Any Way You Fight It Read online

  "Of course."

  "And I thought I'd ask Mrs. Oliveri to make me something."

  "Will there be time?"

  "Well, I saw her at Mass and she was so excited. I'm going over there later to get started."

  "Oh, excellent. That's great, Nona. Do you know what you want?"

  "Just something simple, dear, maybe a suit."

  "That sounds elegant." At seventy-five and only five feet tall, it was hard to imagine my Nona in a big poufy bridal gown, but what did I know, perhaps she had wanted that.

  "Yes, and I'm thinking a dove gray so anything that goes in with that for you. Purple or pink perhaps, even red."

  "I don't think red, but it will depend a little on what we can find I guess."

  "You always look lovely, honey, and you can always wear something you own," she said sweetly.

  "Hello, it's your wedding. I'm going all out." I leaned in and hugged her. "Oh yeah, and keep next Saturday night free. We better get a bridal shower happening for you."

  "I don't need . . ."

  I held my hand up to stop her. "Keep it free."

  "Okay, bossy boots," she said with a grin.

  "Have fun. I better run and meet Piper. I'll be back later with a dress, I hope."

  Piper was waiting for me bundled up like we were having a blizzard. Despite living for several years in Boston, she hadn't fully acclimatized. She was always cold except for over the summer.

  "You're early."

  She linked her arm in mine. "All those years of early starts, it's a hard habit to break."

  "I bet. But it feels good, too, right?"

  "Yeah, scary good, but good."

  "So, Miss Maid of Honor, what are we looking for?"

  I filled her in on my conversation with Nona. "So anything goes if it goes with gray."

  "Well, that's not limiting at least."

  "I think it's easier than choosing Lucy's bridesmaids' dresses is going to be."

  "Yeah, well, Nona is at a different stage of life. She can do what she wants. Lucy will have to please her family and CeCe, Chase's mom, and herself."

  "And not us?" I asked, knowing full well the answer.

  "We're bridesmaids, our happiness is totally one hundred percent of no consequence, and in fact the more awkward we feel in our dresses, shoes, and hairdos, well the better because that means we were pleasant and compliant and put the bride first."

  "That's one way of looking at it." And she was right. It's all about the bride. I wondered if I would ever get to be a bride and walk down the aisle to Luke. I shook that off.

  "Thinking about Luke?"

  "Are your Spidey senses tingling?" I teased as I broke away to look at a gorgeous handbag.

  "Maybe. Did you guys talk last night?"

  "Yes, he's coming for Thanksgiving. He wants me to have faith."

  "I do, too. You guys are great together."

  "But we are not, as you can plainly see, together."

  "Mere logistics, my friend," she said with confidence. "Now come on, let's go shopping."

  Four hours later, Piper and I were sitting in our favorite café surrounded by bags of shopping. We'd made a huge dent in her Christmas list, a small dent in mine, and we had found two dresses for me to take home and show Nona.

  "I think that was a success," she said, raising her pumpkin spice latte to mine.

  "Yep, that was some amazing shopping!" I said, taking a sip and licking the sweet whipped cream from my top lip. "We deserve this."

  "We sure do." She smiled. "I love those dresses. I don't know how you'll choose."

  "Well, lucky for me, the bride will choose." I sighed. "Now all I need to do is arrange a bridal shower for the woman with a week's notice."

  "Well, that should be easy." Piper laughed.

  "I need a fun idea. Nona's not really a strippers and champagne kind of a girl."

  "What, no party bus? No karaoke?" Her face lit up. "What about a dessert buffet? We could have a table of pies, I can do those, an ice cream sundae bar, and you know Lucy ran that ice cream parlor so she can help with that, maybe a table of Italian desserts, and then a candy bar for the take home gifts."

  That was a brilliant idea. "My nieces and her other great-nieces will no doubt come, so that will be fun for the kids, too."

  "It'll be easy to pull together. Put your mom in charge of the Italian table. She'll love that."

  "She will. Now I just need a venue. Maybe the church hall will be free."

