“I must look happy then, huh?” Gina quipped and smiled too brightly.
“No, you do not.” Her mother picked up the plate holding a sandwich and some homemade pasta salad. Carrying it to the table, she plunked it down, poured two tall glasses of iced tea and took a seat opposite her daughter. “I worry about you, Gina. Two months you’re with Adam. You do not look happy. You think I don’t see it in your eyes?”
“Mama …”
“Fine,” her mother said, grabbing her glass to chug some of her tea. “You want a baby. I understand. How could I not? I, too, wanted babies. But you want them with the man you love. With a father who will also love the child you make.”
“I do love him,” Gina said and took a bite of the roast beef sandwich, because knowing her mother, she’d never be allowed to leave until she did. She chewed, swallowed and said, “Adam loved his son. He would love our child, too. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.”
Teresa crossed herself quickly at the mention of Adam’s dead son and conceded, “He did love that boy. Such a tragedy. But you know as well as everyone else he changed when he lost his family.”
Gina shifted uneasily on her chair and used her fork to move bow tie pasta around on her plate. “That’s natural enough, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It is. But he does not want to move on, Gina. The darkness in him is thick and heavy and he doesn’t want it lifted.”
“You don’t know that.”
Her mother snorted. “You do not want to see it.”
Gina sighed, dropped her fork and said, “We’ve been over this.”
Teresa Torino set her glass down, reached across the table and patted her daughter’s hand. “And we will again. Until I make you see that you are making a mistake that will only cause you pain.”
“Mama …”
The older woman sat back, folded her arms beneath her copious breasts and frowned. “So. You get pregnant. Then what? You leave? Then you walk away from your baby’s father? You believe you can do this? With no pain?”
Just thinking about it was painful, but admitting that would probably be the wrong move. Besides, she was still hoping she wouldn’t have to walk away. That Adam wouldn’t want to let her go. “Adam and I made a deal.”
“Sì.” Her mother sniffed in disgust. “So your papa tells me all the time. A deal. What kind of a way is that to start a marriage?”
“Um,” Gina said, picking her fork up again to take a bite of her mom’s pasta salad—only the best in the known universe, “excuse me, but didn’t Papa go to Italy to meet you because his parents knew your parents and they thought you two would make a good couple?”
Teresa’s big brown eyes narrowed on her daughter. “You think you’re so smart, eh?”
“Pretty smart,” Gina acknowledged with a smile. “I know my family history anyway.”
“Yes, but you also know this,” her mother said, sitting forward suddenly and leaning her forearms on the yellow-and-white-vinyl-cloth-covered table. “My papa told me I should marry Sal Torino and move to America. I argued with him. Told him I wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love. Then I took one look at your papa and loved him in that instant.” She lifted one hand and wagged her index finger at Gina. “One look. I knew. I knew it was right. That this marriage would last and be a good one. Can you say the same?”
Spearing another piece of pasta, Gina met her mother’s worried gaze and said softly, “I’ve loved Adam since I was a kid, Mama. One look. I knew.”
Teresa blew out an exasperated sigh. “Is not the same.”
“No, it’s not,” Gina said wearily. “Papa wanted to get married. Adam didn’t. But,” she added, “we are married. And I know he cares for me.”
“Care is not love,” her mother warned softly.
“No, but it could be. Mama, Adam needs me. I love him and I’m going to try to make this work. For both of us. Can’t you be on my side? Please?”
Astonishment crossed her mother’s features as her brown eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Standing up, Teresa moved around the kitchen table to stand beside Gina. She cupped her daughter’s face between her palms, then drew her in close, wrapped her arms around her girl and held on tightly. “Of course I am on your side, Gina. I’m your mother. I want for you all that you want. Always. I only wish to spare you pain.”
Gina held on and let herself be rocked for a while, taking comfort from the one source she’d always been able to count on. She thought of Adam, saw his face in her mind, felt his touch in her memory and her heart lifted, despite the odds being stacked against her. For two months, she’d lived with him, loved with him. She’d wormed her way into his house and could only hope she was worming her way into his heart, as well.