Romancing Tommy Gabrini (23 page)

She
took his warning in stride.
 
“That’s a
bet,” she said.

“But
I assure you,” he added as his cell phone began ringing, “you’ll have to get up
awfully early in the morning to out cook me.”

“Excuse
you,” Grace said with a laugh.
 
“I don’t
even know if you can bring it yet.
 
I’ll
have my verdict when I taste this meal of yours tonight, thank-you very much.”

“Fair
enough,” Tommy said as he grabbed his cell phone and clicked it on.
 
“Hello?” he asked.
 

When
silence ensued, he automatically knew who it was.
 
He almost told her that she needed to cut
this shit out, but he knew that would only encourage her to double down.
 
He knew ShoShawna Shanks too well.
 
A sadness came over him as he killed the
call.
 
Grace saw that sadness when he
tossed the phone back onto the countertop.
 
He suddenly appeared a little less certain.

“Where’s
that asparagus?” he asked himself, as he opened the door to this frig.

Grace
assumed it had been one of Tommy’s “friends with benefits” calling, and she had
a feeling that this could get messy.
 
She
hadn’t known Tommy that long and already she was hooked.
 
How in the world, she wondered, were those
women going to give up his brand of sex?
 
At least not without a fight.
 
Not
with the kind of sex he put out.
 
And
maybe, she thought, that silent caller was one of those women.
 
Which caused a kind of wariness to overtake
Grace, too.
 
She wanted Tommy.
 
She wanted him as badly as those other women
probably wanted him.
 
But she had a grave
feeling that she was going to have to fight unlike she’d ever fought before, if
she planned to keep him.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Grab
your sweater, girl,” Nayla said as they prepared to leave Grace’s office.

“I’m
good,” Grace said.
 
“I have on
sleeves.
 
You know how hot I always am.”

“Oh,
don’t I know it.
 
The only
thirty-year-old I know who have old lady hot flashes.”

Grace
laughed.
 
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she
said as they walked out of her office.
 
As soon as they did, and as Grace reached back in to close her office
door, Nayla patted her on the arm.

“What?”
she asked as she closed the door.

“There’s
boyfriend,” Nayla said as she motioned across the corridor.
 
Grace looked too.
 
Standing near the private elevator was
Jillian and Tommy.
 
They appeared to be
in a contentious conversation.
 
Grace
smiled.
 
She always smiled whenever she
saw Tommy.

But
Nayla wasn’t feeling it.
 
“And you actually
believe that a hunk like that is going to be faithful to you?”

Grace’s
heart tightened.
 
She knew what Nayla
meant.
 
She and Tommy had been together
for a couple weeks already and she had spent the night at his house at least
half of that time.
 
Just last night, when
she slept over, four phone calls went straight to his answering machine and all
four calls were from females.
 
Asking him
to phone them.
 
Word had supposedly gotten
out that he was off the market, but some of his “friends” apparently didn’t, or
didn’t want to heed the word.

“I
believe he’s faithful,” Grace replied as they both continued to look at
him.
 

“I
wouldn’t trust a player like that as far as I can throw him,” Nayla said
honestly.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
He’s too good looking to be faithful.
 
There are too many women out there who want a
piece of that.”

She
wasn’t saying anything Grace hadn’t already told herself.
 
“Let’s just go,” Grace said and began heading
in the opposite direction, to the public elevators at the front of the hall.
 
Besides, he and Jillian were undoubtedly
talking business and Grace didn’t want to bring her personal life anywhere near
that office.

But
Nayla didn’t get it.
 
“You aren’t going
to say hey to him?” she asked.

“He’s
talking business,” she said.
 
“I’ll call
him later.”

Nayla
was impressed with her confidence as they turned to leave.

But
Jillian saw them just as they turned.
 
“Grace!” she yelled out and Tommy looked too.
 
Grace turned.
 
Tommy’s heart swelled with warm emotion when he saw her.

“Come
here!” Jillian ordered.

“What
does that witch want?” Nayla asked.
 
“You’re on your lunch break.
 
She
don’t pay you for lunch.
 
You’re on your
time now.”

“Come
on,” Grace said, walking toward her boss, “we’ll catch the elevator over
there.”

When
they arrived, Jillian wasted no time.
 
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked Grace.

“I’m
going to lunch,” Grace replied, trying not to look at Tommy.

“Where’s
my manifest?
 
Didn’t I tell you to get
that done?”

“Jillian,
you just gave it to me an hour ago.”

“And?
 
I expect you to do your job.
 
All of this running around town when I gave
you a job to do.
 
What’s wrong with
you?
 
I’m getting tired of your foolishness,
Grace.”

“What
foolishness?”

“Just
keep it up.”

“Keep
what up?”

“Jillian,”
Tommy interrupted, “let me see you in your office.”
 
Tommy said this and began walking away
without waiting for her response.

Jillian
was irritated by his bossiness, but she didn’t delay.
 
“You wait right here, young lady,” she
ordered as she followed him.

“What
was that about?” Nayla asked.

