BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2

by Mallory Monroe

  Brent sat down in front of the desk. “You wanted to see me? I do have a job, you know, Dad. I’m not like your other sons who work for you.”

  “Robert’s the only son who works for me, and he’s hanging on by a slender thread. You and Anthony are doing your own things unfortunately, because I could really use both of you, and Donald’s . . .”

  “Being Donald,” Brent said.

  “Precisely.”

  “But even crazy Donnie wasn’t selling drugs,” Brent pointed out. “What about Bobby and that drug dealing? What was that about?”

  “Jenay seems to think he just wanted to get my attention.”

  Brent nodded. “I can see her point. You’re married now and have a kid. He can’t constantly run to you the way he used to. And he’s always idolized you. He and Donnie both.”

  Charles looked at his son. “Whereas you and Anthony never did.”

  “We did,” Brent admitted. “Tony still does, although he’ll never admit it.”

  Charles stared at his oldest son, the one he respected above all of them. “What about you?” he asked. “How did I lose my glow in your eyes?”

  “I grew up, and got over it. And it was a very traumatic thing, Dad. To discover that you actually can’t walk on water was devastating.”

  Charles laughed. “Yeah, I’ll bet.”

  “It was! I felt cheated.”

  “And because I wasn’t superhuman, you decided to stick it to me by becoming a cop rather than my right hand man?”

  Charles was smiling, and was pretending that it was a joke, but Brent knew he meant it. Brent knew how much his decision to become a cop hurt his father. “I wanted to be a police officer, not a businessman, Dad. I did it for me. It had nothing to do with you.”

  Charles wasn’t going to argue with him about it. He was a cop. A sergeant no less. It was water under the bridge now. “I hear you had a date Friday night,” he said.

  Brent smiled. “You ordered me to your office because I had a date Friday night?”

  “I ordered you to my office because you had a date with Denise Donahue. You had a date with Jenay’s friend.”

  “So what?”

  “Why her? Of all the girls in this town who would give a body limb to be your girl, why Jenay’s friend?”

  Brent hesitated. That was the million dollar question to him too. “Why not her?” he asked. “Don’t tell me you think she’s not good enough for me.”

  Charles gave his son one of his best get serious looks. Brent laughed. “If anything,” Charles said, “it’s the other way around. So that’s not the issue. Nowhere near it.”

  Brent stared at his father. “What is the issue?”

  “She’s Jenay’s friend.”

  Brent smiled. “You sound like a broken record, Dad.”

  “Well here’s another song for you: don’t go breaking her heart. I don’t want Jenay caught up in none of that kind of drama.”

  “How would she get caught up in it? It’ll be my problem, and Denise’s problem.”

  “And you’re her stepson, a title she takes very seriously, and Denise is her friend. Another title she cherishes. I would prefer you leave the girl alone altogether, but that’s not my call. But you’d better not break her heart.”

  Brent exhaled. “I don’t plan on breaking anybody’s heart. We’re just hanging out. It’s not that serious.”

  “For you and her,” Charles asked, “or just for you?”

  “Me and her,” Brent said. Then a sadness came into Brent’s eyes. “Especially her,” he added.

  It didn’t take long for word to get around town about what happened Friday night at the Ackermans. It also didn’t take long for Pat Ackerman and Karen Green to show up at the Jericho Inn late Monday evening. Charles had already ended, by kicking them off of his property, their beloved country club location. Now he could start pulling his support of so many of their husbands’ businesses that relied on loans from Charles’s bank, or contracts with Charles’s boating company, or his car dealership, or even this Bed and Breakfast, to stay afloat. Although Stoke’s business wasn’t involved with Charles in any way and was in fact his competitor, the other husbands’ businesses were deeply involved. They urged members of the club to go to Jenay and make this right. They never dreamed a man like Big Daddy Sinatra could be this head-over-heels about any woman, especially some non-blue blooded outsider like Jenay, but there it was. His response last night at the Ackermans, and earlier with the country club ouster, could not have been clearer.

