The little Santa Claus eyes were filled with tears of laughter. He took out a white silk handkerchief and wiped them away. He turned to his two escorts. “Did I say he’s a funny man?”
The two men nodded.
Al Caruso turned back to Toby. “Tell you why I came to see you, Toby.”
This was the magical moment, his entrance into the big time. Clifton Lawrence was off in Europe somewhere, making deals for has-been clients when he should have been here making this deal. Well, Lawrence would have a real surprise in store for him when he returned.
Toby leaned forward and said, smiling engagingly, “I’m listening, Al.”
“Millie loves you.”
Toby blinked, sure that he had missed something. The old man was watching him, his eyes twinkling.
“I—I’m sorry,” Toby said, in confusion. “What did you say?”
Al Caruso smiled warmly. “Millie loves you. She told me.”
Millie? Could that be Caruso’s wife? His daughter? Toby started to speak, but Al Caruso interrupted.
“She’s a great kid. I been keepin’ her for three, four years.” He turned to the other two men. “Four years?”
They nodded.
Al Caruso turned back to Toby. “I love that girl, Toby. I’m really crazy about her.”
Toby could feel the blood beginning to drain from his face. “Mr. Caruso—”
Al Caruso said, “Millie and me got a deal. I don’t cheat on her except with my wife, and she don’t cheat on me unless she tells me.” He beamed at Toby, and this time Toby saw something beyond the cherubic smile that turned his blood to ice.
“Mr. Caruso—”
“You know somethin’, Toby? You’re the first guy she ever cheated on me with.” He turned to the two men at the table. “Is that the honest truth?”
They nodded.
When Toby spoke, his voice was trembling. “I—I swear to God I didn’t know Millie was your girlfriend. If I had even dreamed it, I wouldn’t have touched her. I wouldn’t have come within a mile of her, Mr. Caruso—”
The Santa Claus beamed at him. “Al. Call me Al.”
“Al.” It came out as a croak. Toby could feel the perspiration running down under his arms. “Look, Al,” he said. “I’ll—I’ll never see her again. Ever. Believe me, I—”
Caruso was staring at him. “Hey! I don’t think you were listening to me.”
Toby swallowed. “Yes. Yes, I was. I heard every word you said. And you don’t have to worry about—”
“I said the kid loves you. If she wants you, then I want her to have you. I want her to be happy. Understand?”
“I—” Toby’s brain was spinning. For a crazy moment he had actually thought that the man sitting across from him was looking for revenge. Instead Al Caruso was offering him his girlfriend. Toby almost laughed aloud with relief. “Jesus, Al,” Toby said. “Sure. Whatever you want.”
“Whatever Millie wants.”
“Yeah. Whatever Millie wants.”
“I knew you were a nice man,” Al Caruso said. He turned to the two men at the table. “Did I say Toby Temple was a nice man?”
They nodded and silently sipped their Cokes.
Al Caruso rose, and the two men with him were instantly on their feet, one positioned on either side of him. “I’m gonna give the wedding myself,” Al Caruso said. “We’ll take over the big banquet room at the Morocco. You don’t have to worry about nothin’. I’ll take care of everything.”
The words came at Toby as though filtered, from a far distance. His mind registered what Al Caruso was saying, but it made no sense to him.
“Wait a minute,” Toby protested. “I can’t—”
Caruso put a powerful hand on Toby’s shoulder. “You’re a lucky man,” Caruso said. “I mean, if Millie hadn’t convinced me that you two really love each other, if I thought you were just laying her like she was some two-dollar hoor, this whole thing coulda had a different ending. You get my meaning?”
Toby found himself involuntarily looking up at the two men in black, and they both nodded.
“You finish up here Saturday night,” Al Caruso said. “We’ll make the wedding Sunday.”
Toby’s throat had gone dry again. “I—the thing is, Al, I’m afraid I have some bookings. I—”
“They’ll wait,” the cherubic face beamed. “I’m gonna pick out Millie’s wedding dress myself. Night, Toby.”
Toby stood there, staring in the direction of the three figures long after they had disappeared.
He did not have the faintest notion who Millie was.
By the next morning, Toby’s fears had evaporated. The unexpectedness of what had happened had thrown him off guard. But this was not the era of Al Capone. No one could force him to marry anyone he did not want to marry. Al Caruso was not some cheap, strong-arm hoodlum; he was a respectable hotel owner. The more Toby thought about the situation, the funnier it became. He kept embellishing it in his mind, building up the laughs. He had not really let Caruso scare him, of course, but he would tell it as though he had been terrified. I go up to this table, and there’s Caruso sitting with these six gorillas, see? They’ve all got big bulges where they’re carrying guns. Oh, yes, it would make a great story. He might even get a hilarious routine out of it.
For the rest of the week Toby stayed away from the swimming pool and the casino and avoided all the girls. He was not afraid of Al Caruso, but why take unnecessary chances? Toby had planned to leave Las Vegas by plane Sunday noon. Instead, he arranged for a rental car to be delivered to the back of the hotel parking lot Saturday night. The car would be waiting for him there. He packed his bags before he went downstairs to do his last show, so that he would be ready to leave for Los Angeles the moment he finished. He would stay away from Las Vegas for a while. If Al Caruso was really serious, Clifton Lawrence could straighten things out.