Chapter 31
California here I come
Joey handed his and Jess’s bags to a steward, and put his hand in the small of Jess’s back as they ascended the stairs leading to the Lucky Bets Jet. In the mid afternoon sunlight, Jess could see the logo plainly; an L and a B, each in the center of cubes, forming a pair of rolling dice. She’d have seen it when they left Long Beach airport five days ago, if she hadn’t been so rattled by the break-in, Joey’s rescue, and the theft of her favorite shoes. Seeing the logo, she couldn’t help but notice that is was also the first initial of the last names Luciano and Bellini.
There was obviously a lot about these two families that the Parkers didn’t know, and now they were forever linked. It warranted some investigation. Jess remembered the reaction of her friends the first time they learned that she knew “the Bellinis”. It was the first time someone had told her that the Bellinis were mobbed up. Joey managed a casino in Vegas. It wasn’t such a stretch to imagine that the casino was owned by the family. The question was only whether it was owned by the family or by la famiglia.
Jess settled into a seat and looked out the window to where her Mom and Ben stood. She waved at her Mother as the plane began to taxi.
*****
Lane and Ben had driven them to the Executive Airport. Lane watched as Jess boarded the plane. Jess had turned and waved at Lane using the signal for I love you. Little finger, index finger and thumb extended. It was for the letters I, L & Y from American Sign Language. Lane smiled, she’d taught it to her kids when they were small, anticipating the days when they’d be too big to tell her or to hear from her the words that the sign conveyed. The hatch was closed, and Lane and Ben got back into the Lincoln Navigator; but Ben didn’t start the engine until the plane was in the air.
He looked at Lane. He was sure Jess had no idea that Lane’s eyes filled with tears every time she said good-bye to her daughter at an airport. Lane reached into her purse, retrieved a tissue and dabbed at her eyes.
Ben squeezed her hand. “She’ll be fine, Red. You know she can take care of herself.”
“I know, it’s just that I always remember her as that little girl.”
“Oh, you mean the one who went toe to toe with you at, what was she, three when she told you not to yell at Jake?”
Lane dabbed her eyes again and smiled. “Yes, that little girl.”
*****
Joey had taken the seat across the table from Jess again. He watched her as she gazed out the window until the Navigator was no longer in view. “You okay?”
She smiled at him. “Yes. I worry about my Mom, that’s all.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, the old man is all about taking care of her. I pity any man, woman, or beast who causes her the slightest bit of discomfort. Her children excluded of course.”
Jess laughed. “He can be just a bit over protective, can’t he? I thought he was going to carry her to the SUV last night when she said she was tired.”
“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 beginning, he’d wanted to divert the paparazzi away from him and make them believe he was Pauli. After all, at the time he thought she really was dating Pauli. He also didn’t want his people in Vegas to think he was mixed up in some mess with an actress. Over the last five days, he’d been her savior, her protector. He smiled. Yeah right, he’d been her protector. After he’d been stabbed, she had the little twerp who’d done it incapacitated and on the ground in seconds. No wonder Hollywood was going nuts.
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 grinned. “I imagine someone like you could find that really irritating.”
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.”