Second Wind

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Joey

James' second week with us was a lot more relaxed than the first. He was settling in, getting more comfortable being with us, and was actually beginning to talk to Ben. He didn't talk much, but then, he'd always been shy. At least he didn't seem afraid of Ben or distrust him the way he had in the beginning. I think Ben's confrontation with Vinnie was the reason for that. I knew that James was more than a little intimidated by his father and having Ben get in between them and defend James must have made him feel better.

I knew I was pretty proud of Ben for standing up to Vinnie. A little concerned, too. While Ben was pretty much on the money in his assessment of Vinnie's personality, that is, he wouldn't deliberately set out to fight someone, he did have a quick temper and might have attacked Ben in a burst of anger. He'd already proved that with his brief attacks on both of us. But Ben had handled him just right, standing up to him, and then making a quick getaway before Vinnie could respond. I knew the way Vinnie's mind worked and I was pretty sure that, in spite of everything else he felt about Ben, he probably now had a grudging respect for him.

After several tense conversations with Ben about money and shared responsibilities we had finally settled on an arrangement that we both thought was fair. Ben continued to pay the household bills, the mortgage and utilities, and I took care of the groceries. Since I did most of the cooking and Ben had never been into the kitchen and shopping, that worked out fine. And now with a teenager in the house the food bill was right up there with the big bills so I felt I was contributing a fair share. Although Rita had promised that she and Vinnie would be providing money for James' keep, we hadn't seen any yet and I wasn't holding my breath.

After taking James to school on Wednesday, Connor and I went to Trader Joe's to do some shopping. They didn't have everything I needed there but what they did have was good and their specials were fantastic. I usually did about half my shopping there and then finished up at Kings. Connor and I were taking our time and the cart was about half full as I turned a corner and saw Angie. She came over and kissed us both on the cheek.

"Hey Ange, not working today?"

"I don’t have to be at the salon until one. Your mother is my first appointment today." She rolled her eyes. "She's always such a joy."

"So she decided to swallow her pride and go back to the salon?"

"Yeah, she only skipped that one week. I guess she decided that facing the women who'd heard Barbara's story about you and Ben wasn't as bad as being seen all over town with bad hair."

"She's had that same hairstyle all my life and God knows how many years before I was born. She's pretty attached to it."

"Lately, I think she's going to the salon as much to make sure everyone knows how much she disapproves of your lifestyle as to get her hair done. I wish I had your father's knack for tuning her out."

"Is she still on your case about me?"

"No, she's given up on me. It's all about you. The first few weeks she was just on and on about how wrong you were and how sooner or later you'd wake up and realize she was right. But she really went off last week when your nephew moved in with you guys."

"Yeah, Pop told me she thought James should have gone to stay with them if he couldn't be with his parents. But her attitude isn't very different from Vinnie's, just without the cursing, so I don’t think James would have done well there."

"Well, she made it clear to everyone what a mistake she thought it was. She says that James is just confused and that living with you and Ben is going to be a bad influence on his impressionable young mind. And then she had a bit to say about having a mentally unbalanced teen in the same house as a baby. There seems to be no end to her criticism of you." She looked around the store. "I'm thinking about getting some cotton to put in my ears today."

"I feel bad for Pop having to listen to her all the time. He doesn't say much to me about it but I know she must drive him crazy. Enough about her, though. How are things going with Ethan this time around?"

"So far, so good. I think a big part of the problem before was that I didn't like living on Long Island. All of my friends and relatives were here. And Ethan's main reason for being there is his family, so that was a problem. Except now his parents are retiring and moving to Florida, so he's thinking about moving to Jersey. Since he works in the city he can commute from here just as easily."

"So you're going to look for a place together? Do I hear wedding bells?"

"Yes and no, at least not right now. We want to live together again and I think we're heading for marriage but we want to take our time and make sure."

"What about your parents?"

"I think you were their last hope for an Italian boy. Ethan came out for a weekend recently and met them and they all seemed to get along. I think if I'm happy they'll be okay with him."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck. And next time Ethan's here give us a call. I'd like to meet him."

