Page 74 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

After the game, Sal and Marie were walking out of the ballpark with Lucky by their side.

“How’s that back feeling?” Sal asked him.

“It feels fine. I told you those burns don’t hurt no more.”

Sal still felt some kind of way about it all.

“Did you see my homeruns?” Lucky asked him, to change the subject, knowing his dad still blamed himself for what happened.

“Hell yeah I saw’em,” Sal said loudly. It worked. “Hitting all those homeruns like your ass Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron. Where do you get all that power from, son? That’s what I wanna know.”

“I get it from you Daddy,” said Lucky. “It’s hereditary.”

Marie laughed. Lucky knew how to touch their father’s heart.

And she was right. Sal beamed. “Damn right it’s hereditary,” Sal said, tossing a baseball in the air, dressed down in jeans and jersey for a change. “And not on your mother’s side either. All of her people are bankers and judges and shit like that. It’s that Gabrini power you got. That’s what you got!”

Lucky and Marie laughed. Most people would find bankers and judges in the family as assets. Sal, ever the mobster, didn’t see the allure of such professions.

His cell phone rang. “You just need to work more on your fielding,” Sal said, which Lucky knew was true, as he pulled out his phone. When he saw it was Trina, he answered happily. “You tell Carmine my boy just hit two home runs,” he bragged.

“Get to the hospital, Sal,” Trina said.

“The hospital?” Sal was confused. Marie and Lucky looked too. “Why do I need to go to the hospital?”

“They just rushed Gemma to the hospital. Get there now!”

Sal, stunned, took off running.

“What is it, Daddy?” Lucky asked, running with him.

“Daddy, what is it?” asked Marie, running too.

But Sal couldn’t speak. He just had to get to Gemma!

By the time Sal, Marie, and Lucky were hurrying into the revolving doors of the hospital, and then being instructed where to go to get to her room, Gemma was seated on the edge of the bed buttoning her blouse. Trina and Reno were with her.

Sal ran to her. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Sal. I don’t know why Trina called you.”

“Because she was supposed to call me. I look out for you. I take care of you.”

“What happened, Ma?” Marie asked her anxiously. She and Lucky had bum-rushed her too.

“I was at Champagne’s and just got weak and dizzy.”

“She passed out,” said Trina. “Luckily Reno was there to catch her fall.”

Sal frowned. “What are you passing out for?” he asked her.

When she wouldn’t respond or even look up, Sal turned to Trina. But Trina didn’t respond either. She just smiled.

But when she smiled, Marie and Lucky got it right away. But Sal was still lost. “What’s so funny?” he asked her. Then he saw Marie and Lucky and Reno smiling too.

He looked at Gemma again. But it was only when she looked up at him, and he saw that glow all over her beautiful face, did he realize what was happening. But could it be true?

“You’re pregnant?” he asked her.

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