Always by Celia Juliano Read Free Book Online Page A

as if he wanted to shake her. His work–worn hands were rough on her skin.
    “Have you forgotten? We both signed that document.” He pushed his hands away, flinging out in frustration.
    “Forget? Like I could forget seeing you with that bitch Carolina.” Gina fisted her hands, like she had when she’d seen her father and Carolina all over each other ten years ago.
    “Don’t talk like that. I’m still your father—“
    All the rage she’d felt that day came back to her. Her face heated, her breathing felt ragged. “I wasn’t going to say anything. But what kind of father makes his teenage daughter sign a legal document swearing her to secrecy about his affair? What kind of corrupt people make a girl do that?” The DeGrazias, that’s who. Her own father. She’d been in the middle of her own high-school drama. Adding her father’s had only confused her more.
    “I had to sign it, Gina. Damn DeGrazias.”
    “You’re the one who had an affair with her! I should tell Mom and everyone. Not that I believe for a second all the DeGrazias don’t know it.”
    “Carolina and her husband were too smart to let everyone find out. Your mother knows I had an affair. Just not who with. She forgave me.”
    “You make me sick.” She made herself ill too, with the choices she’d made. And her mother was weak, in her own way, for taking Dad back. “You all do.” Gina waved her hands and shoved at the doors.
    “You stay quiet,” her dad said as she ran out.
    She pulled open the front door, grabbing her purse off the hook. She couldn’t be around anyone right now. She had to calm down. Why was she even here? Let the DeGrazias take what was left of her family—why should she care? She’d had her own life for years now, hardly ever came home. She shook her head while she walked up the block. When she got angry like this, she didn’t think clearly. Drawing in some deep breaths, she began to cool, her hands relaxing.
    She reached the top of the block and turned. The city streets and buildings undulated on every side of her. The bay stretched, calm and blue, in the distance. Trees, lining the street, budded in pinks and whites, promised the coming spring. Cars, people, buses, yellow taxis sped through the crisscrossed thoroughfares.
    She stretched her arms out wide before she let them fall to her sides. Home—this city was home. She loved it, it was in her blood. The scent of the pavement after a rain, the competing smells of the local restaurants and bakeries, the whir of the buses, the chatter of tourists and locals, the quiet of a Sunday morning walk, peeking in the back door of the shop, listening, sniffing the almond-y, coffee-infused air, seeing her father behind the counter, sneaking an extra cookie to old Cap.
    Gina closed her eyes and hugged her arms to her stomach. Her dad had been her hero. When she was a little girl, he used to put her up on that old crate behind the cash register with a flourish, trusting her to ring up customers, showing her how to brighten someone’s day with a smile, a free cookie, a kind word. And then, one day, in a flash, it was destroyed, that bright picture. There had been signs, of course. But, as in her life since, she’d ignored them, wanted to believe men, people, had to be better than that. But they weren’t. She wasn’t. She’d wanted to believe life was miraculous, people helped each other. But that was her grandmother’s world, warm and inclusive. Gina’s world was cold and lonely.
    D’Angelo’s Market—her grandparents’ shop—belonged to her and her brother Michael, by all rights. Grandpa Frank and Grandma Celeste used to tell her and Michael so when they’d sit on the couch together looking at old family photo albums. Gina wasn’t going to let the DeGrazias, or her father, take that from her. She might be lost, but she knew the value of her grandfather’s legacy. It might be the thing to redeem her, to bring her back to the world of her childhood, and the