“That’s what I was thinking!” Joey said.
Mick smiled even greater, and then he laughed. “I’m just shitting with you, Roz. You know I wouldn’t be caught dead in an RV!”
They were all too stunned to laugh with him. Especially his children. Their father had a sense of humor?
“I was just borrowing it from a dealership. I wanted to see your reaction. It’s going back, I assure you.”
Roz smiled and buckled her knees as if she was relieved. “Good,” she said, and they all laughed.
“Then if that’s not it, where’s Mommy’s gift?” asked Jackie. She was always Roz’s greatest defender.
“Come on,” Mick said and pressed the button that opened one of the larger garage doors. Roz rubbed her hands together. She could hear the voice of that announcer from the Price is Right in her head. A new car! he used to love to say. Because she was certain that was the gift Mick was about to give to her.
But she was wrong again. Because this time, when the garage door slid all the way open, she saw what had to be the most beautiful white-and-baby-blue yacht she’d ever seen. And the name on it made her place her hand on her heart. Miss Roz, was the name of the beautiful vessel.
“Wow,” all of the children were saying.
“Now that’s what I call a gift!” said Joey.
Roz looked at Mick. “That’s mine?”
Mick was sincere this time, which meant that gift was the real deal. “It’s all yours, Rosalind,” he said. “Happy birthday.”
Roz didn’t hesitate. She ran into Mick’s arms. “Thank you, baby,” she said, with tears in her eyes. And she kissed him.
“Get a room!” Joey said, and they all laughed.
And as they kissed, Teddy glanced over at Gloria. “Where’s Oz?” he whispered to her.
“Still in Florida, I guess.” Then she looked at him. “Why?”
“Do I need to go down there and set the brother straight?” Teddy asked.
Gloria smiled. “No,” she said.
Mick and Roz stopped embracing. “It’s beautiful,” Roz said, as they all began walking around it.
“We’ll sail the seven seas together, babe,” Mick said. “Just you and me.”
“And me,” Jackie said.
“And me,” said Duke.
“And me,” said Joey.
“And me,” said Teddy and Nikki in unison.
“And me,” said Gloria.
Mick and Roz smiled. “And them,” Mick said, and they all laughed again. And then Mick and Roz were looking into each other’s eyes again, and they were kissing again.
“Get a room!” Joey said again.
“I never thought I’d think of Dad as romantic,” Teddy said to Gloria.
“I think it’s great to love somebody so completely,” she said, “and they love you back.”
Ted looked at her, but Gloria moved away, over to Roz, to hug her neck and congratulate her again.
“You’re a lucky lady,” she said to Roz as they hugged.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Later that morning, the family had breakfast together and then went their separate ways. Gloria took the twins to the mall, Joey went to visit some lady friend of his, Teddy went to the docks, and Nikki went to the office at Sinatra Industries where she worked as a senior executive, to catch up on some paperwork. Mick made his way to his huge home gym for another workout before he had to hit the road again. And Roz, after she had cleaned up the kitchen, went in the gym too.
Mick was sweating profusely already, as he continued to bench press heavy weights without a spotter.
“I told you about doing that, Mick,” Roz said when she entered their gym and saw him. “That’s not safe and you know it.”
“When have I ever been safe,” Mick said, as he continued to do exactly as he was doing.
Roz rolled her eyes and got on the treadmill. “Talking to you sometimes is like talking to a brick wall.”
“No, it’s not,” Mick said, bench-pressing four-fifty. “A brick wall can knock you out. I haven’t knocked you out once.”
Roz smiled as she walked the treadmill. “I dare you to try it,” she said.
Mick lifted twice more, and then racked the barbells. He was so exhausted he just laid there, his legs on either side of the bench. And he watched his wife, her back to him, walk that treadmill in her shorts and jersey. “Took that shower yet?” he asked her as he stared at her ass.
“I will after I finish back here,” Roz said.
“You aren’t going to work up much of a sweat slow as you’re walking.”
