast for the mob in the kitchen. Between bites of egg and listening to the twins making plans for her, I realized something. “Didn’t you want to take something back with you as well?” I didn’t have to explain as she watched the last of the boxes being carted off to be loaded on the plane.
She got a faraway look on her face, then her brow creased as if she were trying to remember something long forgotten, and I knew it had to have something to do with her mom. “There were these really aromatic nuts; I can still remember the scent like it was yesterday. I always associate it with the holiday that scent. It was always my treat when we came here to see the Nutcracker. I wouldn’t eat anything else until I had those nuts.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the smell was way better than the actual taste, but I knew what she was talking about. There’s a cart on fifth somewhere that I’ve seen in the past. I was going to ask if she preferred peanuts or cashews but decided to take a leaf out of Pop’s book and get an abundance of both. Don’t know how she’d heat that shit up, but it’s the smell she’s after anyway.
The doorbell rang in the middle of chaos, and Carlo looked at me like I was his butler, so I got up to answer. Everyone else was beginning to scatter to get ready for the trip to the museum since we were running late. I had other plans, plans I’d made once Lancelot had left me alone with my own thoughts.
I opened the door to see one of the guys from the night before standing there, his white caps on full display. I didn’t know why he was here, but I was already pissed. “You, what do you want?” Though there was no real inflection in my voice, the words alone were pretty rude. I guess it went right over his head.
“Oh, hi Gabe, is Gianna still here?”
“What?”
“The girl we met at the opera last night, did she leave already?”