The Distance (27 page)

My phone buzzed and I looked at the screen, then told her, “Your Daddy is going to be here in fifteen minutes. Do you want to show him your new dress, or keep it as a surprise?”

She considered the question carefully, then said, “Is it okay if I show him? I want him to see it with my nice hair and the sparkly butterflies.”

“Absolutely.”

“Will you make my hair nice for Nana’s wedding, Jessie?”

“Sure. We’ll do whatever you want, a braid, or curls, or a fancy up-do. We can even practice beforehand and then you can pick the style you like best for the wedding.”

She was completely delighted. I’d never realized it before, but kids were incredibly easy to please. All they wanted was your attention. When you gave them that, all was right in their world.

About ten minutes later, Dante came into the yard. As usual, he was dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit, along with a black dress shirt that was open at the collar. “Looks like a party,” he said.

“Hey, Dante. What sort of scheme are you and Kai hatching?” I asked him with a smile.

He shot Nana a look, and she exclaimed, “I barely said anything! Where’s Kai? Is he bringing you-know-who?”

Dante sighed dramatically, then said, “Why don’t you come with me, Jess? Kai’s right behind me, and you may want a little privacy with your guest.” Kiki winked at me and tossed me my keys. Apparently everyone was in on whatever was happening but me.

As I fell into step with Dante and we headed to the side door of the garage, I asked, “Is this a good surprise? You’re not ambushing me with a fashion intervention, are you? I swear, if that TV show with the abrasive host telling me my wardrobe is crap shows up, I’m bolting. No way am I letting go of my flannel pajamas and sexual innuendo t-shirts. Looking like you stepped off the pages of Funeral Director Monthly is working for you, but I’ve spent years cultivating my own personal style.”

Dante chuckled as I unlocked the side door. “No need to go on the defensive there, Sparky. Your flannel pajama collection is, in fact, a complete train wreck, but that’s not what this is about. Gives me some ideas for next time, though.”

When we went into the garage, I hit the buttons to get both bay doors to slide up and out of the way, and peered up and down the street. Kai’s Impala was nowhere to be seen. “Sorry about dissing your grim wardrobe choices,” I said. “The Man in Black look works for you. It does.” I turned to look at him as he leaned against the fender of Kai’s Mustang, and said, “This is a total subject change, but I just thought of something. You handle Nana’s finances, right?” He gave a single nod. “Will you please stop paying me? Nana won’t do it, even though she barely needs me anymore. Whenever she wants to go somewhere in the limo, I’ll gladly drive her, free of charge. She was incredibly generous with my salary and the free room and board, but now I can’t keep taking her money. It’s not right.”

“Nana would kill me if I cut you off.”

I frowned at that. “Do it anyway. Please? I feel like a total mooch.”

He considered it for a moment, then said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks, Dante.” I hopped up on a tool bench, then asked, “How’ve you been? I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

“I’ve been alright. Just…you know. I’ve had some stuff to deal with.”

“Stuff like Jerry?”

“Don’t repeat this to Nana, obviously, but I found out my cousin’s gone to work for the Messina family. I was surprised they took him into the fold, since their family and ours has a long history of tension and I couldn’t see why they’d trust him. But then, I got to thinking. In order to earn their trust, he must have given them information on our family. We’re not involved in much that’s illegal these days, but let’s just say Jerry knows where all the bodies are buried.” Dante shot me a look and added, “Figuratively speaking.”

“What does that mean for the family?”

“That’s hard to say. If Jerry’s end game was a power play to get himself back in charge of the Dombruso organization, he’d have to go through a lot of layers, not just Vincent and me, but everyone who’s loyal to us. I can’t see how he’d hope to pull that off. So maybe it’s just revenge, plain and simple. Maybe he’s looking to hurt us financially, or maybe he wants real pain and suffering, since as far as he’s concerned we turned on him. Who knows? I will say, it’s ironic as hell, him going over to a family we’ve long considered our enemy,” Dante said, straightening the cuff of his suit. “That’s exactly what started this. He was so pissed off at our cousin Nico for fraternizing with someone from a warring family that he took a hit out on him, and that led directly to me removing Jerry as the head of our organization. But now here he is, cozying up with the Messinas! I can only wonder how he somehow justifies his actions.”

