Mick Sinatra 3: His Lady, His Children, and Sal (7 page)

“We all know how important it is for us to stick
together as a family,” Ursula said.
 
“So
we came.”

Ursula Mastriano, Teddy’s mother, and Bella Caine,
Gloria’s, were Mick’s two favorites.
 
Ursula for her kind heart.
 
He
broke her heart and hated himself for it.
 
With Bella, it was her great looks.
 
And the fact that she had enough respect for herself to dump him before
he dumped her.

“It’s the principle of the matter,” Cathleen
added.
 
“We need to maintain our
unity.
 
That’s why your mother has to
find a way to get here.
 
Wouldn’t you
agree, Mick?
 
What do you think about
it?”

“Who gives a shit,” Mick said with a frown, and
Gloria inwardly smiled.
 
Teddy outwardly
smiled.

“I give a shit,” Cathleen said, offended.
 
“Right is right and Bella Caine is always on
the wrong side of right.
 
You should stop
allowing her to get away with that.”

Mick rolled his eyes.
 
He wasn’t about to get into it with Cathleen
and her nonsense.
 
He, instead, asked
about Adrian’s whereabouts.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Hillary said.
 
“You know how he is.”

The conversation would remain in that kind of tense
mode until the announcement was made that Rosalind had arrived.

Mick stood up, forcing everybody else to stand too,
but instead of waiting for her to enter the home as they assumed he would do,
he left them and went outside to greet her.
 
Every one of the mothers made their way to the front window, to see just
how he greeted her.
 
Their sons shook
their heads.

Roz was still talking on her car phone, to her
office staff, when Mick first came outside.
 
The valet backed off when he made his way toward the driver side door.

“Isn’t that Mick’s Bentley she’s driving?” Hillary
asked.

“Looks like it,” Cathleen said.

“He bought me new cars when I was dating him,”
Hillary proclaimed.

“Me too,” proclaimed Ursula.

“Me three,” Cathleen chimed in.

“Oh, well,” Hillary said.
 
“Maybe she isn’t as special to him as he’s
letting on.”

But all three of them knew Mick’s actions didn’t
bear that out.
 
Not the way he raced
outside to greet her as if he couldn’t bear her showing up anywhere near them
alone.
 
And the way he was now opening
her car door, and helping her out, and giving her a long, passionate kiss as
she stood in his arms.
 
And the look of
her.

Cathleen all but declared she was nothing to write
home about, insisting she was not in their league in the looks department, but
both Hillary and Ursula now realized that was a lie.
 
The woman was gorgeous.
 
No ands, ifs, or buts about it.
 
And she looked far younger than they had
assumed her to be.

“How old is she?” Ursula asked.

“Joey says she’s thirty-three or thirty-four,”
Cathleen said.
 
“I can’t remember which
one he said.
 
But she looks much
older.
 
Doesn’t she?”

The reverse was true, and even Cathleen knew it, but
the other two mothers kept up her charade.
 
“Much older,” Hillary agreed.

Outside, Mick placed his arm around Roz’s waist and
escorted her toward the front door.
 
“You
aren’t worried?” he asked her.

“No,” Roz admitted.
 
“I’m not worried.
 
Would I rather
have a root canal?
 
Yes.
 
But I’m not worried.”

Mick laughed, and the Butler escorted them in.

The three mothers had returned to their seat on the
couch, with looks of derision from their sons, as Mick and Roz walked in.
 
Joey, Gloria, and Teddy were still standing
up, and each gave Roz a warm embrace.
 
Mick, to his credit, Roz thought, didn’t bother to do any formal
introduction with the women.
 
He didn’t
attempt to rub it in.
 
But he, instead,
sat Roz down on the sofa beside him.
 
His
big arm was partially on top of her arm, as if he was her shield of
protection.
 
Gloria remained on the sofa
at Mick’s side.
 
Joey sat beside Roz.

“So you’re Rosalind Graham,” Hillary said.

Roz knew the woman was well aware that she was a
Sinatra now, but she didn’t bother to correct her.
 
Mick, however, did.
 
“Her name is Rosalind Sinatra,” he said.
 
“She’s my wife.”

Hillary’s lips tightened, and so did Cathleen’s, but
Ursula smiled.
 
“It’s nice to finally
meet you, Mrs. Sinatra,” Ursula decided to say.
 
“I’m Ursula.
 
Though most people
just call me Sue. Theodore has spoken very highly of you.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Sue,” Roz responded.
 
“And you’ve raised a very special young
man.
 
Teddy’s a gem.”

Ursula smiled. “I agree.
 
And thank you for the compliment.”

Cathleen and Hillary wanted to throw up, Mick could
tell, and their looks alone made it worth the price of admission for him.
 
But the fun didn’t last.
 
The chef informed them that dinner was
served, and they all made their way into the dining room.

Mick was placed at the head of the table, Cathleen
at the other head, and Roz was bookended by Hillary and Ursula, with the
children on the opposite side of the table seated together.

But after dinner, Teddy, Gloria, and Joey had lives
to live and left as quickly as they could.
 
Mick and Roz wanted out too, but the mothers requested an additional few
minutes.

They settled back into the living room, with the
mothers on one sofa, and Mick and Roz on the sofa across from them.

