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Chapter 3 – Attic Full of Memories, Part 2
"So, what's next?" Danny asked.
Jamie picked up a plastic bag. "This can go right in the donate pile. I don't think Joe's bedding would fit Nicki's style." He grabbed Joe's suitcase and pushed a box labeled 'clothes' toward Danny. "This stuff."
Danny ripped open the box. "Bet we're giving most of this away, unless Dad wants a new wardrobe."
Jamie tried to smile. "Yeah. Joe was more Dad's size. Not sure they have the same style, though."
"That's because I actually bought clothes more recently than 2005," Joe joked. "Got to keep your look up-to-date to impress the ladies. One of you should tell Dad that."
Jamie laid the suitcase he'd grabbed on its side and opened it. He froze as he looked at the item on top of the clothes.
"What's wrong, kid?" Danny asked.
Jamie picked up the dry cleaning bag and turned it toward Danny. "I helped Joe pick this suit out. Christmas after my first year of law school. The career office at Harvard had put on a seminar about professional dress, and Joe insisted that made me a fashion expert. His fashion expert."
"Not bad, Harvard. You had good taste." Danny suddenly remembered something related to that suit-shopping trip; a story that no one had likely told Jamie yet. "Hey, did Joe ever tell you why he needed a new suit then?"
"Oh, no. You're not telling that story," Joe ordered. "Hey Dan, fresh cookies downstairs. Go get one."
Jamie shrugged. "I figured it was just time to buy a new one?"
"Did I mention they're chocolate chip? Your favorite?" Joe tried again. He walked over to his little brother and put his hands over Jamie's ears. "You don't want to hear this one, kiddo."
"Nope." Danny smirked. "There was this guy Joe and his partner were picking up on a warrant for some little stuff. But this guy decided to run. Anyway, Joe gives chase, down the street and past a firehouse and an elementary school, and hurdles over this low fence into this park, and…"
"Oh, no," Jamie moaned, as he realized where this story was going.
"His suit pants split all the way up the back from crotch to waistband. But Joe caught the guy anyway, then he had to walk that guy all the way back to his car with pants split. Back the same way he came. Over the fence – where the split caught in the fence and tore open, leaving his tighty-whiteys showing, past the schoolyard full of kids, and the hose jockeys outside of their firehouse."
Jamie couldn't keep back a laugh.
"Two of them mooned him, by the way. Said if he could walk around with his butt hanging out, so would they."
"Damn smoke eaters," Jamie laughed. "I wonder why Joe never told me that story."
"It's not the kind of story you'd tell other people. It's the kind of story that gets told on you. Like you and that hot dog guy." Danny smirked as he recalled the story he heard from Renzulli about Jamie tackling the drug dealer in that hot dog costume.
"That guy. That story is going to follow me forever."
"You bet it is. I know I'm going to tell it every chance I get. Renzulli also. Even if you get to be commissioner, we'll still be there, telling that story about you. Got to do something to keep your ego in check," Danny teased.
Jamie stood up and walked over to an old mirror propped against the attic wall. He held the suit coat up to his body.
"Damn, I looked good in that suit. Sharp. Trustworthy. Just like you said, kiddo," Joe commented. "Too bad it won't fit you or Danny."
Danny looked over at his brother. "You know that wouldn't fit you. Joe was built like Dad, and you're not."
"Just checking out the color," Jamie argued. He and Joe had gone back and forth on that shopping trip. Joe had been looking for a traditional grey; he had insisted Joe try the more fashionable dark blue-grey instead, and that's what Joe had eventually bought. "Joe definitely took after Dad. Tall and broad-shouldered."
"But with Mom's coloring. Like you, except you got Mom's coloring and her build both. Shorter and scrawny."
"Excuse me. The word is slender. Not scrawny."
"Call it like I see it," Danny teased.
"You're built like Mom's family, too. You're not any taller than I am."
"No, but I got more muscles. And Dad's coloring."
"And then Erin got Mom's slenderness and Dad's height and coloring. We really were a mixed bag, weren't we?" Jamie reluctantly laid the suit on top of the donate pile. Maybe he'd see if any of the local law schools knew of a student who could use an almost new suit.
"You and Joe – people always knew you two were siblings."
"My little buddy," Joe interrupted.
"Same for Erin and me. But as a group..." Danny shrugged. "We completely scrambled Mom and Dad's genes."
"Yeah." Jamie returned to sorting through the suitcase. He pulled out the rest of the good items to donate, then pushed it away. "Ugh. The rest of this suitcase is old socks and underwear. I'm going to dump it in the toss pile." Jamie picked up one sock and stuck a finger through a hole at the end. "Why was Joe even keeping this?"
"It's called camouflage. No one's gonna look in that mess for valuable stuff," Joe explained to his brothers.
"A penny saved is a penny earned?"
"It's worth spending a few pennies for intact socks." Jamie upended the suitcase into the "toss" box. An envelope and a small box dropped to the floor and bounced across the floor.
"Like that. See, you almost missed those." Joe shook his head at his brothers' ineptitude. If he hadn't been there to flick those items away from the trash box…
"What's that?" Danny asked.
"Dunno." Jamie picked up the items and opened the envelope. "Cash. I'd guess two hundred in twenties." He looked closer at the small leather-covered box. Jamie knew right away what it was, but he pried the box open anyway. "Dammit. Damn it all." He snapped the box shut and threw it to the floor as a burst of anger hit.
"What's wrong, kid?" Danny retrieved the box and opened it up himself. Suddenly, he understood Jamie's reaction. A diamond ring – a decent-sized diamond in a simple, elegant silver setting – sparkled up at him. "Damn. Didn't know he was that close."