  "For your Nona, I think they'll find the space."

  While Piper ordered our lunch, I rang the parish office and got the venue. Maybe I could pull all this off after all.

  #

  The rest of the weekend flew by with my making the arrangements. By six o'clock when I walked into Nona's kitchen, I had not one but two maid of honor dresses, a fully organized bridal shower, and a few Christmas presents.

  If only my own life was so easy to arrange, I thought. Then I shook it off, it was time to focus on Nona.

  She and her fiancé were sitting at the kitchen table, holding hands like love birds.

  "Hey there," I said. "I hope your day has been as productive as mine."

  "It has been." She gave me a sweet smile. I noticed Nona was smiling more these days. Sometimes you don't notice someone has stopped smiling until they start again. Shame on me.

  "Excellent."

  Mr. Kaminski stood to go. "I guess you guys need some privacy to talk secret wedding business."

  "I can come back," I offered though I was pretty pumped and wanted to share the news with Nona and show her everything I'd bought.

  "No, Cherie, I have things to do myself." He leaned in and kissed my Nona on the cheek. "Grooms have to do some of the heavy lifting I'm told."

  He left and I watched Nona's eyes follow him. Love at any age was love.

  "So, how did it go with Mrs. Oliveri? Are you all set?"

  "Yes, she had some silk and . . ." Nona was off and running.

  Two hours later we had decided on flowers and ordered some shoes and a bag for her online. She chose which dress she wanted for me, and I had a list of any extras for the shower and the wedding.

  "I know you don't like it, but at this stage we're going to have to email people or we won't reach them all in time, Nona, for the shower and the wedding."

  "You're right." She sighed. "I guess I better move with the times."

  "That's the spirit, a modern bride."

  She had a hearty chuckle. "Yes, I'm sure that's what everyone is thinking. Do you think I'm foolish for doing this?"

  I took her hands in mine across the table. "Of course I don't. Why shouldn't you have a chance at happiness? He's a nice man and he makes you smile. What can be wrong with that?"

  "Nothing I suppose. Did you ask Luke?"

  "He thinks he can make it, and he was very happy for you."

  "That's what I wanted to hear." I didn't bother to tell her that sure he was coming for Thanksgiving but his life was not now, nor would it ever be, in Boston and mine most definitely was.

  Piper had suggested I could move to New York, and I'd honestly considered it for about five minutes except my business was here, my friends and family were here, and the truth was Luke was only in New York half the time anyway at best. I couldn't see relocating to be left sitting alone in his apartment.

  And there was another thing everyone was overlooking: Luke hadn't asked me. He didn't actually ask me to go to the funeral, or to follow him to LA, or even to move to New York. He said he wanted us to work, but he wasn't exactly pushing for it either.

  As my Nona's fiancé was testament to, sometimes the timing was not on your side. He was clearly a patient man and that was lovely, but I couldn't see myself waiting forty years for Luke. I'd already spent ten years wishing he'd come back, and I was beginning to realize how much that had cost me. I wasn't sure I wanted to be sacrificing even more.

  Of course I just smiled at Nona and put the kettle on so we could work out the w
ording to her wedding invitation and I could get them emailed the next day.

  Chapter 25

  My Sunday had been exhausting but productive, and my Monday was just a blur. By the time I found myself sitting opposite Caroline Connor and her infant son in a café, I was beat, and it was only eleven on my day off. She was a pretty blonde with a smattering of freckles, blue eyes that smiled, and a gentle cheerful voice.

  "I'm so sorry I had to bring Dylan. Part of me thinks it is incredibly unprofessional of me and the other part thinks you should know who I am and why I was interested in talking to you after Saul called. I want to work, I want to be valued, and I'm damn good at what I do, but the truth is, I have two small kids and I don't want to miss this time with them. I can't work six days a week like I used to. I know your business, and I know you're really successful. Saul says you need someone to help. I want to be that someone, but this is who I am," she said. And then she laughed. "Oh my god, Caroline, take a breath already. Sorry, I talk when I'm nervous."

