It's Sunday. The family takes the news of his upcoming absences from Church and dinner better than he expects.
"Been a while since you moonlighted anywhere," his father notes.
"Nice bit of overtime," Danny nods approvingly, from across the table. "That's gotta help with payments on the new 'staaang, anyway, huh?"
"Had to do something with my paycheque, now my Harvard loans are paid off." Jamie answers both of them at once, with an unapologetic grin. If he had to give up on fixing up Joe's '71 Malibu after its final demise, the brand new glossy-black Saleen makes a damn decent replacement. It's a sleek, powerful piece of machine, perfectly responsive, without looking like blatant overcompensation or swagger.
It's a way of looking forward, too. Identifying with who he feels like now, who he wants to keep growing into, rather than holding onto the past, even out of love and loyalty.
"Eleven years to pay off student loans isn't half bad, especially for law," Erin says. "I was paying mine off for nearly twenty. But then marriage, not-marriage and a kid in private school will do that, on the public dime." She pulls a face at her daughter, who screws up her nose and pretends to glare.
"Well, there's that, and whatever else I could say about Wall Street, two years working there was a great way to pay down a big chunk of change right away." Jamie admits.
"Plus not having a girlfriend in how long?" Jack puts in. "Ow! What?" he demands as Danny administers a fatherly cuff to the back of his head.
"I get to say that. You don't get to say that." Danny says, as Jamie shakes his head wearily.
"Is this a continuing gig?" his father asks, cutting in between his sons.
"Nah, just the two festivals, three weeks apart, so I'll still be here for dinner in between."
"Well, good," says his father, handing over the basket of hot rolls, "We'll miss you. But you could do with a change of scenery, and I'm sure Officer Janko could too. You've been putting in solid work."
Erin drops her eyes briefly. Jamie knows Eddie called her up to clear the air and they've got a drinks date soon, but he thinks Erin still feels bad she couldn't do more.
"Could I come?" asks Nicky. "I like music festivals. I've been putting in solid work, too."
Jamie considers this. "You know what, you might enjoy the one next weekend. It's mostly East Coast folkies and rockers, trying to make industry connections and a bigger New York audience base. Could see some cool new stuff. I'll send you the website and you can check it out. It's a long way from home, but at least it's indoors."
"You should go, if you can take the time from schoolwork," says Erin. "You're right, you've been working really hard. I don't mind you taking the car for a one-day trip, if you find a friend or two. Safety in numbers, and to keep you awake on the road."
"Oh, can Sean and I come?" Jack asks, perking up. "I am so fried with school right now."
"It's only November," Sean says. "How bad can Grade Twelve be?"
"He wants to take Tasha somewhere cool," Nicky taunts him, and sits back to watch Jack freak out and most of the table demand to know what's up with Tasha. The challenge of dating private school classmates is that most of the families have known each other since the children were small. Tasha's name has been mentioned a couple of times recently in the context of writing skits for French class. Nicky's bombshell was well-timed if importunate.
Jack, flushed and flustered, denies everything. "I mean, I don't even know if she's into that kind of thing," he protests. "Not that I'd ask her."
Jamie, who has always seen Jack as the nephew most like him, is deeply sympathetic.
"Tasha, no Tasha, whatever, all you kids go and keep an eye on your Uncle Jamie and Officer Janko." Danny grins, waving a forkful of pot roast descriptively. Jamie blinks and shrugs as if he can't imagine what Danny's talking about.
"It's just site-sec," he says mildly, "We'll be working. The second one's private, I can tell you that. Can't tell you much else, though, except it's some annual get-together and jam session for jazz musicians from all over the world."
"Oh, I'm familiar with that one," Frank says. "That's quite an event. Some great recordings have come out of that. And Officer Janko's father's friend is involved?"
"I guess so. I don't know if 'friend' is the right word. Old business associate, I think. He's into property management now. Couple of his nieces and their friends are into the music scene, and it sounds like he's one of their festival sponsors."
"It's unbelievable," Erin says. "This whole thing. I knew she had talents, but my Lord – to go confront a face from her past like that, and to bring him around to hiring a young couple living here illegally – to live-in rent-free? You two saved that family, you know. Child Protective Services would not have looked kindly on an illegal baby in a shelter, even one delivered by a cop."
Jamie flushes and ducks his head under the family's murmured approbation. The first time had been plenty.
"And Officer Janko even found a way of getting an old Ponzi scheme dude to do some good," Nicky sighs. Her fan crush on Eddie continues unabated.
"So when you say she used guilt," Danny gestures again with his empty fork, "Just how much guilt we talking here? I mean, it sounds like she has actual dirt on the dude. You sure this ain't gonna come back and bite you both on the…bum?" he finishes, trying to evade a pointed look from his father and epic eye-rolls from his sons.
"He cashed out of the business and tried to make good with some of his investors before her father got caught. There was no paper trail to prosecute him for, but she knew he'd been carrying it around ever since. She'd tell me if there was anything I needed to know."
"Sure, as long as she knew," Danny points out. "She had a nasty shock before, don't forget."
"Yeah, well, this isn't that, Danny. Can we just – "
"Please," agrees Henry, who had been taking in the conversation along with his pot roast in hungry silence. "I've seen more than any of you here, and I gotta say, this Janko fellow wouldn't have gotten more than a slap on the wrist and a stern suggestion to leave town, back when I was on patrol. If he and his friends are trying to do some good for people with the time they have left, I say let 'em. Jamie, you and your charming partner might have gotten more personally involved in this case than some of here might be comfortable with, but I hope we can agree it sounds like a great opportunity for those young people. And you can bet they'll always remember how the police treated them."
