A little background on the Giordano family in this chapter, and the finish of the meal at the Greek restaurant.

Chapter 71.

"That was the best spanakopita I've had in a long time." Nina wiped here mouth and lifted her fork again to take her first bite of her entree. "Oh, my God! This is delicious!" After that she didn't say another word. She was too busy moaning with pleasure over each forkful. When she finally finished, she was beaming. "Thanks for bringing me here." I didn't think her eyes could shine any more, and then Niko came to collect our empty plates and they brightened considerably.

"Have you saved room for dessert?" he asked, his eyes locking with Nina's. "We have fresh baklava and melomakarona, as well as rice pudding."

"I'm stuffed!" Nina said, patting her stomach and smiling sweetly back at him.

"Aw, c'mon. Niko, bring a plate of baklava and the cookies and we'll share," Jess said. "Wait until you taste his mama's creations, Nina!"

Once he was gone, I said, "I think Nina's more interested in another of mama's creations."

"Must you always be so crude, Dr. House?"

"Just call me House. Everyone does."

"You learn to dismiss a lot of what he says. Greg likes to mess with people, shock them, even rile them up. He's just interested in what their reactions will be. It's a kind of game."

"Don't go giving away all of my secrets!"

Jess laughed. "Nina won't tell, will you?"

"Who would I tell?"

The baklava was as flaky and delicious as usual, but what really won Nina over was the rice pudding that Niko insisted on bringing her. Now to me rice pudding is rice pudding. True this was a great example of the dessert, but to listen to Nina, this was the next best thing to sex. She didn't actually say that, still I was sure sex with Niko was on her mind the entire time she was eating. I wasn't about to burst her bubble.

It was already after eight when we left the restaurant. Nina had followed us over from the condo so we walked to where the two cars were parked next to each other in the lot.

"Do you know the way to the motel?" Jess asked her sister as Nina got into her BMW.

"I have my GPS."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow at the hospital. The office where I'm working is on the fourth floor. Tell the nurse at the main desk you're looking for the diagnostic department special study and she'll direct you."

Nina hesitated briefly, lips pressed together as if she was trying to decide something. "OK. I'll see you there sometime tomorrow morning."

I didn't know whether she had any other business to do while she was here. My impression was that she'd come just to talk Jess into abandoning the foolish idea of moving to Princeton permanently.

"Goodbye, Dr. House. Thank you for a wonderful dinner." Nina held out a hand for me to shake. I stared at the well-manicured nails and the unchipped pale pink polish. Now, usually I don't shake hands with anyone, but in deference to Jess, I took her sister's hand and shook it once.

Nina finally got into her car and drove off.

"Well, I think we made some progress with her," Jess said.

"I knew your father was very controlling but I would have thought a beautiful woman like Nina would have found a man to take her away from him long ago."

"You still think she's beautiful?" Was there a hint of jealousy in Jess' voice?

I knew I should reassure her, tell her she was more beautiful, but facts were facts. "Beauty is to be looked at, admired, not loved." Had I just said that?

Jess' mouth twitched. "You were supposed to compliment me on my looks."

"I don't have to tell you that you have a pretty face and a dynamite body, or that there's a lot more to you than how you look."

She fought the smile that was threatening to cross her face, but in the end gave up and grinned at me. "Thank you."

We got into the car and drove back to the condo. I hadn't yet begun to think of it as home, but that's what it was, our home. "So what did your father argue with his aunt about?"

"What? Oh, you mean when we went to Italy." Jess paused a moment, looking out at the houses we were passing. "It was a long-standing feud between his father and the rest of the family. When his father, my grandfather, came to the States, he promised to send for his two brothers and three sisters within a year. Unfortunately it was at the start of the depression. He worked on and off and could barely feed and house himself, let alone save up to bring his family over. They resented that but there was nothing he could do.

"When Nonno had been here three years, his brother, Giovanni, came over and the first thing he did was look him up, not to see how he was doing, but to beat him up. Giovanni eventually became quite wealthy selling produce but he and my grandfather never spoke. Nonno did OK, too, but every letter he sent back home to Italy was returned unopened. And then when we went to war against Italy, well, he completely gave up on ever seeing his family again."

"Where does your father come in?"

"When my father was growing up, Nonno constantly lamented the fact that he'd completely lost touch with the family. He told Father that maybe anyone left in Italy would be more willing to talk to him. After Mother died, Father began to search for his aunts, uncle and cousins still in Italy. He finally found that his aunt still lived in the same town and, without telling her, he arranged a trip for us all to meet her and her family." Jess grimaced. "You can imagine what happened when this seemingly wealthy American family showed up on her doorstep."

"She wasn't thrilled to see you."

Jess chuckled. "That's putting it mildly. She ranted at my father for all the slights, real or imagined, that Nonno had done to her."

"But what about the brother? What was his name? Giovanni? Hadn't he helped the others."

"He was the one she should have been angry with, but she took it out on Father as Nonno's representative. The fact that none of us spoke any Italian didn't help the situation. I'm not sure the interpreter conveyed everything either my father or his aunt said. Father decided to cut the visit short and took us, instead, to Greece. Our mother's family was from Greece, but had all emigrated to the U.S. Still, it was good to see where they came from."

We'd both been so caught up in the story Jess was telling that I'd driven past the condo and had to backtrack. As we parked in the driveway of the condo and got out of the car, I realized there was a lot I still didn't know about Jess and her family. But I would have plenty of time to hear it all.

Walking in and seeing my furniture in the condo gave me a strange feeling, neither bad nor good, just strange, as if some parts of my world were changing and some remaining the same. It was true. That was what was happening. It didn't upset me as it might have a year or so before. Instead, it felt like a natural progression, one I could handle, especially with Jess at my side.

I must have stood there staring into the living room because Jess asked, "What are you thinking?"

I looked at her questioning eyes. "I think we should move the table that's next to the couch, maybe closer to the window."

"But you always had it next to the couch."

"So? A person can change."