Charles squeezed his son’s small arm. “Yes, I did,” he said.
Then tears appeared in Donald’s eyes again. “What am I going to do now, Dad?” he asked.
“I don’t know, son.”
Donald looked at Charles. “If it was you, what would you do?”
Charles didn’t mix words. “Leave her,” he said.
“But I love her!” Donald shot back.
“Then you’re fucked. Because she’s going to fuck. Don’t think this beat-down you put on boyfriend is going to do the trick. If she couldn’t keep her legs closed two months after her marriage to you, don’t expect her to keep them closed two years after the wedding. So if you can live with that reality, that your wife is going to screw you, then stay with her. If you can’t live like that, son, cut your losses now.”
Charles looked at his son, as Donald jerked away from his grasp and walked over to the window, undoubtedly to cry again and feel sorry for himself again, and reaffirm his love to Susan again. Because Charles knew the type. Donald wasn’t going anywhere. Same thing happened to Charles early in his young marriage. He stayed too. He stayed for years after her initial indiscretion. He stayed until it hurt too much to stay. Then he kicked her ass to the curb.
But he knew his son. Donald wasn’t going anywhere right now. And telling him to leave his wife was like telling a baby not to cry. Because that apple, no matter how delicious, never fell far from that tree.
An hour later, Abigail Ridge, sitting on her patio while Reeva, her assistant, gave her a manicure, received the call she’d been waiting to receive for weeks. “Stress reliever?” she asked him.
“Big time,” he responded.
She smiled. “I can’t wait,” she said, bit her bottom lip, and then ended the call.
Reeva smiled as she continued to file her boss’s nails. “Big Daddy?” she asked.
Abby grinned. “Finally, yes.”
“It’s been weeks. A long time.”
“Too long.”
“You’d better take the pill today. You know that’s the first thing he’s going to ask you.”
But Abby had been thinking about that too. She’d been thinking long and hard about that. She was thirty-nine years old. In a matter of months, she’d be forty. And she was still Charles Sinatra’s piece on the side. He had no main course, and granted she was his number one piece, but she was still a piece of his life. She was still a secret in his life. She was still, if she were to tell the truth of it, his whore.
To be his number one side bitch at twenty-six was a cute and powerful position to have in Jericho. She was thrilled to be that girl. And she was discreet about it too. But a side bitch at forty wasn’t cute, nor powerful. It was pitiful. And nothing in Charles’s DNA was going to urge him to elevate her position at this late stage. If anything, he was coming around less and less frequently, and was staying shorter times when he did come around. He could demote her soon. It was now or never.
“What’s the matter, Abby?” Reeva asked as she continued to file away. “You want to go take it now?”
But Abby sipped more tea and decided against taking anything. “I’m good,” she said, and then she grinned. “I am so good!”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Three Days Later
“Three gorgeous hunks just sat in your section,” one of the servers said to Jenay as she entered the restaurant’s kitchen with her now-empty tray.
“I’d better get on it,” Jenay said as she hurriedly began to grab three menus and her order pad. “I don’t want Luke screaming at me for not moving fast enough.”
“And I mean he screams,” her fellow waitress said. “You’d think we were the worse servers in Boston the way he ride our backs. But speaking of riding, if those three hunks want to meet you at a hotel, tell them you’ll throw me in for free.”
Jenay laughed. “I don’t share,” she said jokingly, and left the kitchen.
But when she rounded the bar and looked toward her station, her smile quickly turned into dread, and her fast pace slowed considerably. And then she stopped. One of the three gorgeous hunks sitting in her section, as her colleague called them, was the one man she had been unable to stop thinking about; the one man she was certain she would never see again. But just like that, less than two months later, he was once again visiting her world.
“What’s wrong with you?” a voice bellowed out. She looked and saw her boss, Luke Broughton, standing behind the bar. “Get your ass moving, Jenay. I’m not paying you to stand there like some prissy princess!”
Jenay steeled herself, and then headed for the table. Charles was sitting there, in his dress shirt and slacks, looking even more muscular and strapping than even she remembered him. All she could think about was his hands. And how they felt all over her. And his penis. And how it felt deep inside of her. How was she going to pull this off without giving away her true thoughts? Her only hope was that he would do, as other men had done to her in the past, and pretend, in front of his friends, that he never saw her before in his life.
Charles, himself, wasn’t aware of her presence at all. They were in a deep discussion about a possible merger.
“We need your capital, Charles,” Ethan, one of his business associates said pointblank. “That’s the bottom line. We’ve tried to work this every way we can. We’ve worked it all night long. It just won’t work any other way.”
Abe, his other business associate, elbowed Charles. He looked at Abe.
“I wouldn’t mind working on that all night long,” Abe said with a smile.
Charles looked in the direction Abe was nodding, and that was when he saw her. She was walking in that sexy slue-foot style of hers he adored, and still had that sincere, disarming look he actually missed. He hadn’t seen her in several weeks, but it felt like several years. It felt as if he was seeing someone near and dear to him after a long, difficult absence. He had, in fact, decided against looking her up when he first arrived in Boston a couple days ago to avoid those very feelings. But seeing her now changed everything.
