TOMMY GABRINI 2: A PLACE IN HIS HEART Read Online Free PDF Page B

Trammel Transport.    It was a company she worked for, as Jillian Birch’s assistant and later
as her chief of staff, ever since she graduated college.   It was a company, thanks to Tommy’s
generosity, that she now controlled.
    And
even as she continued to admire her ring in the mirror, despite the fact that
she should have been in the lobby of her apartment building five minutes ago,
her phone rang.  
    “Hi,
Tommy,” she said without waiting to make sure it was him.
    “Are
you ever on time?” he asked her irritably.
    “Sorry.   I was daydreaming.   I’m on my way down now.”
    “Daydreaming
about what?” he asked.
    She
looked at the ring again and smiled.   “I’m on my way down now,” she said again.
    “Then
get on your way, Grace.   Don’t make me
come up there and get you,” he warned.
    She
laughed, but she knew Tommy.   She grabbed
her purse and hurried out of her apartment, just the same.

 
    She
was surprised to see him standing in the lobby of her apartment building when
the elevator doors opened.   He usually
waited in the car, usually because he was on the phone handling some business,
whenever he came to pick her up.   But not
this morning.   This was the morning after
his proposal, and already Grace could see that change, that elevation, in her
status.  
    To
see him standing there waiting for her thrilled Grace so much that she couldn’t
even try to hide her glee.   He looked so
elegant to her, in his tailored silk suit and undeniable beauty, and it amused her
even more when she noticed the women around the lobby taking sly glances at
him.   Some were even blatant and not sly
at all.   But she didn’t even sweat it.   That ring gave Grace all kinds of
courage.   He was hers.   And she could hardly contain her happiness.
    “About
time,” he said with a big smile of his own as she hurried over to him.   He loved the way she seemed so thrilled to
see him.   He loved that.
    He
placed his hands on her arms and kissed her on the lips.   Last night, after he made love to her for the
second time and cleaned her up and put her back to bed, he lingered before he
left.   He felt a strong need to
pray.   And he did.   He prayed for the wisdom to take care of her
right.   But even after that he remembered
how burdened he felt.   How afraid he
felt.   Now he was looking her dead in her
sparkling brown eyes, glad to have her in the flesh once again.   “How did you sleep?” he asked her.
    “Great,”
she said.   “You?”
    “Great,”
he said too, showing no signs of regret about his monumental decision last night,
which pleased her.   “Ready?” he then
asked as he glanced down at her outfit.  
    “I
am,” she replied.  
    He
placed his hand in the small of her back and escorted her, to many prying and
envious eyes, out of the lobby and up to his waiting limousine.   She knew her dress style wasn’t exactly up to
his standards yet.   Tommy didn’t own a
stitch of clothing that wasn’t high fashion and ultra-expensive, when almost
her entire wardrobe fit just the opposite description.   And that worked for her, for all of her adult
life, just fine.   She loved her simple
tastes.   But now that she wasn’t just
Tommy’s girlfriend anymore, but was now his fiancée, she knew she had to step
up her game.   She didn’t only represent
herself anymore.   She now, without any
shadow of any doubt, represented him.
    After
they sat in the limo, and the driver closed the door, got back in behind the
wheel, and then began driving them in a slow drive, Grace sat patiently beside
Tommy as he answered what he said was a call he had to take.   He even pulled a file from his briefcase, and
then put on his reading glasses, as he reviewed figures in the documents for
whoever was on the phone.  
    Grace
looked at him as he talked on that telephone.   Although he was a lean man, his biceps were so muscular that they showed
through the contours of his suit coat.   And