After observing little Abbey Kelly point at something on the buffet table and asking “What’s that?” quickly followed by Jake’s response of “It’s really good, you can try some of mine.” Joey pointed out the Italian delicacies, explaining what each one was to Roy, Gabe, and Jess who were near him in the line.

Lane watched Abbey.  While she was very well behaved, it wasn’t easy being the only child in the group of adults.  Lane rubbed her abdomen.  Next Thanksgiving, their baby would be nearly six months old.  She smiled thinking about the households across America who had a kids’ table set up somewhere in their houses today.  She’d never been a fan of kids’ tables and wondered how they’d fit everyone around their table in the years to come.

Dinner was peppered with toasts in English and Italian; to the health and wellbeing of family and friends; congratulations to Ben and Lane for the baby, wishes for the success of the football team in the championship game tomorrow, success of the film and safe travels for Gabe and Jess.

Just after 3:30, the landline rang and Ben went to the kitchen to answer.  Recognizing the number, he said, “Pronto!”

He carried the cordless phone back to the dining room and after putting it on speaker; he placed the phone in the middle of the table.  “Marie Terese, you’re on speaker in the middle of the table.”

“Happy Thanksgiving.”  His sister Marie Terese said to the family.

Marie Terese, Bella to the family, was a vintner at the Luciano-Bellini family vineyard in Palermo, and this year she had decided not to come home for Thanksgiving.

More Italian than English flew through the room as her parents, siblings, cousin, uncles and aunt exchanged greetings with her.

When the chatter had slowed a bit, Ben said, “Bella, Jess and her friend Gabe Greer will be landing in Rome early Tuesday.”  He looked at Jess. “They will be filming near Bologna for the next few months.  Maybe you could all get together sometime.”

“Forse, dare loro il mio numero di cellulare. Vedremo cosa siamo in grado di lavorare fuori.” Marie Terese replied.

Gabe leaned toward Jess and whispered, “You have family in Italy?”

“Ben’s sister, although I’ve never met her.  And all of his grandparents are still in Sicily.”  Jess whispered back.

Gabe spoke up, “Marie Terese, this is Gabe.  We’ll definitely get your number from Ben and give you a call.”

Jess looked at him.  She knew Gabe had grown up, the only child of two only child parents and apparently, he was totally caught up in being a member of this big family.  She was ready to wring his neck.  He kept talking about the two of them as if they were a couple or a unit and it wasn’t helping the Joey situation.  He also didn’t seem to realize that the closer he became with her family the more people who would eventually be in on his secret.  Not that any of the Parkers, Bellinis or Lucianos would ever breathe a word to anyone if they were asked not to, but then he’d owe them and he had no idea what that meant either.

Kansas City was a mob town, and everyone in town suspected the Bellinis and Lucianos were connected, but how did you explain that to someone like Gabe who had grown up in Hollywood and saw everything like it was a scene in a movie?  They had a long flight on Monday, and explaining how she got the Bellinis to buy her shoes wasn’t the only family insight she’d be sharing.

After desserts had been eaten and coffee consumed, Meg, her mother Betty, Teadora, Elena and Daniela descended on the kitchen, quickly putting the left overs into containers and washing dishes.  Mama Bellini shooed Lane out of the kitchen and suggested she might like to have a nap.

“But you’re guests.” Lane argued as Mama Bellini put her arm around Lane and walked her to the master suite.

“Basta! We’re family, and you need your rest.”  She walked Lane into the master suite, where Abbey Kelly was already asleep, and waited for Lane to lay on the bed before pulling the throw over her, leaving the room and closing the door.

Chapter 21

Most of the women were in the kitchen doing clean-up duty. Jess had taken Liza into the formal living room to talk.  Pauli, Papa, Roy, and Ben’s uncles were in the hearth room watching football.  Ben rounded up Tony, Joey, Jake, Jamie, and Gabe for a little three on three. Ben played basketball on a league every week, and while he’d played with both Jake and Jamie, he had no idea what Gabe’s abilities were except that Jamie had caught him with an elbow in the ribs yesterday.  Better to have Gabe on his own team where he could keep an eye on him.  “I’ll take Jamie and Gabe.”  He said as he tied his shoes.

They went out the patio door and headed toward the basketball court.  Ben held a quarter in his hand and looked at Tony as he flipped the coin in the air he said, “Call it.”

“Heads.” Tony said as Ben let the coin drop to the ground.

They both leaned down to look at the coin.  Ben handed Tony the ball and picked up the quarter.  Tony nodded to the goal he was claiming for his team and took the ball out of bounds at the opposite end of the court.  He tossed the ball to Joey and stepped in bounds as Ben and Jamie were doing two on one coverage, Joey bounced the ball to Jake who muscled his way to make the first three point score.

Ben took the ball out of bounds and tossed it to Jamie, who was immediately guarded by Jake.  Jamie passed the ball to Gabe, who was immediately covered by Joey.  Gabe had some fancy moves.  Probably learned them for some movie role. Joey thought as they went up under the basket.  The ball was in with a swish and the score was three to two.  Joey took it out and tossed it in to Jake.

The game continued with no steals and each basket answered by one for the other team.  Tony, Joey, and Jake were behind by one and they’d agreed to a 15-point game meaning the next team to score would win the game.  Gabe had the ball and went up for the shot.  It rolled around the rim and fell out.  Both Gabe and Joey went up for the rebound.  When they came back down, Joey had the ball and Gabe was on the ground.

Gabe shook his head and got up.  In the scramble under the hoop, both men trying to get the ball, Joey’s elbow had caught him in the nose.  It was bleeding like crazy and he was sure it was broken, but this was street ball where neither fouls nor time-outs existed.  He got up and followed the ball to the other end of the court where Joey scored the winning basket for his team.

Ben noticed Gabe who was holding his shirt to his nose and walked over to him.  “I warned you that Bellini Ball was brutal.  Are you all right?”

Gabe looked at Ben, and gave a slight nod. “I’m pretty sure it’s broken, but I’m good.”

Ben shook his head.  “Come on let’s go in and have Dr. Bellini take a look.”  He looked back to the court.  “You guys play some two on two.  We’ll be back in a bit.”

He gave Gabe a wad of paper towels and sat him at the kitchen table with his head tilted back, holding the paper towels to his nose.

“Pauli, will you step in here for a minute?”  Ben called as he opened the freezer and started rummaging for frozen vegetables.  He pulled out a bag of frozen corn and looked back to Gabe.  The bruising was already forming around his eyes.

Jess, who had been in the living room talking with Liza Conrad, heard Ben call to Pauli.  She knew that someone was hurt, so she followed Pauli into the kitchen.

Gabe tentatively moved the paper towels and looked from Pauli to Jess.  “Believe it or not this isn’t my first broken nose and it probably won’t be my last.” He turned toward Ben, “Once the bleeding stops I’ll be ready for a rematch.”

Jess walked to the table, and pushed Pauli aside.  “Greer, what happened?”

“Jess, let the doctor have a look.”  Gabe responded as he took her hand and moved her to his side.