All's Fair

Jack and Jimmy

"Thanks for crewing for me, buddy."

"No sacrifice here," Jack said as he unwound the rope from the cleat and helped prepare the sleek sailboat. It was a hot, Friday afternoon, the water clear as glass and the sun bright enough to make him squint behind his sunglasses as he looked up into the rigging. Just one more advantage of working for himself, Jack thought.

He imagined that even away from her office, Grace would probably be holed up in her room at the hotel on her laptop, doing research, until at least 5:00, probably later. Or maybe curled up by the pool reading deposition transcripts from the state court divorce case. The thought of her in a bikini going through legal documents in her designer sunglasses made him smile.

And he had to give her credit. They'd spent about six hours the previous day reviewing the files in both cases, discussing the law, and she'd been sharp and tenacious. By the end of the day, he felt like he'd gone through a crash course in sexual harassment claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. And he'd been disappointed when she passed on dinner, claiming she needed to spend the next few hours answering emails and phone calls from her office. This was not, she'd informed him, the only case she was working on.

Jimmy used the small motor to navigate around the other boats moored in the harbor, until he could raise the sails.

"Hey," Jack said, raising his voice above the sound of the motor and the gulls circling overhead. "She call you yet?"

"Negative. If you come back to the house later, not one word to Ellen. Slick doesn't want her mom to know she's in town, I've got nothing to say about it."

Jack shook his head. "Maybe if you ever called her by her name I would have had a clue who I was meeting.

"And hey, how come all I ever hear about is how smart your step-daughter is. You never told me what a looker she is."

"I've got a picture in my office."

"You mean that graduation photo?" Jack shook his head.

Jimmy looked over at him. "You keep your hands to yourself, son, and your mind on that lawsuit."

Jack grinned, and imagined her turning an icy glare on any guy who tried to put the moves on her. "I think 'Slick' can take care of herself."

"Maybe," Jimmy said, looking thoughtful. "Maybe."

* * *

Jack let himself be talked into coming back to Jimmy's for dinner, mostly because it was just easy and convenient, but also partly because now that he'd found out his new co-counsel Grace Wallace and Jimmy's step-daughter "Slick" were one and the same, he wanted to picture her in the house where she'd grown up. It never hurt to know a little bit more about the person you were working with.

She must not come home very often, he realized, or he'd have run into her before. He figured she was in her late twenties, so by the time he got to know Jimmy she'd already have been in Philadelphia. He'd spent plenty of time with Grace's younger brothers – mostly out on Jimmy's boat -- and honestly had forgotten until now that Jimmy wasn't their real dad. Jimmy and Ellen and the boys reminded him of his own family – it was an easy, loud, good-natured relationship that made Jack feel right at home. He didn't see as much of the older one these days, with Ted off in medical school. But JJ had decided to go to college close to home, and still hung around the house enough that Jimmy teased him regularly about wasting money on the dorm room and food plan. The cafeteria, JJ always laughingly responded, was no match for his mom's cooking.