Page 72 of Better Left Unsaid

Bianca patted Jade on the back. “Oh, yeah. There’s actually a photo around here somewhere from her days on the competition dance team.”

“She danced competitively?” Jade questioned, her eyes going wider. “I danced competitively until I graduated high school.”

I shrugged. “Maybe you got her dancing feet.”

Allie laughed. “I got Dad’s two left feet.”

We all congregated in the living room and sat down, me and Perla on the floor with Isabella, Allie and Bianca on the couch, and Jade lounging across the loveseat. “Did she like black licorice?” Jade asked, quirking a brow and looking at all of us in turn.

I shook my head, chuckling. “No. She actually didn’t have a sweet tooth at all.”

Bianca’s eyes glossed over like she was thinking of the good days. “Yeah, she actually preferred salty over sweet. She could eat a bag of chips in one sitting.”

“Especially if they were barbecue. She loved barbecue chips,” Perla noted, her voice filled with adoration as she spoke about our mom.

Jade laughed. “What else?”

I swayed my head back and forth, trying to think of where to start. “Oh, she had this quirky thing that she couldn’t watch a movie she’d seen before. There had to be a long gap in time before she watched it again.”

Allie threw her head back in laughter. “She’d say, ‘we can’t watch this again, we just saw it.’”

Jade pulled her feet up and placed her hands on her knees, getting more comfortable. “Stop. That’s so unlike me. I can rewatch something the next day. Especially if I liked it.”

“Same!” we all shouted, even Isabella.

I played with the bottom of Isabella’s braid. “It’s taken us a while to get to this place, but I’m really glad we got here,” I said softly.

“I know Mom’s looking down at us right now smiling,” Bianca said.

“Yeah,” Perla agreed.

“And wondering why no one made popcorn,” Allie added.

I flicked the shell of a pistachio laying on the coffee table at her, and we all broke out into laughter. “What about the time Mom was gifted a pasta maker, and we came home from school with Dad to a house full of pasta?”

Bianca gasped, remembering. “Yes! It was hanging everywhere!”

“Okay, okay, now you have to tell me,” Jade said enthusiastically.

As Bianca launched into the story, I thought about how nice it was to be able to talk about Mom again and not feel anything but happiness.

* * *

“Well, Isabella is asleep. She was out as soon as her little head hit the pillow,” I announced coming back downstairs. My red lipstick still stained her lips, but I could only do so much scrubbing. “So what are we watching now?”

“Maria, where are these flowers from?” Perla asked suddenly as she walked into my dining room to pick something up.

I looked at the second large vase Paolo had sent me—this one was filled with yellow roses. They were so beautiful I decided to bring them home with me. “Not where but who,” I said, getting the attention of the rest of my sisters.

“Oooh! Do tell!” Bianca said, giddy as ever as she ran over to pluck a rose from the vase and sniff it. “Mmm, smells like you have an admirer.”

“Paolo,” I answered, staring down at my nails.

The room filled with the sound of gasping.

“Gicchio?” Perla asked, her mouth hanging open. “As in the Italian designer?”

I nodded.

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