“The reason we wanted to come together,” Cathleen
said, “is to get a better picture of everybody’s standing.”

Mick and Roz stared at the mothers.
 
They weren’t about to help them along.

“Specifically,” Cathleen continued, “the children.”

“We need to know where we stand,” Hillary said.

“We need to know our standing,” Cathleen echoed.

“You stand,” Mick said, “wherever the fuck you wanna
stand.”

Hillary shook her head. She hated dealing with
him!
 
“What percentage of your money is
she getting?” Cathleen asked bluntly, motioning toward Roz.

Mick frowned.
 
“None of your damn business,” he responded, equally bluntly.

“You don’t understand what we’re going through,”
Hillary said.
 
“We depend on your
ass.
 
If you stop taking care of us, what
are we supposed to do?”

“Here’s a novel idea,” Mick said.
 
“Get a job.”
 
He began to stand.
 
Roz stood too.

“We are serious, Michello,” Cathleen said, as the
mothers rose too.
 
“You need to tell us
what to expect, and what our boys can expect.”

“My children will always be taken care of.
 
They know that.”

“And us?” Ursula asked.

Mick looked at her.
 
He couldn’t be harsh to her.
 
“Nothing changes,” he said.
 
“Now
my wife and I will have to leave.”

“You are such an asshole!” Cathleen spewed out.
 
“You treat us like dogs, yet you treat that
bitch like she’s the cat’s meow?
 
Her
?
 
You expect us to accept that bitch?
 
What do we get?”

Mick broke away from Roz.
 
“Mick,” Roz said, attempting to pull him
back.
 
But he jerked away from her and
continued to progress toward Cathleen.
 
Cathleen’s heart was pounding, but she stood her ground.

Mick stood toe to toe with her.
 
“You, on the other hand,” he said, “is
officially cut off.
 
You will not get
another dime from me.
 
And this house has
only one name on it, and it’s not yours.
 
I want my house back.
 
You have
twenty-four hours to vacate these premises.
 
That’s what you get.
 
Now who’s
the bitch?
 
Bitch.”

Mick stared at her a moment longer.
 
Then he reached his hand out to Roz, Roz
grasped it, and they left the mothers where they stood.

Hours later, Roz got out of the tub after a long
bath, dried off, and got in bed.
 
Mick
had showered earlier and was already in bed, lying on his back.
 
He pulled her freshly scrubbed naked body on
top of his.
 

She looked down at him as he covered her body with
their silk sheets.
 
“Are you really going
to take that house away from Cathleen?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Mick,” Roz
said.

Mick looked at her.
 
He began rubbing her ass.

“I’m thinking about Joey.
 
He loves his mother.
 
It’s going to hurt him if you put her out
like that.”

“Then he’ll have to be hurt.”

“Oh, Mick, you don’t mean that.”

But Mick did mean it.
 
“I don’t play that shit, Rosalind,” he
said.
 
“And Cat knows it.
 
But she still calls my wife a bitch.
 
She talks about you as if you’re beneath
her.
 
She feels entitled to my
money.
 
I don’t play that shit!
 
That gravy train is over.”

 
“What are you
going to tell Joey when he finds out his mother is homeless?”

“Buy her a home if he doesn’t want her homeless,”
Mick suggested.
 
“The trust fund I set up
for him pays him monthly.
 
He can afford
it.”

“He can afford to buy her a house,” Roz said, “but
nothing like the one she’s living in now.”

“She should have thought about that before she
disrespected you.
 
She’s known me a long
time.
 
I assure you she can’t recall one
time in all of that time when I didn’t mean what I said.
 
She’s out.
 
No counter argument is going to bring her back in.”

Roz closed her eyes and laid her head back onto his
shoulder.
 
She was hesitant now to bring
up her Hamilton Sturgess problem.
 
Hamp
needed help, and Roz was anxious to help him, not only because he needed it,
but because it would be a good business move on her part.
 
But Mick was so damn hard.
 
He might not allow it.

That was why she thought again.
 
Because if she allowed him to have veto power
over her business decisions, when she was certain he wouldn’t give her that
privilege when it came to his own business decisions, he would effectively
control every aspect of her life.
 
She
would be taking an awful risk if she tried it.

But she had to tell him about her past history with
Hamp.
 
She wasn’t keeping that kind of
secret from her husband.
 
As he continued
to massage her ass to a point where he began to close his eyes and moan, and as
his familiar finger began rubbing the outer hub of her vagina before it slid in
between her folds, she knew she had to come clean.
 
She also knew, for the sake of her own
autonomy, that she had to frame it differently.

“Hamilton Sturgess paid me a visit today,” she said
to him.

Mick continued to massage her ass and rub outside of
her vagina, as he thought about the name.
 
“Am I supposed to know that name?” he asked.

“If you know anything about Broadway, you would know
the name.
 
He’s a very accomplished
actor.
 
We worked on a couple plays
together.
 
Off Broadway.
 
Before he hit it big.
 
But even then it was obvious he was the best
around.”

“And he paid you a visit today?”

“He did.
 
It
shocked the shit out of me, but he did.”

Mick continued to rub and massage, as he waited for
her to tell him more.
 
Soon one, and then
other one of his fingers entered her as he waited for her to tell him more.