Liam scanned her in the dress. “I can take you into town. The fabric maker DiCenzo has a daughter who’s very talented with needle and thread.”
“She may be talented, but I’m a genius,” Athena boasted. “I could alter your mother’s things or make a whole new wardrobe of them if I wanted-” she seemed to catch herself, wincing as if sensing an error.
“Scuse, I meant no disrespect.”
“I didn’t take it as any. I could use a new wardrobe myself. I should bring you some of DiCenzo’s fabric for myself.”
“You should. It’s the least I could do.”
“Athena, I didn’t mean it that way,” he sighed, looking around. “And you didn’t have to clean, cook or anything else.”
Athena looked around, suddenly self-conscious. “Did I offend you?”
“Not at all,” Liam observed the brilliant transition of his residence. “Thank you, this was too much.”
“It wasn’t enough,” she retorted softly.
“So did you have any trouble today?” he asked.
“No, actually I spent some time in your garden.”
That made him laugh. “The only thing growing there now are weeds. Afraid I don’t have my mother’s talent for it.”
Athena laughed too. “It’s a woman’s skill. You should leave it to me.”
The implications of her words sent another wave of silence through the room.
“I hope you’re hungry,” she said after another few moments.
Liam inhaled. “Hungry or not, no one could resist whatever makes that smell.”
“Then sit,” she gave an encouraging clap and turned to the stove.
Liam did so, smiling anew as he caught the scent of lemon wafting from the wood. “Did you clean the table?”
Her smile seemed to waver. “Well I found a furniture polish under the sink so...” with a quick shrug, she fixed on dipping out the food and bringing over the serving dishes.
Liam’s eyes followed her every move. He didn’t realize he was smiling until she mentioned it.
“What you did here...the house hasn’t felt...alive since the night before my parents...” he laughed then as if he were trying to vault himself from some depressed state. “We used to call my big brother Giaimo la grande pietra.”
She laughed. “The great stone? Why?”
“He only had to enter a room to turn it from the dullest, stillest place to a place full of life-like a stone causing water to ripple,” he eyed her softly. “You seem to have that talent,” he said.
Athena brought the last of the dishes to the table. “Why didn’t you go with your brothers when they went to avenge your parents?”
Liam studied the shine on the table. “You think me weak for it?”
“No Liam, I-I apologize for prying.”
“You haven’t.”
“I don’t think you’re weak. I never could. No one’s ever stood up to my father the way you did.”
“I didn’t go with my brothers because I didn’t think our parents would’ve wanted murder committed in their names.”
“But didn’t the murderers bring this on themselves?” Athena finished setting out the dishes.
“Perhaps,” Liam considered, “it was a long time before my brothers found them or any clue to their identities. Many innocents lost their lives. Some my brothers killed because they assumed they were lying. The ones who gave them clues, lost their lives because they knew the culprits. It was a mad time that turned my brothers into killers and my family name into one that fills people with dread when they hear it.”
“I’m so sorry, Liam,” Athena paused while dipping his plate and looked encouraged when he returned her smile. She loaded one plate with a sizable portion of the wheat noodles and smothered it with the vegetable sauce she had slow cooked.
“Is that why you’re here alone? Are women too afraid to come to the home of Liam Tesano on their own?”
“Perhaps,” he chuckled, reached for the wine. Checking the label, he smiled.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she’d noticed his reaction to the bottle. “I found the bottles on the pantry floor when I cleaned. They were already cooled by the day’s chill, so I thought...why not?”
“No, it’s fine. I’d forgotten I had them.”
Athena’s brows raised as if she were in a state of disbelief. “It’s a good vintage. A treat like that wouldn’t last a day in my home-let alone be forgotten. What a quiet life you lead, Mr. Tesano. No worries, no wine, no warmth. Is that how you’d like to live out the rest of your days?”
Liam removed the bottle cork. “It’ll do until there’s a good reason to change it,” he gestured with the wine. “This is a good start.”
Athena passed Liam his plate and then prepared her own. “How long do you think a complete change will take?”
Liam raised a brow that time. “Not as long as I thought it would.”
