Directing Disaster

“He would have, if she hadn’t looked at him with that raised eye brow.  Stopped him in his tracks.”  Joey worked his face trying to raise his left eyebrow in imitation of Lane’s look the night before.

Jess raised her brow.  “You mean this look?”

Joey held his hands up in surrender.  “Yes, that look.”

She laughed. “Oh, come on, you aren’t trying to tell me that look frightens you.  Every mother has something that gets her kids.  I’ve seen Mama Bellini get the attention of her grown sons like this.”  She slapped the fingers of her left hand sharply into the palm of her right hand, the same way she had done the night before to get his attention.

“My mother raised her eyebrow, and we knew that whatever discussion or argument we thought we were having was over. And there’s no need to ask who won.  If it was accompanied with a finger pointing toward the bedrooms, we knew we were in deep trouble.”

Joey gave an exaggerated shudder.  “I think the hand slapping and yelling is better.”

It was what he’d grown up with.  He was used to it; and if the truth be told, until Jess had done it last night, he had thought he was immune to it.  That quiet tone and the look that the Parker women used was going to take some getting used to.

They hadn’t talked about the events from last night.  They had walked back into the ballroom together.  They’d danced together, and he’d stepped aside when each of his brothers and most of the other men at the wedding reception had asked her to dance.  But after each dance he relinquished, he had come back and claimed his place next to her.  Damn, the last thing he expected five days ago was to become a full-fledged member of the Jess Parker fan club.

She had been right last night.  Five days ago, what he thought he knew was that she was nothing more than a pretty face and Pauli’s current girlfriend. He’d learned a lot since then.  The most important thing was that she wasn’t Pauli’s girlfriend, had never been Pauli’s girlfriend and never wanted to be Pauli’s girlfriend.  And although she was beautiful, she was much more than just a pretty face. She was smart, witty, and bossy. He rubbed his chest absent-mindedly.  And how could someone so damn small have such a wallop? Whether because of the paint ball gun, the center piece, or her finger, his chest ached.  It had to be from something she’d shot, thrown, or punched.  There was no way it was from anything else.  And yet he had to admit it was a sensation he didn’t think he’d ever felt before.

He shook his head.  What did he feel? In the begi

He looked across the table.  She was looking at him rather quizzically.  He wondered what he’d done.

“What?  What did I do this time?”

She smiled and shook her head as she said, “You weren’t listening again.”

“I was thinking.  God, don’t tell me I’ve missed something important again.”

Jess squinted her eyes and looked at him.  “I was just making small talk.”

“Well, by all means, please continue.”  He said waving his hand in a go-on motion.

“I asked where you went to college.”

“Oh, that kind of small talk.  Undergrad and MBA from St. Louis University.  The Bellinis are big on Jesuit schools for young men. The old man went to Creighton, Tony went to Rockhurst and Pauli and I went to St. Louis.”

He looked at her.  “How long have you been able to speak Italian?”

“A couple of years.  Ho imparato da Rosetta Stone.”

“And no one has any idea?”

“No, and as you know I plan to keep it that way.”

“Why did you learn?”

“I like languages.  I’m also fluent in Spanish and I’m learning French now.  But the real reason for Italian is that I was tired of being left out of conversations.”

He gri

She raised her eyebrow and tilted her head slightly.  “Someone like me?”

He held up his hands as if in surrender. “Inquisitive.  I’ll bet you were a precocious child.”

She smiled and shrugged.

“What’s with the five inch heels?  The truth, not the publicity hype.”

That got a full throated laugh.  “I’m short like Nana Evie.”  She took off her shoes and stood up.  “You’ve seen my brothers and my mother.  I needed some help.  It really is as simple as that.  I constantly felt like a Lilliputian.  It’s one thing that isn’t hype.”

The three hour trip passed quickly and soon they were on the ground at the Long Beach airport.  Joey had a limo waiting; and Jess recognized Tito, the driver who had taken them to the airport earlier in the week.

They rode silently for a while, then Joey broke the silence.  “The old man had all of your locks changed.  He said the building has a doorman now and we can get the keys from him.”

“I wonder how he managed the doorman.  California is pretty laid back, not like New York.  It’s a small building, 12 units, but still I imagine there were some people who didn’t want a door man.”

“It’s hard to argue with the old man once his mind’s made up.  He’s probably paying the doorman’s salary himself.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.  Just how much money did the Bellini family have? She wondered.

Joey held his hands up.  “Hey, he’d do it to keep you safe.”

The limo stopped in front of Jess’s building.  Tito opened the door. Joey got out and reached back in to take Jess’s hand.  He took Jess’s bag from Tito and walked with her into the building.

“The old man said he sent you some things, so the doorman will have packages along with the key.”  He told her as he opened the door and walked into the lobby.  He stopped in front of the desk that hadn’t been there a few days ago.  “I’m Joey Bellini.  This is Jessica Parker.  I think you have a set of keys and some packages for us.”

“You don’t mind if I check some ID, do you?”  The guard said.

“Not at all.”  Joey turned to smile at Jess as he pulled out his wallet.

The guard inspected Joey’s ID and nodded.  “And the lady?”

Jess reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet, dropping the plastic bag of toothbrushes on the floor. She laid her ID out for the guard as Joey bent and picked up the plastic bag she’d dropped.

The guard handed the new keys to Jess and the packages to Joey.  As they walked to the elevator, Joey handed her the bag he’d retrieved.  He could see that the bag contained toothbrushes, each in separate bags.  He also noticed that the bags had labels reading Jamie and Ben.

“Don’t ask, because I’m not going to tell you.” Jess said as she took the bag and stuffed it back into her large purse, wondering how much he’d seen.

They rode the elevator to the top floor.  Jess walked out and Joey followed her to her condo.  She unlocked the door and opened it, stood in the hall and looked around.  Of course, she thought, Ben would have had a cleaning crew come through.

Joey had gone into the condo first and put the packages down in the living room.  “I’m supposed to make sure everything’s secure.”  He said as he took her hand.  “Come on, you need to see that no one’s here, everything is safe, and you’re secure.”

He left his gun in its holster, but she was sure it was there under his left arm.  She held his hand as they walked through the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms and the bathrooms.  They walked back into the living room, where they sat next to each other on the sofa.  Joey pushed the bags toward her.