All the Way to Heaven

Chapter 45

"Did I surprise you?" Cosimo's voice was deceptively casual, but his words were a clear mockery of Paulo's.

Paulo spoke low in Italian, and even though I couldn't understand what he said, his tone made his meaning very clear. He widened his stance, his arms loose at his side. I closed my eyes in frustration, not wanting to believe this was actually happening.

"You guys," I spoke into the tense silence. "It's late." I maneuvered my chair around Paulo so I was facing Cosimo. "Please." I wasn't quite sure what I was asking, but this was not the time or the place for a showdown.

"Yes, Ani. It is very late. And you have been very sick." Cosimo spoke to me, but kept his gaze trained on Paulo. He started rattling off a barrage of clipped statements clearly intended for Paulo's ears only, his lip curling in distaste.

"Basta!" Paulo's curt response startled me, not because it was loud, but because I didn't expect to hear words like that come out of his mouth, regardless of the circumstances.

"Paulo," I murmured, reaching over to lay a hand on his forearm.

"Enough? Enough, you say?" Cosimo took a step forward, his voice raised, all traces of civility gone. "You do not come to my home and tell me basta!" Then it was back to Italian, volleying back and forth between the men, growing louder and louder as they began to speak over each other. Okay, so Paulo hadn't called him a bad name, but clearly, he had overstepped his boundaries anyway.

"Please stop, you guys!" I started wheeling toward the French doors, my crutches still on the terrace behind me. Maybe if I left the scene, the two of them would simmer down and go their separate ways. But at that moment, an outside light flickered on over Cosimo's head, and Franco stepped into the kitchen from the hallway, Claudia in a robe behind him, both of them with eyes fixed on the scene outside.

Lord. Have. Mercy.

There I sat, the two angry men exchanging verbal blows over the top of me, after three o'clock in the morning, waking up the household on the eve of their busiest time of the year. I dropped my head in my hands and moaned.

Within moments, Claudia had corralled me inside, closing the door on the three guys who stood in a triangle under the porch light, each of them wearing a different expression. "We let the men sort it out, okay?"

"Oh, Claudia, I'm so sorry. I meant to just slip in quietly. I know we're so late, but it wasn't Paulo's fault. I don't want him to be blamed for it." I felt like a teenager justifying her boyfriend's behavior to her mother. "And I didn't expect Cosimo to be home tonight. Or waiting for me."

"It is Cosimo's home, Anica, and you are our guest." Her tone was gentle, but the reprimand was not so subtle. Paulo had been right. Regardless of our intentions, we'd walked all over the hospitality of my hosts. Claudia took the basket from me and carried it to the sink, her back to me as she emptied the contents of it onto the counter. I saw her eye the nearly full bottle of Chianti with some curiosity, then set it aside with the cruet of what was left of the olive oil. We'd eaten the olives, the foccacia, and the last two apples out near the aqueduct.

"I'm sorry," I repeated lamely, my ears tuned in to the muffled voices outside the doors. I glanced over at the men to see Franco shooing them both off the terrace. Cosimo had his hands shoved in his pockets and took a few steps backward down the path toward the pool house, watching as Franco followed Paulo the opposite direction around the front of the house. I suddenly did not want to be sitting here in the kitchen when Franco returned.

"Mama?" Isa came into the kitchen, her eyes bleary with sleep, her hair still perfect. "Ani? Is everything okay? I thought I heard arguing."

Claudia said something in Italian, nodded in my direction, then turned around and leaned her hips against the counter, tucking her long hair behind her ears. "I will speak with Franco when he returns, Anica. Isa can take you to your room." She smiled kindly, but her eyes were clouded with emotions I couldn't decipher. I nodded, not knowing what else to say.