It was a beautiful fall day. Trees were losing a kaleidoscope of colorful leaves. The scent of fires burning and chestnuts roasting drifted from all different directions. Sharp winds carried them, perfuming the air.
“Who do ya’ll think can win in a footrace?” Carmen said out of the blue. “Me or Juliette?”
Scarlett gave them a side-eyed look. “What made you think of that after all that lunch?”
Carmen shrugged. “The other day Juliette was telling me one of her sons showed her a video of people racing on foot, not realizing how ridiculous they looked. She told me she wouldn’t look ridiculous, and then Dario and I had a conversation about who would win in a footrace.”
“Let me get this straight, Carmen Charming.” Maggie Beautiful tapped her bottom lip. “You don’t really want to race Juliette to see who’ll win. You just want to see her technique when running?”
Carmen cracked up. “Well, yeah, I think she needs to put her money where her mouth is.”
Somehow, after that, we all got roped into running at full speed so the group could judge. By the time we were finished, we all had to stop and take a seat on the side of the street because we were laughing so hard. It truly was funny to watch other people run at full speed. Though I think we all voted for Scarlett being the most graceful. It honestly wasn’t fair, given her career, but it was still fun to watch.
Once we caught our breath, Carmen was in the mood to keep going. She challenged Juliette to a sprint, to see who was faster.
Juliette gave Carmen her hand, and Carmen helped lift her from the ground. “Challenge accepted!” she said, wiping sweat from her brow. “We’ll race toward my villa, then I’m ditching you all for a bit. That was a lot of food, and lately…my stomach hasn’t been doing so well with dairy.”
Scarlett told her she had so many dairy-free recipes, and Carmen said she was going to make a note for the exchange when we all met up to prep for Thanksgiving dinner.
“It was really nice of you to offer your kitchen,” I said to Maggie Beautiful as Carmen and Juliette took off. It seemed like Juliette was in the lead, and Maggie Beautiful cracked up, sayingshe had a reason to hightail it home. She suggested Carmen ask for a redo.
Maggie Beautiful sighed and looked at me, then started laughing again, even harder. “I don’t use the kitchen at all, Doll. Just ask Scarlett Gorgeous.”
“She does not, nor has she ever, used the kitchen,” Scarlett said. “I can attest to that.”
“Unless—” Maggie Beautiful held up her pointer finger, the color of her red nail polish reminding me of the famous color worn and designed by Monica Attigliano.
“You all right, Ari?” Scarlett asked.
I blinked at her, realizing she hardly missed anything. I waved a hand. “Yeah,” was all I said, even though what I wanted to say was…I was just recalling when one of the most famous faces in Italy exploded into our bedroom and told me to get out of our bed so she could have her way withmyhusband, who she had called her husband—yeah,eff off.
“—I’m making my famous candy bowls.”
Scarlett gagged, and Maggie Beautiful plucked her in the head. I fixed Scarlett’s hair after, because Maggie Beautiful had made it stand up. Maggie Beautiful laughed again and, stepping in between us, wrapped her arms around ours as we walked the “city” together.
Scarlett warned me about Maggie Beautiful’s candy dish and said I better take a dose of insulin beforehand, even if my pancreas was working fine. Maggie Beautiful called her dramatic in Italian, and then we all seemed to slow our steps by unspoken agreement when we heard dirt bikes in the distance.
“This property must be so deep,” I said. “I can’t see our men, but I can hear them. They must not be too close, though—the rev of the bikes is echoing.”
Scarlett sighed. “It’s deep enough to have a Fausti-built colosseum.”
“A colosseum?” I stood on my toes like I’d be able to see it for some reason. I lowered to my regular height when I realized it would take me climbing a mountain to see it.
“Not bad,” Scarlett said of my form. “You took ballet, right?”
“For a short time when I was really little,” I said. “I wasn’t all that great.” After the first couple of lessons, I gave up. Actually, I had cried not to go back. That was when I realized I’d rather shake my butt in time to the music instead of dancing on my feet to it.
Scarlett waved a hand. “No one is born great.”
“Except for you, my Scarlett Gorgeous,” Maggie Beautiful whispered, and even though Scarlett didn’t acknowledge what her mother-in-law had said, her cheeks turned a delicate shade of pink at the compliment.
Maggie Beautiful rested her head on Scarlett’s shoulder for a moment, then did the same to me. Her hair smelled sweet, probably like her candy bowls, but there was a hint of floral on her too. Maggie Beautiful was all soft and warm, nothing harsh about her, except for maybe the points of her nails.
“What’s the history on the colosseum?” I asked. “Has it always been here? A hidden one? Maybe one Rome rejected, and it came with the property?”
Scarlett kept her eyes forward, but in the moment, I had a feeling she wanted to send Maggie Beautiful a look, but she didn’t.
“It’s always been on this property, erected by the Fausti family. They use it for, er, their own personal reasons,” Scarlett said.