  And so Pat and Karen, two members of the founding families in Jericho, found themselves tasked with the responsibility to make nice with a woman they felt was beneath them. But they had no choice: the situation had reached a critical mass.

  Jenay was seated at the computer station behind the desk, with Denise seated beside her. Jenay was attempting to show Denise how to complete final vendor approval forms. Norm was on break from the Hot Spot and was standing in front of the desk watching his two friends, and talking with Megan, who was the bookkeeper but was working the front desk while the clerk was on break.

  Pat and Karen ignored him as they walked up to the desk, and immediately turned on the charm offensive for Jenay. “Hello Jenay,” Pat said jovially.

  “Hi,” Jenay responded flatly, without looking up. “Every page has to be re-verified,” she said to Denise. “If you don’t do it on each and every page, you will get an error message. Let me show you.”

  “It’s Pat and Karen, Jenay,” Pat said, as if their presence alone should have had Jenay jumping from her seat to greet them.

  But Jenay continued doing what she had been doing before they arrived. “May I help you?” she asked, still schooling Denise.

  Pat and Karen gave each other a glancing look. Who did she think she was? But they understood the mission. They continued to smile. “We need to speak with you,” she said. “If that’s possible.”

  “It isn’t,” Jenay responded. “Not right now.”

  Norm smiled. Exactly what they deserved, he thought.

  “We’re here to see you,” Pat said, unaccustomed to such a response. “Surely you can grant us a few moments of your time.”

  Jenay looked at them over the rim of her reading glasses. She could only imagine how they would treat her if she showed up at one of their businesses and demanded to be seen. They’d kick her out on her rear. “If you care to make an appointment with my secretary, I will be more than happy to meet with you. Right now is a terrible time. I am busy.”

  Denise looked at her friend. Jenay was never one to get nasty with people. What was this about, she wondered.

  Pat was wondering it as well. She didn’t feel she nor Karen deserved such treatment. An angry look crossed her face, but she maintained her composure. “We’re here to apologize,” she said.

  Jenay would prefer if they just left her alone. She remembered how they snickered when Stoke gave his we’d rather eat poison speech. It was so high school to Jenay, and so hurtful. “Okay,” she responded.

  Pat took exception. “Okay? Is that your only comment? Aren’t you going to at least tell us that you accept our apology?”

  “You have the right to apologize,” Jenay said. “You do not have the right to determine my response to your apology.”

  “Amen to that,” Norm said.

  The women looked at him as if he was a dangerous animal, and then they looked at Jenay. “You don’t have to be rude,” Karen said.

  But Jenay was already done with them. “I want you to try it,” she said to Denise, and turned the keyboard her way.

  “Do the entire re-verify screen?” Denise asked.

  “The entire page, yes,” Jenay said.

  Pat and Karen couldn’t believe her insolence. But it was true. Jenay didn’t bother to look at them again. When they got tired of just standing there, they left.

  “That’s right,” Norm said as they were leaving, “take your arrogant asses right back where they came from!”

/>   Megan laughed. Even Jenay inwardly smiled. “You don’t have to be rude,” she said, echoing what Karen had said to her.

  “I’m not thinking about them,” Norm responded. “People like them treat me like a leper in this town. They call me names. They give me dirty looks. And they want everybody to believe that they’re the ones with dignity and class. Give me a break! They can kiss my low class, undignified ---”

  “Okay, Norm,” Jenay said, looking over her reading glasses at him. “We get it.”

  Megan laughed again. Norm smiled. “Let me get back to work,” he said, and headed back toward the café. “These people trying to get my blood pressure up.”

  He left. Jenay looked at Denise. “Are you sure you want to do this, Dee?” she asked her.

  “What’s the matter?” Denise asked as she continued to check the boxes on the vendor form. “I’m doing it wrong?”

  “No, you’re doing good,” Jenay said. “Your competence has never been your problem. Your inability to make up your mind has.”

