Pathway to Tomorrow (14 page)

“He didn’t stop after Izzie was born either.  Although Mamma and I began to fight as soon as my teenage hormones kicked in, he just kept right on spoiling me.  He was the one who encouraged me to take up dressage, and he was the one who used to drive me to the events.”

“So what went wrong?”

“He died.  Everyone in my life dies Marcus.”

* * *

In the sudden commotion of Izzie and Luke returning Jodie managed to scrub the tears from her eyes and plant her sunglasses firmly on her nose.  Marcus gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze as the youngsters pushed their way through the branches of the weeping willow tree.

“Are you looking for birds too?” Luke asked, his face flushed from the afternoon sunshine.

“Don’t be silly,” Izzie answered for them.  “They wanted to be where nobody else could see them so they could kiss one another.”

“But I can see them,” he looked mystified.

“Stop it Izzie! Don’t confuse him,” Jodie warned.  Then she turned to Luke, anxious to steer the conversation right away from her love life.

By the time he had finished telling her how the peacock had fanned its tail feathers in an ostentatious display, they were nearly back at the apartment. Marcus, walking behind, watched her and wondered what other dark secrets she was hiding. 

He tried to remember what he had read about Annetta Parisi. He
’d been little more than a child when she had taken the country by storm with her husky voice and her fragile beauty. He could remember seeing a picture of her though. She’d been slim and not much taller than Jodie. She’d had the same silky black hair too but her face had been more like Izzie’s. He could remember that even though he couldn’t remember reading about when or how she had died.

With a sigh he followed Jodie and Luke into the elevator and pressed the button for the penthouse.  He knew she would tell him eventually, he just didn’t know when it would be, not with Izzie and Luke sharing every minute of their lives.

Chapter Seventeen

“Luke and I have plans for this evening, so if you two want to go off somewhere together we’ll be fine.”

Izzie carried on reading the titles of the DVDs displayed on a double shelf next to the television as she spoke. When nobod
y answered she looked up. Marcus was staring at her. She scowled at him.

“I’m not exactly incapable you know. Besides Mrs. Cotton’s back…I saw her coat on the hook inside the door, and there are other people too aren’t there? A handyman or something, and a care worker.”

Marcus shook his head. “Not during the evening. Everyone but Mrs. Cotton leaves at the end of the afternoon, and she’s meant to be having a day off.”

“Well she can still have one. I can help Luke if he tells me what to do.”

Marcus looked over to where Luke was already busy with his colored pencils.  He appeared to be entirely indifferent to the conversation taking place behind him. He looked at Jodie. She wasn’t listening either and he knew it was because of what he had just told her about Izzie. Seeing the misery in her eyes, he made up his mind.

“Okay, but only if Mrs. Cotton agrees… and you have to promise to call her the minute there’s a problem.”

“There won’t be a problem,” Izzie pulled a DVD from the shelf and carried it over to Luke. He glanced at it, nodded, and returned to his drawing. Although she gave Marcus a triumphant grin she didn’t make any of her usual wisecracks. Instead she kept her language factual for Luke’s benefit.

“We’re going to watch DVDs all evening, and we’re going to eat one of the lasagnas Mrs. Cotton keeps in the freezer.”

* * *

Jodie’s only concession to an evening out was to exchange her T-shirt for a cotton blouse. Its high neck was fastened with tiny pearl buttons.  Marcus gave a rueful smile. What else had he expected: a slinky sheath dress, full make-up and six-inch heels?

“I’ve booked a table at Casa Minelli,” he told her. “I thought you might appreciate getting back to your roots. It’s an old fashioned Italian restaurant which is still run by the entire Minelli family.”

She nodded, and when he offered it, she took his hand. She didn’t say anything though. Nor did Marcus push her. For the moment it was enough to be strolling together alongside the Thames as the last rays of the sun rippled in red and purple streaks across the water.

It had been years since he had done anything like this. Ever since his wife died…no, longer ago than that…he’d been too busy working or caring for Luke. There had been no time for romance, no time for anything but work and the daily grind of Luke’s routine. Now, with Izzie and his son happily established in front of the television, he wondered why. Why hadn’t he found time to live a life, and what was it about Jodie that was making him break all his self-imposed rules?

He glanced across at her. She was difficult and obstinate and she had as many hang-ups as he did, and yet he wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anyone. And he didn’t just want her physically either; he wanted Jodie herself. Every spiky bad-tempered frown, every burst of anger, every reluctant smile turned his heart over. So, too, did the commonsense she displayed around Luke and the way she was determined to help him. Jodie was everything he wanted…needed…but did she feel the same way about him?

He knew how much she was attracted to him because she was too honest and unsophisticated to hide it, but what about the rest? Now he’d told her what he thought she should do about Izzie would she push him away? Would she be able to accept it or would she insist on retreating back into the safe life she’d built for herself and her sister. He gave an inward sigh. With Jodie it was difficult to tell.

* * *

The evening at Casa Minelli’s was a revelation. It started when Jodie responded to Signor Minelli’s greeting in fluent Italian and it continued as she debated the finer points of Italian cuisine with him.  When they had finally agreed on a menu that included home baked bread, olives, roast pork with pickled walnuts and a selection of vegetables, Marcus grinned at her.

“Do you want to choose the wine as well?”

“I think Signor Minelli already has,” she said laughing. “I know you told me it was a family run restaurant Marcus, but I wasn’t expecting this. It’s wonderful.”

Looking around at the old-fashioned décor and the heavy wooden furniture Marcus experienced a sense of satisfaction. It was swiftly followed by an uncomfortable question. Had he been testing Jodie by bringing her here? Well if he had, it had worked. She got it!

