A Couple of Years of Gardening (Chapter 3) (standard:romance, 3530 words) [3/10] show all parts
Author: kmr412002	Added: Nov 02 2006	Views/Reads: 2517/1840	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The courtship and marriage of a detective as told by his wife

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

recovery.  Instead, I find myself sitting in a cold slushy puddle while 
muddy water the color of chocolate covers my lap. I am stunned for 
second, but what makes me laugh is the look on Jack's face. He is 
trying so hard to hold on to his usual stoic demeanor, but couldn't 
help but let a smile cross his lips. 

He offers his hand to me, but I couldn't grasp it at first because I am
laughing so hard. That's when Jack laughs. A crowd comes out and I can 
hear what I think is Megan's voice, “Jack, what the hell.”  Jack and I 
see the kitten bound out of the tree and we look at each other we laugh 
even harder. 

Cheryl helps me change and I stay in the kitchen waiting for the party
to break up. Kate comes in looking for me ready to go. As we gather our 
things, Jack appears. He asks, “Are you okay?” 

I smile and nod. I see Megan with her arms folded waiting by the door
for Jack. I whisper, “I'm sorry, I hope you're not in a whole lot of 
trouble.” 

He says in my ear, “Nothing that a three hundred dollar pair of shoes
can't fix.”  He put his coat on his arm, and kisses Kate's cheek and 
mine. 

“How long will you be town?” 

“Until the day after Christmas.” 

“Nina, have a good Christmas.” 

All of a sudden I remember. “Jack, wait.”  I dig in my bag and bring out
the envelope. “Merry Christmas,” I say. 

When he pulls out the copy, he gasps, and says, “Jesus. This is great.”
He hugs me and whispers, “Thanks, you don't know what this means to 
me.” 

When Kate and I make it to the car, as she digs for her keys, she
mumbles, “Any longer and I would have told you two to get a room.” 

I fail at sounding outraged, “Kate.” 

She rolls her eyes. 

“What?” I ask. 

“You guys.” 

“Spit it out, Kate.” “You guys are wasting time that no one is sure we
have; especially in this line of work.” 

“Oh, I'm sure Megan and Jack aren't wasting time.” 

She speaks to me very slowly like I haven't got the gist of her message.
“Nina, he really likes you.” 

“Oh boy, you think he'll ask me to the prom?”  I saw that my sarcasm has
hurt her. “I'm sorry, Kate. He likes the picture. He was just 
grateful.” 

She purses her lips as she starts the car. “Do you remember the picture
you took of me and my mother?  It was three months before she died.” 

I nod. They were embracing smiling at each other with these dramatic
boas around their necks. 

“Until those pictures were taken, I would have sworn my mother and I
were not close at all; that we had nothing in common. Do you remember 
how guilty I felt about that?  You saw something there, that I am so 
glad you showed me before she died. You have an eye for the other 
story; the one with a deeper meaning. When she died, you don't know how 
comforting that was. The way I see it is that you and Jack are the 
other story. It's just amazing to me that you two can't see that.” 

I moan once again, “Kate.” 

“Okay, okay, it's none of my business. She takes my ring finger. You
haven't told him, have you?” 

“Kate, there really hasn't been a reason to.” 

She purses her lips in exasperation. 

“I feel the reason we get along so well is there isn't all this sexual
tension.” 

“What's wrong with a little sexual tension?” 

I think Jack needs a friend more than any of that. And maybe, Katie,
that's what I need. If he finds out that I'm not married, I'll lose 
that. 

It is nearly spring before I have to go to New York again. I call Kate
about a visit and she told me she would be attending a conference and 
wouldn't be back until the evening, but she will leave the key with 
Jack. 

“Katie, can't you leave it with a neighbor? I hate to bother him for
that.” 

“He asked about you a couple of days ago. Wanted to know when you'd be
back in town. Maybe it would give you a chance to get together for a 
cup of coffee and talk over old times. Actually, he's got to go to 
court on a case and he's pretty antsy right now. Maybe--.” 

I am growing more impatient with her. “Kate, there are no old times.” 

“Look at it this way. You would be doing me a big favor.” 

The day before I go to New York, I call Jack at work. We make a date for
me to pick up the key. Then, he asks if I still take portraits, because 
he wants to have one of taken of his sister's family. I tell him I 
still do that for friends. 

“Well, we're friends, aren't we?” He sounds irritated and distracted. 

“Sure, Jack, we're friends. Are you okay?” 

“Not really.” 

“You can't talk right now, can you?” “Can I call you tonight? Will you
be home? 

“Yes, I'll be there.” 