Jamie walked over to one of the dormer windows. "When Syd and I got engaged, Joe told me he was planning on asking Angie to marry him. He was just waiting to finish cleaning something up," Jamie choked out.
"Guess we know what that something was now," Danny replied.
"We'd joked about getting married together. Having a joint ceremony." Jamie swiped away the tears he thought he'd fought back.
Danny silently rested a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You know Joe will be present when you have your wedding ceremony…."
"That's right, Jame. I'm gonna be there, pushing this guy out of the way to be your best man, if I have to," Joe teased his brother.
"If that ever happens," Jamie muttered under his breath.
"It will. And when it does, Joe and I will be standing with you at the front of the church, all of us decked out in monkey suits, waiting for your bride to come walking down that aisle."
"Yeah, right."
Danny saw an opportunity to explore a bit of gossip Erin had told him months earlier. "You know, when you and Eddie get hitched," he continued, "Of course, you two will have to go on a date first."
"Oh my God," Jamie moaned. "Why do people keep saying that? Eddie and I are partners. Friends. Nothing more. Not dating. Not in a relationship."
"Not fooling anyone," Joe commented. "Seriously, kiddo, it's past time that you admit you have feelings for her. Even I can tell that, and I don't know her that well." Maybe that was something he should fix. If his baby brother was going to get serious about this girl, he needed to check her out. Make sure she was a better match for him than Sydney had turned out to be.
"Not dating? Yes, you are," Danny insisted. "Where do you go most every day after work? Out for a beer or dinner with Eddie, right?"
"Because we're leaving work together. There's usually other people there."
"Whatever. You two are not only dating, you're practically married already," Danny teased. "When you want to make it official, you should give Eddie this ring." Danny held the jewelry box out to his brother.
"Yeah, Jame. Listen to Danny. He actually has a good idea. Someone ought to use that ring."
Jamie took the box and finally looked at the ring. "Joe knew what he was doing. This ring would've fit Angela perfectly. Elegant and not too fussy."
"Sounds kind of like Eddie."
Jamie sent a glare his brothers' direction.
"Just sayin'."
Jamie looked at the ring again. It would fit Eddie's style. "Except we're not a couple." He snapped the box shut and walked over to the Sell pile. But instead of dropping the ring into that pile, he tucked it into his pants pocket.
Danny's sharp eye didn't miss that action. Interesting. Maybe there really was something between Jamie and his partner, like Erin and Linda thought. "Come on, kid. Let's get back to business. We're almost done, and I'm starting to feel hungry."
Jamie turned away from the piles. "When are you not? You're just like Eddie," he griped.
Danny grinned again. Yep, there was definitely something between Jamie and his partner. "Come on, bring that last box over here."
Jamie picked up the final box of Joe's things and froze. Somehow, sorting through this last box felt like they were kicking Joe out of the house and out of their lives. He was gone, and as soon as they finished with this box, his stuff would be too.
Danny looked up at his brother. "What's up, kid?"
"I don't want Joe to be gone," Jamie said, even as he knew that statement made no sense. Joe had been gone for seven years already.
Danny quickly stood up, walked over to his brother and grabbed his shoulder. "Hey, kid. He'll still be here. We're keeping the stuff that has any meaning to us, and Nik's keeping a lot of the rest of his junk. And we'll always have the memories, right?"
Joe dropped a hand on his baby brother's other shoulder. "And you're not getting rid of me that easily, kiddo. I'd stick around even if you threw away all my stuff."
"I know. I didn't think it would hit me this hard," Jamie confessed.
"C'mon. Let's get through this last box of… what does that say?"
"Nightstand things," Jamie read off the side of the box.
Danny put the box down and yanked the tape off the top. "Flashlight, alarm clock. We can give these to Nik," Danny commented.
Jamie picked up the next items in the box. Two photo frames, one with a picture of Joe and Angie; the other with a picture of Joe and himself, standing on either side of their father, holding a fish between them.
Danny took the photo of Joe and Angie out of his hands. "Look at this. He almost looks human in this photo," Danny joked. "Ouch!"
"What?" Jamie looked up from the other photograph.
"Something bit me on the neck," Danny complained.
Joe crossed his arms across his chest. "Almost looks human? Ugly dorks like you shouldn't talk," he huffed at his brother. "Take it back or I'll pinch you again."
Jamie shook his head. "Nothin' there, Dan."
"Hmph." Danny stepped over to look at the photo his brother was holding "When was that photo taken?"
"That fishing trip to Cape Cod. October 2008. You couldn't make it."
"The one Joe put together after Mom died and you almost lost it?"
Jamie nodded. No sense arguing with that statement. "That one, yeah."
Danny tilted the picture toward him to get a better look. "Is that the biggest fish you caught? It isn't even big enough to feed one of you."
Jamie smiled at the memory. "Yeah. The fish weren't biting that day."
Danny studied the picture again, looking from Jamie's smiling face, to their father's, to Joe's, and at the ten-inch long fish they held between them. "You know, after Dad got back from that trip? That was the first time I'd seen him smiling since we'd lost Mom. Joe too. That trip did both of them a lot of good. Did you a lot of good too, from what Joe told me."
"Yeah," Jamie agreed. He put that framed photo, as well as the one of Joe and Angie, in the keep box. Danny was right, for once. Even without the boxes of stuff, he'd always remember all the times Joe had been there for him, and all the good times they'd had together. Nothing would change that.
Danny dropped the remaining items into the trash can or the give-away box. "That's the last of that box. Now let's go get some dinner. Looking at that fish made me hungry. And I think I heard Linda arrive with the boys. Which means it's time to eat."
Jamie shook his head as he followed his brother down the stairs from the attic. "Just like Eddie."
Up tomorrow: Back to work for the Reagan brothers and their partners!