Page 23 of Trina Gabrini: Bring Him Back Home to Me

But even as Trina broke down and leaned over into Jimmy’s open arms for comfort, and even as her pain intensified in a way that made her want to die inside, something was still stopping her from throwing in the towel. Something deep inside of her was telling her no. This couldn’t be true. There was no Reno without Trina. There was no Trina without Reno! And it was going to just end like this? Like this?

She moved away from Jimmy and began shaking her head.

“Ma, what is it?”

“No,” she said as she put the car back into gear. “Something’s wrong. Reno wouldn’t do this to me.”

“Come on, Ma,” Jimmy said. He was amazed that she was still in denial.

She looked at Jimmy angrily. “He wouldn’t do this to me! I don’t care what you say, what that woman says, what Reno said!” Then she said softly, the tears streaming down her beautiful face. “He wouldn’t do this to me. He wouldn’t.”

Then she wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and took off.

Jimmy jerked backwards she sped away so fast.

“There’s no Reno without Trina,” she said out loud.

But Jimmy knew everybody once said there was no Tina without Ike. But that didn’t turn out to be true either.

The problem was that Trina didn’t know it. Or didn’t want to know it. But either way, it was bad.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tommy Gabrini lifted her gown and eased on in.

Grace let out a quiet groan as he slowly moved inside of her. They were in bed, spooned together on their sides, as daybreak approached. They were both early risers, but rarely did a morning arrive when Tommy wasn’t deep inside of Grace before he got up for work.

Tommy’s groans weren’t as quiet as Grace’s, because he could never suppress that wonderful feeling he felt whenever he did her. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. “Dapper Tom” had been a ladies man extraordinaire for most of his life.

And he had a definite type: Tall, slender, unquestionably gorgeous, strong and independent African-American supermodel types. They used to turn him on unlike any other women could. If she was single, gorgeous and black, the chances were high that she’d been with Dapper Tom.

When he met Grace, she was nothing like his usual type. She was a black woman and independent alright, but she wasn’t particularly tall and she wasn’t what most would consider as gorgeous. She was a pretty, efficient girl who did her work and got it done, but she was no knockout like the ladies Tommy was accustomed to.

But there was something about Grace that stopped him cold. She touched a part of his heart that no one else had ever penetrated. And instead of falling in lust with Grace the way he fell for all of his other ladies, he fell in love with her. They had major bumps in the road, including their messy divorce, after which they hooked up with other people, and then their great reconciliation and remarriage. But that tumultuous time changed Tommy. It scared him straight. Now Dapper Tom was a family man through and through.

Although lately there had been serious temptations.

“Ah,” he moaned as those feelings for Grace intensified and he could barely hold on. She was in the throes of her orgasm, too, and he was soon to follow.

And when he came, he gave one hard shove even deeper inside of Grace and poured out. He gave her all he had. His entire body was jerking as he poured into his wife.

Now nobody turned him on like Grace.

They both were still feeling the sensations when his phone rang. It took a second or two, but he ultimately reached for his phone and looked at the Caller ID. It was his brother Sal. No matter what he was doing, he would never not answer a call from Sal.

“Yeah?”

“Get to Vegas, Tommy.”

Tommy was older than Sal. Not by much, but older in such a way that whenever they both were in a room there was no question to anyone which one was in charge. It was therefore kind of jarring to Tommy to hear Sal ordering him to do something. That was why he didn’t respond.

And that was when Sal gave an explanation so cryptic that it was no explanation at all. “It’s happening,” Sal said.

Tommy had no clue what he was talking about. “What’s happening?” he asked him.

“Lydia,” Sal said softly.

When Sal said that one word, it walloped Tommy. He hadn’t heard that name in years, but he knew exactly what it meant.