  Denise looked at her. “What do you mean?”

  “You have a hot date with Brent on Friday night, and now suddenly, on Monday, you’re totally certain about the career course you want to take. Now you want to be my assistant, when you had turned me down just a week ago.”

  “You said the job was still open,” Denise responded.

  “Yes, it’s open. But why the sudden change of heart? You told me you were perfectly content being a waitress for now. What changed?”

  Denise wasn’t sure if she should discuss this matter with Brent’s stepmother, but she had to get it off her chest. “My prospects changed,” she said.

  “You want to be with Brent?”

  “I want to see if we can make something happen, yes,” Denise admitted. “We really connected Friday night, and he took me out again Saturday night. We are really great together, Nay. He’s fantastic in bed.”

  “That’s the same thing you said about Mark.”

  “Well it’s true! They are both great in bed. Brent gives me exactly what I need. That white boy is good, I’m telling you. If his father is as good in bed as he is, then I see why you relocated here to be with him.”

  “But it wasn’t all about sex, Dee. Charles and I had an emotional connection too. There was a sense that I needed him, and he needed me.”

  “That’ll come,” Denise said. “Right now it’s pure lust and I love it! And I figure I might as well stick around for that bed action because girl, it was good. It was better than good. My vagina is still jumping because of how good it was.”

  Jenay smiled. At least Denise could be depended on to tell it straight.

  “Anyway,” Jenay said, “let’s get back to work.”

  Denise smiled. “So am I officially your assistant now?” she asked.

  “You’re officially my assistant on probation now,” Jenay said. “If it doesn’t work out, friend or no friend, you will be terminated. My husband entrusted me to run his hotel efficiently. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

  Denise nodded. “You’ve never been accused of not being efficient, Jenay. I’ll give you that. And don’t worry, as long as Brent is giving me that good love, I’ll be the best assistant you’ve ever had.”

  “And if he stops giving you that good love?”

  “I’ll be the best problem assistant you’ve ever had.”

  Jenay laughed. “And you will be the best fired problem assistant I’ve ever had.”

  Denise laughed. “That’s only fair,” she agreed.

  But then Jenay’s smile was gone. She turned serious.

  “What is it?” Denise asked.

  “You ever thought that maybe you’re repeating a pattern here.”

  Denise apparently hadn’t thought about it. “A pattern?”

  “You graduated with your certification in hotel administration. You could have gotten a job then, but you, instead, fell in love with Mark and decided to devote your life to that relationship. It didn’t work, but you’re ready to jump into another one and base your future on the success or failure of that relationship. Do you think that’s wise?”

  Denise had to think about that. As she did, a guest entered the lobby and walked up to the front desk.

  “Welcome to the Jericho Inn Bed and Breakfast,” Megan said as he approached. “It’s not wise,” Denise said, responding to Jenay’s question. “No, it’s not. But that’s how things have always gone for me in my life. I’m not fulfilled unless I have a man in my life to gush about.”

  “Don’t you think it’s time to gush about yourself?” Jenay asked.

  “Jenay?” a male voice said, and Jenay recognized the voice. She quickly turned to the sound. And standing in front of the desk, in the lobby of the Jericho Inn Bed and Breakfast, was Quince Franklin, her ex-husband and the one man who once tore her world apart. He was looking no longer like the up-and-comer she divorced, but like the successful attorney he had every intention of becoming. The successful, gorgeous attorney.

  Her heart fell like a rock to the bottom of the world.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Jenay still couldn’t believe it. The man she once loved so completely was sitting right across from her. The fact that she had agreed to walk across the lobby to the Hot Spot café and have a drink with him was amazing, but when he mentioned his two little girls, and how much they so wanted to see her again, it was an easy walk.

  “You may not recognize them,” he said after they sat down at the booth near the entrance and the waitress took their drink orders. He handed her his cell phone. “They’re big girls now.”