"I'll do that Joey. We could double-date."

I chuckled. "Yeah, we'd finally be out on a real date together, only not with each other."

As I finished my shopping, I thought about what Angie had said about Mom. The more I thought, the angrier I got. I'd been hoping that as time passed she'd calm down and be more reasonable, but she was obviously going in the opposite direction. I decided it was time for us to have another talk.

I picked up James after school and took him to his parents' house. Vinnie would be at the nursery until at least five so James could spend a little time with his mother, brother and sisters. I decided to leave Connor there with them as well. I knew Mom would love to see him and he'd love to see her, but I was afraid the discussion would get loud and angry and I didn't want him exposed to that.

Instead of letting myself in the back door as I had my whole life, I parked on the street, walked up the steps to the front porch and rang the doorbell. Since I was an uninvited guest I thought I'd at least start off right. Mom was surprised to see me and looked a bit concerned.

"What are you doing here? Is Connor all right?"

"Connor is fine, Ma. And before you ask, so is James. He's doing really well." Mom frowned. "And though I'm sure you wouldn't ask, Ben and I are fine, too." The frown turned into a scowl.

"So what brings you here?" Now that her concerns had been allayed, she sounded annoyed to have to deal with me.

"I thought that maybe now that some time has passed, we could talk."

She hesitated and then turned and headed back into the house. "Come in and close the door. All of the heat is getting out."

I followed her down the hall past the stairs to the kitchen. We sat across from each other at the table.

"Unless you're ready to admit that you've made a mistake, I don’t see what there is to say."

"You know that's not what I'm here to say, Mom. And I'm not expecting you to say that either, at least not yet. But word has gotten back to me that you're still very upset with me, and I wanted to talk to you about that."

"Of course I'm upset. You're living a sinful life and you've taken my grandson away from me. And now you've got another grandson you're influencing."

"I know I'm not going to convince you of this right now, but being in love with a good person and having a solid relationship with that person is not a sin. As far as Connor goes, I feel bad keeping the two of you apart, but as long as we're not getting along I don’t want him exposed to your antagonism. And with James, I'm just providing him with love and support while he tries to get his head together and work things out with his parents. I would hope that if anyone has any influence on him it would be his therapist."

"Since we still disagree on everything what's the point of you coming here?"

"I have a couple of things to say to you. One, if you have a problem with me, and obviously you do, talk to me about it. Don’t be badmouthing me all over town. As you're so fond of saying, there's no need to share our business with the whole town."

"Well, I just want everyone to know that this choice you've made doesn't sit well with me."

"We're not politicians stumping for votes here, Ma. This is a family matter and it doesn’t matter what other people think. Now I may be asking you to stop talking about me, but I'm telling you to leave James out of it. He's just a kid and he's going through a horrible time and the last thing he needs is his grandmother blabbing his business all over the place."

"You know that's not what I mean to do."

"Look, I know you love us and you think you're doing what's in our best interests, but James has to go to school here. Not all of his classmates know the details of his life, or at least they didn't before you started talking. Do him a favor and keep his private life private, okay?"

"I didn't mean to be spreading news about James. I just assumed everyone already knew everything. But I'll keep quiet from now on if it will help him. Don’t think that means I like what's going on, though."

"I know you don’t, Ma. And if you feel the need to tell me about it, come over to the nursery or pick up the phone. But let's leave the rest of Madison out of it, okay?"

Ben

It was an odd feeling to come home from work to an empty house. Lately it felt like we had a full house all of the time. My first impulse was to take advantage of having the place to myself by stripping down and dancing naked from room to room, but the grown-up in me won out. After changing I went into my office to work on tax returns. Yeah, boring, but I'd rather get stuff like that done when no one was around and then I could enjoy my little family when they got home.

Since I got my work done early James decided to use the office to do his homework after supper. Joey and I played with Connor for a while but mostly we just cuddled on the couch. He told me about bumping into Angie and his subsequent visit to his mother.

