Big Daddy Sinatra_Bringing Down the Hammer Read online

  Charles sat at the head of the long table, with his legs crossed, as Jenay danced with Donald, and Tommy’s wife Grace danced with Tony, and Reno danced with his own wife Trina. Hammer and Mick sat with Charles at the table, with each man drinking and laughing and enjoying the view.

  As usual when they all got together, the wives sat together and laughed as if they’d won the lottery. Charles used to wonder if they were plotting against their husbands with all of that giggling and whispering. He even asked Jenay once.

  “Oh, yeah,” Jenay told him. “We’re plotting against the men who love us and takes care of us and gives us a life we couldn’t have dreamed about. Oh, yeah, that’s what we’re doing. Plotting and scheming. We’re stupid like that. Oh, yeah!”

  It took him several minutes of agony to realize she was joking. And he knew not to ask it again.

  Reno’s wife Trina was there, and she looked simply radiant, Charles thought. So did Tommy’s wife Grace, and Sal’s wife Gemma. Mick’s wife Roz was there, too. She was an actress and owned a talent agency. She was like the celebrity in the family so the younger ladies, like Ashley and Carly and Mick’s daughter Gloria, along with Amelia, naturally gravitated to her. And she seemed to love it. And love them!

  Even the kids were having fun playing dodge ball, although Reno’s boy Dommi had to be warned twice by his father to stop hitting the kids so hard with the ball. He had some of those poor children running for their lives. Some were crying. But Dommi was having a ball.

  But even the kids, for the most part, were having fun too.

  The women who showed up with the younger guys, however, were another story. Mick’s Joey and Reno’s Jimmy and Donald brought dates to the barbecue, but they didn’t seem to be paying them much attention. They were too busy shooting hoops on the basketball court, while the ladies stood around and watched. Bored to tears. But that was young guys for you, Charles said as he shook his head.

  “Hey, Mick,” Charles asked when he realized they were missing somebody significant, “where’s Ted?”

  “He had to work,” Mick replied.

  “You work him to hard,” Hammer said.

  “No such thing,” Charles and Mick said together, and Hammer laughed.

  “I was hoping to meet this girlfriend of his you keep going on and on about,” Charles said.

  But Mick was surprised. “Who goes on and on about her?” he asked.

  “You!” both Charles and Hammer said together. “And I mean all the time,” Charles added.

  Mick smiled.

  Charles looked at him. “But she’s that special, hun?”

  Mick nodded. “I think so, yeah.”

  “But does Teddy think so?” Charles asked. “That’s the million-dollar question.”

  “He’d better,” Mick responded. “Girls like her don’t grow on trees.” Then he added. “I pray he thinks so,” he said.

  Charles knew how much Mick wanted Teddy to find a good woman like they’d found. Charles wanted it for all his children too. Unfortunately, only Brent had that special someone. Tony might have found a good woman, but he couldn’t be sure. Sharon was hardly ever around anymore. But Charles was pulling for them. He knew Tony was pulling too.

  Later that evening, Tommy came out onto the patio. Charles didn’t realize he had gone into the house. “What’s up, Tom?” he said as he approached.

  “Can I see you inside for a minute, Unc?” Tommy asked.

  Charles looked at him. He was relaxed and didn’t want to move. “What about?” he asked him.

  Tommy went to him and whispered in his ear. Charles looked at him. “You’re shitting me,” he said.

  “I shit you not,” Tommy said with a smile. “It’s true.”

  Charles stood up quickly. He looked around, and then found who he was looking for. “Hey, Jenay!” he called out. “Millie!” He knew they would get a kick out of it.

  When both women looked at him, he waved them over.

  Tommy leaned down to Hammer. “You’re needed, too, Hammer,” he said.

  Hammer didn’t know what he was needed for, but he stood up, too, and Charles and Jenay, along with Hammer and Amelia, began following Tommy toward the entrance.

  But then Charles looked back, saw Mick, and then he remembered. “You come, too, Michello,” he said.

  Mick didn’t particularly want to come, too, but he got up anyway. Going to see whatever it was they were going to see would at least be interesting, he felt. So he followed them inside.

  Interesting was an understatement when they entered the living room of Charles and Jenay’s newly repaired home and saw who they considered to be American royalty in their living room: Dutch and Gina Harber.

  Everybody, except for Charles, and Tommy who told him, were shocked. Jenay and Amelia were floored.

  “Mrs. Harber,” Jenay said when she saw Gina. “I don’t believe it!”

  “Neither do I,” said Amelia. She looked even more starstruck than Jenay.

  Dutch smiled. “I see you know my wife,” he said as they happily made their way toward the couple.

  “Know her?” Jenay said. “I feel as if I’ve known her all my life!”

  “Ah, you’re so sweet,” Gina said smilingly, and she and Jenay hugged vigorously. Then Amelia hugged her too.

  While the ladies were hugging and introducing themselves to the former first lady, Tommy turned to Dutch. “You remember my uncle,” he said.

