Beauty Expos Are Murder Read online

  “But why didn’t you tell me? I thought she was dead.”

  Gia looked surprised. “Why did you think she was dead?”

  “I asked you if you were married and you said no.”

  “I said she was gone. I didn’t say she was dead.”

  “All this time I thought you were a widower. You sure flirt like a single man.”

  A crinkle of amusement crossed Gia’s face. “I do not know what that means, but every moment with you was real. I love you. I’ve loved you from the very beginning. I should have told you I was trying to find Alex to get divorced, but I did not want to scare you away. I keep finding ways to be with you, but Tim is always close behind. If you were happy with Tim, I would walk away, but I see your heart in your eyes when you look at me, and I know Tim is not the one.” Gia tentatively offered me his hand, waiting to see if I would take it.

  I shook my head. “I’m still angry. And hurt. And honestly, I don’t know who to believe.”

  Gia closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “After all this time . . . you still do not know me?”

  “I thought I did, and then your wife introduced herself. And what about Henry? I love him like he was my own. Where does he think his mother has been this whole time? What’s best for him? Maybe he needs this relationship with his mother more than he needs me in his life.”

  Gia shook his head. “There are so many reasons why I know that is not true. Alex could have come home anytime if she wanted a relationship with Henry. She has only come because Zio Alfio gave her divorce papers.”

  “Did she sign them?”

  Gia rubbed his cheek and his hand bristled against the stubble. He looked weary. “No.”

  “Then why is she here?”

  He sighed. “She says she wants another chance. She is ready to be a family.”

  I felt hollow. Like someone had scooped me out and left my empty shell on this bench. No sadness. No anger. Just shutting down.

  Gia put his hand on my back. “Bella, I am telling you. It is a lie. I do not know what she is up to yet, but I will find out. I promise you, she will not get between us.”

  She’s already between us. “What if she’s really changed?”

  Gia took my hand and brought it up to his lips. “There is no room in my heart for two. I was alone for so long. You are my only love, and nothing will change that. I waited for you; I will not let you go. No matter how long it takes for you to trust me again.”

  He kissed my fingers. “Please, mi amore.”

  I gave Gia some side eye.

  “Do not listen to anything Alex tells you. She spins lies like a web. She cannot be trusted.”

  CHAPTER 2

  I promised Gia I would think about what he’d said. I couldn’t bear the awkward walk back to the coffee shop to get my car and I wasn’t ready to face Aunt Ginny and the biddies. Not after that big pep talk they’d all given me just a couple of hours ago. This is the lamest love affair ever.

  I didn’t want to face my friends either. Why was I humiliated and ashamed? It’s not like I had a secret wife I’d neglected to mention. Even if she’d run off and disappeared for four and a half years, I would still have had the courtesy to mention it. Oh, by the way, still married. Thought you should know in case she ever pops ’round for a hello.

  Maybe I was being too hard on Gia. He’d been looking for Alex to get a divorce for months. I’d been stringing along two men because I couldn’t get up the courage to tell one of them I didn’t think it would work between us. I walked a block down the boardwalk to Convention Hall. A workman was out front hanging a poster advertising the Spring into Beauty Expo coming in April.

  He looked over his shoulder and caught me reading the description. “Ey, make sure yooze get your ticket a-sap. This one’s gonna be uuge.”

  “What’s so special about it?”

  “They got a famous doctor coming in to do the BOTOX and day-boo some fancy new contraption that’s being hailed as the beauty breakthrough of the century. The hens inside are all a twitter about it. He was on Good Morning America.”

  “And he’s coming here Easter weekend instead of the middle of the summer? You’d think he’d go to New York or Atlantic City to draw a bigger crowd.”

  He closed the glass door on the display case. “Alls I know is, the county is over the moon that they got a big name like Dr. Lance Rubin to do a show at Convention Hall. Plus, they get to show the new building off. They’re making a whole shebang outta the deal. Gonna set up booths selling juices and vitamins and stuff.” He locked the glass cabinet and gave me a raised hand in farewell and went back in through the double doors.

