BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2 (11 page)

“Then
how are you going to take care of her?”

Arianna
stared at him.
 
“How do you think?” she
asked.

Quince
was a mixture of excitement and alarm.
 
“You can do that?” he asked her.

“I’m
rich.
 
I can do anything.
 
We get rid of the pesky mother.
 
We clean you up.
 
We prepare to stake our claims.”

“And
what claims are those?”

“Jenay
will divorce my husband, take him for half of what he’s worth, and adopt your
daughters.
 
You’ll be paid handsomely by
me, and just may, if you play your cards right, get Jenay back.
 
Or, I should say, given who you are, get
Jenay, along with her new found money, back.
 
That will give a come-upper like you all the security you will ever
need.
 
Because knowing your slick ass,
you’ll remarry her, insisting on no pre-nup, and then take her to the cleaners
too.
 
A win-win no matter how you slice
it for yourself.”

Quince
loved those odds.
 
“And what’s in it for
you?”
 
he asked her.

She
smiled.
 
“Now that my husband, Richard,
has passed on and left me all of his riches, I feel, for the first time in my
life, that I am completely free and in a position to get exactly what I
want.
 
So be happy, Mr. Franklin, that I
came into your life.
 
That I am now your
temporary sugar mama on your way to your permanent one.
 
This is most definitely your lucky day.”

Quince
did smile.
 
He was a desperate man at the
end of his rope.
 
Any day above ground
was a lucky day for him.
 
Any day where
he could finally get back into that fast lane he now craved, was a miraculous
day for him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Late
again,” Tony said as Brent made his way into the dining hall of his father’s
large home.

“You
live here,” Brent said.
 
“It takes effort
for me to get to these weekly family dinners.
 
All you have to do is be home.”

Tony
laughed.
 
“For your information, big
brother, I used to live here. I have my own apartment
 
now.
 
Thank-you very much.”

“Miss
Mary just drove up.”

This
surprised Charles.
 
“Mary Stalworth? My
secretary?”

“Yes,
sir.”

“She
knows better than to interrupt me at dinner.”

“She’s
not here to see you.
 
She’s here to see
your wife.”
 
Brent looked at Jenay.
 
“She said she needs to show you some
fabrics?”

“Oh,
yes,” Jenay said, remembering that she told her to come.
 
She stood up and handed baby Bonita to
Charles.
 
She placed her napkin on the
table.
 
“Where is she now?” she asked.

“I
told her to wait in the living room.”

“Thanks,
Brent.”

“Wait
a minute now,” Charles said, holding his suddenly rambunctious baby girl and
looking at his wife.
 
“What business does
my secretary have with you?
 
And at
dinner time no less?”

“I
told you she’s helping me redesign the lobby at the B & B,” Jenay reminded
him.
 
“I told her to bring by some
fabrics this evening.”

“Miss
Mary is helping you redesign the lobby?” Tony asked.
 
“Since when is she an interior designer?”

“Since
five years ago,” Jenay said.

“What?”
Tony said, surprised.

“She
mainly helps out with private homes,” Jenay went on.
 
“This will be her first commercial contract.”

“Just
make sure it doesn’t interfere with her real job,” Charles warned, “or I’ll
pull that plug on that in a heartbeat.”

“It
won’t interfere,” Jenay said. “She’ll be ready for your abuse bright and early
tomorrow morning.”

Tony
and Brent laughed.
 
Charles couldn’t help
but smile either and rock his baby.
 
Jenay headed to the living room.

Brent
took a seat next to Tony.
 
Donald was
seated across from them.

“Why
are you always late?” Donald asked his older brother.
 

“Just
as he’s always late for the family dinner,” Tony agreed, “he’ll be late for his
own funeral.
 
Which, by the by, amounts
to the same thing.”

“Don’t
compare having dinner with me with a funeral,” Charles said jokingly.

“I’m
trying, Dad,” Tony responded.
 
“But you
aren’t exactly a paragon of conversation.
 
