Page 57 of My Lemon Grove Summer
‘The small, unripened lemons,’ Giuseppe explains.
‘Come!’ says Luca. ‘I will show you.’
I travel back to the farmhouse on the back of Luca’s moped, Giuseppe following in his battered old Fiat. As he glides and swings around the potholes in the road and swerves around two cars working out whose right of way it is, I let my body relax into his.
We park up and he looks for a way into the lemon grove.
‘Oh, you can get in here.’ Billy glances up from where he is sawing wood, making what looks to be another henhouse, and points matter-of-factly. Luca smiles, and the next thing, he and Giuseppe are there in amongst the long grass and wild flowers and butterflies. He picks one of the small, greenish, knobbly-skinned fruit.
‘Remember I told you when we learned to make pasta? These are here in the summer, before the fruit has ripened, before they have taken water and grown. The lemon tree fruits three times a year, which really means it has fruit and flowers on it all the year round. But often trees that are starved of water have more verdello on them.’
‘And since your father put up the price of water, the trees are starved and there are lots of these around?’
‘Exactly! They’re unripened, but they have an amazing citrus flavour.’
He looks around.
‘Here, smell.’ He makes a tiny mark in the skin of the little fruit and holds it up to me.
‘Wow!’ My nose and head are filled with the fantastic citrus fragrance. Like the most lemony smell I’ve ever smelled. He’s holding the verdello to my nose and I’m breathing in the citrus aroma and the smell of him, making me practically melt inside.
‘Maybe we should serve it at the wedding, Zeld.’ I hear Lennie behind me having the same thought I had earlier, and turn quickly away from Luca.
‘Smell this,’ I say quickly, to try and make the whole experience a little less sensual and a lot more normal.
Tabitha joins us in the lemon grove. Luca holds up the verdello for her to smell too, like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Why then did it feel so special to me?
Somehow my body just keeps turning towards him, like a magnet resetting to home . . . but I know that home is with Lennie. It will be fine once we’re married, I think. It’s just Mother Nature trying to mess with my head, wanting me to make sure I know what I’m doing, throwing temptation in my way. But I won’t be tempted.
I look out at the abandoned lemon grove.Ve-r-del-lo, I repeat to myself, replaying the image of Luca’s mouth moving. And if I’m not mistaken, there are an awful lot of verdello here. Is this what we’ve been looking for? Could this be the answer to our problems? Are the answers here, in the lemon grove? I snatch a glance at Luca, who smiles at me, and my insides melt all over again.
Chapter Twenty-eight
‘It’s gonna be a hot one,’ says Barry, back from his morning ride around the town. ‘I’ve put out some new signs for the street party. Let’s hope Matteo doesn’t try and turn these ones round. I’ve attached them to signs for the restaurant, so he’ll have a job without taking down Romano’s signs as well.’
It’s the day of the street party; just five weeks until the wedding, I think. Just as I’ve thought every morning when I’ve woken.
Everyone in the house is busy with their own jobs. Lennie has us all organised with a list, and Ralph looks to have made a spreadsheet.
‘We’ll take the barbecue into the town square,’ says Ralph, looking at the big oil drum out in the courtyard.
‘Shame we haven’t got a car,’ says Barry.
‘What about that old minibus?’ says Valerie. ‘Bet I could get that going. I spent years driving one of those.’ And the three of them go out to the open-sided barn to see if she can work her magic.
We haven’t had any Airbnb guests for weeks now, but maybe people will drive through today and see how busy the place is and want to stay on.
Barry and Ralph have cleaned down the barbecue after last night’s cookery lesson from Luca, where we tried out some traditional Sicilian street food. The chargrilled artichokes and aubergines were to die for. And then there was the masterclass in arancini. Beautiful crunchy golden balls filled with soft fluffy rice with peas, mozzarella and any other leftovers we had to hand. Luca’s going to make up a batch for Sherise to hand out outside the restaurant, while Ralph and Barry are going to be serving the barbecued vegetables. Billy is in charge of the drinks, including my new batch of limoncello. Luca told me to make it just the same as the last lot, but with verdello, and to be careful not to get any of the white pith in it. He also told me to boil up the sugar and water with a few sprigs of rosemary from the garden at Il Limoneto, for remembrance for his nonna.
Tabitha is going to photograph everything as we work so we can get a Facebook page going and tweet and encourage people to come to the town and hopefully to the Airbnb.
‘This will make a great story, how the street party brought the town back to life,’ she says. ‘I’m sure I’ll get it intoLa Dolce Vitamagazine, and who knows, maybe some of the other will take it too.’
Valerie has been making up bunting at the kitchen table every evening, which she also plans to use for the wedding, even though I keep telling her it will just be a small affair. Lennie’s going to be selling ice cream for Luca. Billy has acquired some new hens, and a cockerel was left on the doorstep. He’s selling eggs, bird boxes and chicken houses.
‘He’s always been good with his hands,’ Sherise smiles as he works away. ‘He wants to expand into benches and chairs.’
So all in all, it’s been a busy week at Il Limoneto.
