Page 34 of Until Now
“She could be with Lee. She could—”
“Do you want that for her? Bri, Lee is my son, and I love him, but we both know he and Nina were never going to last.”
“A merge—”
“Can you not think about the money for one second?” Karol sighed. Eileen told me Karol hadn’t realized Mother was still pushing the idea of me dating Lee — she can’t let the idea of the merge go. Merging the Madigan company underneath Villa Inc. is one more thing to generate what seemed to be an endless stream of income for the matriarch, and she doesn’t see that happening unless I marry Lee. “Your daughter was hurt tremendously by what Lee did. You should be happy that she found someone who seems to care about her.” Eileen said Mother didn’t give up though. She made it clear — she does not like Nick.
And now, Eileen is worried about Lee trying to weasel his way into my relationship.
“No!” I sip my champagne. Of course, I’m not letting him get in the way. There is nothing to get in the way of. I just need to get through the next few weeks and everything can go back to normal. The more I think about it, I’m not sure I want to go back to “normal.” After getting to know him, I’m not sure if I can let Nick just walk away.
“Nina.”
“I’m doing my best! I hoped having Nick here would make it easier. And it has, some, but Lee doesn’t make it very easy.”
“Do not let him ruin this for you.”
“Non sono sicuro che ci sia molto da rovinare.”
“What’s going on Nin?”
I sigh. Keeping this secret has turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. I can tell Eileen, right? Eileen will understand. She won’t judge. I watch the bubbles rise in my glass and feel my nerves do the same.
“Look, you don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want. But, when you’re ready, I’m here.”
“There is something I need to tell you.”
Chapter Twenty
Nick
I can hardlyenjoy our day on the green. I keep waiting for Kai to bring up my birthday, but so far, he’s made no indication of knowing. Nina kept her promise — I made her swear not to tell the others. I have a sneaky suspicion they will make it a bigger deal than is necessary and I don’t want that. I am perfectly fine treating it like a normal day. I haven’t celebrated my birthday since Mom passed. Birthdays were always her specialty — big parties with her homemade red velvet cake and Pop’s secret recipe hamburgers. It just isn’t the same without her.
Mom passed away six years ago after battling brain cancer. When she was first diagnosed, she kept it from me and Alex until she weighed out her options. She could go through multiple surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy with no guaranteed outcome — she had been told the surgeon would never be able to get all of the tumor out, and chemo and radiation wouldn’t stop it, only slow down the inevitable. Doctors gave her one year to live if she refused treatments.
Mom decided to take her chances. The night after she had decided to refuse treatments, she told us everything.
“Why are you refusing treatment?” Alex yelled. He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t at least try to fight it. He looked to me for help, but I had nothing to offer. What was I supposed to say? It was her decision to make, as much as I hated it. “Get a second opinion!”
“I did. It’s not going to stop it, Alex.” She maintained a calm demeanor, just like she always did. “It would only prolong the inevitable.”
To the surprise of her doctors, and us, Mom lived for another four years. Long enough to see me graduate high school and go to college and see Alex get accepted into Boston College. She suffered a lot in those four years. Headaches. Nausea. Mood swings. Memory loss. Trouble speaking. Trouble walking. Through it all, she always did her best to hide it from us, but it got harder as time went on.
Pop later told me about the day before she passed. She woke up without any pain. No nausea. She remembered everything vividly. It was one of the best days she had in over nine months. That day, he closed up shop early and took her to dinner at her favorite restaurant. They made love for the first time in almost a year. That night, she kissed Pop goodnight and fell into an eternal sleep. There was something different in the air the next morning. When I saw my brother’s name on my phone, I already knew what happened.
“One under,” Kai says, stuffing his club into the bag on the back of the golf cart. “You good, man?”
“Yeah,” it wasn’t convincing. “Yeah, just tired, I guess.”
“My sister keeping you up too late?” Kai wiggles his eyes suggestively as he waves over the beer girl. I set up to finish the eighth hole. "How are things going with you guys, anyway?”
I put the ball into the hole, two under. “Fine, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Your sister is…complicated and that makes us complicated.” We laugh and Kai hands me a fresh beer. “Hey, how long did it take you to speak Italian?”
“I can’t speak it, actually. I can understand, for the most part, put the pieces together, but I don’t speak it. Nonna taught Nin what she knew and Dad taught her the rest. His dad was from Italy, so he made sure Dad and Uncle Drew knew the language. It didn’t stick for me, but Nin picked it up right away. It gave them something special the rest of us didn’t have.”