ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI Page 4

  But Cameron had beat him to the punch. Tommy had come close enough to hear their conversation, but a couple females had intercepted him and were talking about how great they were even as his attention was mainly focused on Grace.

  What he did manage to hear were repeated requests by young Cameron for a private conversation. But Grace wasn’t having it.

  “I told you there’s nothing to talk about,” Grace responded calmly, although she eased her arm out of Cameron’s grasp.

  “You can talk to me,” Cam said. “All I’m asking for is a minute of your time. You can give me a minute of your time. For old time’s sake, come on, Grace. Let’s talk about it.”

  He was begging her, and the liquor didn’t help.

  Tommy watched as Grace attempted to maintain her composure and make it clear at the same time that she wasn’t interested in any conversation. Especially with a drunk like him. But like his mother, Cameron was very persistent. And he wouldn’t let up. Until his mother herself intervened, smilingly approaching the twosome with one of her you two love birds take it outside lines.

  But Grace, to Tommy’s delight, stood up for herself. “There’s nothing to take outside,” she said to Jillian. “We have nothing to talk about.”

  “You’re making a scene,” Jillian said to her chief of staff. She was still smiling, but Tommy knew Jillian. Her anger was rising. And when Grace continued to resist, Jillian’s voice took on a harder edge. “Take it outside,” she said bluntly and in a way that brook no debate.

  Grace was irritated that she was being drawn into Cam’s nonsense again, but she also didn’t want to agitate potential clients that she knew they desperately needed, many of whom were beginning to notice her disagreement with Cam. She owned ten percent stake in Trammel, which meant she was determined to keep it a successful, viable company. She took it outside.

  Tommy hated that Jillian had put Grace in that position, and he also hated that Grace had given in to Jillian. But if he had been in Grace’s position he probably would have obeyed his boss also. It had been so long since he was on somebody else’s payroll that he knew it was easy to dismiss the importance of job security. And Grace McKinsey, he was willing to bet, believed in security if she believed in anything.

  But the fact that she had gone outside with that lush of a son of Jillian’s still made Tommy uneasy. He knew it was none of his business. She could go outside with whomever she wanted to go outside with. But yet he found himself easing his way to the back window. Those two women seemed offended that he had moved on, but that didn’t stop them from continuing their tireless self-promoting without him.

  When he looked out of the back window, he could see Grace and Cameron on the patio having what appeared to be a very intense conversation. Although he couldn’t hear what was being said this time, he could tell that Cam was livid. And he hated the way Cam’s hands kept touching Grace, as if she owed him something and he was determined to extract his pound of flesh tonight. And by his touching alone, Tommy was relatively certain that the twosome had been lovers in the past, which was amazing to him in and of itself. He couldn’t imagine a woman who seemed as sensible as Grace giving the time of day to a clown like Cam.

  It wouldn’t be long, however, before Grace, after apparently saying all she planned to say, turned to leave. But Cameron grabbed her by the arm and violently slung her back around. For some strange reason Tommy felt as if Cameron’s aggressive act was a personal affront to him and he stood erect, ready to storm outside and set the young man straight. But then Grace immediately slapped her antagonist hard across his face, staggering him, and Tommy quickly realized there was no need for any intervention.

  Grace told Cameron something else, something real good apparently because he didn’t pursue her as she turned around again and headed back into the house. Once she entered the home, she didn’t return to the party. She went, instead, into the parlor in the far left end of the main room, and slammed the door.

  Tommy stared at Cameron, who started walking around the back patio cursing randomly and running his hand through his hair. What these girls saw in punks like him Tommy would never know. And then he looked at that parlor door. Again, it was none of his business. It was obvious that she could take care of herself. But why, he wondered, did he have this powerful urge to make sure she was okay? Why didn’t he just go back to Candace or any of the other women at the party who would love to have him in their circle?

  But as the minutes ticked away, and he hadn’t made a move either way, his concern continued to grow. What if she was so heartbroken that she was in that parlor doing herself some harm? What if she was taking pills? What if Jilly had a gun back there and she was putting it to her head?

  Then Tommy had to smile at his own irrationality. What if aliens landed on the rooftop and kidnapped her? What if she lost her balance and caught amnesia? What if, what if, what if. Because that was how ridiculous all of his what ifs were beginning to sound.

  But as more minutes ticked away and she remained behind closed doors, he couldn’t help it. Nobody else seemed to care that she had locked herself away. Not even Cam, who returned, huddled with his mother, and then left. But for some reason Tommy cared. He had to eyeball Grace for himself, to make sure she was all right. He didn’t know why. Not for a million bucks did he understand why. But he had to do it.

  He walked over to the parlor door and entered without knocking. He could see Grace, who was standing at the window, quickly turn away from him and wipe her eyes. Tommy could have stepped back out and closed the door, allowing her more time to heal. But he didn’t. A nice young lady like her had no business crying over some loser like Cameron Birch, and he was determined to make her understand that. Why he would be so determined, he thought, had yet to be worked out.

  He walked over to the bar on the far side of the parlor and poured two small glasses of wine. He then walked over to the window, stood beside her, and handed her a glass.