“I like my pace, thank you very much.”
“Come over here,” Mick said.
Roz glanced back at him. “For what?” she asked him.
“So I can put something in you to shower off,” Mick said.
“Ooh, gross!” Roz said and laughed.
But when she glanced back again, she could tell Mick wasn’t playing at all. She glanced down and saw that he wasn’t just aroused, he had a full erection. She shook her head. “You and your appetite,” she said. “If sex was food, you’d be one of those six hundred pound people on TV.”
“But if I’m hungry,” Mick said, “aren’t you suppose to feed me?”
Roz smiled and glanced back at him again. Just as she did, he slipped his shorts down, revealing his full arousal. “Come feed me, Roz. I’m hungry for you.”
And just like that, Roz was hungry too. She got off of the treadmill and walked over to him. She reached beyond him, pressed the button that locked the gym, and then she smiled and knelt down to him. “What do they call those people,” she asked as she took his penis in her hand, “that always quench the hunger of those fat folks?”
“Ooh,” Mick said as she began licking him. “Enablers,” he said.
“That’s it,” Roz said between licks. “That’s what you take me for? An enabler?”
But all Mick could do was ooh and aah as Roz continued to lick and suck him. And when she placed his rod in her mouth, and went all the way down on him, he couldn’t take it. He leaned half way up, pulled her up the length of his body, pulled her shorts down, and entered her. He couldn’t wait a moment longer. He entered her and began making sweet love to her.
She laid her head on his chest and adored the way he was doing her. Mick loved it too. So much so that he wrapped her into his big arms and began stroking her extremely slowly. He didn’t want it to end. She did that to him.
“Thank you, Mick,” Roz said as he did her.
“For this? I should be thanking you.”
“For coming back to the States to be with me,” Roz said.
Mick held her tighter. “I would not have missed your birthday for the world,” he said. “You know that, baby.”
Roz smiled and rested even more against him. There were more rumors than she could count swirling around about Mick’s fidelity. There always had been. But like all the women in the family, from the Sinatras to the Gabrinis, it was a way of life they just had to deal with.
But it was moments like that, when Mick went above and beyond to demonstrate his love for her, that reassured Roz more than words ever could. She went by what she saw, not what she heard. And what she saw on her birthday that day was a whole lot of love from the man she so deeply loved.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Several miles away, at the Philadelphia docks, Teddy went below deck to check out the cargo. It wasn’t how he wanted to spend his Saturday. He’d rather sleep in with his old lady. But duty called. Again!
“We counted it already,” one of his men said when he began looking over the cargo.
“Count it again,” Teddy ordered.
“Again, sir?”
“Again. In my presence. And if there’s any shortfall, the entire shipment is going back. Pop’s had it up to here with shortfalls. Count it again.”
“Yes, sir,” the young man said and he and two others began doing as they were ordered.
Teddy stood there watchin
g. It was a shipment of what looked like box fans. But inside those fans were the real cargo: weapons. Their stock and trade. But they had to be careful. This shipment was in the pipeline before the raids overseas. Once they got the cargo to their customers, they were shutting down stateside too. That was why he had to make certain the shipment was correct to the final box.
And although the young men hated to have to do that long count all over again, Teddy didn’t give a shit. Mick didn’t jump on their asses when something went wrong. He jumped on Teddy. Teddy was jumping on them to avoid the backlash altogether.
But it was all for naught. The cargo was fine. No shortfalls discovered. Teddy, satisfied, made his way back up on deck.
“Everything checked out, Boss?” the crew chief asked when he walked up.
“Everything checks out,” Teddy said.
“I told you it wasn’t necessary.”
“That’s not your job to tell me shit. Your job is to do whatever I tell you your job is to do.”
The crew chief became afraid. “Yes, sir. I didn’t mean anything disrespectful, Teddy. Honest I didn’t. I was just saying I witnessed the first count. That’s all I meant.”