That evening he calls. “I'm sorry about this afternoon. About a month
ago, I arrested this bastard for raping his eleven-year-old 
stepdaughter. This afternoon, we go to court. He got off even when I 
did every goddamn thing to make sure the case was airtight. The jury 
sent him home to rape that kid all over again after I told her it was 
going to okay. I'm tired of losing this fucking war.” 

“I'm sorry, Jack. I'm sure you did your best by that girl. I'm sure
that--.” 

“Nina, I'd like to see you.” 

I tried to sound as matter of fact as possible, and then wonder why I
even need to try. “Yes, I know. You're supposed to give me Kate's house 
key.” 

“Nina,” he says my name that way, and if I let him keep talking, it
might shift something around in my world and I really don't want that. 
So, before he can say anything else, “I can meet you at the park 
tomorrow after my flight gets in.” 

“I can get the key to you then.  How about lunch?” 

And against by better judgment, I say, “Sure.” 

I stand there with the phone in my hand wondering what in the world just
happened,  A few months ago, he was just some one I thought of as 
Kate's partner, I visited with occasionally. And that was it. A little 
voice wanders through my thoughts. Well, not actually, something 
reminds you, like that dream you have every once and a while. 

I am standing in front of his building. I am actually standing in the
small park that borders the building. I call him on his cell and leave 
a message when he doesn't pick up. I buy a cup of coffee and sit by the 
duck pond. In a few minutes, I see Jack making his way across the 
street. I sit there not moving, thinking for a moment that he hadn't 
seen me and was probably on his way to meet someone else. For some 
reason, I keep hoping that one of those blondes come running out to 
meet him, but there is a point when I know he is looking for me. I 
stand up very slowly, and when he catches sight of me, he stops for a 
fraction of a second and then makes his way to me. 

He hugs me and said, “It's been a few months, hasn't it?” 

I nod, “How have you been?” 

Jack shrugs and looks away. Unexpectedly, a thought wanders into my
mind, One day, Jack, I'll ask how you are and you won't look away. 

We buy some sandwiches and coffee and make our way further into the park
into a clearing where we find a bench.  Jack tells me about his sister 
and her family. Emily is married to a fireman and they have two young 
daughters, Grace and Mamie. 

He points to my portfolio. I say, “It's a project of mine. I was meeting
with someone today about a showing at a gallery.” 

“May I?” he opens it and I feel a twinge of apprehension as he looks at
the photos. While he looks, I get up to take pictures of that old gate. 
He calls across to me, “What is it about you and that gate?” 

I walk up to him, “I like to think it belongs in my picket fence dream.”


“Picket fence dream?” 

“You know. In another life, I'd have the family, kids, and little
cottage with picket fence. The gate is something I'd like in the 
garden. It looks like it belongs in the garden, not half hidden in a 
bunch of weeds.” 

“Kids?  You like kids?” “Yea, I did want some, but it's a little late
for that.”  I turn around and dramatically place my hand on my heart.  
“My pictures are my children now.” 

He smiles as I sit beside him. He studies the pictures for a while, and
then says, “If these are your children, they are the loneliest children 
I have ever seen.” 

At first, I am slightly startled at this comment and he must have seen
the look on my face. He said, “I'm sorry, maybe--.” 

I shake my head. “No, please tell me what you think.” 

He clears his throat. He fans some of the pictures out beside me. “I
really don't know that much about photography, but Nina, there are no 
people in your pictures. There's a lot of loneliness there.”  He 
fingers one photo I took of a lone tree growing on a beach. He took out 
another one of an iron fence bordering a yard. He picks up the one of 
the beach, “Look at this one. I know where this is. It's a pier near 
Sag Harbor. It's one of my favorite places to fish because no one--.” 

Jack stops talking. 

“Because what?” 

He said quietly, “Because there's no one there.” 

All of sudden I want to change the subject. I gather the pictures and
slip them back into the portfolio. I ask, “What about you?  Do you want 
any kids?” 

He shakes his head, “Nah, the world is not very kind to children. To
find out there's not a thing anyone can legally do, when ten year old 
is being molested in her own home.  I even look at some beat up hooker, 
and I think hey, that used to be somebody's little girl, like Mamie and 
Grace. Nina, what the hell happened to her?  Didn't anyone give a damn 
about her?  Didn't anybody love her like Bill and Emily love their 
daughters?  I don't see any place for children in my life.” “Well, what 
makes you think your children would suffer the same fate?” 

“I come from a long line of bad parenting. I think the best way not
repeat history is not to start it. I guess that's why on my thirtieth 
birthday, I got a vasectomy.” 

