Chapter 27

The Lucky Bets jet was a 14 passenger Gulf Stream and although the flight to St. Louis would only take about an hour, Ben was glad that the 12 passengers making the trip could spread out and get comfortable. He guided Lane and Evie to four seats facing each other across a table and invited Sal to join them.  Ben had invited Sal to the game so that they could discuss the trial that was starting Monday during the short flight.  Once they were in the air, he and Sal could slip away and talk.

Joey spoke briefly with the pilot before sitting in a four-seat grouping toward the front of the plane.  Dante, Teadora, and Pauli Bellini took seats near Joey leaving Jess, Gabe, Jake, and Meg together near the aft.

Everyone settled in quickly and conversations began.  Earlier in the day, Lane had told Evie about the plans she and Ben had made to fly to Chicago.  She hadn’t told her children anything except that she and Ben were going away for a quick mini weekend.  It was still Phillip’s job to tell his children he was getting married, but it was her responsibility to tell Phillip about Jamie’s paternity. Now, Lane talked with Evie about the plans she and Ben had made, where they were spending the night, other plans they had for the trip.

Ben held Lane’s hand and as the plane taxied for take-off, he lifted it to his lips.  Evie looked on approvingly.  Ben obviously loved the woman she had come to think of not only as her friend, but also as her daughter.  As the plane leveled out at cruising altitude, Ben gave Lane’s hand a gentle squeeze.

“I’m going to the galley.  Would you like a bottle of water?  I might be able to manage a cup of hot tea if you’d rather.”

She smiled at Ben as he stood.  “Water will be fine.”

Ben looked at Sal and Evie, “Would you like water or can I get something else for you, maybe a glass of wine?”

Evie asked for water and Sal asked for wine.  As Ben entered the galley, Joey and Gabe joined him.  He still wasn’t sure how their détente had come about or how long it might last, but the two of them seemed to be fine as Joey took and filled drink orders for all of his guests.  Gabe grabbed the four bottles of water and delivered them to Lane, Evie, and Jess leaving a bottle on his seat before returning to get sodas for Meg and Jake; he got wine, which he delivered, to Sal, Dante, and Teadora before returning to his seat.

Ben returned to his seat and checked on Lane before looking at Sal and inclining his head toward the sofa across the aisle from the ladies.  Ben leaned down and kissed the top of Lane’s head before he and Sal moved across the aisle.  Lane smiled; the truth was that Sal and Ben would most likely carry on their conversation about the trial in hushed Italian, not because they didn’t want anyone to know what they were discussing, after all, there were five other Italian speakers on the plane.  They’d speak in hushed tones because it was about the trial and in Italian out of habit.

Evie was reading quietly as Lane leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes.  She’d felt worn out most of the time during this pregnancy and while Dr. Sennette had said the fatigue should begin to subside soon, Lane was beginning to have her doubts.  She felt a blanket, as it was gently placed over her, and she opened her eyes.  She was surprised to see Jess tucking the blanket around her.

“I’m awake.”

“Are you really all right?”  Jess had never seen her mother so tired.

“I’m fine, just tired, and as I keep saying, the Doctor assured us that I’ll have more energy soon, since I’m moving into my second trimester.”  She laughed. “I’m so tired of being tired.”

Jess reached over and took her mother’s hand, “So, you and Ben are going to get away for an overnight trip.  Where are you going?”

Lane knew that of her three children, Jess’s relationship with Phillip had always been the most fragile.  Yet, she was determined that she wasn’t going to breathe a word of Phillip’s wedding plans.  Fragile relationship with his daughter or not, it was Phillip’s responsibility to break the news to the kids.

“Just a quick overnight together in Chicago.  You know we haven’t had much time alone.”  It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either.

Jess was sure there was something her mother wasn’t telling her, but she was willing to let it go. “Not since your wedding night, I guess.”

Lane gave Jess’s hand a little squeeze, “You know we’ll be back Sunday evening.  You don’t leave until Monday morning, and I had planned to take the morning off to take you to the airport, so we’ll still have some time to say goodbye.  Do you have any idea about your plans for Christmas and New Year’s Eve? Will you have a chance to come home I mean?”

Jess shook her head, “We’ll have a better idea once we start filming.  She smiled at Lane. “You’ll know almost as soon as I do.”

He may have been discussing trial strategy with his uncle, but Ben’s eyes rarely left his wife.

Sal reached over and patted Ben’s shoulder, “Nipote, rilassarsi, L'angelo è bello.”

Sal had been a widower for more than 35 years.  His wife, Guilia, had died in childbirth along with the baby girl she had struggled to bring into the world.  Sal had been in his early thirties when his wife and daughter died and while he’d dated many women since, he’d never remarried always believing that Guilia had been the love of his life.

Evie Parker looked up from her e-reader and glanced across the aisle at the two men sitting on the sofa.  She hadn’t heard so much Italian spoken since her childhood.  Evie had grown up in the large Italian-American community in Omaha.  Her maiden name had been DiGiacomo and her father, who had emigrated from Sicily in the 20’s, had been active in the Sons of Italy.  Their home was full of Italian-American men, women, and children where Italian voices lilted through the air so much that English seemed like the foreign language.  However, her father had died when she was ten and two years later, her mother remarried a man who wasn’t Italian.  He had insisted that only English or Czech was spoken in their home.  At the time, it had been an adjustment, and in the years since, she thought she’d forgotten every word of Italian.  Now with the Bellini and Luciano families who spoke Italian as much as they spoke English surrounding her, it was coming back.  Sal had said “Relax, nephew, the Angel is fine.”  She smiled; it felt like home.  Lane and Ben had been asking her to move to Kansas and somehow, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea any more.

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Gabe, who seemed to watch everyone on the plane as though he were observing a scene in a movie while waiting for the director to call “cut,” sat with Meg and Jake.  He was holding the script for Harts in Time, making notes in the margins as he read.  He caught snippets of whispered Italian conversations from around the plane.  The Bellini twins sat with their parents, Dante and Teadora, talking about the football game and who, how, what, and when they had learned that Jamie Parker was Ben’s biological son. Sal Luciano and Ben Bellini were sitting on the sofa talking in quiet tones about jury selection and strategy for the trial Ben was starting Monday. His friend, Jess Parker, sat with her mother and grandmother.  She was talking with her mother about plans for the Christmas holidays.  He closed his copy of the script and stood, stretching by bending back and then forward touching his toes.  He’d grown up an only child in Los Angeles with both of his parents in the film industry.   This extended family of Jess Parker’s was all new to him and he was surprised at how attached to them he had become in the past few days.  He bent to his left and then to his right before straightening and walking to where Jess sat.

Gabe flashed his movie star smile, “You ladies doing alright?  Can I get anyone a refill?”