“You must be Alessandra,” Jenna says, stepping away to close the still-open door. “Peter has told me all about you, and I’m just so sorry I wasn’t here to welcome you.”
Guilt washes over me anew at the deceit. It would have been difficult for her to be present when she had not even been aware of my arrival. “It is perfectly all right,” I tell her. “Mr. Crawford has been more than accommodating.”
“Yes, well, I’m sure he has, but there are some things women are just better at, am I right?” She wraps her arm around my elbow, then repeats the gesture with Cat and begins leading us to the dining room. “But now that I’m here, we’ll get all caught up and become instant friends, I can tell.”
She jumps into an energetic retelling of her recent travels, and I try to follow their conversation, but my chest grows tighter and tighter. Jenna is everything I expected her to be. She is jovial, welcoming—and reminds me so completely of my own mother that an overwhelming sense of melancholy crashes around me. In a way, I am grateful. It is as if fate put her here to provide me a sense of comfort in the midst of chaos, a bittersweet reminder of home and all that I am missing. But watching the spirited way Jenna converses, smooths her hand along Cat’s hair, and repeatedly finds ways to show her affection, it also prompts an intense longing for home.
How I wish Mama could be here with me.
The doorbell rings, making me jump. Aware that there are no servants to answer the door as I have at home, I say, “I’ll get it,” hoping the walk to the entryway will shake off my unhappiness. I can’t spend my time here wishing for home. I need to embrace every moment I have while I can—before the other two signs are revealed.
With a decisive nod at my encouraging internal speech, I stroll through the atrium, choosing to focus on thoughts of how my mother would react to the scandalous clothing I arrived in instead. With a wide grin, I open the door.
On the other side of the threshold stands an adorable girl fidgeting with the strap of her handbag. And behind her, instead of the mother who was to bring her, is Lucas.
Smiling at the way fate works, I glance around to see if they came alone.
Lucas nods to the rumbling vehicle parked behind him. “Mom’s on the phone in the car.”
The trace of an Italian accent takes me aback. Cat did say he spent a few years in Milan, so I should have expected it. Misjudging my reaction, Lucas quickly adds, “She’ll join us in a few minutes. Angela was just excited to get started.”
Lifting an eyebrow, I look at the girl who appears fascinated with the flower doormat. Cat told me she was shy. Being nervous around strangers myself, I offer a smile of solidarity when she glances up. She grins in return.
Angela seems very sweet…but, if I had to guess, I would have to say the other Cappelli sibling was the one eager to get inside.
Stepping back, I motion for them to enter. “Prego, vieni.” Angela’s small smile grows as she steps over the threshold.
As I lead them to the dining room, I go back over my plan. Tonight’s agenda is simply to observe. In true Cat style, I have fashioned what she calls a checklist, and I will (hopefully) mark items off as the night progresses. In determining if Lucas is a proper suitor for Cat, the first attribute I will be looking for is his heart. Though my cousin never sees these qualities in herself, she is the kindest, most loyal, and most loving person I have ever met. She deserves to have someone who cares about her just as ardently as Lorenzo did and who has as much love to give her as she will give him.
After ascertaining the condition of Lucas’s heart, since I already know about his talent and shared interest in art, I will watch how he interacts with others. In particular, his younger sister, a person with whom he spends a great deal of time and undoubtedly knows him best. I will also watch how he behaves around his mother and Jenna.
Mama always said you could tell a lot about a person by the way he treats his elders.
And finally, I will pay close attention to both Cat and Lucas and how they interact with each other. If I am to support his suit to win her heart, I must see a hint of the sparks and smiles I saw her share with Lorenzo.
Truly, it is a tall order for one evening.
The sound of laughter guides our path to the dining room. When we enter, Cat is looking at Jenna, the future stepmother she once despised, with a radiant smile. The shell she sometimes erects to protect herself from the outside world is gone.
Launching into my self-assigned role, I turn to Lucas and am gratified to see the soft look in his eyes again. The one I felt across the chaotic cafeteria, and the one that got my begrudging admission that perhaps there could be another for Cat.
Lucas’s heart, check.
Then Cat turns and sees us, and her smile falters—not in an angry or upset-that-Lucas-came way but in a sad, regretful way. The taut muscles in her neck work as she swallows heavily, as if she is repressing the words left unspoken between them, and she shifts her attention to Angela. “Hey, Ang. Good to see you.”
The shy girl from the threshold blossoms under my cousin’s attention, and her rounded shoulders straighten. She skips over to Cat and throws her arms around her—and judging by Cat’s wide eyes, the action is a surprise for her as well.
“You, too,” Angela says, pulling back. “As much as Lucas talks about you, I thought I’d see you over the break. Guess Christmas got a little crazy, huh?”
A touch of pink glows under the bronze of Lucas’s skin, and I rub my mouth to hide my grin. As for my cousin, she appears both pleased and guilty over Angela’s inadvertent slip. Lucas clears his throat, and his sister scrunches her forehead, seeming confused over the sudden tension in the room.
“I have some great ideas for your party, Angela,” Jenna says, her voice pitched a bit higher that before. She pulls out a chair and ushers the future birthday girl to sit in it, and the rest of us follow in turn, taking seats around the large oak table. Patting the girl’s hand, Jenna smiles and says, “I think the first thing we should do tonight is pick out a theme.”
Lucas takes a seat next to his sister and grabbing a scrapbook in front of him, begins flipping the pages. “Are all sweet sixteens costume parties?”
“No, but that’s a great question. Cat’s was because she wanted a Renaissance-styled gala, so the theme dictated costumes,” Jenna explains. “But oftentimes a theme just gives us a direction for decorations, vendors to choose from, and occasionally, the suggested style of dress.”
Lucas nods respectfully, then turns a page and grins. He elbows his sister and whispers to her under his breath. Angela’s face lights up as she laughs and whispers back, and I have to add another check to my Lucas-as-suitor list.
Cares for sister, check.
The last on my list, watching for sparks between him and Cat, will not be easy, for not only is Cat determined to hide any interest she has for him, but she also has her future stepmother in the room.
As if the very thought of mothers conjures her, the doorbell rings again. Lucas stands. “That’s my mom. I’ll go let her in.”
Jenna nods from her place on the other side of Angela and pulls the girl into a conversation about a picture in one of the books. Cat watches Lucas leave, then catches me watching her and looks down at her book.
When Mrs. Cappelli joins us in the crowded dining room, I am pleased to see she is nothing like Lorenzo’s mother. That woman was an evil hag who was even worse than Cat’s archrival Antonia was. This Mrs. Cappelli kisses Jenna on both cheeks and ruffles her daughter’s hair before taking the seat Lucas holds out for her—the one he previously sat in, allowing him to walk around the table to the only other empty seat…the one beside Cat.