Page 26 of Teddy Sinatra: Go Your Own Way
“What about Teddy, Mick?”
Mick sat there for a moment which, Roz knew, meant that it was weighing heavily on him. “Ted’s been talking with Potter Rarsi for months.”
“Really? Talking to him about what?”
There was a definite anguish that came over Mick’s face. But Roz couldn’t decipher if it was anger or sadness. “Leaving me,” Mick said.
It was probably both, Roz thought, until she realized what he had actually said. And her already large eyes stretched. “Leaving you? Teddy was already looking to leave?”
“Yep.”
“But leave you to do what? To work for him? For Rarsi?”
“That’s what Rarsi told me, yes.”
“He told you? He didn’t keep it undercover?”
“That’s not how Rarsi works. He’s an upfront guy. It’s how Teddy’s ass works. But not Rarsi.”
“But he tried leaving you before and it blew up in his face.”
“Yeah but Rarsi runs a tighter ship. It’s a better fit for Ted. Even I know that.”
Roz continued to stare at Mick. He never played checkers. He was a chest master. But so was Roz. “That’s why you took us on vacation. Not because we hadn’t had one in a long time, or because the twins were going away to college soon. It was so you could see how Teddy would handle the usual flare ups without your spies reporting back to you the way they usually did. Am I right?”
Mick was never one-dimensional. Two things could be true at the same time for him and almost always was. “Yes, you’re right,” he said. “But I didn’t expect all hell to break loose and for him to not bother to so much as mention it to me.”
“And you did it,” Roz continued, still figuring it out, “so that you could decide if you were going to what? To fight to keep Teddy? Was that the plan?”
Roz’s ability to decode him always impressed him. “That was the plan, yes.”
Roz stared at him. She wasn’t sure if she wanted the answer. “What’s the verdict? Is he worth fighting for?”
“A part of me want to say hell no. Especially after last night. But . . . Hell yes. He’s worth it.”
Roz was inwardly pleased to hear that. But it was so out of character for slash-and-burn Mick that she needed to know more. “What made you come to that conclusion? Especially after last night? I know Teddy’s the best boss in this country if you ask me, and other than this recent screwup, he’s been nothing but valuable to you. But even you just implied you aren’t the right fit for him and Rarsi is. Why would you still be willing to fight to keep Teddy with you if he’s the wrong fit?”
Mick swallowed hard. What he was about to say would never be easy for him. But he said it. “Because he’s my son,” he said, “and nobody’s going to take care of him like I will.”
“And like you always have,” Roz proudly added. “Despite last night.”
Mick looked at her. She was his ally. His biggest and loudest champion. He got up, leaned over and kissed her on the lips, which brought her to her feet. He untied her robe, revealing her naked body. Then he slipped his arms inside her robe and pulled her against him, holding her tightly. Massaging her ass.
As he stared into her eyes, a part of him wanted to say what he felt about her, but the bigger part of him wasn’t going there. Because with Roz he knew words didn’t mean shit to her.Anybody can say anything, was how she always put it. He had to show her. During the entirety of their long marriage, he always had to show her. She was an exhausting bitch the way she didn’t take any half-gestures from him. But she was his bitch, he thought. She washis.
And by just holding her so lovingly, and steadily pressing his body even harder against her body to make her feel his arousal, and to make her understand how he felt about her through the comfort of his big body alone, was showing her everything she needed to see.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
After Nikki got up, showered and dressed and made it downstairs, Teddy was seated on the sofa in his suit and tie, looking his usual stern self as his thumb and finger gently rubbed his chin. But he looked anguished to her too. As if he was still processing every single moment of the week they’d had. As if he was feelingeverythingand overthinking it. But she was almost numb. She didn’t know what to feel.
She stood momentarily on the bottom step of their staircase and continued to stare at him. How could he have said what he said to her last night? It was as if she had been blindsided by what he’d said. One minute they were doing all they could to make their marriage life and work life balance out better, and the next minute he was telling her if she remained in what was now her many years’ profession that he’d leave her? He gave her an ultimatum as if he could easily walk away from their marriage based on her decision alone, which would put the breakup of their marriage at her feet. Was that what he was doing to her?
Last night he didn’t explain himself, and she was too stunned to ask for an explanation. Because it was all so bizarre to her. She knew he was tired and she was tired and they might have said things they couldn’t come back from. Between what happened at the docks and that fight at Mick and Roz’s, it had been too much of an emotional whirlwind as it was. She wasn’t trying to add any more fuel to that fire.
Although Teddy already had.
She walked across the room toward him.
