Can't Hurry Love by Christie Ridgway Read Free Book Online Page A

adjacent to the winery’s reception area. Have you looked for it there?”
    Giuliana sent Grace a grateful look as Allie’s attention shifted. “You’re right. I remember I took it off when I washed my hands.” As she turned, she called over her shoulder, “Don’t let Stevie say anything until I get back.”
    “Stevie?”
    “She told Penn and I to meet her here,” her younger sister said.
    “But . . . why?”
    Nobody had the answer, it seemed, and there was no time for speculation. In a few short minutes, Allie was back, standing beside Penn, happy to be reunited with her heirloom. Then Stevie walked into the room with Jack, their hands entwined.
    If you asked Giuliana, it was the middle Baci sister that everyone should be worried about. Her usually sun-kissed complexion was pale and she was casting nervous looks around the room. “You’re all here,” she said.
    Grace put down her dust cloth. “This looks like a private—”
    “No.” Stevie waved off the concern. “Stay. It’s time I told everyone.” Then her gaze found Giuliana’s. “It’s time I told you.”
    It’s time I told you. Giuliana froze, those words sinking like stones into her consciousness. Her mind moved back in time. Instead of the winery’s tasting room, she was in her parents’ bedroom, sitting on her parents’ bed, her mother’s hand thin and cold in hers. Elena Baci had been propped up by pillows and covered by a quilted cotton throw stained by the strawberry jam that Stevie had spilled that morning when she’d delivered a breakfast tray. As Elena traced it, Giuliana saw that it was shaped like a ragged heart. You’ll have to take good care of your sisters for me, she’d said to her oldest daughter . Don’t worry, you’ll be a wonderful mother.
    It was a chilly sixty degrees in the wine caves, but she hadn’t noticed the cold while scrubbing the refrigerator. Now it seeped into the pores of her skin and slowed the flow of the blood through her veins. Only her belly burned as she pulled away from the past and stared at her middle sister. Oh, God, she thought, her mouth soundlessly repeating the words. I can’t lose anyone else.
    Stevie cleared her throat. “I have some news.”
    Jack slipped his arm around his wife. Giuliana didn’t look at him, afraid what she might see on his face. She averted her gaze from everyone, her eyes on the rubber of her thongs and the dusting of reddish Baci dirt that stuck to them, just like the old pain and sadness had adhered to the surface of her heart.
    “Jules,” Stevie said. “Look at me.”
    She obeyed her sister, even as she remembered. Jules , her mother had said. I’m dying.
    Her sister smiled. “I’m going to have a baby.”
    Giuliana’s cold skin flooded with heat. Her head spun. Black dots swam into her vision.
    She saw Stevie start forward. “Are you okay?”
    That question! “Of course . . .” She wasn’t, she realized, as arms closed around her and the room went dark.

4

    Frustration rose within Kohl Friday, enough that he would have thrown a punch if there was a convenient target. But he was standing in the Tanti Baci tasting room, with its bottles of wine, rows of glassware, and decanters of olive oil. As much as he wanted to vent, he wouldn’t take pleasure in the mess he’d make.
    And then there was Grace Hatch. He wouldn’t take pleasure in scaring her, either.
    He strode over to pick up the sponge that Giuliana had been using to clean the refrigerator before she’d gone into a near-faint and been carried off by her family. And Liam.
    Yeah. Liam. Warm water dribbled down Kohl’s wrist as he squeezed the sodden material in his hand—his action a pitiful substitute for the strangling his temper called for. He glared at the fridge’s white interior walls as if they were the cause of his piss-poor mood.
    “I can finish that up,” Grace said.
    He switched his stare to her. She was gazing at him out of big, wary eyes. Their blue was almost startling, a