"James knew I was going to see Mom but I didn't tell him it was partially about him. He's got enough on his mind."

"Do you think your talk with her will do any good?"

"I hope so, at least as far as he's concerned. She's been taking all of this so personally, like we were doing all of it just to ruin her life, that I don’t think she even realized what effect her talking would have on others."

"So it doesn't sound like she's adjusting at all."

"No, I just don’t know how to get through to her."

"Just give her time, babe. You said she's stubborn so maybe that's what she needs, time."

"Maybe I'll talk to Pop at work tomorrow. He's already stuck in the middle and I hate to put any more on him, but if anyone has any influence on her, he does."

Joey was quiet for several minutes and I pulled him into my arms holding him close.

"Why does this all have to be so hard?" He sounded like he was about to cry. "I'm a good person so why can't my mother see that? Why can't she just love me?"

He'd been holding up well but the stress had to be taking a toll on him. I held him tighter and kissed him on the cheek. "She does love you, Joey. You know that. But she's been fed all this garbage her whole life and she can't find her way through it. Eventually her love for you will win out. Love always does."

"You're a hopeless idealist, Ben."

"And what's wrong with that? I'll admit that optimists get disappointed more often than pessimists, but the key here is the hopeless part. As long as you don’t let it get to you and don’t give up, my philosophy works."

"Well, I may need a little help holding onto that optimism now and then."

"That's what I'm here for. Just lean on me whenever you need to. God knows I depend on you all the time."

I lay back against the arm of the couch and Joey leaned back into me and sighed. A few seconds later I heard the low sound of a throat clearing and looked up. James was standing in the kitchen, looking over the counter.

"Sorry guys, I didn't mean to interrupt anything. I finished my homework and wanted to say goodnight."

Joey craned his neck around to look up at him. "Isn't it a little early for bed?"

"Yeah, but since you brought your old TV back from Grandma's today I thought I'd hook it up and watch in my room for a while. Then I won't disturb you guys."

"Okay, good night then. But I don’t want you hiding in your room all the time now that you've got the TV. You're part of a family out here, you know."

James looked at Joey and me and smiled. "Yeah, I'm beginning to believe that. G'night Uncle Joey, g'night Ben."

He turned and went down the hall. I gave Joey a squeeze.

"You see, things are getting better... As long as he doesn't start calling me Uncle Ben."

Joey

On my way to work on Thursday I couldn't make up my mind whether or not to talk to Pop about Mom. I finally decided that there was a good chance she had talked to him about my visit, so maybe he'd bring up the subject himself. I decided to wait and see.

When I walked into the office he was sitting at Margaret's desk going through a pile of papers. My first thought was that Margaret would be really annoyed when she came in and saw the mess.

"Hey, Pop, where's Margaret?"

"Her sister had a stroke over the weekend. Margaret flew down to Florida to be with her."

"Damn, she's not doing well at all. She was in the hospital in January when you and Mom were in Italy."

"Yes, and it looks like she may have some permanent damage now from the stroke. Margaret said she may be away for a while, so I'm trying to tackle the paperwork. It's a nightmare. I've been at it all week and I can't make heads nor tails out of it."

"I thought you pretty much knew everything about it. You used to do the books yourself when I was a kid."

"Things were much simpler then and there were no computers. I don’t even know where to start with all of this now. Usually when Margaret was away I just tried to keep everything organized for when she returned, but it doesn’t look like she ever really got caught up from the last time she was out. I knew she'd been preoccupied with her sister but this is a mess."

"How about Phil?" Phil Russo had been Pop's accountant for as long as I could remember. "Can't he help out?"

"I called him Monday morning. It's getting close to the peak of tax season and he said he's already working practically round the clock. I tried a temp agency and they said the same thing. All of their bookkeepers and accountants are busy. I just don’t know what we're going to do."

"Maybe between us we can figure it out, Pop. You know a little about the books and I know a little about the computer. Let's see what we can do."

