“What about us?” Rosaria said, picking her skirt up and trudging up the hill. Chiara was right behind her, eating a cannolo. Stuffing it in her mouth almost whole was more like it. She had been eating a lot of them. Sometimes she would throw up but it didn’t seem to deter her appetite afterward.
Rosaria and I kept quiet, but we both knew it wasn’t the flu. We hoped Chiara realized it too.
“I don’t mind wearing this,” I said. “It’s actually…nice.”
He grinned in a way that told me he thought I was funny, which was a rare sight for him. He set the box down and handed me a bottle filled with milk.
“Abandoned?” I asked.
He nodded. “Would you like to feed one?”
“I do!” Chiara said, digging in the box and pulling out one of the lambs. She took the bottle from me and held it out for the animal.
“Sheep and grease—what is next?” Rosaria said, but she took one of the abandoned lambs and gave it the second bottle.
Chiara cooed at the lamb, encouraging it to suckle the bottle, though the lamb wasn’t having any difficulties. Vincenzo and I stood next to one another, watching them with smiles on our faces.
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you smile,” I said. “Well, not out of malice.”
“Ah,” he said, glancing over at me. “It happens.”
“Like a falling star?”
“Stick it in your pocket and save it for a rainy day,” he said, and then nudged me. “I think your…outfit is nice too. The cross around your neck isbellissimo. You are a woman of faith. I admire that.”
I stared at him for a beat, not sure what to make of complimentary Vincenzo. I cleared my throat for no reason, and then turned my eyes back to the feeding lambs. Rosaria was staring at us, a look on her face I couldn’t understand.
“Where is Romeo?” she asked.
Vincenzo fed her the same story he had fed me.
She nodded, and a second later, her eyes widened with recognition. She chucked her chin behind us. “There he comes.”
Romeo held a basket in his hands, bread sticking out of the side. “A picnic,” he said, as he came closer. “I sweetenedZiaSerafina into giving us some food and a blanket.” He looked at the three of us closer before he kept his eyes solely on me. He started laughing so hard that the sheep started to bleat and he dropped the basket out of his hands. He didn’t know who was funnier, Rosaria or me.
“Sissy might not have ridden the bull, but she has certainly carried a basket of grapes on her head!”
Rosaria handed the lamb off to Chiara, since hers had finished its bottle. She stood and stomped her foot.
“Better than cannolo maker! If I have to make one more I will not be responsible for poking one of thezia’s eyes out with the shell! Oryours,Romeo Fausti!”
This was true. She had been putting them on her fingers Freddy Krueger style, making mean faces behind the aunt’s backs. They were not the easiest of women to work with.
“Why did you bring us to this place? A spa would have been more accommodating!”
“A spa?” Romeo wiped his eyes, which now looked incredulous. “Rosaria, men are looking to murder us. And you want to hide out in a spa?”
“Well…” She bit her lip and waved her hand. “Perhaps…”
“Come,” Romeo said, picking up the basket. “I have good food and wine. Let us take a break on the hillside and enjoy the rest of the day.”
“Should we change?” I asked.
ZiaSerafina seemed strict with the costumes. But her granddaughter took a few more pictures while we were standing around, Vincenzo and Romeo included, and told us that as long as we didn’t spill wine or oil on them, we could change after our picnic.
Accidents happen, I wanted to say, but at the look Rosaria shot me, I kept quiet. She was afraid one of the aunts would catch us if we went back to the villa to change and sentence us to more cannolo making.
Romeo picked out a spot that was not too far from where we were. A place that was treeless and full of sunshine. It felt good to sit and just be. The air was fresh and crisp, the food cold and delicious, and the red wine room temperature. Vincenzo left the baby sheep out, and one of them hopped from here to there, butting its sibling every so often to tempt it to play.