  Her laugh was infectious and I joined in. "It's fine. I am trying to get some work life balance. It's hard in a job where you have to work Saturdays and some evenings. Being on my own means no vacation, no days off except Sunday and some Mondays. I'm tired, but I've built this business and I want to grow it."

  "So, what were you thinking?"

  "I don't really have a concrete plan. I actually was planning to get an assistant and Saul said you and I together might be a better plan, so here I am. What would work for you, in a perfect world?"

  She was happy to work Sundays when needed and the start of the week. I could do Wednesday to Saturday, and some Tuesdays. What she wanted sounded reasonable.

  "We could try it," I said. "The truth is I'm a pain in the ass, which is why I work alone. I don't do drama, and it's going to be hard for me to delegate and let stuff go."

  "Sounds like me. Two type A personalities."

  "Oh yeah, this is bound to be a success," I said. But it felt strangely right. I wouldn't be alone in the universe anymore. I'd have someone on my team.

  We agreed she would come in the following Monday for a more formal look around, and then she could start after Thanksgiving.

  "Are you married?" she asked.

  "No, I'm in the middle of a rather ambiguous long-distance relationship." May as well be honest. "It's part of why I'm making some changes. I would like to have some more flexibility, it would help."

  "It sure can't hurt," she said sweetly.

  It couldn't, and even if Luke and I weren't going to make it, I'd have the headspace to plan my next move now. Or to nurse my broken heart back to good and healthy at least.

  I decided not to tell Luke about my business plans. I wasn't really doing it for him. Even though it would make going to where he was for a few days at a time possible, if that was even something he wanted.

  Tuesday night we were FaceTiming when it occurred to me I should ask how he was doing since Chip died.

  "Do you miss him?"

  "Of course I do. It's weird though. It's almost like he's still here. Everywhere I go people talk about him, tell me stories or anecdotes about things he did for them or when they met him. In a way, I don't even have to miss him. It's odd. I haven't lost that many people I've loved, so I don't have much frame of reference."

  "Well, I guess it is different from losing Marigold."

  "Yes, it's very different. For a start, she was young. Also, and not many people know this, Chip would be thrilled to be dead. I mean, he was never going to do anything about it of course, but he was a family man without a family. He was ready to go."

  "And of course she wasn't."

  "No. Her death was a tragedy, it should have been preventable, but it wasn't."

  "Do you want to talk about it?"

  "Not really. The reality is when she died Chip had a story, a version of events that he told the world. It was a tragedy and accident, she was lonely, she missed me . . . but the truth was Marigold was an addict."

  "An addict?"

  "Yeah, she'd been on and off drugs since she was a teen. Doting father, only child, lots of money, master manipulator . . . she lost the fight."

  "Did you . . . I mean, how did you . . . ?"

  He sighed. "How did I end up engaged to an addict?"

  "Well, yeah?"

  "Good question. I've asked myself the same thing many times. Many, many times. I don't have a definitive answer." His eyes met mine. "This really is a conversation to be had in person."

  "Let's have it now anyway. Protocol be damned."

  He ran his fingers through his sandy hair. "He introduced us. He left out the bit about her being fresh from rehab, and I never thought to ask."

  "That makes sense. It's not a standard question."

  "Marigold was a fun person. She had a really cool laugh and she had a way of drawing people in, making them do what she wanted. And she apparently wanted to date me."

  "Well, that was nice."

  "You'd think so. I adored the man, I worked with him, he'd cared for me and guided my career, and then his beautiful, fun daughter set her sights on me . . . I never stood a chance."

  "Pretty girls will do that."

  "Yeah, well, I'd only had my head turned by one other pretty girl, and Marigold was nothing like you. That was part of Marigold's charm for me. She wanted to tell the whole world we were together. In retrospect, she wanted to make her daddy happy and I was the perfect choice for that. Get engaged to her father's golden boy and he'd be proud of her and give her some space."

  "Well, it sounds perfect."

  "Yeah, except she wasn't clean and the old world of drugs and parties called. We went to stuff, she'd get merry high, I didn't know she was doing coke in the ladies’ room." He sighed.

