Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch Read online

  Gemma nodded. “Thanks.” Then she smiled. “Speaking of respect, guess what?”

  “You’ve changed your mind already?”

  “No, silly! My mom phoned me back. She wants us to come up for the weekend. They’re going to have a family gathering in our honor, or something like that. You think we can make it?”

  Sal swallowed hard. Maybe that was one reason why he wanted to pay off all of her debts so badly. To give himself some insurance in case her parents hated him and wanted her to dump him. But he knew he had to get this over with. “Yeah,” he said. “This weekend is fine.”

  Gemma smiled. “Thanks, Sal. To know them is to love them.”

  Sal had no doubt about that. They had to be good people to raise a great woman like Gem. To know them was to love them he was certain. Just as he was certain that knowing him usually had the opposite effect.

  SEVEN

  The live band was wired, playing all old-school jazz, from John Coltrane to Thelonius Monk, and Reno and Trina were leaned back relaxing and grooving to the beat. They were in the VIP section of the brand new jazz club, seated side by side on an L-shaped leather couch. The club, called Feet, opened three days ago inside Reno’s PaLargio Hotel and Casino, but this was their first chance to check it out.

  “This is lovely, Ree,” Trina said, sipping more wine. They had their own bottle of wine with glasses on the cocktail table in front of them, and Reno’s legs were crossed while Trina leaned against him. “And the turnout is excellent. But I still don’t understand why they call it Feet.”

  “Look around at the people,” Reno said. His arm was around Trina as they listened to the band, and he knew he looked something exhausted. He, in fact, had on shades to conceal his tired, bloodshot eyes, his hair was all over his head, his suit crumpled, but at least he had shaved. But only after Trina had insisted.

  “I’m looking around,” she said. There were many couples on the dance floor and just as many seated at the tables. “I still don’t get the name.”

  “Look at their feet.” Trina looked. “Every feet in this joint is either dancing or tapping, right?”

  Trina smiled. “Right,” she said.

  “That’s why they named it Feet,” Reno said. “You have to move in a joint like this. Now does it make sense?”

  Trina nodded. “It makes sense.”

  He looked at her. He removed a strand of hair off of her forehead. “I’m glad you suggested this,” he said. “You look really relaxed.”

  “We both could use the break. And I know Gemma could.”

  “How’s it going with her? She won a court case yet?”

  Trina smiled. “Boy quit. You know she’s won cases in the past.”

  “But none lately. She’s batting what? Zero for a hundred or something?”

  Trina exhaled. “She hasn’t had any winners, that’s the problem. Nowadays she has to take what she can get.” Then she looked at Reno. “There’s nothing you need her to do for the PaLargio?” Trina remembered how she met Gemma. Reno had hired her to do some legal work for him and she was sitting in his office.

  But Reno was shaking his head now. “Nothing. I have too many lawyers on my payroll as it is. Way too many. Besides, I hear she’s doing criminal work now.”

  “Only because she’s taking cases as a court-appointed attorney. Her paycheck is guaranteed. But it’s not exactly major money.”

  “Well, hopefully Champagne’s will start turning a profit for you gals,” Reno said. “Now that it’s at least no longer bleeding money.”

  “Yes,” Trina said with a smile. “We’re not in the black yet, but at least we’re out of the red.”

  “Amen.” Reno lifted his glass in toast to that wonderful piece of reality.

  Then Reno looked toward the entrance of the beautiful club. “Here comes Sal now,” he said as Sal was being escorted toward their section. Trina looked too.

  “Now why can’t your suits look like that?” They watched the very well-groomed Sal head their way. “They’re just as expensive as his.”

  “My suit may be wrinkled,” Reno said with a smile, “but I still look good in it.”

  Trina couldn’t dispute that, so she didn’t say a word.

  When Sal arrived, he leaned down and kissed Trina, and then sat on the L-shaped couch also, sandwiching her in. He unbuttoned his suit coat as he sat down.

  “Don’t you look handsome,” Trina said with a smile.

  “Thanks, Tree. You don’t look bad yourself.”

  Trina laughed. Reno, however, failed to see the humor.

  “She don’t look bad? Really Sal? What kind of compliment is that?”