Since his divorce fourteen years ago, he’d had one-nighters countless times. And he left them exactly as they were: one night stands. But Jenay stayed with him. He thought about her many times, and dreamed about her more than once. He even considered looking her up again.
But her words kept ringing in his ears: what good would come of it? So he left it alone. Now, despite all of his best efforts, she was in his orbit again. And his heart, remarkably, leaped for joy.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” she said as she placed the menus on the table and pulled out her order pad. “Welcome to Capani’s. May I take your drink orders?”
“What’s your name, pretty girl?” Abe asked her.
“What’s your name, pretty boy?” Jenay responded, and Abe and Ethan both laughed.
Good, Jenay thought. She had the misdirection going just fine. Now all she had to do was get their orders and get the hell away from there. But curiosity was a bitch. She couldn’t avoid it. She took a peep at Charles. When she did, she realized that he was staring at her as if he had been waiting for her to look his way. And if she thought he was going to pretend he didn’t know her from Adam, and they had no history whatsoever, she was dreaming.
“Hello, Jenay,” Charles said.
Jenay’s heart began to pound. She looked into those striking green eyes and wanted to smile. She’d missed him. “Hi, Charlie,” she said.
“Charlie?” Abe and Ethan said in unison, chiding their business associate.
Jenay ignored them. “How have you been?” she asked.
“I’ve been okay,” Charles responded. “And you?”
“Good. Real good. I graduate in a week.”
Charles smiled. “Congratulations!”
“Thank-you so much. I can hardly wait.”
“Made a decision yet? I’m certain you aren’t planning to make this dock your home.”
She smiled. “Not hardly.”
“So who won?”
“Econolodge.”
Charles gave her a thumbs up. It was the best choice, he felt. He glanced down, at her breasts. “Still graduating top of your class?” He looked into her eyes.
“You remembered,” she said with a smile. “Yes. I am.”
“Good for you.”
“Yes, Jenay very good for you,” Abe said. “Now about getting together with us later…”
“Not going to happen,” Charles said.
Abe looked at him. “Says who?”
“Me,” Charles responded firmly. “Three beers, Jenay,” he said.
Jenay was relieved to be getting out of there. “Three beers coming up,” she said, and took off.
Abe was upset. “Why did you do that, Charles? She was engaging me. She was interested! We could have had her tonight.”
“She’s not that kind of girl.”
“Yeah?” Abe asked. “And how would you know that? You know her like that?”
“I know her.”
“Intimately?”
“I know her,” Charles said, and then leaned forward. “Back to work, gentlemen. I didn’t drive all this way from Maine to talk about some girl. Now either you can convince me why it will be worth my while to be the sole financial investor in this latest venture of yours, or I can leave and you can try to pick up a lady. Pick your choice.”
As Charles suspected, money was the loudest drug. The two businessmen forgot all about Jenay and continued to try and convince him to invest his capital in a start up in Buffalo, New York that promised big returns if they made the absolute right offer. But they were ambition big and money tight. They needed Charles to take the biggest risk.
And also, as Charles suspected, Jenay didn’t serve their table again at all that night. She changed stations with one of her coworkers, and worked on the opposite side of the restaurant, completely out of Charles’s way. But given Abe’s insistence that she would make a good pass-around, Charles was pleased with her decision. He knew she was avoiding him most of all, rather than Abe’s freshness, but she was wasting her time.
He made it clear to her after dinner, when his two partners had left the restaurant, after he agreed to pick up the check. He informed his server to ask Jenay to come see him.
He could tell she was hesitant, as he began placing his thick wallet back into his back pocket. But she came to him.
“Is there something that you need?” she asked him as if he was nothing more than another customer.
“Yeah,” Charles said bluntly. “I need you. What time do you get off?”
Jenay wanted to say how she didn’t think that was a good idea. Another one night stand? But she couldn’t say it. He wasn’t just anybody. He was the man that still haunted her dreams, and she had to figure out why. “Seven,” she said. “My shift ends at seven.”
Charles stood up and looked at his wristwatch. “Where did you park?” he asked her. They were now face to face, within an inch of each other. Jenay wanted to back up, but didn’t.
“I haven’t purchased a car yet,” she said. “I’m still waiting for the check from the insurance company. I took the T.”
“I’ll wait in the parking lot. You remember my car?”
How could she forget! “Yes,” she said.
Charles wanted to kiss her, but he refrained. He wouldn’t do that to her. Not at work. He grabbed his suit coat. “I’ll see you in an hour,” he said.
“You don’t have to wait for me.”
“I’ll see you in an hour,” he said, and left the restaurant.
He made the walk across the parking lot to his car near the busy street. He was tired. It had been an extremely long day. But he had to see her again.
As he sat in his car and leaned back against the headrest, he wondered why was it that he was suddenly so determined to be with her again. That was the million dollar question for him. She was supposed to be a one shot deal. Just another bed warmer to go along with all of the other bed warmers he’d had.
