Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch (12 page)

“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 notice 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.”

But
Sal was serious.
 
“It was gravy, what are
you talking?
 
Her body was nothing more
than gravy to me.”

“If
that body of Gemma Jones is gravy to you,” Reno said, refusing to back down,
“I’ll bet you’ve been sopping it up dry since your plane touched down.”

Sal
had to smile on that one.
 

“I’ll
bet you’re down to the bone of that meat,” Reno added, and Sal laughed out
loud.

“Fuck
you, Reno,” he said, but this time far more affectionately.

EIGHT

Sal
and Reno remained in the club, laughing and talking and waiting for their
ladies to return from the restrooms, until the very image of the kind of woman that
used to be the object of Sal’s affections, a blue-eyed blonde bombshell, walked
pass their VIP section.
 
She gave Sal one
of those
I see you
looks, and Sal,
also, noticed her as she walked pass.
 
He
didn’t realize Reno had seen him, but he had.

“Don’t
worry,” Reno said.
 
“It gets easier.”

Sal
looked at him.
 
“What gets easier?”

“Wondering
if the grass is greener on the other side.
 
With other women.
 
Wanting your
cake and eating it too.
  
It gets
easier.”

Reno
had it all wrong, but Sal had too much on his mind to try and school him.
 
He, instead, leaned back and listened to the
band.
 

When
Trina and Gemma finally returned to their couch, the conversation, such as it
had been, shifted.
 
The blonde Sal had
eyeballed was lost in the crowd, and the music also changed.
 
It went from slower, melodic jazz, to Herbie
Hancock’s
Rockit
, a kind of
techno-funk, upbeat jazz.
 
When the band
started playing
Rockit
, with its hip
synthesizers and its rollicking dance beat, the place started jamming for
real.
 
Many more people hit the
floor.
 
Including Gemma.

“Come
on, Sal,” she said, without giving him an option, as she stood up, took his
hand, and pulled him out onto the dance floor too.
 

“Good
luck with that!” Reno yelled, knowing for certain that Sal and dance could not
possibly mix.

But
to Reno and Trina’s surprise, Sal did not buck the call.
 
He went out on the dance floor with Gemma and
actually danced.
 
To their shock, he not
only danced, but he danced very well.
 
Even better than Gemma!
 
Reno and
Trina looked at each other, dumbstruck, then they looked back at Sal.

He
was so good that many people were commenting about how good he was, for a white
boy, and more than a few of the other couples on the floor began to stand back
and let him and Gemma do their thing.
 
Gemma
laughed so hard, and was having so much fun, that Trina, too, was enormously
happy.
 
Gemma was one of the
hardest-working women she knew, a woman who often got her heart broken rather
than lifted.
 
A woman, like Trina used to
be, who rarely ever got any breaks in this life.
 
But meeting Sal, who seemed full of wonderful
surprises lately, might just be that big break Gem needed.
 
Just as meeting Reno changed the entire
trajectory of Trina’s life.

After
the band wrapped up their version of Hancock’s
Rockit
, Sal and Gemma stuck around and danced to the slower beat of
Chuck Mangione’s
Feels So Good
.
 
But after that song, it was Gemma pulling for
Sal, not to stay on the dance floor, but to take her off of it.
 
She, not he, was the one drained now.

And
when they sat back down, Reno and Trina could do nothing but stare at Sal.
 

“What?”
Sal asked them.

“You
can dance?” Reno asked him.
 
“You can
dance,” he added, not as another question, but as a fact.

“Yeah,
so?” Sal responded.
 
“You got a problem
with that?”

But
Reno was still awe-struck.
 
“Sal Luca can
dance.
 
Sal
Fuck You
Gabrini can actually bust a move!
 
Wait till I tell Tommy about this!”

This
alarmed Sal.
 
“If you tell Tommy anything
about this night, Reno, I swear I’ll never speak to you again!”

“Really?”
Reno asked.
 
“Where’s my phone,
Tree?
 
He said he’ll never speak to me
again.
 
Let me call Tom right now!”

They
all laughed.
 
Reno was such a card.

After
the laughter died down, Trina started telling them about some oddball customer
she had to deal with today at Champagne’s.
 
As she spoke, that same beautiful blonde who had appraised Sal earlier,
walked by again.
 
Only this time she
looked at Sal and motioned for the exit.
 
Although she was supposed to be subtle, and she was, Gemma nonetheless
caught wind of her motion.
 
But she held
her peace and waited.
 

And
sure enough, within mere seconds, Sal was rising from his seat.
 
“I’ll be back,” he said to her, and made his
way toward the exit.

Trina
stopped talking and looked at Gemma. “Where’s he going?”

But
Gemma was staring at Sal.
 

Then
soon, within seconds herself, she was up too, and heading for the exit.

“What’s
going on with them?” Trina asked.

Reno
didn’t respond.
 
He hoped Sal wasn’t up
to his old tricks again.
 
But with Sal,
who had never even considered settling down before he met Gemma, it was always
a crapshoot.
 
Sal being faithful to one
woman, even a woman as gorgeous and talented as Gemma, was always going to be
against the odds.
 
Million to one odds,
if you asked Reno.

But it
was Gemma’s opinion about those odds that mattered most.
 
And they weren’t looking too great to her
either.
 
Especially when she walked out
of the club and saw Sal, with that beautiful blonde, standing there in what
appeared to be a deep conversation.
 
