Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch (10 page)

Tommy
laughed.
 
“Yeah.
 
That love thing.”

“So
what’s the answer?”
 
Sal asked his big
brother.

“Don’t
quit, that’s for sure.
 
You need Gemma,
and you’d better not mess that up, Sal.”

“Whatta
you, my mother?
 
Why would I mess it
up?
 
I won’t.”

“Don’t
start craving those hookers again and mess up with that good woman.”

“You’re
one to talk, but go on.”

“I
never dated hookers,” Tommy made clear.
 
“A couple of tricks, but never hookers.”

Sal
laughed.
 

“But
hang in there with Gem.
 
She’ll come
around to trusting you more.
 
You just
continue to give her reasons to trust you.
 
Take some chances.”

“I’m
going to meet her parents.
 
I call that
taking a chance.”

“That’s
good news, Sal.
 
I must say I’m
surprised.”

“It
means a lot to her.”

“So
you’re no longer concerned that they may despise you and force her to choose?”

“Hell
yeah I’m concerned.
 
Super-concerned.
 
But she wants
this.
 
She thinks I’m not being up front
with her otherwise.
 
That I’m using her
for her body or something and that’s why I don’t want to meet her folks, if you
can believe that.
 
I just have to pray
that this meeting doesn’t go sideways on me.”

“So
when is it happening?”

“Probably
this weekend.
 
Her mother is supposed to
talk to her father and get back with her.
 
But that’s why I’m hanging around.
 
To get it over with.”

“I
think you’re worrying over nothing.
 
They’ll love you in the end.”

“Yeah,
right.
 
Mom and Dad hated my guts, but
these strangers, her mom and dad, is supposed to love me?
 
I’ll have to see that to believe it.”

“Mom
didn’t hate you,” Tommy said.

“Beating
me back with a stick and telling me to stay away from her?
 
I’d call that hate.
 
But anyway, I’d better get on with it.
 
How are they behaving in my office?
 
You’ve been checking on them?”

“I
haven’t, but some of my managers have.”

“And?”

“And
Shannon’s ruling the place with an iron fist.
 
She has it well in hand, they say.”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Good.”

Then
they talked some more, said their goodbyes, and hung up.

Sal
got up.
 
But just as he did he noticed
something on the floor, barely under the bed.
 
When he saw it was Gemma’s small red panties, the panties he had taken
off of her this morning, he smiled.
 
And
picked them up.
 
And he couldn’t
resist.
 
He smelled the seat of those
panties.
 
That smell, a very faint scent
of her perfumed vagina, caused him to close his eyes in sweet remembrance, and
sensual delight.
  

SIX

Twenty
minutes later, in Gemma’s outer office, Curtis Kane, her secretary, and
Barbara, her paralegal, were seated behind their desks.
 
Both were African-Americans, both were
attractive, both were cheerful.
 
Barbara
was on the plump side, Curtis bordered on too thin.
 
It was a small office, a mere two rooms, and
the front Plexiglas window was facing the two assistants.
 
Their share of parking spaces were facing
them too.

Although
Barbara was eating a sandwich and reading her text messages, Curtis noticed the
Bentley when it drove up.
 
A man in a
light-blue double-breasted suit, with a pair of dark shades on what appeared to
be a handsome tanned face, stepped out.
 
And then the man started heading for their front door.

“Look
professional, Barb,” Curtis said.
 
“A
money client appears to be arriving.”

Barbara
looked over too and then quickly put away her sandwich.
 
She pulled out a file.
 

When
Sal walked in and removed his shades, they both looked especially busy.

“Good
morning,” Curtis said with a grand smile. “May I help you?”

“Yeah,”
Sal said, looking around at the paneled walls.
 
Then he looked at Curtis.
 
“Who
are you?”

Barbara
wanted to smile.
 
“Excuse me?”

“Who
are you?”

“I’m
the secretary-slash-receptionist here.
 
May I help you?”

“I’m
here to see the. . . Miss Jones.
 
Miss
Gemma Jones.”

“Certainly,
sir,” Curtis said, picking up the phone.
 
“May I ask who wishes to see her?”

“Sal,”
Sal said.

Curtis
waited for more, but Sal was looking around the room by then.
 
Curtis therefore buzzed Gemma.

