Read Online TOMMY GABRINI 2: A PLACE IN HIS HEART by Mallory Monroe - Free Book Online Page B

board room.   She purposely did not look over at
Tommy.   Nobody was going to respect a
puppet, and she had to prove to them that she wasn’t Tommy’s.
    Tommy
also had the same thought in mind.   That
was why he didn’t follow her out.   He
wanted to make clear that she was now leading the charge here at Trammel and
they’d better get used to it.   Yet as
soon as the door was closed behind her, they pounced, with the main question
being one of class.   How could Jillian’s
chief of staff, they kept asking, suddenly become her boss?
    “Miss
McKinsey explained how,” Tommy replied as he made a slow walk back to the head
of the table.
    “But
she’s your girlfriend, Tommy, is that not true?   How can you mix business with pleasure by letting your girlfriend run
our company?”
    “She’s
my fiancée,” he corrected the member.   “And it’s her company now.”
    But
Jillian only heard the first part.   She
wasn’t trying to hear the second part.   “Your fiancée?” she asked.   “You
plan to marry that ?”
    Tommy
looked at her.   “I plan to marry Grace
McKinsey.   I asked her to marry me, and
to my shock and privilege, she said yes.   We are to be married.”
    “But.
. .” Jillian was shaking her head.   It
seemed as if the entire world had changed in a day.   “When?” she asked.
    “That’s
none of your concern,” Tommy made clear.   “I only brought it up,” he said, “because I wanted to make sure you
understood who you were now dealing with.”   Tommy said this in no uncertain terms, directed completely at
Jillian.  
    Jillian’s
face reddened.   The nerve he had, she
thought.   But he continued to have that
nerve as he answered a few minor concerns, informed them that Grace would
convene a meeting in the future possibly on short notice so they needed to be
mindful, and then he left them to their shock and disbelief.  
    He
thought about going to Grace’s office to see how she was holding up, but he
decided against it.   She had this well in
hand and he had to allow her to keep it well in hand.   He, instead, stepped onto the elevator, and
left Trammel altogether.

 
    But
he wasn’t ten minutes in his limo, heading to his own office, when he received
a phone call from Kelli Montiscue, an old acquaintance of his who once upon a
time was his number one lady.
    “Is
it true?” she asked him as if they’d been discussing it already.   He was seated in the backseat of his
limousine reading over some paperwork, when the call came in.
    “Is
what true?” he asked, although he had a good idea.   But he never hedged bets against
himself.   He wanted to make certain what
exactly the question entailed.
    “You’re engaged ?   You’re getting married ?”   She said engaged and married as if they were bad words.
    Tommy,
however, didn’t hesitate.   “Yes,” he
said.
    There
was now a hesitation on her part.   Then
he heard sniffling.   He stopped reading
his reports and paid attention to his phone call.   “Kell?” he asked.
    “Why
would you . . . How could you?” she finally asked.   “How could you do this to me?”
    Tommy
frowned.   “To you?” he asked.   “What am I doing to you?   We haven’t been together in months.”
    “But
how could you marry somebody else?   After
Shanks I thought . . . I thought. . .”
    Tommy
had heard it before from more than a few of his previous girlfriends.   After he dumped Shanks they assumed they had
the inside track should he want to go serious with somebody again.   They were wrong.   All of them.   “You thought what?”
    “I
thought I would be. . . I thought I was the one, Tommy.   We’ve been together for so long.   I gave you the best years of my life.    Now I’m some old hag nobody wants.”
    “Oh,
don’t be ridiculous,” he said, although it ached him to know that she felt that
way.   Kelli was a gorgeous girl, smart
and sharp.   But she was a model.   And when you start pushing forty,