Teddy exhaled. He was no ogre. “We’re all under a lot of pressure. The Feds in Rome and Belarus did a number on our supply chain. Pop’s going back over there today to try to stop the bleeding. And after this we’ll shutting it down.”
“For how long you figure?” the crew chief asked.
“That’s Pop’s call,” said Teddy. “You just make sure everybody’s paid and everybody leaves.”
“Yes, sir. What happened overseas to the crew?” the chief asked. “Everybody still in jail?”
“They released most of them, thanks to Pop’s lawyers, but not all. But they’re working on it.”
“Have the Feds called in your father?”
“No,” Teddy said, “and they won’t call him in either. They like that cloak and dagger shit. They think they have him on the ropes and want to string him out.”
“Damn if that’s true,” the chief said.
“You know it’s not and I know it’s not. But that’s how they operate. They ain’t got shit on Pop, but they want to act as if they do.”
The chief scratched his bald head. “That’s so scary shit, I can’t lie. Too close for comfort. You don’t think those raids produced anything incriminating?”
“They produced a lot,” Teddy said. “Like I said before, they depleted our supply. But they can’t link that chain to Pop. That’s all I’m saying. They can’t link that chain to the Sinatra name because any fucker talks and they’ll go the way Pauley went.”
The chief nodded. “Yeah, I heard. His ass got exactly what he deserved. I never did like that guy.”
“But anyway, get it unloaded,” Teddy ordered. “I want no delays,” he added, and was about to leave the ship when everybody, including Teddy, suddenly felt the ship buckle.
Teddy frowned. “What the fuck was that?” he asked.
But even while he was asking it, the ship buckled again, but this time so powerfully that Teddy almost lost his balance. “What the fuck!” he yelled. And then, before he could stand upright again, he heard the loud explosion in the hull of the ship and then felt the floor beneath his feet not only buckle, but open up as if they were in the middle of a volcanic eruption. And he lost all traction, and was thrown into the air.
It was a massive explosion that tore the mighty ship in two. Those that could bail bailed. Those that didn’t have time to jump went up with the fifty-feet-high flames that erupted.
Or down with the fast sinking ship.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Roz was still on top of Mick and they were still on that bench. Mick was still deep inside of Roz, and they were still making long, slow love to each other when the call came in.
At first, Mick was content to ignore it. And he did at first. He wasn’t about to let anything stop him from satisfying his wife on her birthday. But when it rang again, he reached over and grabbed his phone. But because Roz was on top of him and in a better position to see it, he let her look at his Caller ID.
“You may need to take it, Mick,” she said. She hated the interruption, too, but she they couldn’t bury their heads in the sand.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“The docks,” she said.
That was enough for Mick too. His crew would not be phoning him unless there was a problem. “What?” he asked.
“There’s been an explosion, sir.” It was the second mate, the crew chief’s assistant. And he sounded breathless.
Mick frowned. “An explosion?” he asked, which made Roz look too. “Is everybody okay?”
“No, sir. Not at all, sir. We’re taking casualties. Lots of casualties.”
Then Mick remembered Teddy was going to the docks to check the cargo. “And my son?” he asked anxiously, causing Roz’s heart to squeeze too. Was Teddy in the explosion?
“He was onboard, yes, sir,” the second mate said. Then he exhaled. “We’re still searching for him, sir. The crew chief too.”
Mick’s heart dropped. And he jumped up, with Roz still in his arms. “I’m on my way,” he said and ended the call
“What is it?” Roz anxiously asked as Mick stood her on her feet and then took her hand and was hurrying with her out of the gym. “What is it, Mick?”
“It’s Teddy,” Mick said, his heart hammering. “It’s my son.”
And he and Roz, without hesitation whatsoever, took off running.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Still in their shorts and jerseys from their gym workout, Mick, with Roz by his side, drove his big, bulky Escalade along those Philadelphia highways as if he owned the streets. By the time he made it to the docks, and was driving toward the explosion, Roz was holding on for dear life. Mick beat the shit out of his grown children if they even thought about getting out of line with him. He worked them like slaves sometimes and never showed them anywhere near the kind of affection a father should show to his children. But nobody was going to tell Roz that he didn’t love each and every one of them as much as, if not more than, any father alive.
