Chapter Nineteen
It was surprisingly easy to leave Oliver with Mike and Lisa for a couple of hours, Siobhan mused as Brian steered his truck out of their neighborhood. He’d been thrilled to see them again and happy to have a new house to explore.
After quick hugs, Lisa had given her a quick tour of the house, which was lovely. The yard was securely fenced, there were toys and puzzles thanks to Nora, and they had dinosaur chicken nuggets in the freezer. “Also some ice cream,” Mike had added with a wink. They were fully in grandparent mode.
They made small talk about the family during the drive, mostly about Steph and Kyle’s trip to Bar Harbor.
They’d stayed offline during the honeymoon, but Siobhan and the Kowalski family group chat had gotten photo dumps when they got home.
They had a beautiful time, though Steph claimed it would have been even more fun if the entire family had been with them.
“We don’t do Family Honeymoon Trips of Doom,” Brian said when he repeated that, and Siobhan laughed. “It might not look like it, but we do have limits.”
Once he’d found a place to park, they walked a short distance to Jasper’s Bar & Grille, and Siobhan smiled when she walked through the door.
Even to a non–sports fan, it was very obvious this was a haven for New England sports fans.
There was memorabilia hung up, much of it autographed.
New England Patriots. Boston Bruins. Boston Red Sox.
Boston Celtics. Connecticut Sun. The New England Revolution.
It was everywhere. Along with, of course, the required television screens.
But they had the sound muted and closed-captioning on, and the overall vibe was comfortable, not super aggressive.
A young person waved to Brian, obviously recognizing him. “Kevin set you up in the back corner.”
Siobhan followed Brian in that direction, which led to a small table holding a cardboard sign that declared it reserved. The television closest to it was off, and because the lighting was designed around being supplemented by bright LED screens, it was dim and quiet.
Romantic, she thought. Hopefully his uncle wasn’t trying to play matchmaker. She and Brian didn’t need any help in that department. Their struggle was keeping things platonic.
A server dropped off a pitcher of ice water and two glasses, along with two menus. “Kevin’s dealing with something, but he’ll be over as soon as he can. Do you want a beer while you wait?”
“Sure. Whatever the most popular on tap is right now.” When he looked at Siobhan, she nodded. One beer was okay. “Make it two.”
Siobhan wasn’t usually the sports bar type, but this really was a nice place with a relaxed vibe and not as loud as she’d feared. “How long has your uncle owned this place?”
“I’m not sure, actually. At least since I was a little kid because I don’t remember him not owning it.”
“Okay. Next question, then—why is it called Jasper’s Bar & Grille?”
“According to my uncle, that’s what it was called when he bought the place and keeping the name was a lot cheaper than buying new signs and napkins.
” He shrugged. “And you know how it is. No matter what he changed the name to, the locals were still going to call it Jasper’s, and that would just confuse people who aren’t from around here. ”
“That actually makes sense, and it’s pretty funny. It’s a great place.”
Brian nodded and looked around, and she could see the nostalgia in the way he smiled. “It really is. All of us kids did some time working here at some point. It wasn’t for me—I need to be outdoors too much—but it was a good experience.”
“Which one of you was best at it?” she asked, and then she paused while the server dropped off their beer before holding up a hand. “Wait. Either Joey or Rob, I think.”
He chuckled. “Probably a tie between those two, for sure. Danny was good at a lot of it, but he didn’t love the interactions with customers as much.
But Steph was definitely the best. Now the younger kids are starting.
Lily’s great behind the bar, but it’s the family business for her.
She was upstairs in the office with Beth from the time she was born, and Kevin used to bring her down here when it was quiet.
Johnny just started bar-backing, so it’s too soon to tell.
And Brianna made it through two and a half shifts before a customer said something out of line to her and she said something back he didn’t like, and he said something way out of line and got punched in the face by another customer and then…
well, there was some broken furniture and a lot of broken glass to clean up. ”
“Oh.” She winced. “Did he have to fire his own niece?”
Brian chuckled. “Nope. Kevin always sides with his staff and nobody who works here—family or not—is expected to take any crap from anybody. But when the fight was broken up and the cops were on the way, she stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips and told him this was not her vibe and she quit. Just walked out.”