  “Of course,” Dutch said as he and Charles shook hands. “Very good to see you again, sir.”

  “How are you?”

  “Very well. Thank you.”

  “I want you to meet my brother Mick,” Charles said proudly as he moved back and pushed Mick forward. Mick wasn’t allowed at the White House due to his background, but nobody was denying him, or ignoring him, at Charles’s house.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mick,” Dutch said, shaking Mick’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you, too,” Mick responded. He’d never admit it, but it was quite the honor to shake the hand of a politician he actually admired.

  “I hope you don’t have a problem with my brother,” Charles said, “or we’ll have a problem.”

  Dutch smiled. “No worries. I’ve been known to have a little gangster in me, too, once upon a time,” he said.

  “A little?” Gina asked. “They used to call him Dutch Corleone when we lived in the White House,” she said, and they all laughed.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said, shaking Mick’s hand.

  “It’s an honor to meet you, ma’am,” Mick said, shaking hers.

  “And Charles, is it?” Gina asked as she and Charles shook hands.

  “Yes ma’am,” Charles replied. “You’re an inspiration, ma’am.”

  Gina beamed. “You’re most kind. Thank you! And, of course, everybody knows Hammer,” she said with a smile. And she and Hammer hugged.

  “How have you been, Gina?” Hammer asked.

  “Better than you,” Gina said. “My goodness.”

  “Yes, it’s been a ride,” Hammer said.

  “Who do we have here?” Dutch asked, looking at Amelia.

  Hammer placed his arm around her. “This is Amelia, Dutch,” he said. That dubious woman, as Dutch had once called her.

  “Hello, Amelia,” Dutch said. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Amelia said.

  “That’s why I dropped by, Hammer,” Dutch said. “The government can’t officially give the two of you an apology. But I can. What happened to you, Amelia, was wrong and unjust. And I apologize for that.”

  Amelia was surprised. She’d never expected that. Hammer either.

  “And that warrant that was issued against you, Hammer,” Dutch continued, “where you were wrongfully accused of treason, has been lifted.”

  “Thank God!” Amelia said.

  “Although there should never have been a warrant in the first place,” Charles said.

  “Correct,” Dutch said. “And I offer
my sincerest apologies,” he added, to Hammer.

  Hammer nodded. His eyes appeared strained, but Amelia knew he was just fighting back his emotions. “Thank you,” he said.

  “Furthermore,” Dutch said, “General Krane, the head of the CIA, and Pete Nousin, who runs the FBI, have both been indicted on serious corruption charges.”

  Hammer and Amelia looked at each other. They were stunned. They were all stunned. “Indicted?” Hammer asked.

  “So they won’t be bothering you, or your family, anymore,” Dutch added.

  Hammer smiled. “That’s great news, sir.”

  “Yes, it is,” said Jenay. “Elected officials shouldn’t be able to act like they’re above the law.”

  “That’s right,” Dutch said. “Crader’s cleaning house, and I’m helping him.”

  “That’s good to know, sir,” Jenay said.

  “But anyway,” said Dutch as he began putting on his gloves, “we’ve got to run. But it was quite nice meeting all of you.”

  “You can’t stay?” Charles asked. “We’re having a party out back. All the ribs you can eat and the best group of people you’d ever want to spend an evening with. What do you say, sir?”

  They could tell Gina, by her smile, was already on board. But Dutch? They all looked at him.

  “Ribs, you said?” he asked.

  Jenay laughed. “All you can eat!”

  “You want to stay for a little bit, Dutch?” Gina asked.

  “For ribs? And good company? Hell yeah,” he said.

  And when Dutch and Gina went outside, and the whole of the family ran to greet them, it became the party of parties for Charles and Jenay. They looked at each other and smiled. When they first met, years ago, at that Boston hotel, at Donald’s wedding of all things, who would have thought they’d end up with the former president and the former first lady in their backyard?

  And Dutch and Gina were not stuffy people by any stretch of the imagination. They got in on the eating and laughing and dancing too. Especially the dancing. And when it became a crazy, fun, Soul Train contest, and it became mainly a contest between Dutch and Hammer, and each couple kept trying to best the other one, everybody pulled back and gave them room.

  Dutch went first and did his best impression of Rerun from that old What’s Happening Now tv show, with everybody, especially his wife, unable to hold back their surprise. Dutch had moves! Serious moves.

  But then it was Hammer time.

  Charles, feeling like a kid again, remembered what they used to say to MC Hammer whenever he would do his famous dance. And when Charles yelled out, “Hammer don’t hurt them,” in a high-pitched voice, and everybody fell out laughing, even Dutch and Gina fell out too.

  Jenay looked at Charles. And Charles looked at her. And she grinned. “You’re one-of-a-kind, Charles Sinatra,” she said.

  “But what kind is the question,” he said with a grin.

  “My kind,” Jenay said. And he leaned over and gave her a big fat wet one on the mouth.

  And as they joined hands, and continued to laugh and enjoy the dance moves, they felt it. They felt it in their bones. It felt like it was their time now.

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