He looks at me a second to gauge my reaction. I give my most direct look
and say, “I'm not surprised. You seem like a guy who means what he 
says.” 

“Yea, Nina, I don't say anything I don't mean. I don't do anything I
don't mean to do. Some people say I don't have a spontaneous bone in my 
body, but I prefer to think that I'm just --.”  He shrugs his shoulders 
and looks at me so intensely, I give up holding his gaze and look away. 


I stare out toward the pond, “Predictable?” 

“Nah, maybe just cold. Hey, if woman spends a weekend with me, she'll
come down with frostbite.” 

I start to laugh, but it comes out more like a shuddering sigh when I
say, “No, Jack, I don't believe that. I don't believe you're cold, not 
at all.”  I impulsively reach out and take his hand and he places his 
other hand on mine. He looks down and whispers, “I got to get back.” 

The weather has gotten colder while we are eating. We both stand up and
he puts his coat around my shoulders.  Jack asks me, “Do you ever think 
about it?” 

“About what?”  I did know what he was talking about, but I was trying to
put it off as long as possible. 

“Nina, you mean as long as we've known each other, you never thought we
might--.”  He pulled the collar of his coat around my neck searching my 
face for some answers that I didn't even have. 

“You mean sleep together?”  I gasp in mock surprise. He laughs, “I was
thinking of something more substantial, but if that's your best offer.” 


I laugh, “I not offering anything. Do you think that's the best thing
for either of us?  You put in eighteen hour days and I'm not in New 
York for more than a couple of days a month--. Oh wait, this is 
sounding better and better.” 

He shook his head and smiled, “Got me there.” 

We grin at each other and I take his arm as we walk back to the precinct
as we walk for a while in silence. “Jack, I think you're worried about 
work right now and Kate said how much pressure you guys have been under 
with this hearing.” 

He stopped and put his hand up, “Don't do that.” 

“Do what?” “Make it seem like that you are just some afterthought to me.
Sometimes it's just that ring that keeps me from --.” 

“Stop, Jack.” 

“Stop what?  Megan thinks we're sleeping together.” 

“How the hell did she come to that conclusion? I haven't seen you for
nearly three months.”  I took off his coat and thrust it towards him. 

He looks down at his feet and rubs the back of his neck. “It's not going
too well with us right now. I think she was trying to find a reason, 
and--.” 

“And you set her straight?” 

He stares at me for a second before I say, “I guess I have no right to
expect that from anyone. 

“What do you mean?” “I'm not married. It's my grandmother's ring.
Wearing it simplifies my life, and I like it like that.” 

“Why didn't you set me straight?  Why didn't you tell me?” “I just
assumed you knew. And maybe I thought you needed a friend more than 
another complication. Maybe I thought –-.” 

“Nina, you must think I'm pretty shallow.” 

He bounds up the stairs to precinct offices without saying a word. I
stop at the foot of the stairs. “Jack, I'm sorry if you thought I 
deceived you.” 

“Yea, right.” 

He throws his coffee cup into the trash and goes back into the building.


After dinner, I am at Kate's home staring into a fireplace. She brings 
me a cup of coffee. She says, “I'm sorry I couldn't make lunch, but I 
heard you had company.” 

I nodded. “Those are the kind of lunches that I can do without.” 

“If it helps, I think he's having a hard time with this, too. He was in
a crappy mood this afternoon. I pretty much could figure out why.” 

“What do you mean by ‘this'?” 

“Sweetie, how long did you think you think you could keep it a secret
from me. You're having better luck keeping it a secret from yourself. I 
think it's interesting that you held on to that picture for him, when 
you could have just handed over to me.” 

I roll my eyes, “Maybe because you lose stuff.”  She sits down beside me
and I can see I am not about to put her off. 

“Every time you guys are in the same room, you always end up together.
Now why do you suppose that is?   I really noticed it at the Captain's 
house. Even when you were covered with all that mud, the way you were 
looking each other. Trust me.” 

I laugh, “Trust you?  Kate, you talked me into eating a bug when we were
six. You talked me into taking gymnastics when we were ten. I got a 
broken arm from that. And now you want me to become involved with 
someone, who may I remind you, had nothing very positive to say about 
when you became partners. And hey, what about Megan?” 

“Megan, Shmegan.” 

“Kate, Jack has friends and his freedom. He doesn't need anyone else.
Anyway, I think he's pretty pissed at me for letting him think I was 
married. He probably feels people like me make it a good idea for 
someone to remain a loner. Hey, he does alone better than I do. 

Kate stands up to take my empty cup. “Honey, I don't think that's
possible.” 


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