  “Don’t start, Reno. I’ve had a long day.”

  “Not so long that you can’t take a second and compliment my wife the right way. Or me for that matter.”

  Sal looked at Trina. “Pardon my poor manners, Tree. You look beautiful, as you always do.”

  Trina smiled and turned on her fake southern belle accent. “Ah, thank-you so much, Mr. Sal.”

  Then Sal looked at Reno. “And you,” Sal said, shaking his head as he looked at Reno’s general state of appearance, “look pitiful like you always do.” Trina laughed. “I’m sorry, Reno, but you do,” Sal added. “And what are you blind? A member of the Blues Brothers? What’s with the sunglasses in a place like this?”

  But Reno wasn’t thinking about Sal. “You do you,” he said, “and I’ll do me.”

  Trina laughed. The day Reno and Sal got along would be the day one of them died.

  “I’m glad you and Gem agreed to come out with us tonight,” Trina said.

  “Where is she anyway?” Reno asked, looking past Sal for her. “Don’t tell me you left her outside and just came on in, Sal.”

  Sal wanted to sock Reno right where he sat. “Yeah, I left her outside, Reno, that’s it. I left her outside changing the tire on the car, and then she’s to give it a good wash and wax. How dare you suggest something like that! What I’m gonna leave her outside for?”

  “You’ve been known to treat women worse.”

  “Not Gemma!”

  “Then where is she, smart mouth?”

  “How should I know where she is? She’s working. She said she’ll meet us here.”

  “Okay, now guys,” Trina said, deciding to step in. “Time out.” She held her hands in a time-out symbol the way the referees did. “We’ve got to have some ground rules here or this can get ugly. And the first ground rule I propose is for you guys to knock it off. You two have got to stop sniping at each other. It may be funny to us, but Gemma’s not used to it. We don’t want to scare her away.”

  Sal snorted. “Fat chance that’ll happen,” he said. “Especially since I think I already have.”

  Reno and Trina both looked at him. “Oh, Sal,” Trina said disappointedly.

  “Not already,” said Reno, with equal disappointment.

  “What did you do?” Trina asked.

  “I thought I was helping her,” Sal said, his palms-up hands spread out in front of him to make his point, his New Jersey accent overtaking his speech. “I thought I was doing what any red-blooded American man would do if they had a woman like Gemma.”

  Trina gave him that Gary Coleman, sidelong look. “What you talking ‘bout, Willis? What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do nothing. At least I didn’t think I was doing something negative at the time I proposed it.”

  A sidelong look from Reno this time. “What you talking ‘bout, Willis?” he asked, mimicking Trina. “What did you propose?”

  “Nothing!” Sal said this in his usual animation. “I just told her I was going to take care of her debts, that’s all I said.”

  Trina frowned. “What do you mean take care of her debts?”

  “Whatta you think I mean? Pay’em. I was going to pay her bills for her.”

  Trina was still confused. “You mean for this month, to help her out?”

  “He means for all eternity,” Reno said, knowing Sal too w
ell. “He means he wants to pay every single bill she has ever acquired.”

  When Trina’s brain registered what that meant, her countenance dropped. “Oh, Sal, it’s too soon,” she said with alarm in her voice. “You can’t step to a woman like Gemma that way this soon!”

  Sal nodded. “Yeah, that’s what she said too. In so many words.”

  “It’s only been a few months, Sal,” Trina continued. “For some women that may be enough time to have a man doing all of that for them, but not for a super-independent woman like Gem. You guys are still in that courtship phase as far as she’s concerned. She can’t accept that kind of gift from some man she’s only been dating for a few months. She won’t accept it. Especially with your baggage.”

  Sal looked at Trina. “What’s that supposed to mean? What baggage?”

  “Oh, come on, Sal. Your baggage.”

  “What baggage? Spit it out, Tree.”

  “Um, let me think,” Trina said mockingly. “What baggage could Salvatore Luciano Gabrini possibly have? Oh, that’s right. Your mob baggage, for instance.”

  Sal frowned. “What mob baggage?”

