Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor (6 page)

“That’s our biggest disagreement so
far.”

“What’s that?” Tommy asked.

“The fact that I’m not leaving
Seattle.
 
The fact that I’m not uprooting
Destiny.
 
He hates it.
 
Should he win, he thinks we should both be
with him while Congress is in session.
 
But I told him that’s not going to be feasible.
 
Destiny has school, and her friends.
 
Destiny comes first.
 
Her home is here in Seattle.
 
With her father.”

Tommy’s heart swelled with
emotion.
 
Time, and undoubtedly living
with an egotistical man like Ed Jefferson, had changed Grace.
 
There was a time, early on in her second
marriage, when she wouldn’t stand up to Ed.
 
He was pleased to see that she was holding her own now.

Grace wasn’t surprised to see that
Tommy was alone.
 
Since his breakup with
Liz, he’d been alone every time she saw him.
 
It surprised her that a man like him, who was accustomed to having a
woman by his side, hadn’t hooked up with another one yet.
 
Unless he missed Liz just that much.
 
“Are you enjoying flying solo again?” she
asked him.

Tommy moved his head from side to
side, as if he was weighing it.
 
“Not
really,” he finally admitted.

“You miss Liz, is that it?”

Tommy was a little perturbed that she
would think Liz was the reason, although he knew she had no other reason to
think otherwise.
 
“No,” he said.
 
“I haven’t seen or heard from her since I last
saw her in Syria.”

Grace’s big, pretty eyes expanded
even more.
 
“
Syria
?”
 
She was sincerely
concerned.
 
“My goodness, Tommy.
 
So much is going on over there right
now.
 
It’s in the news constantly.
 
That’s a dangerous place.”

Tommy exhaled.
 
“I know.
 
There was even an attempt made on her life.”

Grace was shocked.
 
“Are you serious?
 
What happened?”

“Me, fortunately.
 
I saw it coming and was able to take care of
it.”

“But why would somebody try to kill
her?”

“I had my men look into it.
 
The guy who attempted to take her out was in
league with some radical jihadist group that wanted to prove some point by
assassinating western journalists.
 
She
was on their kill list.”

“Wow.”

“But that’s the career she’s chosen.”

“She’s an exceptional woman, that’s
for sure,” Grace said.
 
“But I’m sure
that’s why you chose her originally.
 
You
deserve the best.”

Tommy looked at Grace.
 
She said it as if she wasn’t the best.
 
She was always shortchanging herself that
way, and he didn’t like it.
 
“I had the
best when I had you,” he said to her before he realized he was saying it.
 
But he didn’t want to take it back.

Grace was touched by his words, and a
little astounded.
 
And when they glanced
at each other, they did share a moment of memory, regret, and resolve.
 
But before they could discuss it further,
Destiny had gathered all of the children attending her party into the dining
room, with Destiny sitting at the head of the table ready to enjoy her gifts.

Dominic Gabrini, Jr., Reno’s youngest
son, and Reno’s baby girl Sophie, had flown in, on their father’s private
plane, for the party.
 
They’d been in
town a few days.
 
After the party, they
were heading back to Vegas.
 
“Hey, Uncle
Tommy!” Dommi said as he sat down at the table.
 
Sophie waved too.

“Hey, baby,” he said to Sophie.
 
“Behaving yourself, Dommi?” he asked Dominic.

“You know I am, sir,” Dommi responded
with such a sincere look on his face that anybody who didn’t know him would
think he was just an angel.

But Tommy knew him.
 
“You’d better,” he said.
 
“Or you’ll have to answer to me.”

“Yes, sir,” Dommi said.

“It’s gift-opening time,” Grace said
to Tommy.
 
“I’d better supervise.”

“Good luck with that,” Tommy said
with a smile, causing Grace to smile too as she made her way to the dining room
where the loud and rambunctious children, and the pile of gifts, were
assembled.
 
He walked slowly toward the
dining room as Grace handed Destiny one gift after another one.
 
Tommy stood there, with both hands in his
pockets, and watch with unbridled pride as Destiny opened each gift and thanked
each giver with the same excitement and gratitude, even if the gifts were
clearly not equal.
 
But she treated the
givers equally.
 
Tommy knew that kind of
excellent upbringing had a lot to do with Grace.

He folded his arms and leaned against
the archway as his attention moved from his daughter, to his ex-wife.
 
He watched Grace do her thing.
 
She and Liz were polar opposites.
 
The idea of Liz surrounded by little kiddies,
wearing an apron and supervising the gift opening part of the party, was hard
for him to picture.
  
Liz was a career
woman first.
 
His wishes of that happy
family life, where his wife was a wife and mother first, were not going to
happen with her.

But as he watched Grace be
mommy-in-chief in her cookie-cutter home, it made him realize how difficult a
pill that would have been for him to swallow.
 
Grace was an excellent mother.
 
Nobody was going to take that away from her.
 
He only wished he had realized what he had
while he had her.
 
He tried to keep
her.
 
But he knew he could have tried
harder.

After Destiny opened her last gift,
and was looking for one more that wasn’t there, she looked at her father.
 
“But,” she said.

Tommy smiled.
 
“But what, honey?”

Her eyes were sad.
 
“But you didn’t get me a gift, Daddy.
 
