Don't Say A Word by Barbara Freethy Page B

their aunt Lucia to take some appetizers out to the living room, which she did reluctantly. Gino surprised Julia by pulling her into one of the bedrooms off the hall.
        "Is something wrong?" she asked him.
        "I know you went to the storage locker yesterday," Gino said, concern drawing lines around his eyes and mouth. "1 didn't get a chance to ask you why."
        Julia didn't want to tell him that he'd had the chance; he'd just been too hungover to take it. But she didn't have the energy to deal with his drinking today. For the moment he was sober, and he was waiting for an answer. She wasn't sure what to say. Her decision to leave the past alone began to waver. Maybe if she asked just one question or two…
        "I was hoping to find something in Mom's belongings about the first couple years of my life," she said, not wanting Gino to think she was looking for her real father. That wasn't the case, and she didn't want to hurt him. He'd been the only father she'd ever known, and he'd been a good one. Even without the words, though, she saw shadows fill his eyes.
        "Your mother wondered if the day would come when you would ask questions she didn't want to answer."
        "You talked about it?" Julia asked in surprise.
        "Yes, of course."
        "What did she tell you?"
        "Very little, I'm afraid. She said it was too painful to discuss."
        "That's what she told me, too. But I feel a bit lost without any…"-she searched for the right words- "any photos of myself as a baby, or knowledge of not only who my biological father was, but who my grandparents were. I don't know where my mother grew up or anything about her life before you and me. I don't know what she looked like when she was a young girl. And I find myself really wanting to know." "Because she's gone, and it's too late to ask her," Gino said with a touch of insight that she thought he'd lost in the past few months when he'd dulled his brain with alcohol.
        "Maybe that's true," she said, deciding not to tell him about the photo for now. "Do you know anything about her life before she met you, or before she had me?"
        He thought for a moment. "Let's see. I must know something."
        "That's what I thought, too, but then I realized I didn't know much."
        Gino frowned, his eyes reflective. "I know Sarah went to college at Northwestern near Chicago. She said she lived over a coffee shop on University Avenue. That's when she picked up her caffeine habit. She mentioned something about a roommate named…" He pursed his lips as he thought. "What was her name? Jackie. Yes, I think it was Jackie."
        "I thought she went to college in New York," Julia said in surprise. "The only thing she ever told me about her past was that she was born in Buffalo and lived in upstate New York most of her life. She said she came to California after college to visit a friend and never went home." | "I don't believe it was after college but much later. Sarah mentioned that she came here for a friend's wedding when you were three years old. She loved it so much she never left. And she said you did much better in the California climate. Something about allergies."
        "I don't have allergies."
        "I guess they improved when you got here."
        "I thought I was born in Berkeley. She said we lived in Berkeley." Julia shook her head in confusion. Why were such simple facts so convoluted?
        "You were living in Berkeley when I met you," Gino said. "That's true."
        But how long had they been in Berkeley? Her mother had married Gino when Julia was four and a half years old. "Tell me again about your first meeting," she said, knowing the story, but wondering if she'd missed something in the details.
        "Sarah brought you into the restaurant. She had met Lucia at a fabric store, in some workshop on draperies or something. They both loved to sew. Lucia told her about the restaurant, so Sarah