  I bet Karla would love this . . . Karla . . . pssh. I faced into the wind and started my march of grievances. Gia’s gorgeous sister. She knew about Alex the whole time and kept snickering behind my back like it was some hilarious joke. What kind of woman does that to another? What about girl code? Don’t they have that in Italy? I don’t care how long you’ve been in America, you need to learn proper relationship etiquette. At the very least her mother should have taught it to her. What am I thinking? Her mother probably dated Mussolini.

  I jolted to a stop in front of the five-story, red-and-white Sea Mist Resort, the tallest of the painted ladies on the strip. Momma . . . pssh. Gia’s very religious Italian mother who doesn’t believe in divorce. No wonder she hates me. She thinks I’m here to lead her little prince into a life of adultery and depravity. How ’bout a heads-up, Momma! What’s Italian for “adultery”? To be fair, she might have told me. I only understand a small fraction of what she says. I can tell that it’s mean, then I tune her out.

  My shame and humiliation were being whipped back into anger. I could just strangle Gia for putting me through this. How could I ever trust him again? If Alex is telling the truth, I’m the world’s biggest idiot. I steamed down the boardwalk like the Flying Scotsman, alternating between wanting to console Gia and wanting to choke him out.

  I marched on, and when I finally looked up from my furious ramble, I was standing in front of the site that used to belong to the Christian Admiral Hotel. It had been beautiful and charming, but was sadly demolished anyway for being old, broken-down, and high maintenance. My thoughts mysteriously turned to Aunt Ginny, and I wanted to cry. What would I say when I had to face her?

  I was so angry I could have walked all the way to the Coast Guard base, but the sun would be going down soon and when my fury wore off the ocean breeze would turn frigid. Part of me wanted to feel the pain so I could dwarf this hollow unrest that was rolling around my insides. I turned and started the slog back home.

  The screen door banged against the frame behind me when I entered the house. Aunt Ginny came around the corner with the usual mischief in her eyes. “What are you doing home already? Well, how’d it go? Come on, I want details. What’s the matter?”

  I went into the library and threw a couple logs in the fireplace. “Did everyone go home?”

  Aunt Ginny reached over and turned on a hurricane lamp. “Victory finished for the day and everyone expected you wouldn’t return until late, so . . . Why do you look like you’ve been crying?”

  I lit the fire and stood back to make sure it caught before I sat down. Aunt Ginny silently sat across from me and waited.

  “Gia’s married.”

  No expression crossed her face. Then she leaped off the couch and flew out the front door before I could stop her. A minute later, her vintage red Corvette backed out of the driveway.

  Hmm. I should probably do something about that. Maybe warn Gia that Aunt Ginny is coming in hot. I spotted a People magazine on the coffee table and picked it up. I turned to the story about Dolly Parton and her libraries that was listed on the cover. I really like Dolly. She’s classy.

  About an hour later, I heard the Corvette run over our trash cans and knock my pot of pansies off the block by the walkway. Aunt Ginny banged in through the front door and slammed it behind her.

  I put the magazine down
and Aunt Ginny flopped back in her spot on the chair.

  We looked at each other and didn’t speak. She finally asked me, “Is it too late to pick Tim?”

  I nodded. “I would feel slimy. I chose Gia because I love him, flaws and all. I just didn’t know those flaws were gonna be wearing four-inch stilettos. And if it’s not going to work out between us, I’d rather be alone than with someone who’s not right for me.”

  Figaro peeked halfway around the corner before entering the room. He trotted over to the couch and jumped into my lap to begin taking a very inconvenient bath. I tried to pet him, and he swatted me. Apparently, this was not cuddle time.

  “I knew in my heart things weren’t clicking with Tim. We’d changed too much. I just couldn’t face turning him down again.”

  Aunt Ginny sat forward on her chair. “I believe Gia that he wasn’t trying to deceive you. Some men are just pigheaded like that. They think they need to protect women from the harsh realities of life in the name of chivalry. Idiots. They are the harsh realities of life. What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. I still love Gia, but I don’t know if I can ever trust him again. Then there’s Alexandra.”

