Quinn laughed and released Rachel. “Sorry, Mom. You were getting scary. Have you really been torturing Dad with Trailer Trash Momma?”
“Maybe.” Rachel glanced back at Nick as they reached the second floor. “I had to get a rise out of him somehow. He’s so laid back lately writing those damn novels, I have to poke him with a stick sometimes to see if he’s still breathing.”
“He brings you tea every morning, cooks your breakfast, cleans the house, and he’s been your damn sex slave forever, Trailer Trash,” Jean went on the attack. “If Dad sits down for ten minutes you want to shove a broom up his ass, and make him mop the floor on his way out to get you chocolate bon-bons.”
Rachel tried a gasp of outrage, but it turned into a laughing fit as they entered the balcony area. “Okay… good one… snot. Now, what’s this shit with you playing hard to get with Sonny, you scarred up little turd? You’re lucky he gives you a second look.”
“Scarred up… why you… if you weren’t my Mom, I’d put a hurtin’ on you.” Jean pointed at Rachel threateningly while taking the shot glass Quinn poured her with the other. “You need to go on a retreat… to Alaska, for about five years. That should give you some perspective.”
Nick moved behind Rachel, and began massaging her shoulders. “Momma’s not going anywhere. Fill us in on Phil. I thought because he forbid Sonny to have anything to do with you, and Sonny ignored him, that Phil didn’t speak to you anymore.”
Jean sat down, sipping her shot while Quinn filled everyone else’s drink order. “Ever since he got into real estate a while back, he’s been moving in some weird circles. Phil tapped into his contacts when he decided to run for congress. He’s been walking a tightrope ever since he won the congressional seat, because money drives everything in the political world. Phil didn’t do anything wrong, but anything that happens on a personal basis shuts off the campaign funds. I’m only telling you all this because I told Clarice I wouldn’t help her at all if I didn’t do full disclosure with all of you.”
“Clarice must be desperate. She hates you and me,” Rachel said. “What the hell did she… oh…my…God… no… say it isn’t so. Saint Clarice had an affair? At her age?”
“She’s only in her forties, Ma. Don’t be hatin’. Yes, she had an affair. She doesn’t hate us. Clarice would rather not be anywhere around us. To her, we are ‘Trailer Trash Momma’ and her crew. Plus, she knows about Dad. They’re flying high in the Washington DC circles again.”
“The only reason they’re anywhere near DC is because your Dad paid their way into the country club here, the ungrateful bastards! I don’t know how those two phonies ever raised a stand-up guy like Sonny.”
“I do,” Jean said. “He’s been hangin’ out with us since he was nine. Then he joined the Marines. Done deal.”
“You’re sweet on him, you little honey bun,” Rachel said. “You two were wild for each other, then bang, you get schooled and scarred, and suddenly you’re a damn martyr loner bitch from hell.”
Nick caught Jean in midair, kicking and arms swimming with clawed fingers at a laughing Rachel. “I…I’ll get you for that! Let me go, Dad! She’s toast. She can’t come back from that one!”
“I always figured in my old age, I’d be able to quit refereeing these matches, Gus.”
“I told you, John and I could convert the old interrogation horror room into cells where we could house these two when they start going for each other’s throat. Cala wouldn’t mind, would she, John?”
“No. She laughs her ass off when I tell her about the latest McCarty girls’ fight night. Our kids love them. When I’ve been over here with everyone, they sit there with their mouths open and eyes big while these two go at it. Cala would agree to be the jailer.”
“No cells for Momma and the Daughter of Darkness,” Nick said, giving Jean a shake. “Calm down. We have to hear the rest of this affair business. What kind of downside would her having an affair cause? I can understand you not wanting Sonny to know about his Mom’s affair.”
Jean relaxed and Nick let her go. “He suspects something’s wrong. I know that much. Mom’s right. I can’t be around him. We had a falling out after I nearly had my face cut off. He wanted me to quit. I told him there was no way. Things changed. I know we’ve been on the outs with the Salvatores. After your friend let them join the Corral de Tierra Country Club, they waited exactly six months to try and get you and Mom booted out of the membership, even though you only went there to have a meal once in a while with Julius Danvers.”