Pop and I worked all morning trying to make sense out of what was on Margaret's desk. We tried to separate the paperwork into piles that made sense to us, knowing that what was logical to us wasn't necessarily the way it was supposed to be. It was nearly lunchtime when I opened the accounting program on the computer and tried to figure out what entries went into what fields. In no time at all we were both lost and I was totally frustrated.

"Why don’t computer programs put anything in English? I mean, the words they use are all English, but the way they're using them doesn't communicate anything to me at all. They might as well be in another language."

"That's our problem, Joey. We don’t understand the accounting terms and we don’t understand how the programmers are using them. Why don’t we take a break for lunch and try again when our brains have had a chance to cool off?"

Pop went out to the shop to see what Anthony and John wanted for lunch and then I called the order in to the deli down the street. I tried to catch up on some of my work while we waited for the delivery. Pop made a few phone calls from his desk. We both avoided looking at the piles of papers on Margaret's desk. When we'd finished our sandwiches we both stalled to avoid going back to the problem. I was considering talking to Pop about Mom when he interrupted my thought.

"I was thinking, Joey, isn't this the kind of work Ben does, accounting for small businesses? Do you think maybe he could help us with this?"

I'd thought of Ben several times as we struggled through the morning. This kind of thing was probably exactly what he did at work, but I wouldn't even consider asking him to help us out. This was a Napoli family problem and there was no way we could ask him for a favor.

"You can't be serious, Pop. After the way several members of this family have treated Ben, you want me to ask him for help?"

"I know we have no right to ask, but I don’t know what else we can do. I'm not suggesting that he do the work for us, but maybe he can show us what to do."

"You're damn straight we have no right to ask. Besides, he already works full time and he spends an hour or two every night working on tax returns for his friends, people who are nice to him and appreciate him. All this family has ever done is attack him and treat him like dirt. He's turned his life upside down taking Connor, James and me in. I won’t ask him for anything else."

"I agree with you one hundred percent, but we need help. Can't you ask him to consider it? I'll pay him whatever he wants. I'm not asking for charity."

"I don’t think money is what concerns Ben, but I won’t do it. If you want him you'll have to ask him yourself. On second thought, please don’t ask him. He's too kind to say no and I don’t want him put in a position like that. He really doesn’t have the time and he doesn't owe us anything."

Pop dropped the matter and we went back to work. Over the course of the afternoon we made a little headway, figuring out how to record some figures, but we were still lost as to how to deal with others. I suggested that maybe the next time Margaret called we could get her to give us a quick lesson over the phone. If we made up a list of questions we had maybe that would help. In the meantime, we'd try to keep up with what we had figured out and keep the rest organized. That would have to be enough for now.

Ben

Joey was in a pretty cranky mood when he got home from work Thursday. That was very rare for him. Lately he'd been down quite a bit as a result of his family problems, but it wasn't often he was in an out-and-out bad mood. James was at his therapy session so I left Joey alone to make dinner while I did some tax work. His mood had improved a bit by the time we ate, though he seemed a bit distracted. I wondered if he'd had another run-in with one of his brothers but I didn't ask. He'd tell me when he was ready.

We were cleaning up from the meal and I noticed James was acting a little strange. He usually helped a bit and then went off on his own, either to the family room or his bedroom. Instead, he was hanging around the kitchen, acting a little antsy.

"Something on your mind, James?"

"Um, yeah, Ben. I was, uh, wondering if maybe you could help me with my algebra homework. Math isn't my best subject and I know that's kinda what you do so I thought that maybe you could help me."

I knew how hard it had been for him to ask me for help. It was another step toward building some kind of relationship with him and I was pleased.

"Sure, I'd like that. Algebra and accounting aren't exactly the same thing, but it's all about numbers and I'm pretty good with them. You want to work on it now?"

"Yeah, that would be good, that is, if you don’t have anything else planned."

I didn't and Joey urged us to go ahead. He didn't want us to miss an opportunity to bond. So James got out his books and we sat at the dining room table and went to work while Joey curled up with a book on the couch in the family room. It was just a quiet evening at home with the family.