  Aunt Ginny sat back and crossed her legs. “Yep. She’ll be in your life as long as Henry is. But there’s something phony about her. I don’t trust her.”

  “She was still there?”

  Aunt Ginny nodded. “With the mother and some old man who pinched my bottom.”

  “That would be Uncle Alfio.”

  “Whatever his name is, he’s on to the girl, I’ll tell you that. He was not buying her poor little victim act. Neither is Gia’s sister. I think the only one on that girl’s side is the mother.”

  “Oliva Larusso’s a pretty big ally.”

  Aunt Ginny shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think Gia adores you and if push came to shove, he’d shove the old battle-ax right out of the picture.”

  I’d had a long time to think while I raged down the boardwalk and back. And I knew the thorn that was twisting in my heart. “If I fight for Gia, am I being selfish? Maybe this is Henry’s chance to get to know his mother. I don’t want to break up a family.”

  Aunt Ginny gave me a long look. “What are you, some kind of nut? That isn’t a family. And from what Gia said, it never was. As far as I’m concerned, you’d be saving Henry.”

  “I just know how I would feel if someone tried to keep me from my child. Alex says she wants another chance. While I know she was trying to manipulate me, I think I need to get out of the way and let the two of them work it out before I get involved. If she wants to reconnect her family, I won’t stop her.”

  Aunt Ginny puffed out her cheeks and blew a raspberry. “She wants something—that much is true.”

  “But what could it be, and why now? Why has she come back after all this time?”

  “Don’t you worry, honey. The biddies are on this. We’ll find out.”

  CHAPTER 3

  The next morning I fed Figaro his tuna sardine surprise, made blueberry cheesecake French toast for the weekend guests we had staying at the B&B, then left to meet Sawyer at the Starbucks in Rio Grande before my current chambermaid, Victory, could do anything to make me crazy.

  I fought my way through the packed room of uniformed Coast Guard cadets celebrating their weekend shore leave with venti Frappuccinos and free Wi-Fi and found Sawyer crammed at a table in the back corner. On my way past the long, polished wood bar, the barista—a boy who looked about twelve years old with a shock of purple hair—called out, “Venti Caramel Macchiato for Swanson and split-shot raspberry white mocha for Potsie.”

  Sawyer threw her arms out frantically and shouted for me to grab the coffees. “That’s us! Get them; I can’t leave the table.”

  Three women in spandex workout wear who were either coming from, going to, or just fantasizing about doing Pilates immediately made a move toward Sawyer and tried to hijack the table.

  Sawyer was tall and thin, but she was scrappy. She lay her chest down and spread her arms out to cover all four corners of the little table. “No! My friend is right there. We’re staying.”

  I grabbed the drinks and pushed through the women. “I just got out of urgent care. The doctor says I’m contagious until this scabby rash clears up.” The women twisted away like a Cirque du Soleil act. I giggled and handed Sawyer her Macchiato. “Here you go, Swanson.”

  “I’m sorry about that. I spelled ‘Poppy’ three times.”

  I shrugged and sucked the whipped cream through the tiny mouth hole. “Last time they spelled it ‘Poopy’ so, Potsie’s a step up.”

  “I was surprised you wanted milk since you won’t be able to breathe in about twenty minutes.”

  “Breathing’s overrated.” I took a slow sip of the creamy, sweet deliciousness and imagined a workman in my head changing the sign—Days on Diet Without Cheating: back to zero.

  Sawyer leaned across the table and gave me a huge grin. “So. How’d Gia take it?”

  I gave her a slow eye roll. “Have you ever heard of someone named Alexandra?”

  Sawyer blinked a couple of times and furrowed her brow. “Uh . . . no, doesn’t sound familiar. Who is it?”

  “Gia’s wife.”

  Sawyer slapped the table. “His wife!”

  The room went silent for only a moment. This was South Jersey. Furious outbursts were a way of life. I took a sip of my drink and nodded slowly.

  She had some choice words that I’d been thinking myself. “I’ve known Gia since he opened La Dolce Vita and I’ve never heard him mention a woman.”

