Read Online To Catch a Leaf by Kate Collins - Free Book Online Page B

shower.”
    I glanced at Marco in bewilderment. “What?”
    â€œI think she means a shower for my relatives,” he said.
    â€œDon’t worry,” she said, “we’ll have an Irish-English shower, too.”
    That sounded like trouble. “I really think one shower would be better,” I said.
    â€œThe guests wouldn’t all fit in one room,” she said, chuckling as she wrote in her notebook. I couldn’t read her handwriting upside down, but it probably said something about me being a dunderhead, or whatever that translated to in Italian.
    â€œExactly how many guests are you talking about?” I asked, glancing from her to Marco, who merely shrugged just like his mom had.
    â€œI haven’t finished making my list,” she said, still writing.
    â€œMrs. Salvare,” I said in a pleasant voice, “I know you’re excited about our wedding, but, with all due respect, we want to keep it simple, and that means one shower, one small shower, with just close relatives and friends in attendance. Anyway, we’re not getting married until September. Why do we need to plan the shower now?”
    Francesca laughed merrily. “Bella, when you’ve thrown as many showers as I have, then you will understand. It takes time to do all the necessary work. There are the invitations to select, the menu to decide, food to prepare, cakes to bake—”
    â€œThat sounds like a wedding,” I said with a light laugh that had a desperate note in it.
    â€œWe’ll get to the wedding later,” she said. “Tomorrow during your lunch hour, we can go to the stationery store and pick out your invitations.”
    I was losing control fast. “Actually,” I said, “Marco and I can do that. You don’t need to bother with it.”
    â€œIt’s no bother,” she said, clearly amused.
    â€œBut Marco and I want to do it,” I stated.
    Francesca turned her liquid brown eyes on her son, as though to say, Is this true?
    â€œThis is more of a woman thing,” Marco said. “I don’t really need to be invol—”
    I squeezed his knee hard. “The wedding shower is for us , Marco. We need to decide. Together.”
    Francesca smiled at me. “Good. We’ll all go look for invitations tomorrow. Now for the food. Lasagna is always good for a crowd. Let me think.” She tapped the pen against her nose. “We have my side and the Salvare side . . . Twelve baking pans should do it.”
    Gert stopped by our table to ask, “Anything I can get you folks?”
    An escape hatch?

CHAPTER SIX

    I gave Marco a look that said, Speak now, buster, or forever hold your peace—and know that I will be out of here if you don’t. He gave me a nod.
    â€œMama,” Marco said, “put down your pen and listen to me. Abby and I don’t want a big wedding or big showers. We want to keep it simple.” He gazed at me. “One combined shower, right, Sunshine?”
    â€œRight.” I smiled at him. We were a team. “With no more than fifty guests, twenty-five per family.”
    â€œImpossible,” Francesca said, throwing down her pen. “Do you know how many cousins you have, Marco?”
    He turned to give me a helpless look. “Cousins, Abby.”
    â€œOkay, then, one hundred guests,” I said, wavering. How could we cut out his cousins? I picked up my burger and took a bite.
    â€œIt cannot be done,” his mom said, sitting back and crossing her arms. “Four hundred, and then it’s possible.”
    The food stuck in my throat. I grabbed my napkin to cover my mouth as I coughed.
    â€œThe alternative, Mama, is no shower,” Marco said. “Now let’s eat before our meals get cold.”
    My hero! I smiled at him and he winked back. Team Knight-Salvare was a force to be reckoned with.
    We finished our meals in record time, mostly because Francesca didn’t talk after