  “Thank-you,” Grace said softly as she accepted.

  Tommy looked at her. She was so small and he was so powerfully built that she seemed fragile beside him. “You okay?” he asked her.

  She nodded. “Yes,” she said and then sipped from her glass of wine, as if to convince herself. She held her glass, he noticed, with both hands.

  “Your ex-beau I take it?”

  Grace looked at him, surprised that he would have made the connection between her tears and Cam. Then she nodded her head. No sense denying it. “Yes,” she admitted.

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  Grace didn’t understand. “Sorry to hear what?”

  “That Cam Birch is any ex of yours. You can do better than that, young lady.”

  Grace stared at him. He should know, she thought. A man as gorgeous as he was had to be well experienced in matters of love. She decided to smile. “Oh, really now? I can do better?”

  “Oh, yes,” Tommy said, glancing down to make it clear to her that he was interested. And then he looked back into her eyes. She knew. “You definitely can do better. I know Cameron Birch. You can do far better than that.”

  Grace’s eyes locked onto Tommy’s eyes. Up close his eyes appeared to be the color of violet. “He’s old news, anyway,” she said.

  Tommy opened his jacket and slipped his hands into his pants pockets, revealing a body so lean not an ounce of fat was visible. Very nice sight indeed, Grace thought.

  “How long did you date him?” Tommy asked her.

  “Something like five years. We broke up four months ago. But I gave that boy the best years of my life.”

  Tommy laughed. She was adorable. “You poor child,” he said.

  “I know,” Grace said, glad to share a smile.

  “You haven’t hooked up with anybody since your breakup?”

  Grace shook her head. “No. After all of Cam’s cheating and lies the idea of trusting somebody else is kind of scary.”

  “Very scary,” Tommy agreed. Then he added, softly. “Especially s
ince he’s still able to make you cry.”

  Grace didn’t know how to take his change in tone, but she couldn’t change the past. “It still hurts, that’s the scary part. Not because I’m still in love with that prick or anything like that, but I thought we had a good thing going, so I gave it my all. I ignored the signs and kept working on the relationship and working on the relationship. Only to find out that I was the only one working on it. Stupid me, right?”

  Tommy thought about ShoShawna. He knew what she meant. “There’s nothing stupid about it,” he said. “You had hoped to make a life with young Cameron. Why, I would ask, but that’s what you had hoped.”

  “Wasn’t I crazy? But yeah, I thought for a hot second that a player like him could actually give me what I most want.”

  This interested Tommy. He leaned against the window frame. “Which is?” he asked. He didn’t know why he needed to know, and Grace didn’t understand why she was willing to tell. But in this parlor, this night, that was how they felt.

  “It’s corny,” she said, “I know it’s corny as it can be. But I always wanted to get married to this wonderful man and have me a wonderful child. Two children, actually. At least two. But unfortunately for me I fell for a man who didn’t want a wife or children, he just wanted more women.”

  Tommy stared at her. How could an obviously intelligent woman like her have ever thought that a well-known player like Cam Birch would have been interested in settling down? Then he thought about himself and how, once upon a time, he was a well-known player interested in settling down, too. And he, like Grace, had picked the absolute wrong person to want to settle down with. But people change was the point, he thought. Even well-known players.

  “So you see Mr. Birch tonight and all of those sweet old memories flooded back?”

  “Sweet memories?” Grace asked. “More like intense anger flooded back. I hate the sight of him now. I hate that I wasted so many years with him when I could have found the right man, gotten married, and I could have been raising a family of my own by now.”

  Tommy thought about his cousin Reno, who lived in Vegas with the kind of woman who gave him that kind of life. He knew exactly what Grace meant.

  And he also knew that a life like that was nothing more than a pipedream for a man like him. He’d tried with ShoShawna and that blew up in his face. And even after ShoShawna he gave a few other women a try. But it all turned out wrong. Now he was determined to never try again. He was determined to keep all of his female relationships as superficial as he possibly could. Sex and uncomplicated companionship was all he was after.

  Which brought him back to where he was before he entered this parlor. Why he was considering having even a superficial relationship with this young lady was the biggest mystery in a night of mysteries for him. She was too young, too inexperienced, and too commitment-ready for a commitment-phobic man like him. But he couldn’t hide the fact. He wanted her.

  “You should have kept it stepping,” he said to her.

  “Kept what stepping?” she asked.

  “Your relationship with Cam, or with any other man.”

  Grace was lost. “I don’t understand.”

  “Given the emotional baggage you’re still carrying,” Tommy tried to explain, “I’m assuming that you and Cam didn’t have an open relationship?”

  “Open?” Grace asked. “You mean where he gets to sleep around with whichever female he wants to sleep around with, and then come running back to me?”

  Tommy shifted his weight uncomfortably. “I wouldn’t phrase it quite that way, but yes,” he said. “That’s what I mean.”

  “Child please,” Grace said in such a down-to-earth way that Tommy laughed.

  But Grace was serious. “Of course we didn’t have an open relationship,” she said. “I’m not letting anybody use me like that.”

  Tommy was surprised by her characterization. “Use you?” he asked.

  “Yes, use me. If he can’t commit to me then I don’t want him.”

