Here's part two! Thanks for being patient.
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A few days later Momma was out of the hospital and we all made the trip to New York for Nonno’s funeral. Even Sean had come along for support.

The funeral was awful. It was hard to remember that my grandfather had gone on to a better place when everyone around me was grieving.



The worst part was seeing how torn up Nonna was. The person she’d spent the last 50 years of her life with was gone. Nonno hadn’t been ill beforehand, so they’d never even had a warning. Despite her grief, she was ever the gracious hostess. She was constantly sharing happy memories and stories with distant relatives and several people I’d never met before. I had to wait until after the service to give her a warm hug.



After talking to Nonna for a few minutes I looked around the funeral parlor for my girls. I spotted them in the back of the room talking to a familiar looking couple. I couldn’t believe my eyes, Kelli and Damion had come!



I rushed over to my old friends and Kelli quickly embraced me.

“Kat, I’m so sorry,” Kelli said.



“Thanks Kelli. How’d you guys even know about this?” I asked.

“We saw his obituary in the paper yesterday and I knew you’d be here. I just had to come see how you’re doing.”

“I’m okay. It’s getting better every day for us. We’ll miss him, but he led a full, long life that we’re thankful for.”

“Aw Kat, you’re taking this so well. And look at you! You’ve lost weight. You look great, girl!”

I blushed, and turned the attention off myself. “You look great too, I like the hair.”

“Hey, hun, look who’s here.” Damion interrupted, motioning toward Sean who was now talking to Nonna.



“Wow. He looks good,” Kelli said. “I’m glad he’s here for you Kat.”

Most of the guests were gone now. Just the family and close friends were sticking around to go to the burial site. I invited Kelli and Damion to come and they agreed.

I excused myself to go grab my things, and they headed over to Momma to offer her a ride to the cemetery that was only a few blocks away.

“Katarina.” Nonna said, sneaking up on me.

“Hey Nonna, how are you holding up?”

“Oh, I’m getting by. That friend of yours was really a pleasure to talk to. Did you know he’s just been to Africa?”

I chuckled. “Yes, I know.”

“He was telling me about the funeral traditions of the village he stayed at, and it was quite fascinating. He really is a charming boy. You know Kat, I am so glad you’ve found someone who makes you happy.”

“Um, Nonna… it’s not that way between me and Sean.” I said, looking at my hands.



“Hmm.” Her eyebrows pulled together as she looked at me in confusion. “Well honey, that’s too bad. I hope it’s not because he isn’t Italian. He’s a good boy, that one.”

It was my turn to be surprised. “But I thought you always so big on dating within my heritage.”

“I do believe it’s important, but I think I was too hard on you when you were younger. I hate that your grandfather and I pushed you and Emilio together. He was clearly an idiota.”

“Yes… he was.” I couldn’t help smiling at the insult to my ex-husband.

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An hour later we were all at the cemetery, staring at the fresh grave of my grandfather. The children were bored, and the adults were exhausted. It had been a long day and no one was looking forward to the long drive home. I was taking one last look at the gravesite before heading over to Nonna’s house for dinner. Sean reached over and squeezed my hands. It was time to go.



We headed toward the gate to say goodbye to the few stragglers, but Kelli was waiting there to talk to me.

I could tell I wasn’t going to like her topic of conversation by the way her eyes sparkled. She was literally bubbling over with excited. As soon as I within arm’s length she burst out in a hushed whisper, “Kat, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you guys were back together!”

I stared at her in shock, totally embarrassed, and threw a desperate look at Sean. He was smirking.



“N-n-no. We’re not a couple.” I didn’t mean to belittle Sean, but I couldn’t think of a way to put it gently.

Realization dawned on Kelli’s face and she looked like a kid who’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Um, I think I see Damion… over there,” Sean said, clearing his throat. He looked embarrassed and a little hurt as he walked away.

“Kat, I’m so sorry. You guys looked so couply and I just assumed…”



“It’s not your fault. I know how it must appear. It’s the way he looks at me, right?” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Hmm, actually, I was going to say it’s the way YOU look at HIM.”



“Oh, and what way is that?” I said defensively. I SO did not look at him in any way.

She giggled. “Like you want to have his babies!”

“Shut up Kelli! You’re being so immature. Besides, I already have my own babies.”

“Yeah, but not HIS. And you know he’d make a great father. I saw him playing with Gabriella today and she was having the time of her life.”

“No, no, no. End of story. It… just can’t be the way it used to be,” I insisted.



“Why not?”

“Um…” I struggled to find the right words. It felt like I’d been repeating myself a lot lately and I was starting to get tired of the same argument.

“You’re at different points in your lives now than you were in high school. Maybe the timing wasn’t right before, but if it’s meant to be it’ll happen.”



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The rest of the day passed by in a blur. I was too tired to make small talk with everyone at Nonna’s house. Her friends and neighbors had been bringing over casseroles and an assortment of pies for the past week and there was so much food in her house that we had to eat outside.

After fixing a plate for me and the girls, the three of us passed out in my old guest room. I woke up in the back of my minivan 3 hours later, leaning against Sean’s chest with Izzy curled up in my lap. Gabby was sprawled out across the very back seat and Sophia was driving. I found it strange that she was driving my van. She hated this huge thing and hated that it wasn’t pink like her little sports car.

Pete must have been driving his car with Patrick and Momma in tow. The last thing I saw before my eyes closed again was the super sized cup of coffee Sophia had jammed into the cup-holder.

I awoke again when Sophia announced to all of us sleepyheads that we were only a few blocks from the house. Pete would be behind us in a few minutes because he’d stopped at the pharmacy down the street to refill Momma’s prescription painkillers.

I was ready to fall into bed, but of course that wasn’t going to happen. The answering machine on the houseline was beeping, an annoying sound that went off every 5 minutes when there was a new message on it. Reluctantly, I walked over and pushed the ‘Play’ button. Bad idea. Very bad idea. The three of us stared at the machine in horror as a familiar voice hissed forth.



”Hello. Um… This is Emilio. I’m calling for Katarina. I hope I have the right number. Anyway, Kat, I heard about your grandfather and wanted to come see you at the funeral, but I didn’t think that would be a good idea. I’m sorry about him. Also… I… uh, I was wondering how you and our girls are doing. I’m going to be down there next month and was hoping I could stop by. Give me a call, Kat. 555-1324. Um, talk to you later… maybe.” *BEEP*

And then I was falling… too exhausted to make sense of anything else today.