Big Daddy Sinatra 3: The Best of My Love (The Sinatras of Jericho County) (7 page)

“Where’s
the women?” he asked.

Everybody
looked at him.
 
“Is that one of your sick
jokes, Tony?” Ashley asked him.

“I
don’t mean you and Carly, or Nita.
 
You’re our sisters.
 
I’m talking
about women.
 
Where are our women?
 
I’m single, Brent is single, Bobby and Donnie
are single.
 
What gives, Pop?
 
Why can’t your sons keep females in their
lives?”

“Speak
for yourself,” Brent said.

“He
speaks the truth,” Robert responded.
 
“You’ve had that slutty-ass Denise six years ago, and then a string of
nameless women ever since, but nobody you even bothered to bring to meet the
family.
 
Tony’s the same way.
 
And Donnie?
 
Please.
 
What woman would want to
bother with him?”

“Stop
picking on Donnie,” Ashley said.
 
“You’re
always picking on him.
 
I don’t see you
with any steady girl either.”

“By
choice,” Robert said. “I play the field.
 
That’s what I do.
 
What’s Donnie’s
excuse?”

“It’s
a profound question, Pop,” Tony said.
 
“Why is it that none of your children are married?”

“I’m
too young,” Bonita said, and everybody laughed.
 

“That’s
right, baby,” Jenay said.
 
“Don’t let
anybody rush you into adulthood.
 
You
enjoy being a kid.
 
You’re going to take
your time, aren’t you?”

“Yes
ma’am.”

“Just
like I did,” Jenay went on.
 
“Because you
wanna be smart and resourceful just like who?”

Bonita
actually looked around before she answered that question.
 
Then she smiled and pointed. “Just like
Tony,” she said, and Charles and the others laughed.

“Tony?”
Jenay asked, smiling too.
 
“What about
your father?
 
Or
me
?”

“But
Tony looks out for me,” Bonita said.
 
“He
takes me places and let me visit him at the radio station.”

“I
heard about your new gig, Tony,” Carly said with a smile.
 
“A radio therapist, or, to be accurate, a
therapist with a radio show.
 
That’s all
right.”

“I
thought you wanted to be a monk, or something,” Ashley said.
 
“Now you’re a therapist. You can’t seem to
make up your mind.”

“At
least I have one,” Tony said deadpan, causing Carly and Robert to laugh.

“Not
funny,” Donald said.

“Thank-you,”
Ashley agreed.
 
Then she looked at
Jenay.
 
“Ma,” she asked, “are you still
going to California?”

“Oh
yes,” Jenay said.
 
“My father is still
having his surgery in a couple weeks, and I’m still going for a week to help my
mother with his recovery.”

“But
what will Dad do without you?” Tony asked.

Jenay
smiled.
 
“Ah, Tony, that’s sweet!”

“Sweet
my ass,” Charles said, and everybody laughed.

Tony,
however, corrected his father.
 
“You
really need to watch your language around the children,” he said, sweeping his
hand, not just toward Bonita, but Donald and Ashley as well.
 
Robert laughed.

“Bump
you, Tone,” Ashley said.
 
She looked at
Jenay again.
 
“I’m asking because, since
I’ll be graduating soon, maybe I can go to Cali with you.
 
It’ll be a nice graduation gift for me.”

“But
she’s going to visit her parents
before
you graduate,” Carly reminded her sister.

“So?”
Ashley said.
 
“It’ll be an early gift.”

Carly
shook her head.
 
“You really ought to
stop partying and study more.”

“I’m graduating
before you,” Ashley said, “so bump you.”

“First
of all,” Tony said, “you’re two years older than Carly, so naturally you’re
graduating first.
 
Second of all,
Berkskill College has its good points, I’m sure, but let’s not delude
ourselves. It’s no Harvard.
 
Carly will
be a graduate of Harvard, just as I am.
 
Big difference.”

“A
college degree is a college degree,” Donald said.

He
and Ashley high-fived.
 
“Thank-you!” she
said, and they both laughed.

“Guess
who I saw today?” Jenay asked Charles in the midst of their laughter.

Charles
looked at her.
 
“Who?”

“Aaron
Gentry and the good old boys.”

“Aaron
Gentry?” Donald asked.
 
“What did that
prick want?”

“After
they left your father’s office, they came to the Inn to inform me of the fact
that they have selected me to be the queen of the Founder’s Day parade.”

Tony
laughed.
 
“Those guys!”

But
Charles was not laughing.
 
He stared at
her.
 
Was she tough enough to say no to
vermin like that who once wanted to restrict her access to a club she actually
owned?
 
“What did you tell them?” he
asked her.

“I
told them to go jump in a lake,” Jenay said.
 
“What do you think I told them?”

Charles
was pleased.
 
He should have known she
wouldn’t disappoint him.

Tony
shook his head.
 
“Go jump in a lake.
 
You sound like Pop,” he said.

“They
don’t want me in their parade,” Jenay continued.
 
“They know it and I know it.
 
I told them to jump in several lakes.”

Charles
smiled.
 
“A woman after my own heart
right here,” he said braggingly.

“What
did they say,” Tony asked, “when you suggested such an odd water destination to
them?”