Friday afternoon James was playing with Connor and Lula while I was once again doing some tax work. I was getting tired of it but I was nearly done. All of my nagging my friends about getting their stuff to me early had paid off. I had three or four tax returns left to do and only about half a dozen guys hadn't given me anything yet, so I was in good shape. Excellent shape considering what our home life had been like the past month or so.

I'd barely gotten started when the doorbell rang. That was an unusual occurrence. I had a friendly nodding acquaintance with my neighbors but we rarely visited with one another. Whenever Becky came over she just let herself in. I got up, went out to the living room and opened the front door. I was shocked to see Joey's father standing there.

"Mr. Napoli! This is a surprise. Is everything all right? Is Joey okay?" I had a momentary panic that something had happened to Joey.

He smiled, a bit nervously. "Joey's fine, Ben. He's at the nursery but I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Pop-pop!!!" I turned at the sound of Connor's shriek. He was charging across the room toward us, his arms outstretched.

Mr. Napoli's smiled broadened as he bent down and scooped up his grandson. He kissed him on both cheeks and hugged him to his chest.

"How're you doin', boy? You're bigger every time I see you. Heavier, too."

Connor stretched his neck and looked over Mr. Napoli's shoulder. "Gamma?"

"Sorry son, you're grandmother isn't with me today. You'll have to settle for just Pop-pop."

I closed the door and led the way to the family room. James got up and greeted us. Mr. Napoli hugged him and gave him a kiss on the mouth.

"Hey, Pop-pop, how's it going?"

"As good as you can expect at my age." He looked into James eyes. "How are you, son? Feeling any better?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling lots better. Uncle Joey and Ben are taking good care of me."

"Good, I just want everything to be okay for you."

After a few minutes of chatting about family matters James went to his room to give his grandfather and me a chance to talk. Mr. Napoli sat on the couch with Connor on his lap. He started acting nervous again.

"So what can I do for you, sir? Is there something new happening in the family that involves me somehow?"

"Didn't Joey tell you about our problem at work?"

"No, he hasn't said anything about a problem at the nursery, just a casual comment about work now and then."

Mr. Napoli sighed. "I was hoping he would have said something, but then, he said he wasn't going to."

Mr. Napoli took a deep breath and launched into the situation with Margaret and her sister and the resulting problem at the nursery. I remembered Joey talking about it when the bookkeeper had been out in January and the way the paperwork had piled up. I'd given him some advice on how to organize it then.

"So I was wondering if maybe you could help us out, Ben. I know you're very busy. Joey told me I shouldn't bother you, that you already had too much work. This family has treated you pretty badly and you sure don’t owe us anything, but I'd really appreciate any help you could give us. We all would." He'd relaxed a bit while talking about Margaret but once he got to asking me for help he was tense and unsure again. His eyes showed the strain he was under, adding to the tension that had been there since Joey had come out.

"Give me a minute to think about it, sir. Would you like some coffee?"

He nodded and I got up and went into the kitchen. Connor had started squirming so I sent him down the hall to James' room. I thought about the situation while I set up the coffeemaker and got out a couple of mugs. He was right that I didn't owe this family anything. In fact, they owed me for taking James in, though I was sure some of them didn't see it that way. I didn't either, now that I was getting to know James. But how much more did I want to get involved with them, given their feelings about me? I had to remind myself that the nursery was more than just John and Vinnie. Anthony and Sal had been pretty supportive. And of course there was Joey. I wasn't sure if he would want me to get involved in this. He'd asked his father not to bother me about it.

I took the coffee out to the family room and made a tentative decision.

"If Margaret's only been out a week you shouldn't be in very bad shape yet. As Joey said, I don’t have a lot of spare time so I can't do her job for you, but maybe I can give you some pointers and get you organized."

"That's all I'm asking. We can do the work if we just know what to do."

"What software are you using?"

"Software?"

"Your computer program. Which one do you have?"

