Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again by Mallory Monroe Read Free Book Online Page A

Tommy’s arm and moved them with more purpose through the thick
crowd and finally into the also crowded, but far less congested kitchen.     There were a lot of people attending the
anniversary party: old, young, and in between.   Blacks, whites, and all other races.   Rodney and Cassie, Tommy concluded, were an extremely popular couple in
suburbia.
    Gemma
was leaned over at the center island, sipping wine and laughing and talking
with a small group of friends.   When Sal
and Tommy walked in, she beamed.   And
stood erect.
    “Well
if it isn’t the stranger!” she declared.
    “Hey
sis!”   Tommy smiled grandly as they
kissed on the lips and he pulled her into his arms.
    When
they pulled back, it was Tommy’s time to beam.   “You look beautiful as ever.”
    “Thank-you,”
Gemma responded.   “And thank-you so much
for coming.   It means so much to Mom and
Dad.”
    “I
wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Tommy responded, meaning it.
    “And
I know you can’t stay long.   I know you
were headed across the pond, but at least you came.   How’s Destiny?”
    “You
mean my mama?”
    Gemma
was confused.   “Your mama?”
    “Destiny
is my mama,” Tommy explained.   “I don’t
run anything when she’s around.   She’s in
charge.”
    Gemma
laughed.   “Boy quit,” she said and hit
him playfully on the arm.
    Tommy
leaned over as he eyed a bowl of what looked to him to be a yellowish
sauce.   “What’s that?”
    “Salsa.   It’s my special recipe,” Gemma said
proudly.   She put a heap of the yellow
salsa on a nacho and put it into Tommy’s mouth.   Tommy ate the entire nacho.   Many
of the ladies in the room stared into his mouth.
    “Umm,”
he said, nodding his head as he chewed.   “Good taste.   Very good.”
    Gemma
looked at Sal.   “Told you!” she said like
a kid.
    “What
do I know?” Sal asked.   “It tasted like
shit to me!”
    Tommy
laughed.   Gemma shook her head and looked
at him.   “See what I have to contend with
day in and day out?”
    “You?”
Tommy asked with a shake of his shoulders.   “I’ve been dealing with that cantankerous old lovable bastard for well
over thirty years!   Get in line, sister.”
    “Ha
ha very funny,” Sal said.  
    Gemma
hit her hip against his, forcing Sal to smile.    “Okay, it’s a little funny,” he said.
    “That’s
my man,” Gemma said, put salsa on a nacho, and attempted to put it in Sal’s
mouth.
    But
Sal leaned back out of her hand’s reach.   “It ain’t that funny,” he shot back.
    “What
does he know?” Tommy said as he grabbed a nacho of his own, and dipped more
salsa.
    “Tommy!”
Rodney said excitedly as he and his wife entered the kitchen.   “Where’s Tommy?”
    Tommy
looked up.   “I am here!”
    Rodney
and Cassie walked up to him.
    “What’s
wrong?” Sal asked.   Everybody else might
have been lighthearted, but whenever Gemma was anywhere around him he was
always on guard.   “What’s the matter?”
    “A
boat?” Rodney asked Tommy.   “Our
anniversary present is the title to a boat?”
    Some
in the kitchen gasped in surprise, with a few mouthing wow and he’s rich too !
    Tommy
smiled.   “You and Mom like to go fishing,
no?”
    “Yes!”
Rodney said.   “We love to go
fishing.   And we have a tiny little boat
that we go fishing in.   A boat Cass is
always complaining is too tiny for, as she puts it, our old asses.   But this is a yacht, Tommy!”
    “A
yacht?” Gemma asked, surprised too.   “Oh,
Tommy, you didn’t have to buy them a yacht!”
    “Shut
up,” Rodney snapped jokingly at his baby girl.   “It’s done now!”
    Tommy
and Sal laughed.
    “Thank-you,
Tommy,” Rodney added.   “You made me a
very happy man.”
    “You
are welcome, sir,” Tommy replied.
    And
they all began laughing and talking even more vigorously.   As Tommy stood among Sal’s in-laws and
Gemma’s friends and participated in the laughter and conversation, he realized
just