Brent Sinatra: All of Me (17 page)

Breakfast at Charles and Jenay’s was always
unpredictable.
 
Most days, Charles didn’t
bother to get up early enough and it was just Jenay and little Bonita.
 
Other days, it was all three of them, with
three of their grown children, Donald, Ashley, or Bobby stopping by.
 
And they usually only came by to talk shop
and stayed for breakfast because it was there.
 
Because all three of them worked for their father now.
 
Donald was still at the Jericho Inn, working
directly under Jenay, as the Inn’s General Manager.
 
Bobby was still, on paper, the Property
Manager of Charles’ rental properties in Jericho, although his future in that
position was gravely in doubt.
 
And
Ashley, their African-American adopted daughter, worked directly under Charles
as his Office Manager.

She and Donald had just sat down, along with Jenay and
Bonita, and was enjoying a full breakfast when Charles finally joined them.

“Kind of early for you, Dad,” Ashley said with a smile.

Charles had on his bathrobe, and looked unshaven and
uncombed, as he sat at the head of the table.
 
“I couldn’t resist the smells,” he said.

“Of us, or the food?” Bonita asked.

Charles laughed and pinched her cheek.
 
“You, of course,” he said with nothing but
affection in his eyes.

“Where’s Bobby?” Bonita asked.
 
She hadn’t seen her brother in a couple
weeks, and it was worrying her.

Charles and Jenay glanced at each other, but Charles grabbed
a muffin instead of answering his child’s question.
  
He was still angry with that boy of his and
couldn’t discuss him without revealing that anger.

“Has anyone heard from Robert?” Jenay asked Donald and Ashley
on behalf of Bonita.
 
Not to mention on
her own behalf.

“He came to see me,” Ashley said, and everybody looked at
her.

“How is he?” Jenay asked.

Ashley was their most direct and honest child.
 
Like Charles, she didn’t mince words
either.
 
“He’s tripping,” she said.
 
“He looked pretty bummed-out to me.
 
I tried to talk about Kaci, since that
usually cheers him right up, but he didn’t want to talk about her.”

“Now that’s news,” Donald said.
 
“That airheaded girl is his world.”

“She’s no longer appealing to him,” Charles said.
 
They all looked at him.
 
“It never fails.
 
That desperate,
I can’t live without you
kind of love Robert was displaying loses
its’ appeal really quickly when you pay too high a price to have it.
 
And he’s paid a high price.
 
Losing yourself and your integrity is too
much to pay.
 
I told you children years
ago to name your price in this world, and never go over it.
 
Robert went over it and then some.
 
There’s a name for a man who goes over that
far.”

“Sucker,” Bonita said.

Ashley laughed.
 
“Oh,
no you didn’t!” she said.

“Oh yes she did,” Donald said, laughing too.
 
Then he looked at his kid sister.
 
“You hang around Tony too much.”

“I like Tony,” Bonita said.
 
“He spends time with me, which is more than I can say for you and Ash
and Bobby.
 
And I never get to see
Carly.”

“She lives in California,” Ashley said.
 
“She can’t just drop everything and come
over.”

“And you forgot Brent,” Donald said.
 
“Why does Brent always get a pass?”

“Because Brent is on Daddy and Mommy’s level,” Bonita
said.
 
“He’s not on your level.”

“Says who?” Donald asked.

“Says my daughter,” Charles responded, because he couldn’t
agree with Bonita more.

“Anyway,” Ashley said to Charles, “Bobby did ask about you
and Mom.
 
He wanted to know how you guys
were doing.”
   

“We’ll do better when he do right,” Charles said.
 
“He let some fast-ass girl turn him into some
weak, punkish---”

“Don’t raise your blood pressure, Charlie,” Jenay said.
 
“It’s not worth it.”

“I know, babe.
 
But
every time I think about that boy walking out of that door with a slickster
like Porter Keith, I want to---”

“Not in front of the children, you don’t,” Jenay said,
motioning toward Bonita.

Charles exhaled, glanced at his young daughter, and gave up
the fight.
 
He ate instead.

After several minutes of everybody eating without talking,
the front door was unlocked and opened.
 
“Knock-knock,” Tony said, prompting Bonita to yell
Tony
, and run from the table and into his arms.

“There’s my princess!” Tony lifted her into his arms.

Brent leaned over and kissed her.
 
“Hey, Nita.”

“Hello, sir,” Bonita said to her oldest brother, but her
attention was already on the pretty little boy that stood beside him, holding
his hand.
 
“Who is that?”

“Who is
who
?” Jenay
asked, and Brent, with Junior beside him and Tony and Bonita bringing up the
rear, walked into the dining room.

The room went silent when they looked at the little boy.
 
Everybody immediately saw the connection,
except Ashley.
 
“What a cute kid,” she
said with a smile.
 
“Who is he?”

Brent pulled the boy in front of him.
 
He leaned against Brent and Brent placed his
arms across his chest.
 
Brent knew all
eyes were on him, waiting for an explanation, but he only had eyes for his
father and stepmother.
 
“We don’t know
his name yet,” he said, “but we call him Junior.”

Charles frowned.
 
“What’s going on, son?”

“What do you mean you don’t know his name yet?” Ashley asked.

Jenay could see Brent’s distress, which was highly unusual
for a poker face like Brent.
 
“Why don’t
you sit down?” she suggested.

