BELIEVE LIKE A CHILD (Home Street Home Series Book 1)
BELIEVE LIKE A CHILD: Chapter 66

The following Saturday night, Remo took Alessa and Lucy to see his parents, supposedly to celebrate their engagement. Patrick and Hannah were excited for their son. Remo’s father was excited for them all. Hannah, though, while excited about the wedding, was not necessarily enthused by her son’s choice of bride. When she shared her cynical opinion of Alessa with her husband, he warned her that if she continued down this path, she would lose her son forever. Hannah didn’t care what Patrick thought. She was convinced that Alessa was not the right girl for Remo. She suspected that by latching on to her son, the girl had found herself a free meal ticket. She believed Alessa came with too much baggage and that their relationship would be harmful to Remo eventually. The thought of the young woman giving her a grandchild made her cringe with disgust.

Hannah carelessly overlooked the fact that Remo had never been happy until he met Alessa. If she had been honest with herself, Hannah would have acknowledged that Alessa had brought something different, something better into Remo’s life.

Hannah and Patrick were in the kitchen when the three arrived. Hannah rushed over to hug Remo. She turned to Lucy next, as the child held up her hand to show off the ring Remo had given her. Finally, she turned to Alessa, who put on her brightest smile and humbly greeted Hannah.

“Let me see the ring,” Hannah said rather assertively.

She was surprised at the size and clarity of the diamond and knew that Remo had paid a lot of money for the ring, a fact that annoyed her deeply. She was against her son spending his hard-earned money on a girl who didn’t deserve him.

“How big is the diamond?” Hannah asked.

Alessa was ignorant of and oblivious to these details. She turned to look at Remo in bewilderment.

“It’s a carat,” he said nonchalantly.

Hannah turned to him. “Well, it’s beautiful. The clarity of the diamond is terrific. You must have paid a lot of money for it. Do you think that was necessary?”

Remo stiffened from the blow. “It doesn’t matter how much money it cost, Mom,” he said, trying to sound unruffled. “The jeweler said it was a pretty clear diamond, and the price was reasonable.”

As Patrick watched the exchange, tension tightened in his gut. He could see Alessa visibly recoiling from the verbal attack, her arms crossed over her chest, her shoulders slumped, and her eyes fixed on the floor. Alessa appeared as though she wanted to shrivel up and die. But Patrick knew Alessa was the real thing. When his wife had asked her about the size of the diamond, Alessa’s face went blank, as if the question was asked in a foreign language she didn’t understand. Patrick knew Alessa couldn’t have cared less had Remo bought her a diamond chip instead. It was all the same to her. She wasn’t worried about the size of the ring. She was marrying their son because she loved him.

Unlike Hannah, Patrick acknowledged the change in Remo over the past year since he met Alessa. His son had grown and matured to make him proud. He had bought a house to help get homeless people off the streets and accepted Lucy as his flesh and blood. Patrick wondered why Hannah had become so bitter.

Remo was an adopted son. When Patrick and Hannah knew for certain that they couldn’t have children of their own, it was Hannah who had convinced him they should adopt. She had taught Remo to treat everyone equally, regardless of the person’s background. She would say, “We’re all people and we should always help each other. Some people are less fortunate than others, but we all have feelings, just the same.”

Patrick missed the old Hannah. He felt sorry for Alessa now, as she stood awkwardly, waiting for the topic of conversation to change.

“As Remo said,” Patrick intervened, “who cares how much he paid for the ring? When you’re in love, it’s worth every cent.”

As Alessa’s embarrassment slowly turned to anger, her face flushed. She wished the conversation would end. Hannah had told Remo she wasn’t worth giving an expensive ring to, hadn’t she? Alessa made a mental note: the first log of poop eaten. Let’s see how many I can swallow tonight before I hurl.

Throughout dinner, father and son did most of the talking.

Finally, Hannah butted in. “Enough about hockey and the Flyers. Can we talk about the wedding now?”

Remo looked over at Alessa and noted that her eyes were locked down on her plate as if she hadn’t heard a word his mother had uttered. “Mom,” he said, “we’re thinking about something really small. We decided we’d have you and Dad, Alessa’s sister, Rosabella, Ebby, and a couple of our friends. And we don’t plan to wait a long time either. We thought we would get married in September.”

“I picked September because that’s my birthday month, and they thought it was a great idea,” Lucy said proudly.

Patrick patted Lucy’s hand. “You know,” he said with a wide grin, “I always thought September was a good month for weddings, but now that I know Lucy was born in September, I think it’s a perfect month,” he said with enthusiasm.

Unable to hide her agitation, Hannah pushed her plate away. As Hannah spoke, she waved the fork she still held in her hand. “What’s the rush? September is only two months away. Remo, I plan to have a few more guests at the wedding, other than the ones you mentioned. Dad and I would like to invite some of our friends. I thought we could have it here in the backyard.”

Remo looked at Alessa for some sign of approval. She didn’t want him to be torn between his mother and her. She only wanted him to be happy. She could see how desperately he was trying to achieve a balance between his feelings for her and his devotion to his mother. He so obviously wanted to please them both. Alessa couldn’t have cared less if there was a wedding. She would have been as happy to go to a justice of the peace and have a private celebration afterward. This ongoing battle wasn’t important to her.

“Hannah,” she said, “we didn’t give it that much thought, to be honest. If you’d like something here, I think that would be very nice.”

Hannah wore her victory smile as she turned to Remo. “I’ll do everything, son. You won’t have to worry about a thing.”

“That’s great, Mom. Thanks,” he replied, retreating from the earlier debate with relief. “Can you make sure Alessa has a say in whatever is planned since it’s her wedding, too?”

Hannah’s lips drew together in a tight line as if she were a child refusing to eat her food. “Of course I will,” she told him. “She will need to pick the colors, and we can work together on a menu.”

Patrick watched his wife. He could tell she was happy because she was getting her way. But it hadn’t escaped him that Alessa had surrendered to her future mother-in-law for the sake of maintaining peace, a fact that didn’t appear to bother his wife. He knew Alessa had Remo’s best interests at heart. It didn’t surprise him that the girl had no passion for the things so important to Hannah. Patrick felt that Alessa was a good person, despite her sordid past, someone his son was lucky to have found.

As Hannah and Remo discussed the guest list, Patrick leaned over and nudged Alessa with his elbow. Surprised, but glad to have her future father-in-law’s support, she knew she had made the right decision. Her spirits instantly lifted. Catching the silent and barely noticeable exchange between his father and Alessa, Remo was reassured that things would be fine.

Lucy broke into Alessa’s thoughts by scooting up close. “Alessa, can our color for the wedding be purple?” she asked.

Alessa laughed. “Of course, Luce,” she replied, beaming. “Purple is our favorite color.”

Lucy smiled back. “Yeah. Okay, we’re good now.”