They Say Love Is Blind (13 page)

"I...yes." Tory nodded and she
did
agree
. Obviously she had been harboring those feelings for years.
Senna had poured herself rum punch. "I knew she liked him." She
said knowingly.
"Well I didn't,
" Francie announced while placing the baking sheet into the oven. "If I had known that she had scandalous ideas I'd have told her about herself. Tory, hand me the butter from the refrigerator please."

Tory liked listening to the women talking even if she hadn't added more than two words to the conversation. They didn't make her feel self conscious. She passed the woman an industrial sized tub of butter.

A tall dark haired man entered the room. She remembered that he was Paulo; Kaye's husband. He looked to be in his forties and had strands of grey in his curly hair. His
skin tone
was much darker then Lee's and his eyes were hazel. He was really gorgeous even with a pouch for a belly and about fifty extra pounds on his tall frame.

"What are you hens talking about?" He gave Tory a friendly wink while everyone else chastised and berated him both in English and Portuguese until he grabbed several beers from the fridge and slipped back out of the kitchen.

"Tory, come over here and give me a hand," a
woman said. She was several years older than her and Tory had no hope of remembering what her name was as she was not a sibling of Lee's, but married to one of his brothers; Rafael or
Carlo
, she didn't remember which. "I'm going to show you how to make the
aletria
, eh?"

"I'd love to. Let me wash my hands." She went to the sink and quickly washed while the women chatted and described the dishes that they'd have. The woman poured milk into a large pot to boil. It was nearly the entire gallon of milk, but then again it was a very large family. She instructed her to pour a cup and a half of sugar into the simmering liquid along with a couple of teaspoons of salt while the woman went about cracking a dozen eggs and beating them up quickly along with more sugar.
"Ladle some of the boiling milk into the eggs...that's it. Good." The woman beat them for a bit longer and then set the egg mixture aside. She then grabbed a box of vermicelli noodles.
“Back home we made this with rice but here we make it with noodles.”
The two of them broke the hard noodles into the boiling milk and sugar concoction. Once that was done and the noodles were cooked in the boiling milk, they took it off the heat.

Kaye removed the leg of lamb from the oven to rest in the pan and Tory poured the tempered eggs
mixture
into the pot of vermicelli and milk until it made a beautiful custard. She smiled in pleasure once it was poured into a shallow glass dish. She was instructed to sprinkle cinnamon across the top and it was placed in the refrigerator to cool. She had prepared her first Portuguese dish!
"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes." Kaye shooed her out of the kitchen even though she had been having a good time cooking with the women. Of course, being kicked out of the kitchen and back to Lee wasn't a bad deal either. Senna placed a beer in her hands.

"Give that to Lee, he's probably due for his next one."

"Ok." Before she was completely out the kitchen door Macey placed a hand on her shoulder. "Welcome to the family. We are all kind of crazy and we're loud at times and talk too much but we kiss a lot too and hug and are loyal to the end. Whenever you're around any of us, you have allies. Do you understand?"

She was so touched that her eyes stung. If this was Azorean hospitality then she was blessed. She looked at each of the women in the room and knew that the sentiment was shared by all.
"Thank you for making me feel so welcome. I truly understand why Lee is such a special man, it runs in the family." She went to the living room but didn't see Lee or the other men, just some of the kids still racing about.

"Where is your Uncle Lee?" She asked one of the children.

"In the family room watching soccer." The child pointed out a connecting room and she peeked inside to the sight of
several m
en and
some of the older children
watching a big screen
television
. It was set to an international channel and a soccer match was broadcasting, the announcer speaking rapidly in a foreign language. Suddenly several of the men jumped up and cheered, among them was Lee. He was listening intently.

"Uncle Lee, Tory is here." A boy about sixteen said. Lee turned in his seat and held out his hand from where he was sitting on the couch.

"Hey,
q
uerida
. Welcome back." Paulo stood and moved to the chair, allowing her room to sit next to Lee. She smiled her thanks to him. He pulled her into his arms snuggling with her and she passed him the beer.

"
Cerveja
for you, honey." She said.

"Where's my wife with my
cerveja
?" Paulo asked playfully.

"Last I checked she was carving the biggest leg of lamb ever known to man."

Rafael winked at her. They were a playful, winking family. "We're going to have to trade our wives in for new ones like you, Tory."

"I heard that!" The woman that had taught her to make the
aletria
was suddenly in the doorway holding several beers. "For that I take these right back to the kitchen-"

There were several protests and she pretended to relent, and walked around the room passing out the beers to the adults, slapping the hand of the 16 year old when he reached out for one, until she finally ended by sitting in the lap of her husband, presenting him with a kiss and the last beer.
"Do you like soccer, Tory?" Lee asked.

"I've never watched it."

Everyone in the room got quiet and stared at her as if she had just announced that she'd flown in from the moon.

"Some American's don't watch soccer." The sixteen year old said. "They watch American football." Someone scowled. "American football has too much standing around and not enough action."
"I've seen bits and pieces of soccer matches; on the news. I saw a soccer player kick some guy in the head." His scalp had split and blood had poured from it like a fountain. She'd also seen fans chase down a referee and give him a beat down. It seemed a bit violent to her.

Everyone rushed in a once to try to explain the game to her. She was too embarrassed to admit that she had no idea what they were talking about.

"Which team are we rooting for?"

"
Portugal’s team is
a
Selecção
. " She watched intently, people moving quickly back and forth after a little ball. Damn, men around the world weren't all that different; excited over this. But soon Kaye entered the room and ushered the kids to come eat. And then a few minutes later the rest of the family was seated.