  “Ah, come on, Sal!” Trina had never known him to be so dishonest with himself. “You know good and well that many, and I mean many people think you’re a mob boss from way back who’s always taking all of those sudden and unavoidable trips to the east coast because you’re a boss. They view you suspiciously, there’s no secret about that.”

  “And what about your husband? They view him more suspiciously than me, but I don’t see you getting on Reno’s case about his trips around the country.”

  “Yeah, they figure I’m Mafia too,” Reno admitted. “But I’m not the one in denial here. You are. So cut it out. You have baggage. I have baggage. All Gabrinis have baggage. It’s a fact. Stop acting like it’s all news to you.”

  “Ah, fuck you, Reno!”

  “Fuck you, Sal!”

  “Ground rules, people!” Trina said, tapping the wine bottle with a spoon. “Remember the ground rules!”

  Sal exhaled and leaned back.

  Reno could see the distress on his face. He immediately regretted getting into it with him. “Okay, give,” he said. “What’s bothering you?”

  “Nothing’s bothering me.”

  “Come on, Sal. I know your ass. What is it?”

  Sal looked at his cousin. Other than Tommy, Reno was the most dependable man he knew. They didn’t get along on any given day, but Sal respected him completely. Not just because of his strength and loyalty, but because Sal knew Reno would always tell it to him straight. “I’m worried,” Sal said.

  Trina started to speak, but Reno placed his hand on top of her hand, stifling her. “About Gemma?” Reno asked.

  “My relationship with her, yeah.”

  “What’s worrying you about that? She adores you. Why, I don’t know, but she does.”

  Sal hesitated. “We go see her parents this weekend.”

  Now Reno and Trina both understood. “Ah,” Reno said. “You go to meet the parents.”

  “And I’ll admit it,” Sal said, “I’m more nervous than a motherfuck. I mean her folks, their whatta you call legit. They’re bankers and lawyers and shit like that, and they’re from Indiana. Indiana, Ree! They’ll see through my slick behind in no time! I don’t stand a chance!”

  Trina placed her hand on Sal’s. “They’ll also see your heart, too, Sal. They’ll also see how much you care for their daughter. Don’t forget that.”

  Sal smiled at Trina, she knew how to comfort a man, then he looked at Reno. “When you went to meet Tree’s parents,” he asked him, “what was that like?”

  “Piece of cake,” Reno said. “But a totally different situation. Tree had left me, and I was high-tailing it to Mississippi to drag her ass back to Vegas. It wasn’t about me meeting her parents. It was about me getting my woman back. And then again, Tree wasn’t nearly as close to her parents as Gemma is to hers.”

  Sal nodded. “Right.”

  “And you don’t have the same situation that I found myself in,” Reno went on. “You don’t have to drag Gemma’s ass back to town.”

  “Oh, please, Reno,” Trina said, smiling. “What ass of mine did you ever drag?”

  Reno laughed. “I drag that big ass of yours around all the time, and you know it, Tree.”

  “Big?” Trina then hit him playfully upside his head. “I got your big right here,” she added, mimicking him.

  “But when you did meet her parents,” Sal said, too distressed to enjoy their reverie, “did they like you?”

  “Hated my guts,” Reno replied. “Couldn’t stand me. Especially her mother. That woman called me everything but a child of God.”

  Trina laughed. Reno, she knew, had heard her say that many times before.

  “But now,” Reno added, “she’s my mother too. She’s my biggest supporter, and I’m hers. I love her to death, and she loves me.”

  Sal smiled. “Really?”

  “Hell no,” Reno said. “But it sounded good, didn’t it?”

  Trina hit Reno on the arm. “Don’t listen to him, Sal,” she said. “It is true. Mom adores him. Dad does too. But it took time. Don’t expect any miracles this weekend.”

  Miracles weren’t what Sal was after. He was just praying they didn’t completely turn Gemma against him.

  They continued to talk and pour drinks, and listen to the band, until Gemma finally arrived. Reno saw her first, and then Sal and Trina looked too.

  “Oh, Sal,” Trina said, “she’s so lovely, isn’t she?”

  “Every time I see that girl,” Reno said, “she looks even more breathtakingly beautiful.”

