Page 28 of Cursed

Chapter Ten

Edeena tried to hold onto her happy place as they crossed over the bridge to mainland South Carolina. She and Vince hadn’t been able to linger at the coffee shop for long, since he’d apparently promised to bring her to his family’s home for dinner. She’d forgotten she’d asked him about his family, and when she’d tried to dissuade him from taking her to dinner, he’d refused to let her off the hook, muttering darkly about his mother with words like “hell to pay.”

Now she was unaccountably nervous as the miles fell away, bringing them into the outskirts of the charming city of Charleston.

“I should have brought something—wine, a gift,” she said, brightening with sudden inspiration. “We should stop somewhere so I can pick up—”

“Got it,” Vince said, hooking a thumb toward the back seat. Edeena turned to look, and her heart sank. A small grocery bag overflowed with two bottles of wine and a spray of flowers in a wide spill-proof sleeve of water, still fresh. “I planned ahead.”

He laughed ruefully at her expression. “You should relax, seriously.” She could hear the dismay in his voice, which made her feel even worse. “I promised this to my mother or I wouldn’t put you through it, but she’ll be on her best behavior. She and Prudence go way back, is all. She’s heard about you your whole life, and feels, I don’t know, responsible for you in a way.”

That caught Edeena off guard. “Responsible? How in the world can she feel that? She’s not even part of the family.”

“You’ll understand when you meet her,” he said, shaking his head. “She’s really good at responsibility.”

They pulled up to the house a few minutes later, and Edeena’s eyes widened as she took in the large white pillars on the modestly framed house, the lions at either side of the driveway, and the profusion of flowers. “How many brothers and sisters do you have again?” The house wasn’t very big.

“Two brothers, two sisters, and about fifty-seven cousins and second cousins, neighbors who act like cousins, and strays my mom has picked up over the years. They’ll all probably be here, but the upside is, you’ll never have to say more than three words without being interrupted.”

He said the words wryly, but he was looking down the street at the small house with decided pride. Edeena’s heart gave a strange pang and she felt a smile easing across her face despite her nerves. “Tell me about your mother,” she said, “so I’m prepared.”

“Mom . . . she’s something else,” Vince chuckled, but his words were more gentle when he spoke again. “She and Dad came over to the U.S. when they were barely kids themselves, determined to live the American dream. We had family here, which made the transition easier for them, but she left a lot behind. You’d never know it by her attitude, though. She’s the rock of the family, insistent that we do our best no matter what the challenge—get involved in the community, participate in every pot luck, every church social, every fundraiser. She’s loud and emotional and my father worships the ground she walks on, but she gives all that love back and more.”

Unaccountably, Edeena felt like crying, and she blinked rapidly, schooling her expression with effort. Vince looked at her, and his expression softened. “Hey, you’ll like her. Really. She’s truly not an awful person, even if she is forcing you to meet my entire extended family for no good reason.”

“No, no it’s fine,” she said hurriedly. “I’m sure she’s lovely, that they’re all lovely.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. And hey, don’t get out of the car until I open your door. She’s watching.”

As Edeena snapped her gaze forward to the silent-seeming house, Vince opened the door of the SUV and slid out, then opened the back to pull out the bag of groceries. By the time he came around to Edeena’s side, she’d noticed the faintest swish of a curtain, but nothing further.

Vince opened her door. “She truly was waiting to see if you’d open the door for me?” Edeena asked, but she couldn’t keep the smile from her voice. “What about men and women being equal?”

“They’re equal in other ways, she would say, but not when it comes to basic politeness,” Vince said, returning her smile with a grin of his own. “You take the flowers, I think. It’ll give you something to use as a barricade against the throng.”

With that they set off, Vince giving her the quick rundown of all his relations, near and far, legitimate and what he called “opportunistic.” By the time they reached the front door, Edeena was surprised to realize that she was laughing, the smell of tiger lilies wafting around her and Vince’s hand firmly holding on to hers.

Then the door opened, and chaos erupted.

Edeena had taken part in her share of country dinner parties—all with families who were not her own—so she knew she should have expected the sheer volume of sound that billowed out of the Rallis house. But she’d never been the cause of such an outpouring of good cheer.

“Edeena Saleri! You are every bit as beautiful as your cousin said you would be, and Prudence exaggerates all the time, so I had my doubts.” A petite woman with fair skin and jet black hair shot through with silver bustled up to her, divesting Edeena of the flowers, then stepping in to embrace her robustly.

“Ah!” she exclaimed again. “Beautiful, just beautiful.”

“Mrs. Rallis—”

“Please! Call me Agnes, and I shall call you Edeena, never mind that you are a countess all the way back in Garronia. Here we are all Americans, and we’re very glad to have you.”

Before Edeena could draw another breath, Agnes turned to Vince and shooed him away with a frown. “Two bottles! Your brothers will finish that before dinner. Go! Go help your aunts in the kitchen while I introduce Edeena to everyone. We are so happy to have you here, my dear. You bring joy to this house.”

Agnes continued with her boisterous manner and booming introductions until Edeena’s head spun. She was quite sure an entire Greek city had transplanted itself to this tiny Charleston neighborhood, and those who clearly weren’t related by blood seemed every bit at home as the tottering elders and racing pre-school children. She met Vince’s teenage sisters—both of them more wide-eyed than she would have expected for today’s far more sophisticated teens—as well as his younger brothers, his aunts, his cousins, his great aunts, and more neighbors than she could count. All of them were laughing, smiling, and welcoming, but what struck her most was how happy they seemed simply to be there. Not for who was there and who saw them present, but because they genuinely wanted to be in the room, sharing, laughing, talking and eventually eating . . .

And oh, the eating.

When Agnes finally summoned them to the meal, it wasn’t in the house’s tiny dining room, but out in the back yard, where long tables had been set up with white paper covers and blue and white decorations. The meal itself was a feast of epic proportions, from the hummus, pita bread, and spanakopita to the kabobs, lamb stew, and breads. Dessert was an endless array of baklava and honeyed donuts and cheese pie and all of it so delicious that for the first time since she’d set foot in America, Edeena found herself the slightest bit wistful for the cooking of her own country, so similar to this but with less meat and more fruit, in accordance with their terrain and the size of their rangelands.

But that nostalgia was washed away with the very next round of laughter, and Edeena turned to find Vince watching her, a smile on his expressive face, and something approaching relief shining in his eyes.

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