wasn’t going to be today.
“Happy to see Daddy?” Reno asked his son as
he sat down with him in his lap. “Happy
to see your old man?”
“I
love Daddy,” Dommi said.
Reno,
delighted, pulled him closer into his arms. “Oh, baby, Daddy loves you too!”
The
baby mumbled some words, then he said, “I want Mommy.”
Reno
smiled a weary smile. Mommy had been
with Dominic day in and day out while Daddy had been out of town all week. But he still wanted Mommy. But Reno fully understood. “I want her too,” he said as he leaned his
son’s face against his own.
Fran
brought a glass of wine to Reno and handed it to him. She then sat down, with her own glass, in the
chair flanking the sofa.
“How
was Florida?” she asked him.
“It
was Florida. I’m not sold yet on
branching out there. I mean the PaLargio
without a casino? I don’t know about
that. And Florida is already tripping
over itself with hotels. I don’t
know. I haven’t decided anything yet.”
“If
you decide to go with it, maybe you’ll let me run it. Hun, Reno?”
“Not
gonna happen, Fran,” Reno said plainly.
But
Fran frowned. “Why not? I can handle it.”
“I
don’t mix family with my business, and you know that.”
“That’s
a lie! You made Trina president of the
PaLargio. She’s family. You have her making decisions about this
hotel.”
“That’s
nonsense.”
“What’s
nonsense?”
“Comparing
yourself to my wife. That’s nonsense, so
forget about it. You aren’t running any
hotel of mine, and that’s final.”
Fran
looked at her brother. He could be so
cold sometimes. Just because she wasn’t
the brightest bulb around didn’t mean she couldn’t learn how to operate a
hotel. Trina was no Einstein either and
she was operating this one. Sometimes
Fran wondered if Reno even trusted her at all.
“Speaking
of family,” Reno said as he played with his son’s little feet, “heard from
Dirty?”
Fran
knew he would go there. Ever since
Ritchie Marcasi, her estranged husband everybody called Dirty, beat her to
within an inch of her life, Reno had severed all ties with him. But he still seemed convinced that she would
forgive Dirty and try to take him back. “Of course I haven’t heard from him,” she said. “Especially after what you and Tommy did to
him.”
Reno
and Tommy Gabrini, his cousin and best friend, beat Dirty’s ass pretty
good. It was payback for what Dirty had
done to Fran, but he knew Fran. “I don’t
want you doing something stupid, like taking his ass back. That’s all I’m saying. I didn’t beat him down for you to lift him
back up.”
“What
you talking, Reno? You think I’m so
desperate for a man I’ll take Dirty back? You think I’m that girl?”
The
front door suddenly opened and the girl Reno had been dying to see walked
in. Reno’s heart pounded when he saw
her. She wore the kind of bright blue
that made her brown skin look radiant. He was so happy to see her, and so angry with her, that he sat there
unable to react either way.
Trina
had no such problem. As soon as she saw
her husband, her face lit up with joy. “Reno!” she said jubilantly.
But
Reno wasn’t so easily changed. “Where
the fuck you been?” he asked her with anger in his voice.
Fran
immediately placed her drink on the coffee table, stood up, and reached for Dommi. “We’ll be in my apartment,” she said as Reno
released his son to her.
Trina
said her goodbyes to her son, promising to come and get him shortly, and Fran
and the baby left.
Then
Trina looked at her husband, with her expressive eyes showing her own degree of
displeasure.
“Where
the fuck you think?” she asked him.
CHAPTER TWO
Reno
stood from the sofa and began walking to her. The anger in his fiery blue eyes was palpable.
“Didn’t
I tell you to