But it didn’t turn out that way. He had been thinking about her. At first it was all sexual. He missed her body mightily. That woman had given him a very nice good night. But his interest in her morphed. It was still a highly physical attraction, but he began to think about, to wonder about, her. Not her body. Not her face. Her. The woman inside. He liked how easily he could talk to her. He liked how sincere and mature she seemed. He liked her strength. But that didn’t mean he wanted to take it in any serious direction. He didn’t. He wasn’t going to marry her. He wasn’t going to commit to her. But why was he going all out to be with her right now, if there wasn’t any real end game?
He fell asleep thinking about games. The games people played. That might have been what he liked about Jenay the most. The fact that she seemed serious and too experienced for any game playing. Her ex had done her a terrible turn, and she was undoubtedly still getting over that nightmare. She knew what it was like, just as Charles knew, to be on the receiving end of somebody else’s deception.
After over an hour of sleeping, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, lightly shaking him, when his eyes slowly opened. When he looked over and saw Jenay standing at his open car window, he smiled.
“This isn’t Jericho, Charles,” she admonished him. “This is Boston. Keep your windows closed. Carjacking actually happens here.”
“I didn’t plan to fall asleep,” he said, as he moved to get out of his car.
“Stay right where you are,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with my two hands.”
Charles smiled as she walked around the front of the car and got onto the passenger seat. She was out of uniform now, and had on a nice pair of jeans and a cotton sweat shirt. Although her hair was loose down her back, she still looked very young. And very fit.
She sat her huge shoulder bag on the floor between her legs.
“That a big purse,” Charles said.
“When you rely on the kindness of friends and public transportation, you have to be prepared for any clothing changes, any weather changes, anything. I come prepared.”
Charles smiled. He’d never met a woman quite like her. “Had dinner yet?”
“No. But you have.”
“I have not. I had a beer, nothing more. I preferred to break bread with you tonight, not two crusty old white guys.”
Jenay laughed.
“What’s your favorite restaurant? We’ll go there.”
“When? Now?”
“Why not?”
Jenay smiled. “Yeah. Why not.”
“So where do you, Jenay Franklin, like to go? And I know it’s not this place. I know it’s not Capani’s.”
“Most definitely not! But as for my favorite? Nothing fancy. I like Red Lobster. What about you?”
Charles cranked up. “Are you kidding? I’m from Maine, sweetheart. The lobster capital of the world! Red Lobster it is!”
Jenay felt elated, as he backed up, and sped off.
But Red Lobster on a Friday night was so crowded that they would have to wait another hour before they could be seated. Jenay and Charles both were already dead on their feet.
“Let’s go to the house,” she whispered in his ear as they huddled in the overcrowded vestibule inside the restaurant. “I’ll throw us something together. At least we can kick off our shoes and relax.”
Charles loved the idea. He placed her arm in his and headed back outside. “You and those shoes,” he said with a laugh.
They sat at her small, kitchen table and ate the last of her spinach omelet. Charles thought she was kidding when she suggested it. He was a big man with a big appetite. But it was loaded with turkey bacon, with cheese, with roasted red peppers and other veggies. It was delicious.
“And you graduate when again?”
“June 5th. In a little over a week. But who’s counting?”
He smiled. “You’re excited?”
“Very.”
“What about your parents? You heard from them?”
“No. I hav
en’t called them.”
“I’m sure they would like to hear from you. They’re your blood. You need somebody to look out for you in this world, Jenay. I don’t know what I would do if my sons didn’t stay in touch with me.”
Jenay didn’t respond to that. It was her parents who decided she wasn’t good enough, not the other way around.
“So,” he said, as he cleaned his plate and pushed it away, “what do you normally do on a big Friday night?”
“A number of things,” Jenay responded. She was still eating.
“Such as?”
“Well, I might study if I needed to. Or I’ll catch a movie or go out with some friends. Or I’ll just read and enjoy a good book.”
“I don’t get it. A girl as gorgeous as you. Where are all the handsome young men?”
“Being handsome and young, I suppose.” She didn’t finish eating, but she pushed her plate aside. “They don’t interest me.”
Charles considered her. “Why are you bothering with me then?” he asked.
She smiled. “I’ve only seen you twice in seven weeks, Charles. You’re hardly a bother.”
But he continued to stare at her. She hadn’t answered his question.
She felt as if she was putting it on the line. “You’re different,” she said.
“How so?” he asked.
“Just different.”
“You mean because I’m white?”
“Because you’re not like any other guy I’ve known before. You tell it like it is, for one thing. You don’t beat around the bush. You don’t flatter me to get into my panties, you just get in.”
Charles laughed.
“And when I needed you, after that accident, you were there. You’ll never know how good it felt when I stepped out of that car and saw you coming. It was a very special feeling.”
“Yeah,” Charles admitted, “it was for me too.”
Jenay looked at him. “It was?”
“Hell yeah. When I realized you were involved in that accident, my goodness. I couldn’t get there fast enough. I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. I was mortified.”
Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) Page 7