“Sorry
to disturb you, ma’am, but a Mr. Sal is here to see you.”

“A
who?
 
Describe him?”

Curtis
lowered his voice.
 
“Decent height, great
body.
 
Great hair.”

“Great
looking?” Gemma asked.

“Very
great,” Curtis said.

Gemma
laughed.
 
“I’m just messing with you,
Curt.
 
I know him.
 
Send him in, please.”

Curtis
looked at the phone and then hung up.
 
“You may go back, sir,” he said to Sal.

“Thanks,”
Sal replied and headed for Gemma’s office.

Barbara
looked at him. “What was that about?”

“She
says she knows him.”
 
Then Curtis thought
about it.
 
“You don’t think that’s the
guy?
 
That’s Reno Gabrini’s cousin?”

“Could
be,” Barbara said, and she and Curtis both smiled.

“One
thing you can say about Gemma Jones,” Curtis said, looking at that Bentley out
front.

“What’s
that?” Barbara, pulling back out her sandwich, asked.
 

“That
woman up in there has herself some high standards.
 
No broke brothers with plenty of loving and
no bank accounts need apply.”
 
Barbara
laughed.
 
“For real though,” Curtis added,
with a finger snap.

Inside
the office, Gemma was handing Marsh back the extensive file he had given to
her.
 

“As
you can see,” he said as he accepted the file back, “it’s a messy case.
 
Two biological brothers suing each
other.
 
That’s never good.”

“Yeah,
it’s a mess, all right.
 
But you have
skills.
 
I’m sure you have it well in
hand.”

“I
have the law well in hand, but not the nuisances of this town of yours.”

“To
wit, the jury pool?” Gemma asked.

“The
jury pool,” Marsh nodded.
 
“I feel like a
slam dunk case is slipping away from me.”

“That’s
because, here in Vegas, there’s no such thing as a slam dunk case.”

Her
office door opened, and Sal walked in.
 
When he did, Gemma smiled.
 
“They
told me you were out there,” she said.

Marsh
turned around when she said it, and then stood up.

When
Sal saw that the stud was in her office again, he hesitated.
 
Then he began walking toward her desk, but
his eyes remained on Marsh.

“This
is your first time at my office,” Gemma said.
 
“Isn’t it?”

“Yeah,
it is,” he said, although he wasn’t interested in any small talk right now.

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Sal, I want you to meet
Marshall Denning.
 
He’s an attorney.”

“Call
me Marsh,” Marsh said, extending his hand.

Sal
shook it.
 
“How are you?”

“I’m
good, thank-you.
 
And you?”

“So
you know my lady?”

Marsh
was surprised that he would be that blunt.
 
Most men were hesitant to claim any one single lady.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“I know Gemma.”

“He’s
the guy I told you I met during that convention in Seattle.”

“I
know what you told me,” Sal said.
 
“I
also know you told me you didn’t know him like that.”

“I
don’t know him like that.
 
He’s here for
a consult.
 
Marsh, do you think you could
give us a few minutes?”

Marsh
didn’t like it, that was obvious, but he smiled anyway.
 
“Sure,” he said.
 
“I’ll wait in the waiting room.”

Gemma
nodded.
 

“Nice
meeting you,” Marsh said to Sal.
 
“It’s
Sal, right?”

“Right.”

Marsh
gave him an extra look, and then he left.

“The
nerve he’s got.
 
You saw the way he
looked at me?”

“Why
don’t you have a seat.”
 
Gemma wasn’t
about to entertain his jealousy.

Sal
leaned over her desk.
 
She leaned toward
him and they kissed.
 
He looked at
her.
 
“You tipped out this morning before
I had a chance to get a good look at you.
 
You look nice.
 
Dainty.”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Thanks.”

Then
he sat down.

“So,”
she said, leaning back in her chair, “how did it go?”

Sal
knew what she meant.
 
“It went.”

“Ah,
I see.
 
No information for Gemma.
 
Is that it?”

“No
information for Sal either,” Sal said, thinking about Chazz and Will and what little
they had to report this morning.
 
“Trust
me.”

Gemma
didn’t respond.
 
Apparently, if she
expected to be with him, she was going to have to do a lot of trusting
him.
 
“I spoke with Trina this morning.”

“Yeah?
 
What did she want?”

“She
and Reno want to take us out to dinner and dancing.
 