Where’s your gift?”

“My gift?
 
Was I supposed to bring a gift?”

Destiny was near tears.
 
Dommi saw her, and became angry.
 
“But everybody brings a gift, Uncle Tommy,”
Dommi said.
 
“It’s her birthday!”

As much as he would love to play the
game longer, Tommy couldn’t bear seeing his little girl so anguished.
 
He pushed away from the doorjamb, walked up
to Destiny, and decided to put her out of her agony.
 
He lifted her into his arms.

“It’s alright if you didn’t get me
anything,” Destiny said.
 
“You’re
here.
 
That’s all that matters.”

“
Ah
,”
Grace said with a smile.

“No it’s not all that matters,” Dommi
said.
 
“We brought a gift.
 
Everybody should have brought a gift.
 
Especially you, Uncle Tommy.
 
I couldn’t imagine my daddy not bringing a
gift to his own child’s birthday party!”

Tommy wanted to laugh, but he knew
that would only encourage Dommi.
 
“Come on,”
he said to Destiny as he carried her toward the back door.
 
All of the children, as if by instinct,
quickly abandoned their posts at the table, and followed too.
 
Dommi held Sophie’s hand.
 
Grace brought up the rear.

When Tommy knocked on the barricaded
back door, one of his assistants opened the door from outside.
 
When Tommy stepped out, still carrying
Destiny, and Destiny saw the wonderment, the transformation that was in her
backyard, her look was priceless.
 
Grace
hurried around the now screaming kids and looked at Destiny too.
 
She wasn’t screaming, but her eyes were.
 
The sheer magic in those eyes warmed her
parents’ hearts.

“Daddy,” she said,” still staring at
the magnitude of her gift, “this is all mine?”

Tommy grinned. “It’s all yours,
sweetheart.
 
Every single inch of it.”

Destiny hugged her father
tightly.
 
But she was still a child.
 
She jumped from his arms, grabbed him by the
hand, and ran with him out into what was a carnival backyard.
 
There was a Ferris wheel.
 
There was a petting zoo.
 
There were bumper cars and swings and
trains.
 
There was a hot dog stand, an
ice cream stand, a candy and popcorn stand.
 
Even Dommi left Sophie to fend for herself, and ran to have some fun,
when he saw that petting zoo.

“What would you like to ride first?”
Tommy asked as she dragged him into the middle of the excitement.

“That,” she said, pointing to the
Ferris wheel, and she and Tommy, along with many of her friends, got
onboard.
 

Grace stood back, with her arms
folded, and couldn’t stop smiling.
 
She knew
Destiny would adore the gift Tommy came up with, but she never could have
imagined the look on Destiny’s face.
 
The
pure joy on their child’s face was worth every expense, every person he hired,
every minute of his time and attention, and Grace knew it.
 
Because that was the kind of father Tommy
was.
 
As she watched him ride that Ferris
wheel with his little girl, as she watched him have the time of his life just
because Destiny was there, she knew that was the kind of man Tommy was.
 
Kind.
 
Devoted.
 
Honorable.
 
He was all those things and so much
more.
 
Grace knew it now.
 
She knew the biggest mistake she ever made
was leaving a man like him.
 
She knew, if
she had been the woman then that she was now, it would have been
unfathomable.
 
No way would she have left
a man like Tommy, no matter his lifestyle.
 
But she wasn’t that woman back then.
 
She was terrified then.
 
She was a
new mother, she had just endured a shooting that almost took her life, she felt
as if she was backed into a corner.
 
It
was either fight or flight.
 
She took
flight.
 
She regretted that decision.

“Wow,” a voice said behind her.
 
“It’s something to see, isn’t it?”

Grace turned around.
 
Her husband Ed, the man she married after she
divorced Tommy, was walking up behind her.
 
She turned back toward Tommy and Destiny.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“It’s something to see.”

Ed placed his arm around her waist,
turned her chin toward him, and kissed her on the mouth.
 
Tommy, who had been taking peeps at Grace as
he rode the Ferris wheel with Destiny, saw when Ed walked up.
 
He saw the kiss.

“I miss you,” Ed said to Grace when
their lips parted.

Grace looked at him.
 
He was an attractive man, but he was sweaty,
and seemed extremely winded.
 
“What’s
wrong with you?” she asked him.
            

“What’s wrong with me?” Ed responded
defensively.
 
“Why would you ask
something like that?
 
Nothing’s wrong
with me.
 
What are you talking about?”

But Grace didn’t back down.
 
“Why are you so sweaty?
 
And you’re practically out of breath.”

“Oh,
that,
” Ed said with a charming smile, although he knew he had to
tell a tall one.
 
“I’m running for the
Senate, remember?
 
That requires a lot of
work, a lot of jujitsu.
 
Not just
mentally, but physically too.
 
So I’ve
been working out at the gym.”

But Grace wasn’t buying it.
 
Working out would explain his sweatiness, and
even his windedness.
 
But it wouldn’t
explain that wild, almost manic look in his eyes.
 
He only got that look when he was deeply
troubled.
 
“What else is going on, Ed?”
she asked him.

“Nothing else is going on,” he said
with some irritation in his voice. “Why do you keep harping on that?
 
Nothing’s up.
 
Okay?
 
Knock it off.”