  Tommy looked at her with something akin to alarm. He suddenly felt defensive and even a little pissed with her. “Usually,” he said, “both parties consent to an open relationship. Not just the man.”

  But Grace couldn’t disagree more. “It’s the man,” she said. “The woman might go along with it because some women believe a piece of a man is better than no man at all. But if she cares anything for that guy and is totally committed to him, there is no way she’ll be okay with some other woman touching him, let alone sleeping with him. No way.”

  Tommy stood erect, folded his arms, and then leaned, once again, against the window frame. Why he felt a need to explain open relationships to her was yet another mystery to him. Unless, given the fact that all of his relationships had been open ones, he felt a need, not to explain the concept, but to explain himself.

  “Commitment isn’t what an open relationship is about. That’s not the point of it.”

  Grace looked at him. “Then what’s the point?” she asked.

  Her big brown eyes looked so inquisitive that she almost made him feel self-conscious. “I think the point,” he said, trying not to let his defensiveness show, “is that you wouldn’t have to be beholden to anyone.”

  “Yeah,” Grace replied, “and no-one would have to be beholden to you. They’ll just be able to get the best you have to offer and to get it for free, with no work, no effort, nothing. And then, when they’re done with you, you’ll have nothing to show for all of those years of offering yourself up with no commitments. Just an overused body and a face that’s no longer as pretty and fresh as it was when they first had you.” She frowned. “What woman wants that?”

  Tommy stared at her. The lifestyle she was describing with such disdain and contempt was the very life he’d been living for as long as he could remember. Other than that one attempt with ShoShawna, he’d never been in anything remotely resembling a fully committed relationship. It used to work just fine for him. It was exactly what he had wanted. But Grace had touched a nerve.

  “Anyway, I’d better get back,” she said, draining the last of her drink and handing the glass back to him. “I’m sure Jilly expects her chief of staff to keep a presence at her party.”

  “And try to lock down a contract or two?”

  Grace smiled. “Or three or four, absolutely,” she said as she began to walk away. “See you later, Tony.”

  Tony? Who the hell was Tony? Tommy made a motion to correct her, but then just smiled. One day soon, he thought as he watched her leave, she would not only know his name but would be screaming it from the top of her lungs. Screaming it as he fucked the shit out of her.

  But he dismissed such a raunchy thought. She was a good girl, what was his problem? Then he drained the last of his own drink, and got out of that parlor, too.

  When the party was over, Tommy was standing in the driveway with Jillian as they said their goodnights to a couple they both knew well. The husband was lingering, anxious to prove to Jillian that his current contract with Fed-Ex made more sense for his company, and his wife was already getting in the car, anxious to leave. Grace was out there, too, saying goodbye to another power couple, and then she began to make her way to her car.

  “Excuse me,” Tommy said to Jillian when he saw Grace break away.

  “Where are you going?” Jillian asked, confused. “I thought you wanted to meet with me.”

  “Give me a sec,” he said as he walked away.

  Jillian looked at him as he began heading in Grace’s direction. She should have known, she thought.

  Grace didn’t realize Tommy was heading her way until she had pressed her car’s keyless entry pad and was about to open her door. She assumed he was headed for his own car, but she couldn’t help but stand there and stare at the man. He was a sight to behold. From his expensive clothes to sophisticated manner, he seemed to ooze money and power. And as far as Grace was concerned he was as sexy as sexy came. But she also knew the other, less attractive side to men li
ke him. That was why, as he came nearer, she felt the urge to run to him, and to flee, all at the same time.

  “Hi,” she said when it was obvious that he was actually approaching her rather than heading for his own automobile. “Tony, right?”

  Tommy smiled. “Tommy.”

  “Oh,” Grace said, genuinely embarrassed. “I am so sorry. I thought it was Tony. All this time I thought you said Tony.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “Why didn’t you correct me in the parlor?”

  Because I knew I would get another chance, he wanted to say. “I bet I remember your name,” he said, instead. “Grace, right?”

  Grace smiled. “Right.”

  “Glad I was able to catch you before you left.”

  “Yeah, I almost made a clean getaway.”

  Tommy laughed. He liked the ease with which they could talk. That usually translated into ease in bed. “Listen,” he said, “I was wondering if you’d care to have a nightcap with me.”

  Oh, Grace thought. That was blunt. No games, no tricks. She liked that. “Where?” she asked.

  He hesitated. “My place or yours,” he said, and then studied her reaction. And the look on her face after he said that, as if she was expecting him to mention the name of a club or bar, said it all to him. She was inexperienced as all get out, just as he had thought.

  “I really can’t,” she said, feeling sheepish. She should have known what he meant when he made his offer. She should have known that nightcap, in his world, meant sex, not a drink.

  Tommy would have normally let it alone after her turndown. She wasn’t into casual sex, which was fine, but she was also nothing like the women he was usually attracted to. He should have just accepted that fact and moved the hell on.

  But for some reason he couldn’t just let her go. The main reason, undoubtedly, was because of her smoking body. But he wondered if another reason was because of her. And the fact that she didn’t go in for casual sex. And the fact that she wasn’t like the women he was normally attracted to.