“They
told me that since the parade isn’t for several months, I should think about
it.
 
They insist, despite my water
destination suggestion, that the so-called honor is still mine.”

“Bunch
of fucking losers,” Robert said.
 
“Who in
hell wanna be in their parade?”

“So,
Bobby,” Carly asked, “how does it feel to be Dad’s property manager now?”

“It
feels great,” Robert responded.
 
“I have
a lot to learn still, but it’s going well.”

“Personally,
I don’t see why he should be manager,” Donald said, “while I’m still an
assistant at the Inn.”

“Bobby
works hard,” Tony said.

“I
work hard!” Donald insisted.

“I’m
saying!” Ashley agreed.

“But
Bobby has Dad’s back,” Carly said.
 
“His employees
were stealing from him and back-stabbing him.
 
Bobby won’t tolerate any of that.”

“I
won’t either!” Donald said.
 
“And I have
Dad’s back more than anybody at this table!”

Tony
cleared his throat and playfully motioned his head toward Jenay.

“Except
for Ma,” Donald added, and everybody laughed.

But
Carly noticed that Brent was not feeling it.
 
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked.
 
“Everybody’s upbeat, except you.”

“And
what else is new?” Tony asked.
 
“Brent
was born with a scowl on his face.
 
That’s why they made him chief of police.
 
He was young, but he was the only one who
looked the part.”

They
laughed, but Charles noticed the difference in Brent too.
 
“What’s the matter, son?” he asked him.

Brent
looked at his father.
 
“I told you we
need to talk.”

“Then
talk.”

“It’s
private.”

Jenay
looked at Brent when he said that.

Charles
considered him.
 
“What could be so
private that my own wife and children can’t hear it?
 
There are no strangers at this table.
 
Tell me.”

Brent
exhaled.
 
He wanted it off his chest
anyway.
 
But he thought about his kid
sister.
 
He looked at Bonita.
 
“Neet?”

Bonita
looked her big, green eyes up at him.
 
Although Brent was her older brother, he was always so serious around
her, and he was so much older than her eight years, that she thought of him as
more of her other dad.
 
“Sir?” she asked.

“Take
your plate and finish your dinner in the Rec room.
 
Donnie, you and Ash go with her.”

Robert
laughed.

“See?”
Donald protested.
 
“Everybody treats me
like a kid!”

“And
why do I have to go?” Ashley asked.

“I’ll
go,” Carly volunteered.
 
She was tired of
Ash and Donnie’s complaints anyway.

“Thanks,
Carly,” Brent said.
 

“Come
on, Nita,” Carly said.
 
“Get your plate.”

Carly
ate one last forkful of food and left her almost-empty plate, and then escorted
Bonita, with her plate in hand, out of the dining hall.
 

After
they left, Brent looked at Charles.
 
“It’s about your father,” he said.

And
as soon as he said that, you could hear a pin drop.
 
Everybody looked at Brent.

Charles
looked and frowned.
 
Had he heard him
correctly?
 
“My father?
 
What about my father?”

“This
morning a special prosecutor from the Attorney General’s office paid me a
visit.”

“So
that’s who that was,” Robert said.

Brent
looked at him.
 
“What are you talking
about?”

“The new
girl in town.
 
I saw her.
 
She was gorgeous, but mean.
 
She wouldn’t give me the time of day.
 
Yeah, I could see her being a special
prosecutor alright.”

She
had been on Brent’s mind ever since he met her this morning.
 
For the obvious reason, since she was the
bearer of the bad news, but also for reasons that were far from obvious.
 
“You saw her where?” he asked his playboy of
a brother.

“Around
town, I don’t remember where,” Robert responded.
 
“Is she busty, lots of curves,
African-American?”

“That’s
her,” Brent said.
 
“So?”

“So?”
 
Robert smiled and looked at his father.
 
“Ah, Dad, you should see this woman.
 
She is stacked to the max, you hear me, and
gor-or-or-geous!
 
What I’d give to lay my
head between those two big, juicy---”

“You
stay away from her,” Brent admonished in such a stern way that everybody looked
at him.
 
Robert couldn’t help but smile.

Tony
smiled too.
 
“Want her for yourself, do
you, big brother?”

“This
shit serious,” Brent said in his firm, Brent-way, as they called it.
 
“Why are you making a joke out of it?”

“Go
on, Brent,” Charles said.
 
“What about
this special prosecutor?”

Brent
exhaled.
 
Sometimes those brothers of his
infuriated him!
 
But his father was
right. He moved on.
 
“She said there were
some issues surrounding his case-in-chief when it was originally
presented.
 
Because of that, she said the
Governor has ordered a second look at your father’s conviction.”

“A
second look?” Charles asked.
 
“What the
fuck does that mean?”

“They
believe there might have been some type of prosecutorial misconduct during the
course of his trial.”

“What
the fuck does that mean?” Jenay asked.

“They
fucked up,” Tony said.
 
“In other words.”

But
Charles and Jenay were staring at Brent.

“She
wouldn’t give me the details regarding what the original prosecutor did wrong,”
Brent said to his father and stepmother, “but she told me the end result.
 
She said either granddad will be given a new
trial, or, and here is the kicker, he’ll be released immediately.”