“Damn
if I know,” Grace replied.

When
Tommy and Jillian entered Jillian’s office, he closed the door.
 
And he didn’t mix words.

“That
lady out there, the one you just lit into, is my lady now.”

“
Your
lady?” Jillian asked, amazed.
 
“Who, Nayla Santiago?”

“Grace.”

Jillian
was surprised.
 
“Grace?” she asked.

“You
will not talk that way to her ever again, do you hear me, Jilly?
 
She works for you, and I get that, but I’m
not going to allow you or anybody else to disrespect her that way.”

But
Jillian was still stuck on his original proclamation.
 
“Are you telling me that Grace, that
my
Grace, is
your
woman?”

Tommy
exhaled.
 
“Yes, Jilly, that’s what I
said.”

“So
 
. . . let me get this straight.
 
Not only do you control your forty shares in
Trammel, but now that she’s your lady, and you’re her man, you’ll control
Grace’s ten shares too? Well, darling, I guess that’s one way to take my
company away from me.”

Tommy
could not believe Jillian had gone there.
 
She knew his net worth.
 
She knew
he had stake in more businesses than she could count, all of whom were larger
and far more profitable than Trammel, yet she was insinuating that the only
reason he was interested in Grace was because of her ten measly shares in
Trammel?
 

“Kiss
my ass,” he said to Jillian and walked out of the door.

Grace
and Nayla saw him when he walked out and began heading their way.
 
Nayla saw no discernible difference, but
Grace did.
 
She saw the anger in his
eyes.

“You
okay?” she asked him.

“I
will be,” he said and then leaned over and gave her a peck on her lips.
 
“Where’s your jacket?
 
It’s cold out there.”

“I
told her,” Nayla said.

“I’m
okay,” Grace said.

“No,
you’re not okay.
 
Get your jacket.”

When
Nayla told her to get her sweater, it sounded like nagging.
 
When Tommy told her, it sounded so
caring.
 
“Okay,” she said, and Nayla
looked sidelong at her.

“Take
care of yourself,” Tommy said, gave her a peck again, and then looked at
Nayla.
 
“Don’t get her into any trouble,”
he warned.

Nayla
smiled.
 
“Who me?” she asked innocently.

He
looked, once again, at Grace.
 
“I’ve got
a meeting across town, but I’ll call you later.”

“Okay,”
Grace said as he headed for the stairs.

Jillian
came up behind them just as Nayla was about to question what was going on.
 

Jillian
attempted to smile.
 
“You ladies go on to
lunch,” she said.

“What
about the manifest?” Grace asked.

“When
do you think you can have it ready for me?”

“I’ll
need at least a full day to get it done.”

“Okay.
 
And I apologize, dear, if I came across as too
hard-charging.
 
You know me.
 
I meant nothing by it.
 
Nothing at all.
 
Okay?”

Grace
was completely thrown.
 
“Okay,” she said.

And
then Jillian left.
 

Nayla
looked at Grace.
 
“What was
that
about?” she asked her.
 
But it was the same question she had asked
earlier, just a different weird circumstance.

“Who
knows?” Grace decided to say, because she still had no clue, either.

Later
that night, Tommy and Grace were reclining on the sofa in his den, with Tommy
on one end of the sofa and Grace on the other end.
 
Tommy had on reading glasses reviewing a
lengthy written contract, and Grace was reviewing paperwork from her job. It
was times like these that Grace was beginning to love the most.

But
something was on her mind.
 
She looked at
Tommy.
 
His entire focus appeared to be
on the documents he read.

“Tommy?”
she finally asked.

“Yes,
babe?” he responded without looking up.

“What
happened with Jillian today?”

Tommy
flipped a page, read a line, and then turned back to the original page.
 
“Why would you ask that?” he asked her.

“She
apologized to me, you know that?”

Tommy
looked up.
 
“Did she?”

“Yes.”

Tommy
nodded, returned his attention back to his contract.
 
“That’s a good thing.”

Grace
sat up, her body turned to him.
 
“Why did
she do it, is what I mean?
 
Did you make
her?”

“No.”

“But
what happened?
 
You were angry when you
came out of her office.
 
Why?”

Tommy
stopped reading and looked at her over his glasses.
 
“She suggested that the only reason I’m
interested in you is because I want your ten shares in Trammel.”

“So
that you could be the majority shareholder, right.”

“I’m
already the majority shareholder.”

“I
know, but if it came down to it Cam is going to throw his five shares in with
Jilly’s so she, technically, has forty-two shares, which is more than your forty
shares.
 
But with my ten, then you have
more.
 
That’s what she meant.”

Tommy
looked at her.
 
“You talk as if you buy
into that nonsense too.”

“I
don’t, but I have to admit it’s crossed my mind.”

Tommy
hesitated, and then removed his glasses.
 
He grabbed his cell phone from the table and handed it to her.
 
“Google Gabrini Conglomerate.”

“I
already Googled you,” Grace pointed out with a smile.

“Not
me. My company.”