Free Love Letters from Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball Page A

And I checked with the Department of Agriculture—shrimp are definitely a local product.
     
     
    XO
    Catherine
     
     
    P.S. Bringing the whole crew out Saturday for a tasting; I know you’ll come up with a fabulous array of dishes!
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: Menu
     
     
    Bridget—
     
     
    Yes, I can eat eggs. I CAN eat anything I want. I just don’t CARE for shrimp. So take them off the menu, OKAY?
     
     
    Traci
     
     
     
    TO: [email protected]
    CC: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: Menu #5
     
     
    How about this?
    Crispy asparagus with pecorino
    Mini beef Wellington
    Caramelized onion and black olive tart
    Local-caught Cajun catfish with remoulade dipping sauce
    Of course we’ll have a fruit and cheese station and a selection of fresh-baked breads and muffins, along with a dessert bar, as we agreed. Let me know your thoughts.
     
     
    Bridget
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: RE: Menu # 5
     
     
    don’t know, dear. Catfish? Seems a bit pedestrian, don’t you think? And the entire menu looks somewhat lean to me. Could we have more variety? And what about the vegetarians?
     
     
    XOXOXO
    Cat
     
     
     
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: RE: Menu #5
     
     
    I want an ice cream bar.
     
     
     
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: Ice Cream
     
    In June? Outdoors?
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: RE: RE: Photographs from Home
     
     
    Dearest Lori,
     
     
    Your photographs make my day wonderfully! How beautiful you are! Every time I look at a picture of you I think, This woman, how can she be so perfect? Your hair is like painted by Titian, your face a Raphael masterpiece. But this you know already. And your mama, clearly she is an angel to have given you to the world.
    Lori, you will come to my village and you will see the sun that rises over the hills and how it spills its gold over the ground so thick you think you can pick it up in your hands. We will lie on the ground together, you and I, and we will lose ourselves in the stars that cover my sky You will know why poets and artists for centuries have found their muse in Italia, because here is where love lives.
    It required me some time to determine what is “egghead” and so I asked my American friend in history of literature class who tells me I should know because I am one. This is because am perfect in the philosophy exam. I hope this will not make you love me less? I am very happy to be perfect! Being perfect means I will acquire my degree in only six months and then I well leave Milano and return to the hills I love. You will know this feeling, Lori, this aching of the heart, this sickness of the spirit, this longing to be home. Being perfect is also wearing.
    I will tell my mama to find the number of your telephone in the States, and ring up you to say I am her son and this is our home and I am yes, as you say, very cute. I also have four aunts and a grandmother and fourteen cousins, although three of them are too young to write, should you require further references.
    I, also, spend too much time on the e-mail since I have come to know you.
     
     
    Un bacion, mi amore—
    Sergio
     
     
     
    TO: [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT: RE: RE: Photographs from Home
     
     
    Dear Sergio,
     
     
    You make my day wonderfully, too. I’ve read your e-mail like twenty times. I still can’t believe you’re real.
     
     
    Love,
    Lori
     
     
     
    TO : [email protected]
    FROM: [email protected]
    SUBJECT : Contract
     
     
    Cici,
     
     
    Darling, just one more little change to the contract and I think we’ll be fine. Instead of “not to exceed” 50 guests I wrote in “a minimum of”—just in case someone brings a date and takes us over the number. I know it’s just a