Apparently some new jazz club opened inside
the PaLargio, and they want us to check out the set.”

“When?
 
Tonight?”

“If
it’s okay with you.
 
I told her I had to
get your okay first.”

He
liked that.
 
“Yeah, it’s okay with
me.
 
It’s okay with you?”

“It’s
great with me.
 
I always enjoy hanging
out with Reno and Tree.”

Sal
began looking around.

“They
think I’m good for you,” Gemma added.

“How
about that?” Sal said absently, as he seemed more interested in surveying her
office.
 
“So this is where the brilliance
happens?”

Gemma
laughed.
 
“I wouldn’t go that far, but
this is my law office, yes.”

“So
how are you doing with your business?”

Gemma
exhaled.
 
“Champagne’s is finally
breaking even.”

“Not
that business.
 
This business.
 
How’s it going with this business?”

Gemma
nodded.
 
“It’s . . . going . . . great.”

Sal
looked at her.
 
“Oh, yeah?
 
You call it great?”
 
He pulled a stack of mail out of his back
pocket and tossed it onto her desk.
 
“Then what’s this?
 
Those don’t
read so great.”

Gemma
frowned as she picked up the letters, or bills more like it.
 
Then she looked at Sal.
 
“You went through my mail?”

“What
went through?
 
It was sitting on your
desk at the house.
 
I went in your office
to make some phone calls, handle some business, and there they were.”

Gemma
was embarrassed.
 
She began raking the
letters into her desk drawer.
 
“It’s
nothing for you to be concerned with.”

This
offended Sal.
 
“Oh, yeah?” he asked.
 
“And who am I supposed to be?”

“Sal---”

“No, now,
you say it doesn’t concern me.
 
So tell
me who do you think I am?
 
Tell me.”

Gemma
wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn’t.
 
“You’re my boyfriend.”

“That’s
right.
 
I’m your man. You’re the first
real girlfriend I’ve ever had, and I’m sure I’m the first real man you’ve ever
had.”

Gemma
smiled and shook her head.
 
“You are so
humble,” she said sarcastically.

“No
girl of mine,” Sal went on, unable to joke around, “is going to have this kind
of debt riding on her.
 
I mean geez,
Gem!
 
Who don’t you owe?”

“Now
hold on, Sal.
 
Just step off right
there.
 
I don’t have any frivolous
debt.
 
I haven’t splurged on anything in
years.
 
Yeah I bought me a nice car, and
I have a nice house, but I could afford both when I first bought them.
 
Have there been some unexpected downturns in
the economy, and therefore some downturns in my income?
 
Yes.
 
Hell yeah.
 
But I pay my bills.”

“I
didn’t say you didn’t pay’em.
 
That’s not
the issue and you know it.
 
You’ve got
too damn many of them.
 
That’s the
issue!”

Gemma
shook her head.
 
“You can’t compare my
situation to yours.
 
You’re a wealthy
man. I’m not wealthy.
 
I just make a
decent living, and sometimes, depending on the economy, not so decent.
 
But I get by.”

“Get
by?
 
You expect me to have my woman
getting by?
 
Those nobody females I used
to fool with, that I didn’t give shit about, I still made sure they didn’t want
for nothing while they were with me.
 
They always came to me to take care of their debts.
 
Yet you think I’m going to sit back and let
you
struggle?
 
You?” He rubbed his forehead, and then
exhaled.
 
“It’s my fault.
 
I should have known you would be too damn
proud to come to me about anything.
 
I
should have went to you.
 
I should have
talked to you about it.”

“You’re
beating yourself up over absolutely nothing, Sal.
 
People have debt, that’s just the way it
is.
 
We have mortgages and car
notes.
 
That’s how it works.”

“Not
with me it don’t,” Sal said bluntly.
 
Then he looked at her.
 
“You’re a
lawyer.
 
I always thought lawyers were
whatta you call successful.
 
I thought
they made a great living.
 
I thought you
were doing better than this, Gem!”

Those
words hurt Gemma to her heart.
 
Because
they hit a chord.
 
Because she knew her
life, and especially her career, weren’t anything like she had hoped it all
would be, on virtually any level.
 
She
frowned.
 
“I’m sorry if you don’t
approve,” she said, “but I’m doing the best I can do.”