Page 196 of Cara & Gian: The Guzzi Duet

“Good God, be careful, Claud!” Daniele leaned over the railing, shaking her head. “You’re going to throw out your back again, you stubborn mule.”

“I could have gotten the landlord’s son to help bring the box up,” Cara said, two steps above her aunt.

“Will you donnas shut up? Knock it off,” Claud barked down below in the stairwell. “It is one goddamn set of stairs and a crib. I can handle this.”

Daniele sighed. “I see an emergency room visit in our near future.”

“Oh, just go get the apartment door open!”

“Fine, throw your back out! I don’t care.”

Daniele cared, Cara knew.

Even as her aunt stalked down the hallway, huffing, she still looked back over her shoulder with concern to see if her husband was coming. Cara leaned over the railing to see her uncle scratching at his jaw while he stared at the crib.

“I’ll get the landlord’s son to come help,” she told her uncle.

“I had a son to help, but where is he now, Cara?”

She only stared at her uncle, unsure of how to answer that. She had no idea where Constantino was. There had been no funeral, no memorial, or anything to suggest he was dead, yet her uncle spoke like Constantino was buried somewhere, or dead in a ditch.

“So, do you want me to get you help, or not?” she asked.

“Not, girl. Not.”

“Zia was right, you are a stubborn mule.”

“She only uses that word because she’s too polite to call me an ass!” Claud shouted as Cara followed the path her aunt had taken.

“I’m not too polite, you fucking ass.”

She was grateful that her aunt and uncle had been sweet enough to pick out a nursery set for her, as once she was no longer able to hide the fact she was pregnant, they were the first people she had told. She had told her brother second.

A whole lot of questions followed, from both ends. To be fair, Tommas asked a whole lot less questions than her aunt and uncle. Questions about the father, or the fact she was just a few months off graduating. That led them into the fact the baby would come soon after, or shortly before, graduation. Then, even more questions about the baby’s father.

Cara supposed the questions were normal, given her circumstance. She chose not to answer specific ones, while she gave vague answers for others.

She rubbed a hand over her twenty-eight-week pregnancy swell to soothe the jabbing elbows of her unborn son driving into her organs. Inside her apartment, Cara found her aunt moving a few pieces of small furniture out of the hallway to make it easier to get the crib inside what had been Lea’s bedroom.

Cara finally got around to cleaning it all out.

She had a reason to now, after all.

“The rest of the nursery set will be delivered,” Daniele said, “so at least for the rest of the furniture, you won’t need someone to carry it in.”

Cara agreed. “Thanks for all of this, Zia.”

“No need to thank me, Cara. You work hard and I know you’ll be a good mother, so you deserve all the help and whatever else you can get, believe me.” Daniele went back to her work, randomly asking, “Of course, you could get lots of help by way of the baby’s father.”

Cara side-eyed her aunt, trying not to be too rude when she replied, “Zia, I am sure he will help, but right now, I am handling this on my own. And I am okay with that, as I have told you many times. The father is my business. Please respect that.”

“I worry about you, Cara, that’s all.”

“I’m perfectly fine, Zia.”

“Yes, yes, I know. You keep saying that.” Daniele waved a hand at her. “Go check on your uncle, and make sure he hasn’t had a heart attack in the stairwell.”

Cara set her purse and phone on the couch, before going to do as her aunt wanted. Just as she reached the end of the hallway, Claud was finally pulling the large crib box through the stairwell door.