“Now, I wanted to talk to you both about an idea I had for this summer,” my mother announced. She met my gaze with an odd intensity, her brown eyes shining with a mixture of excitement and pleading. “But you need to hear me out first.”
Probably a knitting or cooking class she wanted us to all do together, I figured, indulging in another spoonful of potatoes. “Sure, what is it?”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. I’m getting older, and one day, I may not be able to get around as well. Allegra will be going off to college, maybe working a summer job, and I feel like since your business has been growing, you haven’t had time to slow down at all. I’ve always dreamed of going to Italy to see where your great-grandmother was born. So, I contacted a travel agent and worked out a trip for us to take together. This summer.”
Shock barreled through me. I figured Allegra might be jumping up and down, but pure distress shone from her face as she stared at my mother. “You want us to go to Italy?” I asked. “All of us?”
“Yes! We need to take some time as a family before everything changes. Summer is the perfect time—you’ll be done with your new client, and Allegra will be off, and I’m treating for the whole thing. I socked away some extra money from your father’s life insurance. And look at the information I have.” She jumped up from the chair and withdrew a catalogue and folder from the junk drawer. “We can combine a tour along with a villa rental in Tuscany! For the first three weeks, we’ll see Rome and Florence and Venice, and all the other amazing cities, and then we’ll stay at an actual vineyard. There’s even a lake for Allegra.” She shoved a bunch of glossy brochures at us, the covers filled with sprawling houses surrounded by lush green hills and trees. “I’ll take care of everything—we can leave the first week of July and return early August.”
My fingers closed around the sleek paper, but already I was trying to think of the best way to phrase my rejection. Sure, I wanted to visit Italy—who didn’t? But not for a month on an extended tour. If I did score the Lexi’s Lemonade account, I’d be buckled down overseeing every aspect of the campaign for most of the summer, plus the demands of my other clients.
Plus, I couldn’t handle being with my mother for that long.
I opened my mouth to gently raise all my objections, but Allegra was already speaking. “Nonni, I’m so sorry. I can’t do Italy this year. I-I made some other plans for the summer.”
My mother’s face fell. She blinked, glancing down at the line of brochures in confusion. “I think your mom would agree you don’t have to get a job right now. And it will be an early graduation present!”
Allegra chewed at her lip and touched my mother’s shoulder. “It sounds amazing, and I do want to go one day, just not now. Maybe next year before college?” she suggested. “We can have more time to plan.”
“Allegra’s right, Mom,” I said quietly. “I think this is really sweet, but there’s so much going on, it just won’t work. Definitely next summer. In fact, I’ll help you plan it—we’ll do a two-week tour and see all the highlights, including Naples. Okay?”
Her shoulders drooped. I was ready for a full-on guilt trip, but she raised her chin, staring at me with a fierce determination I rarely experienced. “No,” she said firmly. “It’s not okay. It has to happen now or it won’t happen at all.” She grew tense with frustration, and her breath came faster. “Don’t you see it’s important? We all need this trip. We’ve mentioned doing something like this for years, and if we don’t grab the opportunity and make the time, we won’t get another chance.” Grief flashed briefly in her eyes. “It goes too fast. A trip like this will give us memories for the rest of our lives. It can be an entire turning point, don’t you see?”
“Mom, calm down. You have to understand Allegra and I have a lot of responsibilities. And though it sounds amazing, we can’t just be ready to take a month off. Allegra starts track in August, and I own a business. I could never get all that time off.”
“Nonni, I’m sorry,” Allegra said. “Don’t get upset. I know you want to see Naples. Maybe spring break? Or Christmas break if you don’t want to wait?”
I nodded. “Absolutely. Here, can I take these brochures home and look at them? I’ll check our schedules and see what we come up with.”
My mother had always been the calm one in the household, a quiet, stable presence. She rarely lost her temper, even with her Italian genes, and Dad used to joke about her good nature as the trait that held the seams together. But right now, she looked at me with a deep betrayal, like I’d done something terrible rather than say no to a European vacation with no forewarning.
“Sure,” she said. Her voice fell flat. “Let me know what you think. I better clean up.”
My daughter and I shared worried glances, but for the first time in a while, I didn’t know what to do. Maybe Mom was lonely and needed to get out of her house or have something big to look forward to. She’d never acted like this, as if a trip was a make or break for her happiness.
I jumped up to help, and we cleared the table and did the dishes. Allegra kept up steady chatter, but I could tell my mother had locked herself away somewhere, even though she nodded and smiled on cue. We had a quick dessert and then we left. I hugged my mother and tried my best to console her. “Mom, get some rest; you’re tired. I promise we’ll work something out.”
“We need this trip together, Frannie,” she said, gripping my arm. “It’s more important than you realize.”
Her words rang in my head on the drive back. My daughter kept her usual silence until we were halfway home. “Mom, you think Nonni is okay? She’s not sick, is she?”
“No, honey, I always keep up-to-date with her doctor’s appointments. Maybe we can try to squeeze in a weekend and take her somewhere.”
“Okay.”
“I’m a little surprised at your reaction, though. Figured a trip to Italy would be a dream, especially with you being such an art lover. What do you have planned that you’d rather do? You wanted to talk to me about your summer plans, right?”
She shifted in the seat. “My friends and I want to do a little cross-country driving. Explore some new places, you know?”
“Bonnie and Claire?”
“No, some friends I recently met. One is a musician, and another writes poetry. They want to book some performances in different clubs and I want to go with them.”
Already, the scenario didn’t sound completely truthful. I could tell by her forced-casual tone that she was trying to phrase it so I’d think it wasn’t a big deal. Also, her fingers twisted in her telltale gesture that said she was stretching the truth. God, I was tired. I had crap to do when I got home, and I wasn’t up for another round in the ring. I tried to keep my voice nonthreatening. “Who are your new friends?”