11
As soon as Amaya was out the door, I rolled out of bed and started taking care of everything that needed to be done for the day ahead. I had so much to get ready and what seemed like such little time to do it in. No matter how much work I put in, this place was never going to be up to standard for my nonna, and even if I scrubbed this place down on my hands and knees for the rest of the day, she would still sweep in and find something wrong with it in the first five minutes.
That reminded me, I had to call her. I had told her that Jolene was going to be here today, but I had a feeling it might have slipped her mind, and I didn’t want her to turn up to that kind of a surprise.
“Nonna?” I greeted her as soon as she picked up the phone. At once, she started rambling away to me.
“Are you going to cancel on me?” she demanded. “I thought you would. When you told me to come to your place, I was sure you were—”
“I’m not canceling on you,” I cut her off calmly. I had somewhat expected this. She had been staying with my father after he’d returned from his honeymoon, and the two of them had a habit of rubbing each other the wrong way every chance they got, so no wonder she was already on edge.
“Then, what are you calling for?” she demanded curtly. I rolled my eyes, glad she couldn’t see my reaction on the other end of the line.
“To remind you that Amaya’s little sister is going to be joining us,” I replied calmly. “Remember? I told you a few days ago.”
“Oh, yes, I remember.” She sniffed, and I could tell she was lying but too proud to admit it.
“Good,” I replied, running my hand through my hair. “And you’re all ready for today?”
“Of course, I am,” she replied. “I don’t know why you couldn’t just come down here. My place is so much bigger, and you could—”
“Because it makes Amaya happy to have you around at our place,” I replied firmly. Nonna fell silent, probably for the first time in her life.
“Fine,” she replied with another heavy sigh. “I’ll be there in a few hours, all right?”
“All right,” I replied. “See you soon, Nonna.”
“See you, Kristo.”
And with that, she hung up the phone. I silently thanked God for Amaya, not just that she was here at all but that my family liked her enough to accommodate anything she wanted. I could have told them Amaya wanted us to have our family dinner teetering on the edge of a cliff, and I was pretty sure they would have done it. That was just the kind of person she was, instantly able to get people on her side. Or maybe I was just feeling a little more goodwill toward her given what we had gotten up to this morning. It still felt blurry and smudgy around the edges like the memory might have been a dream, but the smell of her skin was all over me, and I knew it had been real.
She was off picking up Jolene, and, as I tidied the apartment, I idly wondered if I should think about getting a car that had room for her sister and her wheelchair in it. It would mean we wouldn’t have to wait around at the beck and call of the facility as to when Amaya could actually see her sister, and we could pick her up whenever we wanted and take her wherever we needed to go. And she had seemed so happy when I suggested we invite Jolene up to the apartment. If she was going to be around for this whole year, which she seemed to have finally internally committed to, then I was going to do everything I could to keep her as happy as possible. Happy wife, happy life, right? I would get one of my people to look into getting a car that could handle Jolene the next day, once I was back at work and everything was back to normal.
Before I knew it, I heard a car pull into the garage downstairs and realized that Amaya must be back already. I glanced at my watch. Had it been that long? I put a pot of coffee on, realizing Jolene was too young for me to offer her a beer or a wine, and went to the door to help Amaya in with her wheelchair.
“Hey,” I greeted them with a grin as Amaya walked out of the elevator with her sister and moved toward the door. I went over to give them a hand, but she waved me away.
“I can manage, don’t worry,” she assured me, a slight grimace on her face as she pushed her sister the last few inches toward me. Jolene grinned at me, rolling her eyes as she jerked her head in the direction of her older sister.
“Sorry about her,” she announced playfully. “I didn’t realize she’d be trying to play the hero all day.”
“I’m not,” Amaya protested weakly. “I just want to do it myself, that’s all.”
“And what exactly do you have a big, strong husband for if not to help you with stuff like this?” Jolene demanded, and I cocked my head at Amaya playfully.
“I’m on her side, you know,” I told her, and I helped hitch Jolene over the threshold and into the apartment. “There. All done.”
“Oh my god, this place is incredible,” Jolene gasped as she looked around, Amaya closing the door behind her. I grinned.
“Glad you like it,” I replied.
“Amaya told me about it, but I had no idea it would be this …” Jolene trailed off as she cast her eye around. “This …”
“Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt when I saw it too,” Amaya agreed, stretching and heading to grab a cup of coffee. “Kristo, how long till your grandmother gets here?”
“A couple of hours,” I replied, and I wheeled Jolene over to the living room so we could all sit together. “We’ve got plenty of time.”
The afternoon with the three of us seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, my nonna was due any second. She was always meticulously on time, and when it came to a quarter-hour before she arrived, I got to my feet and started pacing back and forth.