“Good for her.”
“And then she had to come back in and ask Kevin for a ride home because she’d been dropped off.”
Siobhan laughed. “There’s nothing worse than having a grand exit ruined. Did he give her a ride?”
“Of course.” He took a sip of his beer and then leaned back in his chair.
“And most of us took a turn working for Emma, too—landscaping, or building with Sean—and that was definitely more my thing. I still do a lot of work for them, actually, as a subcontractor. Joey’s full-time with them since he quit playing ball, and Danny can’t tell a dandelion from an orchid, but he’s good with a hammer. ”
Siobhan leaned forward and fiddled with her napkin, wondering how to best phrase the question forming in her mind. “So was it mandatory?”
He tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“Did you have to work in the family businesses? Like, whether you wanted to or not?”
“Are you asking if our parents forced us and if I’m going to try to make Oliver wash beer glasses and haul bags of mulch?”
Her cheeks grew hot. “Maybe a little bit.”
“We all had to work, of course. Working for family gave us the ability to have a first job with a boss who wouldn’t hesitate to give us a kick in the ass if we needed it, but also cared about stuff going on in our lives.
Plus, they’re our family’s businesses. They built them and having the next generation learning the ropes means something.
Nobody has to stay. There’s no legacy stuff, like my father built this and now I run it and you have to and so on.
Joey stayed on with Emma. There’s a good chance Lily’s going to run this place someday, but it’ll be because she wants to, though my dad talked her into getting a business management degree so her dad will have to pay her more.
I think it was just an opportunity to be taught to be out in the workforce by somebody invested in how we turned out as human beings. ”
“That makes sense.”
They lapsed into a comfortable silence, which was okay with Siobhan because it all sounded great. Except for the fact their son lived almost an hour and a half south of here. Oliver could only take his place in the Kowalski family business rotation if he was staying with Brian.
Maybe he would be, she thought, and then she took a big swig of beer. If a teenage boy had a choice between living with his mom in an apartment in the suburbs or living up here, with all the family and opportunities they had to offer, why wouldn’t Oliver choose Brian?
“Hey, you okay over there?”
She blinked away the moisture in her eyes before it could coalesce into actual tears and smiled. “Of course. Just lost in thought for a minute.”
“While we’re still waiting on Kevin, I wanted to talk to you about Oliver’s birthday. My family would like to be there, of course.”
“All of them?”
He chuckled. “No. But a lot of them.”
“Fair warning—besides me and Oliver, I can fit maybe one and a half more people in my apartment before sitting on laps comes into play.”
“We’d love to throw him a party at the campground. I know it’s a lot to ask and you might not believe this, but they really are doing their best to give you space. But birthdays are a pretty big deal in our family and we missed his first one.”
Siobhan struggled to keep her smile. Coming on the heels of her worrying about the possibility of Oliver choosing him over her as a teenager, Brian’s words landed differently than they may have any other time.
But she knew it was her own insecurity talking, and she took a deep breath before responding.
“It would have to be on a weekend, obviously,” she said. “I can’t miss more work, and I know you guys are busy on the weekends.”
He nodded. “Yeah, ideally it would be on a Saturday afternoon and be a day trip for my family because we definitely can’t put them all up again. But you and Oliver could spend the night and go home Sunday since it’s farther for you and a lot of car seat time for him.”
“And Robin. She’d come up with us, so she’d be staying, too. Oliver can’t have a birthday party without his auntie Robin.”
Brian grinned. “Of course. I’d love to meet her. So would my family.”
There was nothing she could really object to. And she had to admit Oliver would love to spend his birthday at the campground with room to run. “He’ll be upset it’s too cold for the pool.”
“Rob will have it covered by then, so he won’t be able to see the water. That might help him understand it’s gone to sleep or whatever until next summer.”
Kevin walked up to the table, grabbing an empty chair from a nearby table to sit in. “Hey, sorry to make you wait. Our new server grabbed a basket of jalapeno poppers thinking it was the stuffed mushrooms for his table and let’s just say I had to sign off on a pretty big gift card.”