"Hear, hear," says Frank.
After dinner, with everyone else sitting over bourbon or board games, Jamie finds Jack thumping cutlery into the dishwasher racks in a fair display of a snit. He quietly slips into the kitchen, closing the door.
"Hey," he says, "Listen, this family does not let up once there's blood in the water. They see wanting privacy as suspicious. Plus, they can't resist a good story. But that wasn't kind of Nicky, and Erin just told her so. You want me to get everyone off your back, you let me know. It's tough enough just dealing with being seventeen."
"It's not that bad," Jack sighs, turning around. "I mean, being seventeen isn't that bad, at least for me. But yeah, this family…and with Sean and Dad going through whatever they're going through, I've just been trying to get along and keep my head down."
"Yeah. You're good at that. I was, too." Jamie approaches the kitchen counter, rolling up his sleeves. "Sometimes it works. As long as you got some way of getting out of your head again. Things stick around in there and eat at you, you know?"
"Yeah." They work together in coordinated silence, Jamie rinsing serving dishes and Jack stacking them in neat rows in the dishwasher. "You're not gonna ask? About Tasha?"
"It's none of my business. But it'd be good to see you going out with your pals and looking happy again. Looked like you had a rough time after Chelsea, last year."
"You knew about Chelsea?"
"Call it a pretty big hunch. I think I was the only one to figure it out, though. Just the way you said something, once, reminded me of me trying to keep a girl thing secret from Danny and Erin. You did well, if you were trying to keep it hushed up. "
"That's part of why she broke up with me," Jack confesses. "She thought I was embarrassed to be with her or something, 'cause I wouldn't tell anyone in the family or introduce her to anyone. But, I mean – " his voice wobbles a little, and Jamie's heart absolutely goes out to him, "I think Mom knew. She drove Chelsea home from a couple of movie nights with our friends. We weren't that serious, and if Dad or Grandpa knew, they'd be sitting us down for big talks and trying to get into our heads and get us to think about what happens after high school, and – we just wanted to have fun, you know? Just hang out and not have to be these perfect kids all the time. Talk about stupid stuff and interesting stuff, and, I mean…"
"Fool around a bit."
"I mean…" Jack repeats, blushing furiously. "We never – "
Jamie shrugs. "You guys have to grow up sometime. After Nicky decided that her first major boyfriend was gonna be a cop, I'm afraid the entire family went into alarm mode about you guys dating anyone. Me as well. Eddie had to shake me out of that," he admits.
Jack thinks about this and draws a blank. "How'd you mean?"
"She reminded me that we've always taken you guys for granted as good kids we don't need to worry about. But that doesn't mean you're not basically nearly grownups. Can't expect you to walk out the door, go to college and suddenly know how to deal with everything you've been warned off. My point is, we know you were raised right, but it's way different out in the world, with men constantly supposed to act one way and women another, and so much of it's beyond harmful. It's hard to go against the flow. So yeah, we worry. But we also have to trust you to fall back on what you know, and remember why things like respect and making sure everyone's consenting and on the same page should be a no-brainer. If you haven't got that, you don't go a step further."
"I, uh, I know, Uncle Jamie."
"I know you know. Part of this is coming from the job, and some of the stuff I deal with, not you. And whoever you end up going out with is going to be really glad that you're just a considerate guy by nature."
"Hey, Uncle Jamie?" Jack eyes him sidelong. "That stupid thing I said at dinner. I'm sorry. It really was just supposed to be a joke. It came out kinda wrong."
"I know. I thought it was pretty funny, actually."
"You know how you said it was none of your business but you wanted me to be happy?"
"Uh huh." He looks curiously at Jack, who is trying to communicate something at him very hard. Something best left unverbalized, yes. Trust. Trust me? Trust him. "Oh. Oh, I, uh…yeah. I don't know, Jack. We're a really great team together."
"You couldn't work together anymore."
"Yeah."
"Is that the only reason why you guys haven't, you know, tried dating or anything?"
Jamie's touched that Jack feels he can ask him outright, and know that they'll keep each other's confidences. He's always felt more like an older brother than an uncle to Danny's boys, especially Jack. Funny to think that Jack's an oldest child, and Jamie himself is a youngest child. Maybe that's why they've just been waiting till recently to relate more as brothers.
"Sounds like we're just chicken, or trying to get the best of both worlds, doesn't it, when you put it like that?"
"No, I think I get it. It's bigger than that. Like you make each other better."
"Sorta, yeah. That's a good place to start. You pick up on a lot."
"Well," says Jack, "I liked seeing you happy, too. Like you were with Sydney, or it looked like, anyway. I still remember that, even if it was a long time ago."
"Me, too, kid." They share a lopsided Reagan grin. "You think there's anyone listening outside?"
"There better not be." Jack looks startled, and takes two large strides to the door, which he flings open. Outside, there is only the sound of the family a couple of rooms away, chatting, provoking, topping each other's stories, as they always do.
This family, Jamie thinks, with that familiar mix of exasperation, deep affection and stifling closeness. It occurs to him to wonder if Dad and Grandpa would ever get curious enough to bug their own kitchen, but discards the idea. They'd be just as liable to get stung as anyone.
This family…he thinks again, shaking his head. They go through these cyclical suffocating patches, especially for the token generational introverts like Jack and himself. He's glad to be getting a little distance. Spending it with Eddie, and maybe Nicky and the boys, is an extra bonus.
