Jamie
Jamie first suggested to Mom that they all meet at 8:30, because he knew she’d have to change it, just because she could. “Can you bump it back to nine?” she asked over her cup of tea. Even though it was early, she was fully dressed, all makeup and jewelry accounted for.
When Allan visited Jamie in Milwaukee or Chicago, they could do their first cups of coffee in boxers and nothing else if that’s what they wore to bed, but the house on Ridge Street had its own rules. See, for example, how Mom tsk tsked at Allan’s damp hair. “What’s the plan?” he asked, presumably so he could decide whether to bother with coffee.
“Babycakes at nine with Jo and her parents,” Mom announced, and the inflection on her parents was odd coming from a woman who’d adopted a child herself. Maybe it was supposed to indicate distaste at meeting them at all, because meeting the parents meant things were serious, even if said parents showed up of their own accord, unplanned.
Allan checked the time. “Do you want to load up my car and just leave from there? I can call ahead and get us a paddleboat rental for this afternoon.”
It was smooth, and it was something Jamie learned from Allan in the first place: instead of asking if Mom really wanted to walk down the hill and back up again, he used their planned trip as an excuse and gave them a reason to leave earlier.
Mom considered it as she took a sip of her tea, and Jamie bet her contrariness was at war with itself. It often was, and the day he realized it must be an awful way to live was when he’d started offering her these choices more for her sake instead of his own. “Yes, I think that’s fine,” she finally said, getting smoothly to her feet. “I’ll finish packing.”
Allan grabbed a glass and filled it with water before he leaned against the kitchen counter. That was another thing they did when Mom wasn’t around: lean instead of sit. He tilted his head and looked at Jamie. “Do you have any idea how much you relax around Jo?”
Uh. That made it doubly ironic he’d been tensing for whatever Allan wanted to say. “What?”
“You relax around her. It’s not …” He nodded at Mom’s recently vacated chair and then grimaced at another thought. “God, so. Jo’s parents. Do I ask how you ran into them?”
Of course he hadn’t wanted to say in front of Mom. “I kissed her behind the apartment and her dad was like well, might as well make this as awkward as possible.”
“Seriously?”
Jamie couldn’t tell which part he was supposed to be confirming. “Seriously.”
“Man, that, uh.” He took a drink and shook his head a little. Then, when Jamie kept looking at him, he shrugged a little. “None of my business.”
“Ask anyway.” It didn’t even feel dangerous, considering … well, this was Allan.
Allan shrugged again and turned more to face Jamie. “Is kissing the most you’ve done?”
Ah. Okay. He nodded once.
“So I figure it’s more like my partner’s dad walking in when we’re in the middle of it,” his brother concluded with a shrug.
But Jamie shook his head. “I get what you’re saying, but it’s not like the dad’s going to react the same way both times.”
“Okay, true,” Allan acknowledged. “That’s never happened, by the way. During sex, at least. Man, do you think Shane’s given the boys any kind of talk by now?”
What, because their nephews were in middle school? “I would guess not.”
“Like he doesn’t remember being that age. Full of hormones. Well.” He winked at Jamie. “Most of us were full of hormones.”
Jamie wasn’t sure if being ace meant the hormones didn’t exist or what, but he’d definitely still thought female anatomy was something weird and gross in middle school even when his peers veered toward curiosity and fascination.
“I just, uh.” Allan shook his head again, but this time it was accompanied by the smile that meant girls had been curious about and fascinated by him since he was in middle school. “It clarified a lot, that’s all. And I guess … I guess I was thinking that we should’ve said something earlier, you know? I’ve never been close with Shane, but you and me?”
He nodded slowly. It was weird, maybe, because Allan was so much older. Obviously that made more of a difference when they were kids, but when Jamie thought of his childhood, he saw Allan as open arms. Shane was the back of a shirt, hurrying off to Mom.
Allan nodded upstairs. “Does Mom have any idea how things are with you and Jo?”
“She knows we’re dating.” What else was he supposed to tell her?
But Allan shook his head. “You can’t ever be without her. You could be Jamie before Jo just fine, because you didn’t know she was out there, but Jamie after Jo? Impossible.”
“We haven’t, uh.” Jamie cleared his throat, maybe because he’d already thought what Allan said and couldn’t find any way to make himself believe it wasn’t true. “We haven’t talked about any of that.” Even now, just with Allan, he didn’t want to say marriage.
“What, because of Jake Cooper?” Allan clucked his tongue. “You’re worth ten of him, easy.”
Jake Cooper was Jo’s own age, for one, which meant there was a far bigger gap between him and Mary-Beth. And Jake was classically good-looking with his short black hair, green eyes, tan skin, and perfect teeth.
Okay but Jake Cooper was also the kind of guy who’d cheat on Jo. That meant he thought that, for whatever reason, there was someone better than Jo. He’d even known Tess for as long as he’d known Jo, so why hadn’t he just gone for Tess in the first place? Except Jamie thought he had the answer to that: Tess wasn’t the kind of woman who’d support Jake through grad school. Honestly it was like she was using Jake and even the scandal to get clicks.
Allan waited for Jamie to focus back on him. “You’re worth ten of him,” he repeated before putting his glass in the sink and going upstairs to see what he could carry down for Mom.
Chapter Thirty-Five – coming November 4