It’s hard.”
 
Brent and Donald
laughed.
 

The
chef staff served Brent his dinner and then the men, and Bonita, began eating
vigorously.
 
Jenay spent less than five
minutes with Mary Stalworth, as all she did was drop off fabrics, and soon she
was back at the table eating too.

“Guess
who phoned me today?” she asked as they ate.

Her
husband looked at her, and so did his sons.
 
“Who?”

“Kerstin,”
she said.
 
“Of all people.”

Brent
couldn’t believe it.
 
“What did she
want?”

“You
know what she wanted,” Tony said.
 
“She
wants you back.”

“Well
she can’t have me back.
 
I’m done with
her.
 
She knows that.
 
What is she disturbing Jenay for?”

Charles
looked at Jenay.
 
“What did she want from
you?”

“Just
what Tony said.
 
She asked me to put in a
good word for her to Brent.”

Brent
rolled his eyes.
 
“That girl!” he said.

“She
seems highly offended that Brent would want some waitress,” Jenay went on.
 
“When I asked what waitress was she referring
to, she said the new one at the Hot Spot.”
 
Jenay looked at Brent.
 
“But I
thought to myself: why, that can’t be right.
 
The only new waitress I’ve hired at the Hot Spot is my friend
Denise.
 
And that’s only until temporary,
until she can decide what she wants to do with her life.
 
She just broke up with her boyfriend.
 
I know Brent wouldn’t want to get caught up
in that.”

Brent
shook his head. “It’s not that serious,” he said.

“Oh,
Kerstin seems to think it’s very serious,” Jenay replied.
 
“She said you behaved as if you were head
over heels.”

“So
you’re fooling around with Denise?” Charles asked him.

“I’m
not fooling around with her.
 
I’ve only
seen the girl twice, and both times were at the Hot Spot. It’s not that
serious, I’m telling you.”

“She’s
a hot girl,” Tony said, “that’s all I know.
 
And yes, Kerstin’s exaggerating the way she always does about how he’s
head over heels.
 
He was never even head
over heels about her, and they dated for years.
 
But Brent’s lying too. He likes Denise.
 
He likes her a lot.”

“Believe
that if you want,” Brent said, and continued to eat.
 

Jenay
and Charles looked at each other and smiled.
 
But Jenay was concerned.
 
“Just
know this, Brent,” she said. “Denise is a sweet girl.
 
A little silly, but she’s sweet.
 
And she was very much in love with her
ex-boyfriend.
 
He dumped her, not the
other way around.
 
Remember that.
 
They would still be together if it was up to
Dee.
 
So please understand what you’re
getting yourself into.”

Brent
looked at Jenay.
 
They were only ten
years apart and therefore had a lot in common.
 
He felt they had a bond.
 
He
appreciated her warning.
 
“I will,” he
said with a nod.
 
“Thanks.”

“Yeah,
because he really treats this waitress unlike any we’ve ever encountered,” Tony
said.

“Knock
it off, Tone,” Brent said.

“He
asks her questions,” Tony continued, “which Brent never did in the past with a
girl.
 
They always flirt with him.
 
Even Kerstin made the first move with him.”

“It’s
because these silly girls around here chase him down,” Donald said.
 
“I don’t know why, but they do.
 
And whenever some of them see me at the store
or someplace, they give me their phone numbers and ask me to give it to my big
brother. I tell them to take a hike, or I just throw their numbers in the trash
can.
 
It’s pathetic.”

“You’re
just jealous,” Tony said.
 
“At least
Brent has women interested in him.
 
At least
Brent has a good paying job.”

“Good
paying?
 
He’s a cop!”

“He’s
a sergeant with the Jericho Police Department and one day he’s going to run the
whole thing.
 
Mark my words.”

“And
he still won’t make as much as I can make working for Daddy.”

Brent
shook his head and Tony smiled. “And that’s your problem right there,” Tony
said.
 
