TOMMY GABRINI 2: A PLACE IN HIS HEART by Mallory Monroe Read Free Book Online

girls.”
    “She’s
black too,” yet another one of the white girlfriends, whose name Grace couldn’t
recall, pointed out.
    “Yeah,
but you know what I mean,” Sheila said.   “Grace is sweet.   Tommy’s ladies
can be very territorial.   They’re more
like Shanks than Grace, and I know what I’m talking about because many of them
are good friends of mine.   They’re just
like me.   Let Brody propose to some new
thang that just hit the scene, please.   She and him both will be laid out in caskets.”
    “Sheil!”
Carrie Lynn yelled.   “Don’t say such
awful things.   You don’t mean that.”
    “But
that’s probably how those ladies are going to feel about Grace.   Excuse me, dear,” Sheila added, looking at
Grace, “but you’re new to our circle.   They may not feel you’ve earned the right to be Tommy’s number one
yet.   That’s all I’m saying.”
    Grace
nodded, although she felt she could easily handle those females.   “I know what you mean.”
    “So
Tommy’s talked to you about it?”
    “There’s
really nothing to talk about,” Grace said, not at all about to get into her
conversations with Tommy in front of this group.   “We’re together, he gave me a ring, end of
discussion.”
    Sheila
and Carrie Lynn and all of those other ladies looked at her as if she was clueless.   But she didn’t even care.   She continued to laugh and talk and enjoy
herself.   She was so over worrying about
Tommy’s fidelity that she couldn’t even express how over it she was.   He gave her a ring.   That changed everything in Grace’s eyes.   Tommy wasn’t a petty person.   Why would he give her a ring, which is the
epitome of promising to be faithful to her and her alone, and then not be
faithful?   It made no sense to Grace.   Those ladies could say whatever they wanted,
but until Tommy showed her differently, she was believing him.
    But
as the night wore on, her problem became less about gossiping ladies, and more
about a certain man, Gavin somebody, who took an interest in her that bordered
on creepy.  
    First
he came over and had general small talk with her, which was fine.   It kept the night moving.   Then he asked if he could dance with
her.   Although Tommy was across the room
in the midst of some football debate with his mates, she didn’t see where that
was a problem either.   So they
danced.   But it was after that dance when
the inappropriateness started.   First he
began asking her about her waist size.
    “Excuse
me?” she asked.
    “I
don’t mean it like that,” he said.   “I
just think you and my ex-wife are the same size.”
    “Oh,”
Grace said, but she never answered his question.
    Then
he continued, asking all kinds of too personal questions that she refused to
answer.   But when she got away from him
and he found her again, and placed his hand on the small of her back,
perilously close to the top tip of her ass, she turned on him.   She wasn’t going to make a scene in Brody’s
home, but she was going to straighten this Gavin fellow out.
    “If
you don’t get your grubby little hand off of me,” she whispered in his ear,
“you may very well need a hand by the time the night is through.”
    “Oh,
really now?” the brazen Gavin replied with a grin.   “So what’s a little lady like you gonna do?”
    “Not
me,” Grace said.   “But I think Tommy
might do a little something-something.”
    Grace
looked across the room.   Gavin looked too.
Tommy was sipping wine and staring at them.   Gavin swallowed hard.   He knew how
crazy Tommy could get when his temper was unleashed.   And besides, Reno Gabrini was his
cousin.   No female was worth getting
entangled with the Mafia over.  
    “Talk
to you later,” he said politely and hurried away from her side.   Grace smiled and looked at Tommy.   But Tommy was still staring at her.   And she knew what that look meant.   He wasn’t thinking about Gavin.   He was thinking about her.