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

how much he loved being around these people.   That was why he went out of his way to come
here.   Because they knew what family
meant.   They knew what thick and thin
meant.   They knew what better or worse
meant.   They had something Tommy had been
seeking all of his life, but concluded, after his divorce, that he’d never
obtain.  
    But
as soon as he began marinating on such thoughts, Marvin entered the kitchen
with a cry that, for some reason, chilled him to the bone .   “Mr. and Mrs. Jones!” he yelled.   “Mr. and Mrs. Jones!”
    Cassie
and Rodney, along with Tommy, Sal, and Gemma, all turned in his direction.   “What is it, Marv?” Rodney asked.
    “You
will not believe who just walked through your front door!”
    “Who?”
Sal asked as he pulled Gemma closer against him.
    “Chelsey,”
Marvin said.   “Chelsey Jones is in the
house!”
    The
entire room went silent.   And everybody,
including Tommy, looked at Rodney and Cass.
    Although
Rodney’s reaction seemed to Tommy to be less definable, as if it was a kind of
happiness mixed with anger, Cassie’s reaction was pure happiness.   She left her husband’s side and hurried out
of the kitchen.   Rodney hurried behind
her, but with less enthusiasm.   Sal
clasped Gemma’s hand and they followed the parents.
    Tommy,
however, finished drinking Gemma’s glass of wine and then began to follow the
crowd.   Marvin moved next to him as they
headed out of the kitchen together.  
    “Met
Chelsey before?” Marvin asked him.
    “She’s
Gemma’s sister, right?   The one that
never shows up?”
    “That’s
Chelse.”
    Tommy
nodded.   “I haven’t met her, but Gem
mentioned her a few times.”
    Marvin
touched his arm just as they were about to head out of the kitchen.   “Can I ask you a personal question?”
    Tommy
looked at Marvin’s hand on his arm, and then he looked into Marvin’s big
eyes.   He remembered what Sal said was
his childhood nickname: Marvin Gaye.   But
without the E.
    “Ask
away,” Tommy said.
    Marvin
moved closer to him, exemplifying just how personal he was about to get.   “Are you on the down?” he asked.
    Memories
of childhood, and his father’s abusiveness, flashed through Tommy’s head like
sudden scenes from a war zone.   For most
of his teen years, Tommy was often approached by gay guys who felt he was too
pretty to be straight.   He wasn’t gay,
not by any stretch, and for most of his teen years he resented them for
thinking he was.   He blamed them all, as
if they conspired with his father somehow to destroy his manhood.   But now, after years of therapy, after years
of quiet reflection and spiritual soul-searching and no longer giving a damn
what others thought, he blamed no one but his father.   And even that blame no longer stung.
    “Are
you down, as in on the down-low?” Marvin asked again, as if Tommy didn’t quite
understand him.
    But
Tommy understood him perfectly.   He
smiled and squeezed the younger man’s arm.   A young man who was, like Gemma, nearly a decade his junior.   “No, son,” he said, “I’m not down like that.”
    Marvin
smiled and hunched his shoulders.   “Oh
well.   Can’t fault a boy for trying.”
    Then
Tommy had a thought.   “Word of advice,
however,” he warned.   “If you value all
of your body parts, do not, I repeat, do not ask my brother such a question.”
    Marvin
grinned mischievously.   “You mean that
sweet, adorable, mild-mannered Sal Gabrini isn’t down for whatever?”
    Tommy
laughed.   “You’re a naughty boy,” he said
with a finger wave as he headed out of the kitchen, prompting Marvin to laugh
and head out too.   Sal often came across
as a bit of a narrow-minded, homophobic racist to Marv, although he knew, in
truth, Sal wasn’t really that way.   But
he never had those kind of lingering doubts about Tommy.
    When
they arrived in the living room area, the crowd was still preoccupied with
their own laughter and mirth, but a