“I think that last sentence applies to every dick in history, Jerry included.”

Dante grinned at that, then pushed himself upright and said, “There’s Kai. I really hope this surprise ends up being a good one. If not, just remember that your boyfriend meant well.”

As Kai eased the Impala into its usual parking space, his passenger turned to look at me and I stopped breathing. When the car came to a stop, the guy got out of the car and said, “J.J.?” He’d grown from a teenager to a man, but my kid brother’s voice was exactly like I remembered it.

“Oh my God, Jedidiah.” It came out as a whisper.

“It’s really you!” He ran to me and grabbed me in a hug. “I thought I’d never see you again! I looked for you for such a long time!”

“You did? But…I don’t understand. You never wrote back. I left a letter for you and Ruthie with our friend Samuel, telling you where I was going, but I never heard from either of you.”

Jed pulled back to look at me, his blue eyes wide behind his glasses. “Oh God. Samuel never gave us a letter, J.J., and he said a lot of awful things about you after you took off.”

“He did? I thought we were friends. I wrote to him after I moved to San Francisco, and when he didn’t write back, I assumed his family had moved like they’d been talking about and that my letters weren’t reaching him.”

A tear snaked down my brother’s cheek, and he grabbed me in another hug. “I wish you’d told me ahead of time when you were planning to come out. I would have helped you.”

“You were only seventeen, and sis was even younger. I didn’t want either of you to get in trouble, since you had to go on living under his roof, and Dad would have made your lives hell if you’d sided with me,” I said. “That’s why I told Samuel to wait until I was gone before he gave you the letter. It’s also why I came out when you and Ruthie were at Bible study, to make sure you didn’t get caught up in all that hatefulness.”

“But you shouldn’t have gone through that alone, J.J.”

“It’s Jessie now. I legally changed it.” I took a long look at my brother, and touched his upper arm as if to prove to myself he was really there. The kid I’d last seen at seventeen was taller than me by a good couple inches, and his short, golden blond hair was a few shades darker. He’d filled out a lot, too, and probably had thirty pounds of muscle on me. Behind his glasses his blue eyes were exactly the same though, and they crinkled at the corners as he smiled at me.

“You always liked the name Jessie. Remember when we were little and we’d pretend we were spies and hide clues in the barn? Sometimes, you used Jessie as your code name. You insisted on spelling it with an i-e, even though I told you it was a girl’s name that way.”

“Oh my God, I’d totally forgotten about that, and you know what? I ended up spelling it that way.” I tried to laugh, but it came out as a sob. My brother pulled me into another hug and I stammered, “I thought I’d never see you again, Jed. I thought you hated me.”

“I could never hate you, J.J. I mean, Jessie. You’re my brother.”

“How did Kai and Dante find you?” I raised my head from my brother’s shoulder and looked around, and only then did I realize my friend and boyfriend had cleared out to give us some privacy.

“I’m not sure. Dante ended up approaching me on the S.F. State campus between classes.” He grinned and added, “I thought I was in trouble at first. He’s a pretty intimidating guy.”

“Wait. You go to college here? In San Francisco?”

Jed nodded. “Ruthie’s at U.C. San Diego. She started crying when I called her and told her I might be seeing you. I didn’t know what to expect, though. Kai swore you’d be happy to see me, but I thought maybe you’d cut ties with the whole family on purpose.”

I wiped my eyes with the hem of my light blue t-shirt and said, “I thought everyone sided with Mom and Dad.”

“Jacob did. No surprise there, right?”

“None at all.” My older brother had always been every bit as bigoted as our father.

“Our grandparents, and our aunts and uncles sided with them, too. Pretty much everyone in the older generation was ranting about how you’d chosen the path to damnation when you ‘chose’ to be gay. They held a big prayer meeting for you, which from what I hear turned into a three hour sermon on the sins of homosexuality. Most of the congregation joined in. Ruthie and I and our cousin Bethany all pretended we had the stomach flu. We weren’t going to participate in everyone damning you.”

