Sal Gabrini: Just The Way You Are (7 page)

“Anything.
 
Steaks, burgers, pasta.
 
You name it.”

But Sal was
still doubtful.
 
“I don’t know about
that, now Reno.
 
I never heard of no
three-week old baby eating no steak.
 
They don’t even have teeth!”

“They gum
it,” Reno said.
 
“Sometimes Trina would
break it up for them, but for the most part they do it themselves.
 
Babies are very resourceful people.
 
They gum the shit out of that steak.”

Sal looked
askance at Reno and continued to give him the eye.
 
He knew nothing about babies, but he knew
something was wrong with Reno’s pointers.

“Ah, the
queens have arrived!” Reno said gaily as he rose to his feet.

When Sal
looked and saw the two African-American women heading toward their table, and
when he saw that glow his own wife exuded, he forgot about Reno and his
nonsensicalness.
 
He rose too.
 
Gemma had changed into a pair of sky blue,
flare-legged pants, a hip-length open vest, and a loose-fitting cream colored
blouse that contrasted beautifully with her dark skin.
 
She walked with such an elegance about her
that Sal often found himself looking away to see if other men were favorably
assessing her.
 
Now, like always, they
were.
 
It used to bother Sal.
 
He didn’t like other men ogling his wife.
 
But now it didn’t matter.
 
He knew she was his.

Sal not only
pulled out a chair for Gemma, but he went and met her halfway.
 
He even placed his hand on the small of her
back and kissed her on the lips.

“What a
gentleman you are, Sal,” Trina said.
 
“You come and greet your wife when it’s a miracle mine stood up.”

“Don’t even
try that,” Reno said as they arrived at the table.
 
“I always stand up for your old ass.”

Trina
laughed and allowed Reno to pull out her chair for her.
 
Reno leaned over and gave her a kiss.
 
Then he and Gemma hugged.
 
After Sal helped Gemma to her seat, both men
sat down too.

“How are you
feeling?” Sal asked Gemma.

“I feel
good,” Gemma said.
 
“We’re on verdict
watch.”

“Which
case?” Sal asked.
 
“That drug possession
case?”

“No, the
prosecution managed to get a continuance on that case.
 
My embezzlement case is on verdict watch.”

“You and all
of these cases,” Sal said.
 
“You work too
hard.”

Gemma didn’t
respond.
 
She knew once he found out she
had accepted a murder case, all of his protestations about her working too hard
was going to rise to an even nastier level.
 
She needed to preserve her energy for that battle.

The waitress
arrived to take their lunch and drink orders, with Sal ordering juice for Gemma
as she checked her phone messages.
 
Everybody ordered some form of sandwich and then they all settled down
into small conversation.

“You two
rode together?” Reno asked the two ladies.

“We arrived
at the same time,” Trina responded.
 
“We
met up outside.”
 
She looked at Sal.
 
“So how did it go?”

Sal didn’t
get it.
 
“How did what go?”

“The
talk.
 
The pointers Reno were supposed to
give you, father to father-to-be, so you’d know what to expect?”

“It went
terrible,” Sal said.

Reno
frowned.
 
“What terrible?
 
I gave you pointers.”

“Pointers my
ass!”

Trina and
Gemma were surprised.
 
“Well what did he
say?” Gemma asked.

“He called
himself schooling me on semesters and Toni Braxton and Mars and Mazdas and
gumming food and I don’t know what the fuck he was talking about.”

“Toni
Braxton?” Gemma asked.

“Mars and
Mazdas?” Trina asked.
 
Then they both
looked at Reno.
 
“What did you tell him?”
They asked in unison.

“What I was
supposed to tell him,” Reno said.
 
“I’ve
got three kids.
 
Sal has Rudy, but Rudy
was a grown man when Sal met him.
 
He
knows nothing about babies.”

“And you
know next to nothing,” Trina said, “if you told him that crazy stuff he said
you told him.”

“What
crazy?” Reno asked.
 
“I told him what to
expect at the various semesters and when it’s safe for the baby to eat anything
he wants.
 
What’s crazy about that?”

Trina looked
at her husband and shook her head.
 
“They’re called trimesters, Reno.
 
Not semesters!”

“And when can
a baby eat anything he wants?” Gemma asked smilingly, certain, given Reno’s
perception of things, that it wasn’t going to be quite right.

“What do you
mean?” Reno asked.

But Sal knew
what she meant.
 
“He said by the time the
baby is a couple weeks old, he can eat anything he wants.
 
Steaks, burgers, corn on the cob, you name
it.”

“I didn’t
say a word about any corn on the cob,” Reno said as the women laughed.
 
“What are you talking?”

“What are
you talking?” Sal asked.
 
“With your
so-called pointers.”

“Oh, Sal,
don’t be so hard on him,” Gemma said between laughs.
 
“He was only trying to help.”

Reno
smiled.
 
“Thank you, Gem.
 
I knew you were the sensible one.”

Sal
frowned.
 
“Ah, forget you, Reno!”

“Forget
you!” Reno shot back.
 
“I was just trying
to prepare your ass.
 
Raising kids isn’t
an easy thing.
 
It’s going to be
tough.
 
It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever
had to do.”

Sal and
Gemma both looked at Reno.
 