Joey was already there, walking around with a stick for a cane. Although he left his cane home again, determined to appear his old, “normal” self, Roz wasn’t surprised that he needed aide now. Stress always aggravated the arthritis in his spine from that gunshot wound. And Joey, who had been visiting one of his lady friends, could be as stubborn as his old man. He refused to even keep a cane in the trunk of his car. “Canes and the great Joey Jay,” he once said, “don’t go together!” Roz was certain, given how that stick was a poor substitute, he wished they had.
When the Escalade came to a fast stop, Mick jumped out and hurried toward the scene, leaving Roz to get out on her own. But she understood. Somebody phoned and said there was an explosion and his son was missing. She was on edge too!
By the time she made it up to the banks of the Delaware river, Mick, along with the crewmembers who weren’t on the ship at the time of the explosion, were assisting the coast guard as they were bringing rescued crewmembers onshore. They unloaded the boats for the coastguardsmen so that they could get back out there to rescue more. Despite Joey’s obvious pain, he, as dock supervisor, was helping to pull his men off of those boats too.
But there was no sign of Teddy. Roz saw that right off. And her heart remained heavy. And then suddenly, behind her, they heard a sound.
“Mrs. Sinatra! Mick!”
Mick and Roz turned to the sound of their names. And that was when they saw Nikki Tarver, Teddy’s fiancée and an executive in Mick’s corporation, running toward them. Roz had phoned her while they were hurrying over, and she apparently sped there too. She ran straight to Mick, grabbing both of his arms. And she was hysterical.
“Where is he?” she anxiously asked Mick. “Is he alright? Tell me he’s alright!”
Mick would normally not allow one of his employees to grab him that way and be that f
amiliar with him, but he always made allowances for Nikki. Something about that full-figured dynamo that rubbed him right. She wasn’t in the family yet, thanks to Teddy’s foot-dragging, but in Roz’s view, he treated her as if she was as much his daughter as Glo and Jackie.
“Please tell me he’s alright,” Nikki continued to plead.
“We haven’t found him yet,” Mick said. “But we will,” he added, patted her hand, and kind of handed her over to Roz so that he could get back to work.
Roz placed her arm around Nikki and pulled her back. She was like a daughter to Roz too.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Sinatra,” Nikki said. “I’m not normally this emotional. But when you told me . . . I can hardly take it!”
“I understand,” Roz said, pulling her closer against her. “They’ll find him. Teddy’s a fighter, you know that. He’s the only one in the family to ever try to kick Mick’s ass. He’s not going down without a fight.”
Nikki nodded. Then she quipped, “Where’s your yacht when we need it?” and Roz smiled too. But for both of them the levity was brief, and then they both looked back into the water too. All of those boats were still fishing out crewmembers, including the boats of regular people who just happened to be in the water at the time of the explosion. But as more and more crewmembers were being rescued, and Teddy wasn’t among them, Mick lost all patience. His son was out there, fighting for his life if he was still alive at all, and nobody seemed able to find him.
And when Roz saw Mick began taking off his shoes, and when he glanced back at her as if he wanted her blessing, she didn’t hesitate. She gave it with a nod of her head. Teddy might have been her stepson and was closer to her age than to Mick’s, but she felt he was as much her biological son as Duke was. He was in danger out there somewhere. She easily gave her blessing.
And Mick didn’t hesitate. He dived into that water, causing a scared Joey to yell, “Pop, what are you doing? Pop!” And then Joey turned to Roz with panic in his eyes. Did she see it too? But Roz was looking at Mick. And Joey could tell, on her face, that she not only saw it but sanctioned it. And if Roz wasn’t that worried, he knew he didn’t need to be either. He calmed himself back down, and got back to work.
Mick Sinatra: Needing Her Again Page 9