“I thought I lost everyone when I didn’t hear from you. I thought I was all alone,” I said softly. “I had no idea. And here you were, living in the same city!”

“I know! It’s wild. We have so much to catch up on,” he said.

“We really do. But first, come with me to the patio out back. I need to thank Kai and Dante, and I’ll introduce you to some more of my family.”

“Is Kai your boyfriend?” I nodded as I headed to the side door and hit the buttons to lower the garage doors. “He’s gorgeous. Does he have a brother?”

I turned to Jed and grinned. “Oh my God, are you gay?”

“Imagine Mom and Dad’s delight. Two gay kids out of four. Potentially three, I’ve always suspected Jacob is deep in the closet. I think anyone who yells that loudly about the sins of homosexuality probably has a lot they’re trying to hide.”

“I’ve always thought that, too. And no, Kai doesn’t have a brother, just a twin sister.”

“Dang.”

“So you’re single?”

“Very.”

“Where do you live?”

“In a cramped apartment in the Western Addition with five roommates.”

“Five, good lord,” I said as I locked up and led him to the patio.

“I’m on a work-study program at school, and money’s tight. I wish I’d studied harder in high school like Ruthie. She landed a full scholarship to UCSD, but then she always had the brains in the family. It’s cool though, most of my roommates are really nice. There are two women and three gay guys. Well, four if you count me.”

“I can’t believe you turned out to be gay. There were never any signs.”

“Well, no. I always hid it, just like you did. It’s not surprising, given the way we were raised. I was closer to you than to anyone else, and I still didn’t tell you.”

“What happened when you came out to our parents?”

“I took the coward’s way out and told them in a letter. According to Bethany, there was a lot of screaming and yelling and more prayer meetings. I guess Mom really milked it for sympathy. Poor her, punished so unfairly with two gay kids.” Jed rolled his eyes.

We reached the yard, and I went up to Kai, pulled him down to my height, and kissed him passionately before whispering, “Thank you.”

He grinned at me. “Good surprise, then. I was worried.”

“
Great
surprise.”

Dante called from across the patio, “Don’t I get a kiss? I helped too, you know.”

I chuckled at that, crossed the yard and pulled Dante down too so I could plant a big kiss on his forehead. “Ew, that felt moist. I’m sorry I asked,” he joked.

“Don’t make me lick your face, Dombruso. I’ll do it,” I threatened. He pretended to be horrified and playfully pushed me away.

I introduced my brother to everyone in the yard, and Nana spun on Jed and asked, “By any chance, are you a gay homosexual?” When he said he was, she clapped her hands, then said, “Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t hold it against you if you were straight. But somehow, when I find out a boy likes boys, it just feels like he was meant to be a part of my family.” Jed blushed at that and fidgeted with the collar of his dark blue polo shirt, but he also smiled shyly and looked more than a little pleased.

*****

That night, I draped my arms around Kai as we reclined on the mattress in his little attic bedroom. It was late and the house was still. The only light was the one that radiated from the dollhouse on the desk across the room. It was almost done and had turned out beautifully. That night, I’d helped him finish painting it, and in the morning we were going to carry it downstairs for Izzy.

We’d been kissing ever since we finished painting. After a while, I said as I put my head on his shoulder, “I can’t thank you enough for finding my brother.”

“I had to believe at least one member of your family would prove to be a good person. If it hadn’t been Jed, I would have kept looking.”

“If he’d said he wanted nothing to do with me when you found him, would you have told me?”

“Eventually. It’s not like I wanted to sneak around and keep things from you. But I would have found one supportive relative first. Anyone, I didn’t care who: a second cousin twice removed, a great-great aunt, the family dog, whatever.” I grinned at that, and he said, “I’m thrilled that we ended up with a three-fer, your brother, sister, and a cousin.” Jed had come over for dinner that night, and we’d called Ruthie and my cousin Bethany on a video chat. There’d been a lot of happy tears and promises of get-togethers in the very near future.