  "Well, how would you?"

  "Maybe if someone, anyone had told me about her past . . . I don't think I could have saved her, but . . . I would have stood a chance. As it was, I was in New York and she was found dead in Dallas."

  "Were you devastated?"

  "I was shocked, and then I asked a few people and it seemed like everyone in that whole stinking town knew but me. So then I felt used."

  "By Marigold?" I whispered. She didn't deserve his love.

  "Yeah, and by Chip. I've had time now, I get why he did what he did, he's a father, but . . . and now he's gone and she's gone and . . ."

  "And you have a big ass company to run."

  "Yeah, one big ass company I never wanted."

  "Really, you don't want it?" I couldn't understand that. "I thought that's what you were working toward."

  "No. I like being in the field, getting to know the new businesses and branding them. I'm not an acquisitions guy. I don't want to have to be responsible for the fate of so many people. I like the creative side of the business."

  "Wow."

  "Exactly. Wow. To be honest, I was planning to step down before Chip passed."

  "Step down. You were?"

  "Yeah. It was time for a change and a break from the travel, a chance of a normal life."

  "And now?"

  "Now I have to make a new plan I guess. I honestly can't quit now; it's not an option. If anyone even knew I was considering it . . ." He looked aghast that he had told me.

  "I won't tell, not even Piper and Lucy."

  "Yeah because that's part of it. My quitting would screw them over. It would be too much instability."

  So Luke was trapped in a business he didn't want to run. My heart broke for him. That was a huge thing to take on, even if you wanted it, and if you didn't, I couldn't even imagine.

  #

  The bridal shower was set for seven at the parish hall. I had my last open house at three, so I would be there by four thirty to help set up. Hopefully that would be enough time.

  When I got to the hall, the place was buzzing. There were aunts and cousins everywhere.

  "Thank goodness you're here," Piper said as she pulled me in to a hug. "Lots of chiefs, no Indians.
"

  "That sounds about right. Don't worry; I'll get them in line."

  She gave me a huge grin. "I never doubted it."

  I waved at my mother who looked completely exasperated. I had suggested they all wait until I arrived to explain the set up, but my family was not made up of the patient.

  I hopped up on the stage and let out a very unlady-like wolf whistle to silence the room.

  "Ciao, everyone. Thanks for coming. We're having four stations—Italian desserts, pie, ice cream, and candy." Off I went directing traffic, hauling tables, and soothing egos. It reminded me why I liked working alone so much. No one to work in with. Go, get the job done, get out. No wonder after this mob, I thought.

  Still, in two hours everything looked beautiful, and I knew Nona would be blown away.

  "Cherie, you are a natural at events," my cousin Tina said. "You should have an event business."

  "Oh my goodness, I can't imagine how that would be."

  "Stressful." She laughed. "But fun. I'm going home to change, see you later."

  I surveyed our work. The room was decorated in pink and white. It looked really beautiful and very girly.

  "Hey, Ma, we did a great job, right?" I said as my mother barreled toward me.

  "Sure, I wanted to kill Maria Volpe but I held back. She's related to the groom somehow, that would have been bad."

  "I wanted to murder quite a few people, you have my sympathy."

  She patted my hand. "You did a good job, kiddo. Now all we have to do is plan a wedding for next week, oh yeah and Thanksgiving."

  "Piece of cake," I said, rolling my eyes at her.

  By eleven that night, I was home on the sofa with Piper and Lucy who had decided to ditch their menfolk, their blokes, as Piper called them, and come stay with me after the shower. My feet were throbbing from way too much standing in heels, and my cheeks were hurting from smiling so much. We were having a glass of wine to help us wind down. There hadn't been much girl time lately, so despite my urge to sleep I would fight it and enjoy hanging with my friends.

  "You," Lucy said, raising her glass, "did a wonderful thing tonight. She was blown away."

  "She really was happy, wasn't she?" I asked. Though the smile on Nona's face all night had been clear evidence of that.