He shook his head. "You'll have to ask Joey. I don’t have any idea about those things."

"I'll have to talk to Joey about all of this when he gets home. I don’t want to get involved with this unless he's okay with it. Assuming he doesn't have a problem, how about us meeting at the nursery tomorrow afternoon? Joey will be working anyway."

"It would have to be after closing at three. John is working tomorrow." Mr. Napoli caught my look of exasperation. "I know, it's ridiculous. You're doing us all a huge favor and you still have to avoid some family members. Believe me, I'm going to make sure they all know how much we owe you on this, Ben."

"I've reached the point where I don’t really care what John and Vinnie think of me. I have my own negative opinion of them. But I do wish they'd treat Joey and James better."

"You and me both. By the way, I'm going to pay you whatever you normally make for this kind of work. If my accountant or a temp were doing the job I'd pay them. You're doing a big enough favor to me just agreeing to help."

I thought about all of the free work I was doing for my friends with their taxes and wasn't sure I liked the idea of taking money from Joey's family. I voiced my concerns to Mr. Napoli.

"You're a very generous man, Ben. Joey told me you didn't charge your friends for what you do. Personally, I think you should. You're performing a very valuable service for them and I'm sure they would be glad to pay you. I own the nursery but all of my sons get a paycheck at the end of the week for the work they do. If you're working for me you're going to be paid."

"Okay, Mr. Napoli, I'll talk to Joey about it when he gets home. If it's okay with him we'll work out something for tomorrow afternoon."

We got up and I walked him to the door, stopping by James' room so he could say goodbye to his grandsons. When we got to the door I held out my hand. He took it and pulled me into a hug.

"Thank you, Ben. The more I get to know you, the more I like and respect you. I shouldn't be surprised, Joey's always been a pretty good judge of character. And let's drop the Mr. Napoli, shall we? My other son-in-law calls me Pop. So should you."

I waited until we were fixing dinner to tell Joey about his father's visit. He was more than a little displeased.

"I told him not to do that. You're way too good-hearted. You've given so much to us and we don’t deserve any more."

"I really don’t mind, babe. And it's not like I'm going to be doing lots of work. I'll just show you and your father how to keep track of everything and then it's up to you to do the day-to-day stuff. I'll check up on you and make sure everything is going all right but that shouldn't take more than a couple of hours a week."

"As long as you're sure about this. I don’t want you doing it just because of me."

"Well, of course I wouldn't be doing it if it weren't for you, but I don’t mind. I want to help and I can, so it's not a problem."

I'd saved the best part for last. I told him what his father had said on his way out the door. His eyes glistened with emotion.

"I know, babe. I got a lump in my throat that made it hard for me to say goodbye to him. I guess this means I'm really part of the family now."

"Yeah, I've always thought of you that way but Pop's the head of the family. I know he's been working on Mom and my brothers to be more accepting about us but now I'm sure he'll really put some pressure on. He's accepted you into the family and that's no small thing. It looks like you're stuck with us now."

"There's no place I’d rather be stuck."

I took Joey into my arms and pushed him back against the counter, pressing my body up against his. I kissed him lightly on the lips, then pressed harder and opened my mouth a bit, running my tongue along his lips. As they parted I slipped into his mouth, our tongues passionately wrestling. I immediately began to get hard and I could feel Joey's excitement pressing against me. James voice from the doorway interrupted us.

"Don’t you guys ever get enough? Do I have to remind you that there are impressionable kids in the house?" We looked over and he was standing there holding Connor on his hip, grinning at us. "I'm gonna have to start sending you to your room if you can't behave."

"You're just going to have to put up with us. Who would fix your dinner if Ben and I went to our room?"

Our budding erections had gone down at the first sound of James' voice and the gentle teasing had dispelled the sexual atmosphere. Joey and I separated and he reached out and grabbed James by the shoulder, drawing him in to us. We had a brief group hug and as I pulled back I looked at my three Napolis. This was my family and they were all I wanted.

To Be Continued…