She frowned at him, so I knew they were gonna have a few words once she got him alone. Instead of going in the office, though, he changed his mind and they got back on the bike and left.
He come back an hour later by himself and went into the office. I followed him, just meaning to talk to him about the Lewiston’s lawnmower, but Jesse Joe closed the door, so Roger wouldn’t hear us. Then he sat down in his chair and give me a hard look. I didn’t know how to feel about that, because I don’t think business partners oughta give each other them kinda looks.
“Before you start in, old man, I’m not gonna marry her.”
“Well, she thinks you are. Don’t know if you noticed that.”
“It’s not what it looks like. I’m not that kinda guy.”
“I didn’t say a word.”
“No, you just come in here and give me that look,” he said.
“Now, see here, I didn’t give you no look. Your business is your business.”
I could see it was gonna be a while before we got to talking lawnmowers, so I parked my old bones in the other chair. Jesse Joe reached back to the ice box and pulled out two cokes, slid one across the desk to me. His way of apologizing.
“You know,” I said. “I married Paola when she was fourteen. And I was twenty-six. Her parents had eleven kids and they was glad to get her settled.”
“Those were different days, Mr. Cutcheon. I don’t suppose you could marry a fourteen-year-old these days.”
“That may be. Only thing is, why’d you buy her a ring if you ain’t planning on marrying her? You go talking that way you’re gonna break her heart.”
Now I didn’t set out to make him feel guilty, but women are sensitive about those things. Especially thirteen-year-old women. Lord, my oldest girl, by the time she was ten you couldn’t hardly tease her about nothing before she’d rear up and say, “Stop treating me like a child!”
“I love her,” he said in this low voice. “I wanna take care of her.”
“I can see how she trusts you. And that ain’t a small thing to a girl like her.”
Truth was she took care of him as much as he did her. There was a few times when he was younger that I thought to myself, One of these days, he ain’t gonna show up for work, ’cause he’ll be at home with a gun in his mouth. I had an uncle did that. Jesse Joe was a man with a deep streak of lonely, until Wavy came along.
“Nobody else looks out for her,” he said. “Her folks are…”
Her folks were trouble. Never saw nothing to fix it in my mind as certain, but I had me a suspicion Liam Quinn was into some bad dealings.
“That’s how it was for Paola. Her folks couldn’t hardly feed themselves, and with the Army set to send me home, I couldn’t leave her in Italy to starve. Them was dark days after the Armistice. That’s why you need to watch yourself. If there’s nobody else looking after that girl, she’s gotta be able to count on you.”
Look at the old man giving advice he ain’t been asked for.
“She can count on me,” Jesse Joe said.
“Then you can’t be making her promises you don’t intend to keep. If you don’t plan to get married, why’d you tell her you was?”
“Because I love her and I want her to know I mean that. And I know, me saying I love her, that’s one thing, and the ring is a whole other deal, but that’s what she wanted. It’s a big deal to her. To me, too. That’s why I bought her a nice ring. Not some cheap piece of shit.”
“How much did you spend, if you don’t mind my asking?”
I thought I’d overstepped, but it was hard to tell with him. Kinda man who come to work the day of his mama’s funeral and never said a word. He stood up, made me think I had gone too far, because he was a big man. He didn’t shift that bulk around unless he had to. Like watching a grizzly bear heave up on his hind legs, a smart man’d think about making himself scarce. Alls Jesse Joe did was pull out his wallet, toss a receipt on the desk, and set back down. I leaned over and took a look. More’n two thousand dollars.
“Well, I don’t believe I did it justice when I said it was a purty ring.”
“Same as I paid for my Panhead.”
“It’s a good bike.”
He laughed, figuring me for a superstitious old man, but it was good luck, him having a bike the same age as him.
“Didn’t seem too much to pay for the ring, as happy as it made her,” he said.
“It’d make you happy, too, if you’d let it. Ain’t nothing wrong with thinking you’re gonna marry her someday. I knew I was gonna marry Paola first time I met her, and she was only thirteen. I didn’t touch her ’til we was married, but I knew.” Truth was we did fool around some, but not much, ’cause Paola was a good Catholic.
“I just want Wavy to know I’m gonna be there for her. I don’t think she’ll grow up and wanna marry me. Why would she?”
“She could do a whole lot worse than you.”
“Far as I can tell, I’m not even the kinda guy girls go home with at last call, never mind the guy they marry.”