Sal’s
arms were folded, and the woman was doing most of the talking, but the scene
was undeniable.
 
Sal was chatting up some
female right under Gemma’s nose.
 
Her
heart pounded against her chest.

She
turned around, went back inside, and grabbed her purse.
 
When Reno and Trina asked her what was wrong,
she told them she’d call them later, and headed back for the exit.
  
Only this time, she didn’t just stand there.
 
She began heading toward the Valet station to
call for her car.

Sal,
who had only saw her through his peripheral vision, had to do a double
take.
 
When he realized it was indeed his
woman walking away, he broke away from the blonde and hurried to Gemma.

“Gem?”
he yelled as he hurried.

But
Gemma didn’t bother to turn around.
 
She
didn’t have to.
 
Sal easily overtook her,
grabbed her arm, and turned her around himself.
 
“What the fuck?”

Gemma
broke away from his grasp.

“What’s
wrong with you?” Sal grabbed hold of her again.

“Let
me go, Sal,” Gemma said, fighting back tears.
 
She wasn’t about to let this man have her crying in public like
this.
 
But it was a battle not to cry.

Sal
was dumbfounded.
 
“What’s the matter with
you?” he asked.
 
“Where are you going?”

“Home.
 
Now will you please let me go?”

“Why
are you going home all of a sudden?”

But
Gemma knew he had to know why.
 
She would
only stare at him.
 
He was breaking her
heart, but by the strong, determined look on her face, he would never know it.

Sal
exhaled.
 
“She works for me, all right?”

Gemma
expected him to give her an excuse, but not that one.
 
“She works for you?
 
At the Gabrini Corporation?”

“No.”

“At
Diamante’s?”

“No.”

“Taste
of Southern?”

“No,
Gemma.”

“Then
what other business do you own?
 
I’ve run
out of options.”

Sal
looked at Gemma.
 
“She
works
for me, Gem,” he said.

Gemma
hesitated.
 
She was no rocket scientist,
but she caught on quick enough.
 
“You
mean like Chazz Charski and that Will person works for you?”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Yeah.
 
She works for me.
 
She was giving me some intel.
 
She tracked me down to the club.”
 

Sal
could tell Gemma was still doubtful.
 
“Come here,” he said to her, taking her by the arm and escorting her to
where the blonde woman was still standing.

“Kira,”
Sal said, “this is Gemma.”

Kira
smiled.
 
“Hi.”

“I
need you to tell her exactly what you were just telling me.”

Kira
looked at Sal.

“Go
on,” he urged her.

“Everything?”
Kira asked him.

“Everything.”

Gemma
could tell Kira was still hesitant, but she did tell it.
 
“I was telling Boss that we found Patty.”

Gemma
frowned. “Patty?”

“Patty
Pacheco, Gem,” Sal said.

“You mean
Mikey’s father?
 
The guy who---”

“Served
time in prison for me, yes,” Sal said.
 
“Kira knows the story.”

Gemma
was still confused.
 
“But why would
anybody need to find him?
 
Isn’t he in
prison?”

Sal
exhaled. “He’s supposed to be.
 
But he’s
not.”

Gemma
immediately regretted going down this road.
  
She was an attorney, for crying out loud, and they were talking about
what?
 
A prison break?
 
A convict on the loose?

“She
can tell you more,” Sal said, “to convince you that she’s working for me, not
fucking me, but I’m not sure if you want to hear more.”
 

Willful
ignorance, Gemma thought.
 
To be with Sal
she would have to engage in willful ignorance.
 
Which, given her position, was going to be one of the worse things she
could engage in.
 
But for Gemma the alternative,
which was to not be with Sal, was far worse.

“I’ll
wait for you inside,” she finally said, and began to head back toward the club
entrance.

Sal
knew what that decision meant.
 
He went
to her before she entered the club, and pulled her into his arms.

And
Gemma broke down.
 
She couldn’t help
it.
 
Because she, too, knew what her
decision meant.
 
She cried in Sal’s arms.

After
dinner, they said their goodbyes to Reno and Tree, with Sal leaving Reno’s
Bentley at the PaLargio, and drove home in silence.
 
Sal was behind the wheel of Gemma’s BMW, and
Gemma was sitting quietly on the passenger side.
 
Sal had her hand in his, but it was Gemma who
was squeezing his.

And
when they arrived at her house, and pulled up into the garage, they didn’t have
a repeat of their first night together.
 
Sal, instead, let her out on the passenger side, unlocked the house
door, and they entered the quiet space, not as two sex-starved lovers, but as
two very tired people who just wanted some peace.
 

 
Sal, however, continued to hold her hand as
he locked the door and they made their way upstairs.
 
After running
 
her bath water, and while she got into the tub for a long, relaxing
bath, he laid on her bed, grabbed her home phone, and called Tommy.
 
He asked about their various businesses, and
then he told him what Kira had reported to him.

“Well
at least they found him,” Tommy said on the other end.

“Yeah,
at least that.”

“Are
they going to turn him in?”

“Hell
no!” he said too loud, and then glanced toward the bathroom.
 
The door was closed and he could still hear
Gemma in there bathing.
 
But he lowered
his voice all the same.
 
“I told you what
the man did for me.
 
I can’t turn him
in.
 
I just want them to keep an eye on
him, that’s all.
 
Keep him out of trouble
until the heat is off.”