And suddenly
all of the laughter and playfulness and pulldowns faded away.
 
Because they both were scared too about what
bringing a child into this world, a Gabrini heir, truly meant.
 
They knew Reno knew what he was talking about
now because his family’s protection was all on his shoulders.

Reno saw
their fears.
 
“It’s a very rewarding
experience,” he sought to reassure them, “but I can’t lie to you.
 
It’s tough.
 
Bringing another Gabrini into this world is like bringing a kid up to a
buzz saw.
 
It can go either way.”

“Your kids
are turning out fine,” Sal said.
 
“I
mean, Dominic is trying to be an exception, but we’ll keep his ass in
line.
 
You have to be pleased how they
turned out.
 
And Tommy and Grace has a
good kid too.
 
It seems to be working.”

“It works,”
Trina said.
 
“And we’ve been truly
blessed.
 
But real talk.
 
It’s tough.”

The waitress
arrived with their drink orders.
 
When
she left, Sal leaned forward.
 
“It’s the
danger factor that keeps me up nights.”

Gemma looked
at her husband.
 
She suspected he
harbored those feelings, but this was the first time he had verbalized them.

“It’s
wondering if I can protect my wife and child from all of the craziness I have
to protect them from,” Sal continued.
 
“All the enemies out there.
 
All
the plots and schemes.
 
I just don’t want
to get it wrong.
 
I can’t get it wrong.”

“You won’t,
Sal,” Gemma said, placing her hand on his.
 
“You have a big heart and nobody cares more.
 
That’s all we’ll need.”

“Here here,”
Trina said as she raised her glass in a toast.
 
Sal placed his second hand on top of Gemma’s and squeezed it, and then
they all participated in the toast.

After the
waitress arrived with their lunch orders, and they began eating, Gemma had
barely taken two bites of her sandwich before her phone beeped.
 
She looked at her text and immediately began
grabbing her purse.

“What is
it?” Sal asked.

“The verdict
is in,” Gemma said.

“Already?”
Trina asked.

“Already,”
Gemma said as she gave Sal a kiss.
 
“I’ve
got to go,” she said, and rose quickly.

“But you
haven’t eaten yet,” Sal said.

“I’ll grab
something at the courthouse,” Gemma said as she began leaving.

“Gemma?” Sal
asked.
 
“Gemma!”
 
But she was hurrying out.

Sal angrily
tossed his napkin on the table, got up, and hurried out behind her.
 
Reno smiled and shook his head.
 
“I never thought I’d see the day when Sal
Luca would chase a woman.”

“I’m sure he
says the same thing about you,” Trina said.

Reno
frowned.
 
“What woman I chase?”

Trina looked
at him.
 
“Me!”

Reno
snorted.
 
“In your dreams,” he said and
took a sip of his drink.
 
Then he
smiled.
 
“And mine too,” he admitted.

But outside,
Sal wasn’t quite so understanding.
 
They
were waiting for Big Joe to bring Gemma’s car around.
 
“I said you were working too hard,” Sal said
as he stood beside her, “and now you’re proving it.”

“What do you
want me to do? The verdict is in, Sal.
 
I’ve got to be there for my client.
 
What do you want me to do?”

“Stop taking
on so many clients,” Sal said.
 
“That’s
what!”
 
Then he settled back down.

But the
valets that were hanging outside of the restaurant had already heard the charge
edge in his voice.
 
They had already
stopped their conversation to eavesdrop on the couple.

Sal
continued.
 
“You’re pregnant with our
child, Gemma,” he said, “and I expect to see a change.”

“And you
will see a change,” Gemma promised as her car drove up.
 
“I will slow
down,
I
promise you that.”

“Just not
today?”

Gemma
couldn’t respond to that.
 
She was too
nervous about the verdict.

Sal opened
the back door and helped Gemma into her car.
 
He leaned in and kissed her.
 
“Call me,” he said to her.

She said
that she would and then Sal motioned for Big Joe to take off.
 
He drove off.
 
The valets were still watching Sal as he watched Gemma leave.
 
He knew they were looking.
 
He knew he was behaving like some lovesick
teenager.
 
But he adored Gemma.
 
She was his heart.
 
And if he had to shred his tough guy image to
make sure she was taking care of herself, he would do it in a heartbeat.

But when he
caught the valets staring at him, he was still Sal.
 
“What the fuck are you staring at?” he asked
them.

And all of
them, to a man, quickly looked away.
 

“I’ll call
you when I’m ready,” Gemma said to Big Joe as he opened the back door of her
car and let her out.
 
They were at the
courthouse’s front entrance.
 
Barbara
Jiles was waiting for her at the steps.

“They came
back too fast,” Gemma said.
 
“I don’t
like it.”

“It usually
bodes well for us,” Barbara said.
 
“It
usually means not guilty.”

“Or that our
client is so guilty that they didn’t’ even have to think about it,” Gemma said,
as they continued to hurry toward the entrance.

Upstairs,
inside the courthouse, Mark Price was looking at the entrance from the upstairs
window.
 
He was on his cellphone.

“How
confident are you,” the man on the phone asked, “that we’ll win?”

“On a scale
from one to ten,” Mark said, “I’d put your odds of winning this case at fifty.”