Two card tables had been set up for the kids and the once smaller dining room table had the extenders in place
so that it was now twice as big
. The food was set up buffet style on the hutch and therefore there were no place settings present, just several glasses; water and wine. Tory and Lee stood in line for the food and Lee said something in Portuguese. Several of the women responded likewise. Lee turned to her.

"Nothing too adventurous today on the menu. We'll have to persuade them that you can hang with the rest of us Azoreans."

Her eyes scanned the feast before them. "I'm not complaining. Everything looks mouth watering." She passed him a plate and he told her everything that he wanted and she loaded him up. There was the roasted lamb, rice,
and fat slices of a bread called
pão de milho
which literally translated to corn bread, although it was nothing like American cornbread.

“In the Azores, it is much easier to grow corn so
traditionally
our bread is made with corn flour instead of wheat and
yeast instead of baking powder,” he explained.

“Well…”
Macey
interjected. “We have broa that is wheat based but mainly when we are eating soups and stews.” Tory tried not to look confused. She made sure to take a slice of both types of bread.

In addition to the bread were
several different vegetable dishes
as well as a familiar
dish made with
beans and rice
. There was
a cheese plate
, a huge platter of
the little neck clams just like the ones that she was served at the restaurant
, a cucumber and tomato sa
lad drizzled with
vinegar and oil dressing
, and lastly, her
aletria
. They were led to their seats and before they began to eat Paulo stood and held up a wi
ne glass.

"Cheers to our guest;
our new friend, Tory. We all hope that you will join us for many more such family dinners...and feel free to invite us to your place, otherwise we are known to show up and throw impromptu parties." Everyone chuckled. Counting the children there were easily twenty five people in the apartment. Her small home wouldn't hold half this.

"You're all welcome anytime." She said honestly.

Lee shushed her. "They will take you seriously, love. We withdraw that invitation." He said playfully. Tory fell in love with Lee's family during dinner as they all rushed to talk and to be heard but with love. She drank, she ate, she laughed and she was doing it beside the man of her dreams. Again she had to wonder, could any woman be luckier?

CHAPTER 9

They walked home even though eight different people offered to drive them. By the time they finished saying their goodbyes and assuring everyone that they wanted to stretch their legs and walk, it was almost ten pm. They'd eaten her delicious desert and Lee promised that it was the best
aletria
he'd ever had.

As they walked out of the building Tory caught the movement of a curtain and she saw Roz there looking out at them. Her expression was impassive, and she didn't retreat. Had it really been this morning that she'd almost made the biggest mistake of her life and allowed Roz to run her away from Lee's home? How stupid she'd almost been.
Maybe there was more to Roz tha
n
what
she'd shown to Tory. She knew that there would come a time when the two of them would be in the same location but she also knew that there would never come a time when she'd ever forget that Roz wanted Lee and was rejected by him. She squeezed his arm
which
was hooked through hers and he turned to her and smiled.

"I told you, you'd like them. My family is good people."

"They are awesome people."

He sighed. "I don't want you to go home. How long can you stay?"

"Until tomorrow." Then she had to prepare for work for the coming week and she wanted to give her home a really good cleaning. That comment Roz had made really haunted her.

He grinned. "I have one more night with you."

She felt her body begin to react to his words. "I hope there will be more to come." He nodded in agreement.
Back at his loft, she was beginning to feel at home. She slipped off her shoes and placed them safely in the corner, then she greeted Cat with a scratch behind her/his ears; she wasn't sure what sex the animal was.

Lee turned on the sound system again and found Reggaeton for them to listen to. She was a little tired, but the memory of their night at the club overpowered the need to sit down and relax.
"Come here, Tory. I want to show you something." She placed her hands in his and his body began to sway sensually to the music. She watched him for a moment until she was able to mimic his simple repetitive steps. Still holding his hand she moved from side to side, hips swaying to the beat. He moved in closer until their bodies moved as one.

"
Bom
." He said pleased. "
Muito bom
." Then his hips began to move rapidly and she hesitated, still swaying as he originally had been. She would never be able to do that in a million years.
"Just wiggle your hips." She tried and it looked more like a shudder. "Imagine..." His fingers began to creep down her spine. "...a caterpillar has fallen down the back of your shirt and you have to wiggle it out." And then she suddenly knew the movement she'd need in order to do that, and her hips began wiggling. Tory laughed out loud. She felt like Shakira! His hands moved to her hips.
"Bom!
Ooo damn,
baby.
That is sexy and y
ou are such a fast learner." He took a step back from her. "Watch me." He began with his basic body swaying move and then he came forward and then backward rapidly. "Cha cha cha step, you've seen before, no?"

"Cha cha. I can do that." She did. She did know how to do the electric slide.

"Mambo?" And then he did a quick mambo step.

"Oh...kay." She tried it and it didn't look anything like what he'd done. He kept doing it, very very slowly, over and over. Finally she was doing a mambo. She giggled happily. He took her hand and together they made different combinations of the mambo, cha cha and the hip swaying and hip shaking.
"There baby. Now you know how to dance Reggaeton. And you're good at it. You're not afraid to move those beautiful hips." She looked back at her ass as if it were a separate attachment.
"These hips sometimes have a life of their own; they move even when I don't want them to."
He kissed her sensually. "They can move for me as often as they like. I love your hips." His hands held her there as his kisses trailed down her neck. "I love this neck and these ears...and of course these breasts."