"	Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

CHAPTER 41

The next few days flew by, with no drama at work or at home. Kevin was at his house, Tina was across the street, and no Vinnie!

I kind of dreaded Saturday's upcoming lesson. I was sure Morales would show up.

I now felt better about Ginny and my handguns. I thought I'd give her the combination to the wall safe, just in case.

We did finally see Tina's apartment. It was really large, three bedrooms, a huge open kitchen/living room. And 1½ baths.

I asked her if she wanted to swap. She said no way, Her father knew about my place, this one was a secret.

Saturday dawned clear, the air was cold and brisk, perfect riding weather. Over breakfast, Ginny asked me what I was wearing while I was judging the Halloween horse show.

I almost fainted, “Oh crap! That's tomorrow isn't it? I completely forgot.”

“I can let you have some of my clothes, you can go as a 'Butch Lesbian'. No, you dress like that every day anyway.” she said as she ducked a rolled up napkin.

I went into my bedroom and started to dig around in the closet.

“Oh boy, when are you coming out of the closet?” Ginny shouted. “I already have.”

I easily could grow to hate her!

When I came out of the closet, I had a Western hat, chaps, and boots, and my preference for men hadn't changed a bit.

“There you go, I'll dress as a cow girl. Panic time over.”

“You never cease to amaze me,” she said.

“Hey, that's my line, Ginny. No fair stealing.”

Before we left, I gave her a glance. She was wearing jeans, LLBean boots, a heavy sweater and a barn coat. 'She must feel more confident as Ginny these days,' I thought. 'Or is it because she's already caught Kevin, and doesn't need any fancy lures anymore?'

I loaded my saddle in the back of the Explorer,and started it up. I let it warm up before heading for Route 1 North, knowing it would be colder in Newbury than here.

On the way up, all Ginny could talk about was the dress-up horse show. I said some of the entrants actually dressed up the horses and not just themselves. She was amazed that the horses would wear a costume.

I teased her that the Darth Vader helmet was the hardest to get them to wear; you had to make holes for the horse's ears first. I think I actually had her believing me!

As I pulled in to park, I saw at the end, a black Cadillac. Morales!

I tipped Ginny off to this and said to stay around other people, and not to get trapped by him when she was alone.

I headed straight in through the tack room and unloaded my saddle at Freddy's stall. I told Ginny to stay there, as I walked to the centre aisle and Tina's stall. I saw that both Tina and her father were crying, so I tried to head back from where I came from. I wasn't fast enough!

“Hey, wait,” I heard Morales call. “I owe you and your cousin a huge apology for the other night.”

I stopped where I was. “You sure do!”

“I have a bad temper, and always want to get my own way; that combined with being over-protective of Tina, and drinking too much made me act like a monster. But you really impressed me, holding me at gunpoint and not backing off like that. You showed more guts than a lot of cops have. You know my reputation?”

I just nodded.

He gave out a big laugh, “Tina's safer around you than some of my guys.”

“As an apology, I want to take both you and your cousin for dinner at the best Italian restaurant this side of New York, or we can go to New York if you'd rather.”

Before I knew what I was saying, I accepted saying, “Ginny and I will accept your apology, and there's no need to fly to New York just for dinner.”

“Good, I'll call Tina, and she'll call you with a day and time. How's that sound, ok?”

I just nodded and headed back to my horse. When I got there, Ginny was having a hard time containing herself.

“Well, what did he say, what did you say, how did Tina take it, were you scared?”

“One thing at a time!”
-
“Morales apologized to both of us. He blamed it on being over-protective, and drinking too much. Tina looked relaxed with this. He then as an apology offered to take the three of us to dinner, to New York if we wished. I accepted, and Tina will be calling to let us know when. And yes, I was scared out of my mind.

“Do you know the worst part? I think he was impressed by me the other night! He said I had 'more guts than the cops' when I pulled my gun on him. Now what do I do?”

“Ellen's got a boy friend, Ellen's got a boy friend.” Ginny chanted.

“Shut up ! Vinnie may hear you!”

“Oh ho, it's Vinnie now, a minute ago it was Morales.” she teased.

About this time Kevin showed up, “Ellen has a boy friend? Anyone I know?”

I could kill her! I then had to repeat the whole story for him.

“Yup, Ginny's right, Mrs Morales.” he said as he ran away.

To my delight, the lesson went great, Freddy responded as if we were one entity!

After the horses were put away, Cathy discussed tomorrow afternoon's dress-up horse show.

The judges were to be Kevin, Jim Brady (my boss's brother), and myself. The judging would start at 2pm, and end when it ended. As everyone else left, Cathy motioned me aside.

“How's it going with Tina and her mobster father? After last week, I was worried.”

I told her the story from door crash to the dinner offer today.

“You actually drew a gun on Morales and threatened to shoot him, and he went for it?
I wish I were there to see that.”

“Yeah, it took the arrival of the Swampscott Police to get me to put it away. The trouble is, now, I think he loved that and want's to know me better, if you catch my drift.”

Cathy snorted, laughed and said, “Mrs Ellen Morales!”

“Don't you start! Kevin said the same thing, I'm thinking of shooting him to show how Mrs M would handle it.”

“You're too much.” she laughed. “See you tomorrow.”

Ginny was already in the front seat after placing my saddle in the back.

Before she could say a word, I stopped her with a look that would of made the Gorgon jealous. “Don't say a word, you.” I warned, “Not one.”

We rode half the way home before either of us spoke.

“Do you think it'll be a North End restaurant? I think most of those are overrated and over crowded.”

“You're too funny Ginny, but you are right about the North end restaurants. I used to prefer Givelli's in East Boston better, but I haven't been there for a while. Why don't we leave it up to Mister Morales?”

We arrived home and as I was getting my saddle, I saw Tina's little red Mercedes park across the street. She gave me a wave, than acted like she was on the phone. I nodded yes and went inside.

No sooner had I hung up my coat than my cell phone rang. Gee, she timed that well I thought.

“Hi, Ellen I just had to ask what you really thought of my father today.”

I took a breath to think a bit before I answered. “He certainly caught me by surprise, I can say that. But was there an undertone to his apology that had me nervous.”

Tina laughed, “It's not love, it's respect. That's more important to him anyway, you can relax. I meant about taking us to dinner.”

“I said okay out of shock, it was so unexpected, I didn't know what else to say. What's your recommendation Tina, should Ginny and I beg off, or go?”

“I definitively would go; give him a chance to act like a human being for once. This is how he apologizes, dinner, or a round of golf, sometimes he takes people fishing on his bass boat.”

“That sounds more interesting to me than dinner.” I said.

“I think your cousin would prefer dinner, rather than icky fish.”

'Oh, if you only knew,' I thought. 'If you only knew.'

“I'll tell Ginny what you said. Will you be there tomorrow?”

“Yes, I agreed to help with dressing up the horses. See you then Ellen.”

Ginny was on tenter hooks, wondering what was being said. I decided to tell her everything Tina said, including about the bass boat. That got her excited like I figured it would.

“Enough of that, what are you serving me for dinner tonight, pizza again?”

“No, steak bombs and french fries, you know, the cholesterol special.”

After we ate, I dove into my closet again and came out with a fast-draw holster and belt. I figured if I stuck that new six-gun BB gun in it, I'd look the part without scaring anyone.

To be continued.

Many thanks to Bronwen Welsh for her help in fixing typos and punctuation errors