  Sal stared at Gemma, at her svelte form, at her deep dark skin and short, bouncy hair, at the way every man she passed gave her double takes. And although he felt proud, he felt concerned too. What on earth possessed him to think he deserved a woman like her? “Think she’s beautiful, hun?” he asked Reno.

  “Know so,” Reno said. Then she looked at Sal. “You don’t agree?”

  “Hell yeah,” Sal said.

  “But she’s got nothing on you,” Reno said to Trina.

  Although Trina knew he was lying, she smiled anyway. And Gemma continued to walk with her long, straight-back strides until she was walking up to their section.

  “Hello everybody!” she said as she arrived.

  Sal and Reno both stood. “Hey, babe,” Sal said as he moved aside to let her in. When they drew close, he kissed her on the lips. As she rubbed against him to get past him, and he smelled her familiar, perfumery scent, he became even more concerned. He was falling so hard for her! This kind of do-or-die love was so new to him!

  Gemma, who was about to sit next to Trina, thanks to Sal’s move, leaned down and hugged her friend and business partner, and squeezed Reno’s hand. But Reno, being Reno, leaned over and kissed her on the lips.

  “How are you, dear?” he asked her.

  “I’m good,” Gemma said, sitting down beside Trina. She was still getting accustomed to Reno’s affectionate nature. Especially since it was in stark contrast to Sal’s considerably less-affectionate nature.

  “This is so nice,” she said, looking around. “And the music is dope. Love it, Reno.”

  “Thank-you, thank-you,” Reno said as he and Sal sat down too. “I knew we were making the right move when I was approached with the idea. A straight-up jazz club at the PaLargio. It was long overdue.”

  “Amen to that,” Trina said, sipping more wine.

  “Want a drink?” Sal asked Gemma.

  “Not just yet, but thanks,” Gemma replied. “What I really need is to freshen up.”

  Trina began to stand. “And since I need to use the little girl’s room, let’s go.”

  Gemma and Trina stood, Sal and Reno stood again, and the ladies left. The men sat back down and watched them.

  “That’s a good looking woman you have on your hands, Sal.”

  Sal nodded. He couldn’t help but not
ice the men giving her and Trina the looks. “Yup,” he said. “And to think, when I first met her, I couldn’t decide if she was the most beautiful woman in the world to me, or the ugliest.”

  Reno looked at him. “Get the fuck out of here! Ugly? Gem?”

  “I told you it was nuts.”

  “Nuts my ass! You had to be out of your fucking mind! That woman is gor-gor-gorgeous!”

  “I know,” Sal said. “I know! I guess she was the kind of beautiful I had never really paid attention to.”

  “You mean because she’s so dark-skinned?”

  “Because she wasn’t blonde and blue-eyed. That was what Pop claimed was beautiful and desirable, and that’s pretty much all I wanted.”

  “Not me,” Reno boasted. “Beauty comes in all colors, shapes and sizes, and I had enough sense to know that.”

  “Yeah, Reno, you’re Mister Perfect, everybody knows that.”

  “Nobody don’t know shit! I’m just telling you how it was with me, and how short-sighted it was with you. Don’t shoot the messenger.”

  Sal knew he had to accept that criticism. He drank more wine.

  Reno sipped more wine too, checked out the crowd, but then he looked at Sal again. “What changed?” he asked him.

  “What?”

  “Your views about Gemma. What changed?”

  Sal exhaled. “I went to see her while she was in Seattle. And when she walked into that lobby of that hotel, and I took a good look at her, my heart began to pound, Reno. Can you imagine that? She was the most beautiful, the most elegant, the most everything woman I had ever seen.”

  “Which is what I saw when I first saw her,” Reno said. “What changed in you? How did she go from possibly the ugliest woman you’d ever seen, to the most beautiful?”

  “Because I looked at her, that’s what I’m telling you. I looked at her. I got blonde and blue eyes off of my brain and looked at Gemma Jones. At her small, round face, and her black skin, and her short hair, and her full lips, and her remarkable smile.”

  “And her remarkable body,” Reno said, “don’t forget that.”

  But Sal nodded his head. “I didn’t have to even look at her body. Her face had me. Her body? Gravy.”

  “Yeah, right,” Reno said doubtfully. “Gravy my ass.”