Brent took her up on the suggestion.
 
He sat in the seat Bonita had vacated.
 
He sat directly to his father’s left.
 
Junior stood beside him, very close, and
stared at the strangers at the table.
 
And Brent didn’t hesitate. “There’s been no DNA confirmation,” he said,
“but I believe this young man is my son.”

An audible gasp filled the room.
 
Ashley covered her mouth, Donald dropped his
head in shock, Jenay looked at Charles, and Charles pushed his chair back from
the table.
 
If they were shocked, Charles
was far beyond any shock they felt.
 
“Your
son
?” he asked.
 

“Since when?” Ashley asked.

“I just found out earlier this morning.”

“Wow,” Donald said.
 
“This is like wow.
 
Brent has a
son?”

Bonita looked at Tony, who still held her in his arms.
 
“Brent has a son?” she asked.

Tony smiled.
 
“It would
appear,” he said.

“But why wouldn’t you know his name?” Ashley asked.
 
“And how could you be certain he’s yours?”

Donald looked at her.
 
They were best friends, but there was an uncomfortable truth about
Ashley.
 
She was beautiful beyond words
and sweet as syrup, but
brains are us
she was not.
 
“Look at that boy,” Donald
said to her.
 
“He’s a Sinatra just as
surely as I’m a Sinatra.
 
Or Brent.
 
Or Tony.
 
Or Bonita.”

“But that’s my point.
 
Just because he looks like y’all doesn’t mean he’s Brent’s child.
 
He could be your child, or Bobby’s, or
Tony’s.”

“There was a note in his pocket at the crime scene,” Tony
said.
 
“Brent Sinatra, Jr. was written on
that note.”

Jenay frowned.
 
“What
crime scene?” she asked.

Tony looked at Brent.
 
Brent looked at his son.
 
“Junior,
I want you to go with Uncle Tony and my little sister.
 
I’ll be there to get you in a minute.”

“Come on, June,” Tony said.

“Leave it to you,” Donald said to Tony, “to give a boy whose
name you don’t even know yet a nickname of a name that’s probably not even
his.”
 
Donald shook his head.

But Ashley frowned.
 
“Say what now?” she asked him.

But as Junior was about to leave Brent’s side and go to Tony,
Charles stopped him.
 
“Wait,” he said,
and took the child by the arm.
 
He pulled
the child to him and sat him on his lap.

Jenay and Brent fought back tears as Charles held the child
that could very well be his very first grandchild.

When Charles looked at the youngster up close, and held him
in his arms, he knew.
 
Lord help him, he
knew.
 
And he was fighting tears
too.
 
“I’m your grandfather,” he said to
the boy.
 
The boy stared at him.
 
“I know it’s hard to believe.
 
I’m barely old enough to be your father, let
alone your grandfather, but it’s true.”
 
Charles frowned.
 
“It’s true.”

He held him a few moments longer, and then he let him
go.
 
Tony sat Bonita down as Junior
approached them.

Bonita looked hard at the young man. “I am your aunt,” she said
to him.
 
And for the very first time, the
boy actually grinned.
 
Bonita was smaller
than he was, and looked younger.
 

But Bonita was serious.
 
“I am,” she said.
 
“Do the math!”

“He doesn’t want to do math,” Tony said, taking Junior’s
hand, “he wants to play.
 
Come on you
two.”
 
He led them out of the dining
room.

Charles looked at Brent.
 
“What crime scene?” he asked.

Brent leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs under
the table.
 
“Eddie Rivers and a couple
uniforms responded to a disturbance call at the Super Fin motel.”

“The Quick Hit?” Donald asked.

“Yes,” Brent said.

“What was he doing at the hooker motel?”

Brent looked at his brother.
 
“Don’t you and Ash have jobs to get to?”

“Oh so it’s like that?” Ashley asked.
 
“Donnie and I can’t hear the juicy part?”

“They never let us in on anything,” Donald agreed.

“If you didn’t tell everything you heard,” Jenay said, “maybe
that will change.”

“We won’t say a word,” Ashley assured them.

But Charles was not impressed.
 
“Get going,” Charles said.
 
“Brent’s right.
 
You both have jobs to get to.”

Ashley and Donald both rolled their eyes, but they knew not
to argue with Charles.
 
They got up, said
their goodbyes, and left.

“Go on,” Charles said to Brent.
 
“Ed responded to a disturbance call at Super
Fin.”

“When he entered the room,” Brent continued, “he saw the
butchered body of a dead white guy.”

“Oh, my,” Jenay said.

“He also saw the boy, my son, sitting beside that dead body
with a blood-soaked knife in his hand.”

Charles and Jenay looked at each other.
 
Charles then looked at Brent.
 
“He killed that man?”

“No.”

“What do you mean no?
 
Then what was he doing with that knife?”

“I think he picked it up after the killer dropped it.
 
I don’t know.
 
But I know he didn’t kill that man.”

Charles ran his hands across his face.
 
It would have been too much like normal for
them to welcome a new addition to their family with no drama attached.

Then Charles thought of something.
 
He looked at Brent.
 
“Does Makayla know?” he asked him.

Makayla
, Brent thought.
 
Other than worrying about Junior, he’d been
worried sick about her.
 
And how she was
going to handle this.
 
She signed up to
be his wife, but she hadn’t signed on as a stepmom too.
 
He wasn’t sure if she would.