Page 6 of Beguiled and Broken

“Fiore!” She yelled it with so much excitement.

“It’s a dandelion, baby. Dandelions are the best flower. Do you know why?” I asked her. She looked at me with wide eyes and shook her head. “This flower, when it’s yellow, is the sun. When it’s fluffy and white, it’s the moon. And when it’s the moon, you get to wish on all its stars by blowing on it.”

Gianna smiled big. “When we can do that?”

Her mixed-up words made me laugh. “We will watch for them to change, mio fiore.” I gave her a wink and she turned to be let down so she could run to the house and show Bianca. I placed her on the ground and off she went, running with her dandelion yelling, “Mama!”

I sat at our patio table and just listened to my family yelling around the yard and house. I loved my life. Sitting there, I thought about what the next step in life might look like. For the most part, and I didn’t want to jinx anything, my life was perfect. Our life was perfect.

When I turned eighteen, I received the large inheritance my father left me, and we spent it on the things we felt we needed. Our wedding, educations, the house, a couple cars, the pregnancies, and set the rest aside. I went to school for business and culinary arts because I knew I wanted to be in the restaurant industry, but I wasn’t quite sure what kind of restaurant. Anyway, I took a job as a chef at a local restaurant to gain experience in the industry when we moved to Lynn Falls, but I wanted more.

I felt like now that my family was set up, I could decide what I really wanted to do. My father had always wanted to own a pizza shop and Lynn Falls had always been good to us. I always wanted to add to the community somehow and bring a little bit of New York to Lynn Falls, so it felt even more like home.

I was lost in thought when Bianca came out.

“Vinny! Hey, snap out of it.”

Blinking, I looked up at her and said, “Hey baby. What’s the matter?”

“You’re spacing out over here. You alright?” I reached for her and grabbed her hips, leaning my head against her stomach. She reached down and ran her fingers through my hair. “Vinny, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing baby. I love you. You know that, right?”

She smiled at me. “Yeah, I know it. What’s really going on?”

I leaned back in the patio chair and stared up at her. “Just thinkin’ about our life. I love it. I’m just wonderin’ what comes next. I’m 35. What do I do next?” She didn’t say anything. She came over and sat on my lap, throwing her arm around my neck.

I looked up at her, “I think I want to open a pizza shop. Ya know, a little bit of New York here. Something for my old man and to give back to Lynn Falls. I want to name it Leonardo’s Pizzeria.” I held my breath not knowing how Bianca was going to react.

“Vinny, this is a great idea! It’s perfect, actually, because I’m dyin’ for some real New York style pizza.”

We laughed and I looked at her again, “You sure? It’s going to take most our savings from the inheritance. Might be a little struggle at first.”

“Of course, I’m sure. If not now, when? We only get this one life, Vin. Let’s make the most of it and eat lotsa pizza.”

Laughing, I reached up for her neck, she dipped her head and brought her lips to mine. I said, “You’re the best, B. This is gonna be great. I can feel it.”

Bianca looked a little misty eyed and said, “I believe you. Your dreams are my dreams. Let’s do it.” I fell in love with her all over again.

Chapter 5

Vinny, 38 y.o. | Bianca, 36 y.o.

Vinny

“Go ahead, leave again, Vinny!”

“Bianca! What do you want me to do? We own a business. The waitress said there’s a problem, so Igottago.” I tried to get her to be reasonable.

We’d been arguing a lot over little things since the car accident. A few months back, Hudson called in a panic and said Devina was in a coma in the hospital after a car crash. Our hearts were crushed. We met Hudson and Devina in college when we first moved to Lynn Falls. They were our closest friends and the ones who introduced us to everyone else in our circle. Eventually, Hudson had to make the difficult decision to take her off life support. It was awful and I couldn’t imagine having to make that decision if it were Bianca. She took it especially hard.

Usually when tragedy strikes, it brings people closer together, but for Bianca and me, it pushed us further apart. I don’t think our struggles could be blamed on any one thing in particular, though. It was just the timing. Additional stress can break an already fractured foundation. Our foundation had been fractured for a while after we opened the pizzeria.

We were excited about it, but it ate away at our savings and had taken a lot of my time. The business was doing well, and it was popular, and I thought it needed all my attention. So did Bianca and the kids. It seemed I had to choose one and it always ended up being the restaurant. It was our dream. We wanted it. I felt like it was my responsibility to keep it alive. So, whenever the restaurant called and needed me, I dropped everything and went. Looking back, it was a sacrifice I made too many times. With Devina’s death on top of all that, things were breaking down. I was trying to be there for Bianca, Hudson, the kids, and the business. It was impossible.

“Go, Vinny. I know. We own a business. I’ll be here, like I always am, whenever you get back.”

I lowered my head while she walked away, then shook it off and left for the restaurant.

---