  Jenay was already smiling when as he handed her the phone. And when she saw that grinning picture of Carly and then Ashley, her heart melted. And tears came to her eyes. “Oh, my,” she said, holding a hand to her heart. “They’re so big! How old are they now?”

  “Ash is fifteen going on sixteen. She’ll be sixteen in a few months. Carly’s fourteen. She never ceases to remind me that she’s no kid anymore.”

  Jenay smiled. “They’re so precious!” she said as tears brightened her eyes.

  “So you didn’t forget them?” Quince asked.

  She looked at him. “Forget them? How could I ever forget them? They were my stepdaughters!”

  Quince nodded his head. “I’m sorry, Jenay. What I did, the way I barred you from seeing them like that, was wrong as wrong could be.”

  Jenay considered him.

  “You loved my girls, and they loved you. I should have never let Vernita talk me into separating y’all like that. But she was so insecure, you just don’t know. She didn’t want them to have anything to do with you.”

  “You didn’t want them to have anything to do with me either,” Jenay said. “So look at yourself if you have to place blame anywhere. That court order would not have happened if you didn’t allow it. Vernita or nobody else was going to tell you what to do.”

  Quince smiled. “You know me well, don’t you?”

  “Too well,” Jenay said, and then she continued to look at pictures of little girls she never got to see grow up.

  “So Ash is sixteen now. My my.”

  “She’s almost sixteen. She will be in a few months. And Carly’s fourteen.”

  “Fourteen,” Jenay said, staring at the picture and shaking her head. “And I remember when she was a baby. My my.” She looked at Quince. “How are they doing in school?”

  “They’re doing good. I see to that.”

  “Good,” Jenay said, nodding her head.

  As they continued to talk about the girls and their education, the automatic doors to the Inn slid open, and Charles entered the lobby. He began heading to the front desk, to ask the clerk if his wife was around, when out of his periphery he saw what he thought was his wife. He turned and looked. And sure enough there was Jenay, sitting at a table with a tall black man, holding what appeared to be a cordial conversation. Charles didn’t have any problems with his wife talking to men, even good loo
king men, but for some reason that scene disturbed him. The man, for one, was looking at Jenay as if she was something good to eat. She was, in every way, but only he got to have a taste.

  He headed for the café. When Jenay looked up and saw him approaching their booth, she didn’t smile. Not because she wasn’t glad to see him. She was always glad to see him. But because she knew, once he found out who she was sitting here talking to, he wasn’t going to like it.

  Quince noticed that her attention had been diverted. He glanced back. He saw the man he knew to be Charles Sinatra heading their way. Sinatra was well- dressed in a sartorially elegant Canali suit and was buffer in person than Quince thought he would be. He turned back around. And played dumb. “Who’s that?” he asked.

  “That’s my husband,” Jenay said.

  Quince knew that his job was to denigrate this man in Jenay’s eyes every chance he could. He just did not expect the chance to come so quickly. “He’s your husband?” he asked. “Really? What is he, like forty? Come on, Jenay! You went from a guy like me, to that? You could do better than that.”

  Jenay knew he was full of it. Charles was gorgeous, smart, and rich. “In your dreams,” she said to Quince, “you’ll never be the man he is.” Then she smiled when Charles was upon them. “Hey, babe.”

  Charles was a little more hesitant than he normally was with her, and he was looking more at Quince than at her. “Hey,” he said.

  “What brings you over here?” Jenay asked him.

  He leaned over and kissed her on the lips. “We’re having dinner with Bonita tonight. No late nights tonight. I wanted to make sure you remembered that.”

  Jenay smiled. “I remembered. I’m looking forward to it.”

  But it was obvious that going home to dinner was not uppermost in his mind anymore. “Who is this?” he asked her as he sat down. He didn’t wait to be asked. He sat on down.

  “This is Quince Franklin,” Jenay said, immediately feeling warm and protected when he sat beside her. “This is my ex-husband.”

  Quince smiled and extended his hand.

  “Your ex-husband?” Charles asked. “You mean the scum of the earth who broke your heart?”