“Signor Minelli and his wife are the closest thing I have to a family of my own,” he told her.  “My own parents died years ago, long before I made a success of my career, and…well you know about my wife. What you don’t know is that she was a Minelli. I met her when I came here for a meal.”

It was another test, a more deliberate one this time. Jodie reacted, but not in the way he’d anticipated.

“So you bring Luke here to eat sometimes.”

It made him laugh out loud. “Don’t you ever give up? No, I don’t bring Luke here but Signor and Signora Minelli do visit him occasionally. They’re two of the few people he tolerates.”

“In which case you should be able to bring him to visit them too.”

Remembering the successful trip to the aviary he reluctantly conceded she might be right. “I guess so. I’m doing a lot of things wrong with Luke aren’t I? Seeing him with you and Izzie has shown me how it could be if I tried to be a bit more tolerant.”

She smiled at him, her eyes soft with sympathy. “I wouldn’t say you’re doing a lot of things wrong. In many ways he’s a very lucky little boy to have so much care and attention, and anyway we’re not exactly experts Marcus. It will take a lot more support than we can give for him to learn to be flexible and cope with other people We can help you though.”

At her words his heart leapt into his throat. He leaned forward and covered her hand with his own. “Do you really mean that? Are you in this for the long haul?”

She looked at him for a long moment and then she nodded. “You’ve turned my life upside down. I tried to stay away from you, you know I did, but I couldn’t.  And now you’ve thrown me a curve ball by telling me I’ve got to let Izzie go as well. I should hate you for telling me I must drop all the plans I had for her and help her to toughen up instead…I should hate you for everything but I…can’t…I…”

Her voice trailed off as he lifted her hand to his lips, and when he kissed it her sharp intake of breath echoed the surge of desire that flooded his senses. He groaned.

“And I should hate Izzie, and Luke, for making things so difficult for us. How long will it be before we can have a few hours on our own behind locked doors?”

Her frustration matched his own as they stared at one another but then the bread and olives arrived and soon she was conversing in Italian again as Signor Minelli poured wine from a dusty bottle. When he left to look after another customer, she turned to Marcus with a wicked smile.

“Apparently this wine has some aphrodisiac properties should you be in need of them.”

The tension broken, he gave a roar of laughter. “If that’s the sort of conversation he’s been having with you then it’s time I brushed up on my almost non-existent Italian. In the meantime you can tell me why you know so much about the food.”

“I already told you I spent the first eight years of my life living with my grandmother in the mountains of Tuscany.  What I didn’t say is that my best memories are of helping her in the kitchen and then eating what we’d cooked. We grew most of our own food as well.”

“And reared pigs too I suppose,” he said as the spit roast pork arrived, succulent and aromatic.

She nodded. “Mmm. I can remember sitting on a long wooden bench surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins and eating a meal just like this.”

“Do you still see them?”

He saw the sadness in her eyes as she shook her head.

“No!
After my grandmother died Mamma lost touch with the rest of her family. I was sad at first but I soon forgot. Instead I threw myself into riding and into being my step-dad’s shadow. I adored him, and when he adopted me and I could call myself Jodie Eriksson instead of Jodie Parisi, I was so excited. Even now I still find it hard to believe he died so suddenly and with so many debts.”

“What happened?”

She shrugged. “He’d borrowed too much against his various businesses and there were poor investments as well. Whatever the cause, he left us more or less destitute. Everything had to be sold.”

“Including your horse.”

“Horses! Yes those too. And I had to leave the school I loved and go to one where success was measured by how much pupils could drink on a Saturday night, and by taking drugs.”

“Which is why you spend all your money sending Izzie to a private school in a small town well away from the temptations of city life.”

She nodded. “Not that I pay for all of it. An educational trust funds most of it. The insurance company set it up when Mamma died but it stops when Izzie reaches eighteen.”

“And you were going to go on supporting her at university.”

“Still might!” She gave him a defiant look. “I haven’t made up my mind about her music yet Marcus. I need to have a long talk with her first.”

Signor Minelli interrupted before he could reply, by clearing away their empty plates and proffering the dessert menu. When they both demurred he poured the last of the wine and said he would bring coffee instead.

By the time it arrived they had stopped talking about Izzie and Marcus was answering Jodie’s questions about Luke’s mother and explaining her connection to the family who owned the restaurant. He turned to Signor Minelli with a smile.

“I’ve been telling Jodie about Lucia.”

For a moment a shadow darkened the older man’s eyes, but then he smiled. “My niece was very beautiful Signorina but she asked too much of life, so in the end life asked too much of her. She wasn’t strong like you. Nor did she have as much love in her eyes as you have for Marcus. My wife and I have been waiting for him to meet someone like you for a very long time.”

Before Marcus could ask Jodie about the blush Signor Minelli’s words had brought to her cheeks, a plump gray-haired woman approached the table, her face wreathed in smiles.  Unlike her husband, who was enjoying talking to Jodie in his native tongue, she spoke in English with a lilting accent. “Marcus, you bad boy! Why have you stayed away for so long?”

Marcus, who had risen to his feet as soon as he saw her, bent down and kissed her affectionately on both cheeks.  “If I came as often as you wanted me to I would be several kilos heavier. The meal, as ever, was wonderful.”

“Si, si,” she dismissed his compliment with a wave of her hand as she turned to Jodie. “My husband says you speak excellent Italian Signorina. He says you know Italian food too. For us, that is the greatest compliment.”

* * *

By the time they left the restaurant Jodie and Marcus had been plied with Italian liqueur, tiny amaretti cookies and rich dark chocolate. They had also promised to return when Jodie next visited London.