Page 48 of Too Fast To Fall
Just then, the front door opened and out stepped a woman who bore only a slight resemblance to Emilio. Emilio’s grandmotherwasn’t what Piper had imagined, dressed in a gauzy white peasant top with black embroidery and a pair of wide-leg jeans. Herdark hair fell past her shoulders with a striking and very chic gray streak on one side. Her bare feet were tan, with an edgydark purple on her toenails. Piper loved her style.
Although it was hard to study when Gus was practically licking her to death.
“Gus! No!” Emilio yelled.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Emilio’s grandmother said. “Te amo, Gus. I love you, too.”
Gus calmed down, but his tail was going fifty miles an hour.
“I’m sorry. He still acts like a puppy sometimes,” Emilio said.
“Milio,” she said, stepping down to the bottom step of the short staircase. “Finally, you are here, and we can have a cocktail.”
“It’s not even lunchtime.” Emilio kissed her cheek.
“But we have a guest. And guests are always more fun if we have a cocktail.”
Piper approached, already enamored. “Hi. I’m Piper.”
“Piper, this is my abuela, Ximena,” Emilio said.
She smiled warmly. “Call me Mama Ximena.”
“It’s so nice to meet you, Mama Ximena.”
“Your pronunciation is quite good,” she replied.
“Four years of high school Spanish. I can ask where the bathroom is, and the library, but I’m afraid that’s about it.”
Ximena brushed it aside with a wave of her hand. “No worries. My husband and I were both academics. My English is top-notch.”She looked at Emilio with nothing less than pure love in her eyes. “Come. Upstairs. I have your rooms ready.”
Emilio grabbed their suitcases, and he and Piper followed through a grand central hall with dark wide-plank wood floors andwood beams overhead. Colorful artwork hung from the walls.
Piper walked slowly, admiring them. “These paintings are unbelievable. So beautiful.”
“Abuela was an art history professor. She’s met many famous artists over the years.”
“I thought you said she had a winery and grew olives.”
Ximena smiled. “That’s just the property’s way of paying its way.”
Upstairs, Ximena led them to two doors at the very end of the hall. “Milio, you are in your usual room. Piper, you are acrossthe hall.”
“Where’s Mom staying?”
“She’s not coming. She and Rico are having a little getaway.”
“Rico? Who’s Rico?”
Surprise crossed Ximena’s face. “You don’t know?”
Emilio looked at Piper like she might know something, but she was just as much in the dark as he was. “No. I do not.”
“Well, I suppose you could call him her boyfriend. She hasn’t told me much, and I haven’t met him. I do know he’s much youngerthan her.”
Emilio just shook his head, but Piper thought she could see trails of steam coming out of his ears. “The divorce isn’t evenfinal.”
Ximena put her arm around Emilio. “I think you need to be a little easier on your mother. She’s trying to find herself. Afteryears of being a wife and your mother, she has a whole new identity. She’s a single woman and nearly sixty. That’s not easy.”
