Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full by Mallory Monroe

to bring around their respective cars, Jimmy looked at his Dad, who still seemed agitated.
    “Can I see you for a moment, Pop?” he asked him as he began to move away from the restaurant’s entrance.
    Reno followed his son.   “Yeah, what is it?” he asked when Jimmy stopped walking.
    Jimmy smiled, but Reno could see the anguish in his eyes.  “So what do you think?”
    Reno stared at his son.  “Does it matter what I think?”
    “Of course it does!  You’re my dad.  I want to know what you truly think about my woman.”
    “How long have you known her?”
    Jimmy frowned.  “What difference does that make?”
    “How long, Jimmy?”
    Jimmy had to think about that.  “A few months.  Three, four months.  We met on the basketball court.”
    “At the PaLargio?”
    “Yeah. You know how early I like to get up and shoot hoops.  She was out there one morning, we played a couple games, and we started meeting up once or twice every week.  Then we started dating.”
    “You told her about me?”
    Jimmy hesitated.  “Told her what about you?”
    “That I own the PaLargio, don’t fuck with me, Jimmy.  You know what I’m talking about.”
    “I didn’t tell her anything about you, no I didn’t.  She doesn’t know you from Adam.  That’s the beauty of it.  She loves me based on me and me alone.”
    Reno studied his son.  Jimmy knew that look.  “What?” he asked his father.
    “You love this girl?” Reno asked him.
    “Yeah,” he admitted.  “I love her very much.  That’s why I wanted to know what you thought.”
    Reno exhaled.  “I think you’re way over your head,” he said.  “That’s what I think.”
    Jimmy’s concerned look changed.  Now he looked angry.  “I’m over my head?”
    “That’s what I think, yeah.”
    “Oh, because she’s so beautiful and smart she can’t possibly want me.  Is that what you’re saying?”
    “I’m saying what I said.  You’re in over your head.   What would a woman like that want with a kid like you?”
    Jimmy started nodding.  “So that’s it.  She wouldn’t want a kid like me.  She’d want a man like you.  Is that what you’re saying?  Is that why you were undressing her with your eyes all night, and right in front of Ma?  Because you want to fuck her yourself?”
    Reno knocked Jimmy so hard across the face that Jimmy fell flat down on his ass. 
    Trina, seeing it, immediately ran toward her husband and her stepson.  Melita ran behind her.
    Reno stood there, staring at his son, and then he began walking back toward the entrance.  But the women continued to run toward Jimmy.
    “Are you all right?” Melita asked him as she tried to help him up.  But Jimmy snatched away from her, got up on his own, and then ran toward his father again.  Melita reached out her hand to stop him, but Trina pulled her back.
    “Jimmy is a man,” she said to Melita.  “He just got knocked down.  A man can’t let that stand.”
    Melita looked at Trina.  How could she want her own son to battle her own husband?  What kind of woman was she?  Then she looked back at Jimmy.  He was taking off his suit coat as he made it up to his father.
    Jimmy tossed his coat onto the ground.  “Hit me again!” he yelled at Reno.  “Hit me again, motherfucker!”
    Reno looked at his son as his son got into his face. Tears were in Jimmy’s eyes as he confronted Reno.
    “I’m not some kid anymore!” he yelled.  “You can’t control me anymore!” he yelled even louder and then rammed his father like a bull; rammed him all the way until Reno’s back was against the brick wall of the building.  The Valet staff was looking, wondering if they should call the cops, as Jimmy then grabbed Reno by the catch of his collar and slammed him down onto the ground.  Then Jimmy saddled him. 
    Reno knew he could take Jimmy in a heartbeat.  He knew one flip and he’d have his son in the very position his son now had him in.  With any other man it would