Children of the Sea 02 - Sea Fever

asparagus wrapped in proscuitto. “I can come by the shop later to talk. Thursday?” Thursdays she worked from lunch until close.
    “Thursday morning?”
     
    Jane beamed, relieved and triumphant. “Thursday morning, sure.”
     
    “Is that all you came in for?” Antonia asked.
     
    “Yes.” Jane’s gaze flickered to Margred; lingered on her belly. “And to see the bride, of course.”
     
    “Well, you’ve seen her. Now we can all get back to work. Real work,” Antonia added as Jane sailed out the door. “Not wasting time and money on Frank Ivey’s birthday party.”
     
    36
    “It’s not a waste,” Regina argued. “We can do this. We should do this.”
     
    “We don’t have the staff,” Antonia said.
     
    It was an old argument, one that started the headache behind Regina’s eyes. They alternated shifts now, mornings and evenings, both of them on during the lunch and dinner hours and Margred filling in as needed. “So we hire—”
     
    “Who?” Antonia demanded. “Anybody around here wants to pick up extra cash, they get it working the stern on a lobster boat, not scrubbing pots or serving fancy appetizers.”
     
    “I’m just saying if we developed a catering business— just as a sideline—”
     
    “We’re doing fine without it.”
     
    “We could do better.”
     
    Catering would give her a shot at an expanded menu and more flexible hours. But what Regina saw as an opportunity, her mother saw as a rejection of everything she’d worked for.
     
    “So now you have a problem with the way I’m running the restaurant?”
     
    Regina’s head pulsed. “No, Ma. It’s business.”
     
    “It’s bullshit. Jane only came in here because she wanted to get a good look at Maggie.”
     
    Regina pressed her fingers to her temples. “What the hell are you talking about?”
     
    “I’m only telling you what everybody’s saying.”
     
    “What are they saying?” Margred asked.
     
    “You got married in an awful hurry. Could be—” Antonia paused uncharacteristically before plunging on. “Some folks figure you must be pregnant.”
     
    37
     
    “Ma!” Regina protested. Instinctively, she looked for Nick, but he was upstairs in the apartment they had shared since she brought him home over seven years ago: four small rooms with mice in the walls and the smell of garlic and red sauce rising from the kitchen below.
     
    “What?” Antonia folded her arms across her chest. “Some people find out they’re expecting, they actually marry their baby’s father.”
     
    Oh, God. Regina’s stomach flipped. Like this day didn’t suck enough already. Her mother couldn’t be content with control of the restaurant, she wanted to run Regina’s life as well.
     
    “That doesn’t always work out, Ma.”
     
    Antonia glared. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
     
    Margred had abandoned wiping tables to listen.
     
    “You married Dad,” Regina said. “How many years did he stick around? Two? Three?”
     
    “At least you got your father’s name.”
     
    “And that’s all I got. You did everything. Paid for everything. He never even sent child support.”
     
    “Oh, and you did so much better with the Greedy Gourmet.”
     
    Frustration closed Regina’s throat. She had never been able to talk with her mother. They were like oil and vinegar, too different to ever really understand one another.
     
    Or maybe they were too much alike.
     
    “I wasn’t—” She worried the crucifix around her neck, running it back and forth along the chain. “I’m trying to tell you I appreciate—”
     
    “He loved us. Your father. Not everybody is suited for island life, you know.”
     
    38
    “I know. Jesus.” Did they have to exhume every skeleton in the family closet just because Jane Ivey liked Regina’s crab cakes better than her mother’s lasagna? “I’d leave myself if I could.”
     
    The words hung on the air, thick as the grease smell from the fryer.
    The hurt on Antonia’s face registered like a slap.
     
    Regina bit her tongue. Crap.
     
    “I am not pregnant,” Margred said.
     
    Antonia rounded on her. “What?”
     
    “You wanted to know. I would like a baby. But I am not pregnant yet.”
     
    “You want a baby?” Regina repeated. Remembering her own pregnancy with Nick, when she was sick all the time and tired and alone.
    “You just got married.”
     
    Antonia snorted. “Married, hell. They only met six weeks ago.”
     
    Margred arched her eyebrows. “I was