His mother was already seated with someone, a man dressed in a T-shirt with the restaurant logo on it, along with dark jeans. He didn’t look like a waiter or one of the cooks in the kitchen, so he might have been the manager or the owner. And they were chatting away like they were well acquainted.
His mother’s eyes shifted to us and lit up like Christmas morning. “Con is here.”
“Dario.” Constantine smiled as he embraced the guy with one of those hand grabs that guys did. “It’s been a while. Looks like business is good.”
“It’s too good,” he said with a laugh. “Seems like I’ll never have a day off as long as I live.”
“Dario.” Constantine introduced me. “This is my woman, Aurelia.”
I noticed he didn’t usegirlfriend. I couldn’t picture him saying something teenagers said. “Nice to meet you, Dario.” I shook his hand.
Constantine pulled a chair out for me and got me seated before he took the last unoccupied chair at the four-seater table.
Dario and Constantine’s mother finished up their talk, and then he headed back to the kitchen.
His mother gave her full focus to me. “Oh honey, it’s so nice to see you.” She was the one who got out of her chair and came all the way over to give me a hug when I should have been the one to go to her. She hugged me and smothered me like a child, then pulled back to look at me. “You’re so beautiful. Every time I see you, you get more and more beautiful.”
“Aww, thank you.” She was so damn nice to me.
She went back to her seat, beamed at her son, and then held his hand on the table. “This is so nice. Having you both here. I swear the sun shines brighter on Taormina these days. At least, it does to me.”
Constantine smiled, but it was restrained, the kind that didn’t reach his eyes.
I noticed it, and I wondered if she knew her son well enough to notice too.
“How’s Medusa?” she asked.
“She’s a lot better,” Constantine said. “Got her a walker so she’s able to zoom around the house again. That really picked up her mood.”
“Yeah,” I said. “She was pretty sad for a while there.”
“There’s nothing worse than losing your independence,” she said. “Especially for someone like Medusa, whose entire purpose is serving others. How long is the recovery?”
“At least four weeks,” Constantine said. “So we have a little over two weeks to go before she can put weight on it.”
Sofia patted her son’s hand. “She’s lucky to have you, Con.”
His eyes shifted away like he didn’t deserve the praise, even though he’d taken a bullet for her.
No other man would have done the same.
“Okay, let’s eat.” She pulled her hand away and clapped them together. “It’s a treat not to be the one in the kitchen.”
The waiter came over, and Sofia ordered a bottle of wine for the table without asking what we wanted, something that Constantine did himself. She ordered an appetizer too, bruschetta with ripe tomatoes and torn basil leaves.
Sofia turned her attention back to us. “So, how have you liked being back in Taormina?”
“It’s been great,” Constantine said. “Been seeing the boys a lot. Love eating at my favorite spots. Aurelia has been at Bam Bar nearly every morning.” He shifted his gaze to me and gave me a playful smile.
“Guilty,” I said with a shrug.
“I love that place too,” Sofia said. “I’d go there more often if I weren’t working all the time.”
“Speaking of work ...” Constantine said. “Aurelia lost all her clients when we left Rome. I told her I would help her pick up accounts with the hotels nearby, but she said she wanted to take a break.”
“Good,” Sofia said. “Don’t work too much like me.” She smiled at me across the table, looking so different from Constantine that I had to assume he mostly took after his father. But he definitely had her hair, thick, luscious, and dark. She had an inherent sparkle to her eyes, beautiful full Italian lips. I could tell she would have been a total bombshell when she was my age. No wonder she gave birth to such beautiful children. “You don’t need to work when my son can take care of you.”
Any other mother would probably worry I was taking advantage of his wealth and being lazy when I wasn’t even his wife, but not her. She was so accepting of everyone. The kindest soul I’d ever met.