  “Well, you had to know there was someone. Henry’s only four.”

  Sawyer shook her head and shrugged one shoulder to her ear. “I thought his mother had died. Gia doesn’t wear a ring, and you never see Henry with a woman other than Gia’s mother or sister.”

  “So, I take it an ex-wife was never brought up in the conversation?”

  “When Gia moved to Cape May I was having problems with Kurt cheating on me, so I wasn’t very social, and Gia kept to himself. I could see him sometimes walking Henry up and down the mall, trying to get him to sleep. For a while I thought Karla was his wife, then Louise at the bath shop told me she was his sister. She said there was no wife. So, if Gia has a wife, where’s he been keeping her?”

  “She says Gia kidnapped Henry and disappeared while she had postpartum depression.”

  Sawyer’s eyes narrowed and she cocked her head to the side. “Don’t kidnappers go on the run and change their names so they can’t be tracked? Gia opened a coffee shop fifty feet away from his mother’s restaurant. His picture is on the website. How did it take her so long to find him? And why haven’t the police been after him? It’s not like he fled the country.”

  I’d been so shell-shocked that I hadn’t thought of any of those things. I shrugged.

  “What does Gia say happened?”

  “He says Alex ran off with another man right after Henry was born because she didn’t want to be a wife and mother.”

  Sawyer’s face was a combination of shock and outrage. “Why is this coming out now? Did he tell you he couldn’t commit to you? What happened when you went over there?”

  “Well, first he kissed me, and I almost lost consciousness. Then his wife introduced herself.”

  Sawyer slammed her cup down and foam shot out of the lid and landed on my nose. “She was there?! Start from the beginning!”

  I wiped my nose off and filled her in on my introduction to the other woman, realized I was the other woman, and had to take a minute to inject myself with raspberry and white chocolate to regroup. Then I told her about Alex’s warning and the conversation on the boardwalk.

  She kept her mouth shut with a steady intake of Caramel Macchiato and her venti was gone by the time I finished my tale of woe. “So, Alex said Gia kidnapped her baby, disappeared, she hasn’t seen him in four and a half years, he’s dangerous, but she wants to reconcile, to be a family now.”
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  “That’s about it.”

  “If that were all true, then why does she want him? She should call the cops, give him the divorce, and get on with her life.”

  “Aunt Ginny said the same thing.”

  Sawyer spun her lid on the polished espresso wood table while she thought. “Gia’s been an anchor of this community since he moved down from Philly. With all the gossip in this town, I’ve never heard a bad thing said about him. In fact, the only rumor I’ve ever heard is that he’s gay, but that’s because he’s turned down every woman who’s tried to catch him. I think you should give him the benefit of the doubt. Why did you pick Gia over Tim?”

  I dug deep into my heart for the answer. “Because he’s the kindest, most patient man I’ve ever met. We talk about everything . . . except his marital status . . . I thought we talked about everything. I love how he is with Henry and how he makes me feel when we’re together. No matter what skinny thing throws herself at him, I feel like he’s only interested in me. I’ve never felt this way before.”

  “Mm-hmm, and why didn’t you pick Tim?”

  “I fell in love with Tim when I was fifteen. All these years I held on to that, feeling like I missed out on being with my soul mate. And being back here with him, I thought we would pick up where we left off. But I didn’t realize how much I’d changed in twenty-five years. While Tim stayed on the same path, I’ve lived a whole ’nother life. Every trial I’ve been through, every pain, every scar, every choice has changed me a little. Tim thinks we’re both just older versions of our high school selves, but I’m not. I don’t even recognize that person anymore.”

  Sawyer tried to tap the caramel out of the bottom of her cup. “I think you romanticized your relationship with Tim into being more magical than it was. I mean, the reality is, there were a lot of problems that first time around. If he was the love of your life, you would have fought to stay together. There’s no way you would have gone to college five hundred miles away from him. You’d have followed him to the ends of the earth, even if it meant working in some sketchy diner while he went to cooking school just to be together. And he sure didn’t put up a fight to hold on to you.”