“You rely on
Daddy
, as you call him, for everything!
 
Why can’t you get your own job?
 
Why do you have to get a job he gives to
you?
 
Besides, didn’t you get fired
today?”

“Don’t
you worry about what I got,” Donald said, “since you’re wrong about everything
else.”

“So
you wasn’t fired today?” Tony asked.

“I’m
not jealous of Brent.
 
That’s what I’m
talking about.
 
Please.
 
Why would I be jealous of him?”

Tony
was glad to explain.
 
He and Donald never
did get along.
 
“Because he’s a man and
you’re a boy,” he said.

“Tony,”
Jenay warned.

“Well
it’s true,” Tony said.
 
Brent’s a man
among men.
 
Donnie’s a boy among boys.”

“Yeah,
whatever,” Donald said.

“I’m
not finished,” Tony said.
 
“Because girls
find Brent attractive and they find you repulsive.”

“Tony!”
Jenay warned again.

“Well
they do!” Tony shot back.
 
“They call him
the weird Sinatra.
 
The wife beater.
 
The loser.
 
The one with the giant-ass chip on his shoulders.”

“Who
cares about these stupid girls around here?” Donald asked angrily.
 
“They can have Brent, and you too!”

“Alright,
that’s enough,” Charles said.

“These
girls around here are beneath me anyway.
 
That’s why I wouldn’t be caught dead dating a waitress.
 
But Brent will date anybody.”

“Yeah,
whatever,” Tony said in mocking of Donald, and Brent ignored them both, and ate
his dinner.

It
was only a few minutes later when Robert, the only missing family member,
finally entered the home and made his way to the dining hall.
 
He sat at the table beside Donald.
 
His bruises were still visible, but not
nearly as bad as they had been earlier that day.

“You
look awful!” Tony said to Robert when he saw his younger brother’s face.
 
“What fist did you run into?”

Brent
looked at Robert, and Robert glanced at Brent.
 
“None of your business,” he said to Tony.
 
“Mind your own business.”

“I’m
just pointing out a truth,” Tony said.
 
“You look tough, brother.
 
You
look like somebody had a field day on your face.”

“Dad
did,” Donald said and glanced at his father. “Dad did that to Bobby.”

Tony
looked at his father, and then at his two younger brothers.
 
“I’m sure Dad had a very good reason,” Tony
said.

“He
did,” Brent said.
 
But it wasn’t
something Charles was going to talk about, so the conversation died right
there.

“Anyway,”
Tony said, “how did your day go, Dad? I heard you got a visit from the
governing board of the Jericho Yacht and Country Club this afternoon.”
  

Jenay
looked at Charles. “Really?” she asked.
 
“What did they want?”

“Not
worth discussing,” Charles said.
 

Jenay
understood what he meant.
 
He was not
going to discuss it in front of the entire family.

But
later that night, after they had put baby Bonita to bed and they were alone in
their own bed, Charles told her exactly what had transpired.
 

Jenay
turned onto her side and looked at her husband.
 
He was lying on his back, reading over some paperwork.
 
He had on his reading glasses and appeared
highly distracted.
 
But she wasn’t.
 
“You quit?” she asked him.
 
“But why?
 
Just because they were being obnoxious?
 
They’re always obnoxious!”

“I
quit because I’m tired of it, Jenay.
 
It’s stupid and you and I are not participating in their stupidity.
 
They want to restrict your club attendance
and expect me to go along with it.
 
Their
wives have free reign.
 
They have the run
of the place.
 
But my wife?
 
They want to restrict my wife?
 
What kind of man would I be to go along with
something like that?”

Jenay
nodded her head.
  
“You’d be one sorry
dude,” she agreed.

“But
that’s how that entrenched mindset works,” Charles said.
 
“They think everybody’s a fool and they’re
the brilliant ones.
 
They think they’re
taking the high ground.
 
They think
they’re preserving something pure and right and good when all they’re
preserving is ugly and backwards and wrong.”