The Silent Girl

Behave.”
    Please behave. Because I can’t watch any more of this
.
    “You know,” said Korsak, slicing into his chicken. “This is a good time to bring up you know what.”
    Never had three words sounded so ominous. Jane’s chin snapped up, and she looked at her mother. “What’s
you know what
?”
    “It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while,” said Angela. “Vince and me.”
    Jane glanced at her husband, but as usual Gabriel wore his FBI face, giving away nothing, even though he’d probably guessed where this conversation was going.
    “Well, you know that Vince and I have been seeing each other for quite a while,” said Angela.
    “Quite a while? It’s been only, what? A year and a half?”
    “That’s plenty of time to get to know someone, Janie. To see that he has a good heart.” Angela beamed at Korsak, and they leaned in for a noisy, lip-smacking kiss.
    “You dated Dad for three whole years,” Jane pointed out. “Look where that ended up.”
    “I was fifteen when I met your father. He was only my second boyfriend.”
    “You were fifteen and you’d already had a boyfriend?”
    “The point is, I was just a kid, and I didn’t know what the world had to offer. I married too young, had kids too young. Only now do I know what I want.”
    Jane looked at Korsak and thought: You cannot seriously be talking about
him
.
    “That’s why we wanted you to come to dinner tonight, sweetie. You and Gabriel are going to be the first to know. I haven’t told Frankie or Mike yet because, well, you know how they are. Still attached totheir dad and all, despite the fact he’s sleeping with the Bimbo.” Angela paused to take a calming breath. Just mentioning the Bimbo made her voice rise half an octave. “Your brothers, they just won’t understand. But you’re my daughter, so you know what we women have to put up with in this world. You know how unfair things are.”
    “Ma, there’s no need to rush into anything.”
    “Oh, we’re not going to rush. We’re going to have a nice long engagement and do it the old-fashioned way. Order real invitations from a printer. Rent a big reception hall and a caterer. And we can go shopping for dresses together, Janie! That’d be something, just you and me! I’m thinking peach or lavender, since I’m not—well, you know.”
    Jane glanced at Korsak to see how he was reacting to this feminine checklist, but he just grinned like a happy sailor.
    “This time, I’m going to go slow and enjoy every minute of my wedding,” said Angela. “And it’ll give your brothers a chance to adjust to it all.”
    “What about Dad?”
    “What about him?”
    “How’s he going to adjust?”
    “That’s his problem.” Angela’s gaze darkened. “He just better not try to rush up the aisle first. Ooh, I can see him doing that, you know. Marrying the Bimbo quick just to annoy me.” She looked at Korsak. “Maybe, on second thought, we should move up our date.”
    “No! Ma, look, forget I even mentioned Dad.”
    “I wish I could forget him, but he’s always gonna be there, like a splinter in my foot. Can’t get it out and can’t pretend it’s not there. Just constantly poking at me. I hope you never have to know what that’s like, Janie.” She paused and glanced at Gabriel. “Of course you won’t. You have such a good man here.”
    A good man who’s still annoyed I’m a cop
.
    Gabriel wisely stayed out of the conversation and focused instead on coaxing tiny cubes of potato into Regina’s mouth.
    “So now you’ve heard our big news,” said Korsak, and he lifted a glass of wine. “Here’s to family!”
    “Come on, Jane! Gabriel!” urged Angela. “Let’s all toast!”
    Stoically, Jane raised her glass and mumbled, “To family.”
    “Just think,” said Korsak, laughing as he gave her a happy punch in the arm. “Now you can call me Dad.”
    “I T’S NOT AS IF you didn’t see this coming,” said Gabriel as he and Jane drove home with Regina asleep in the backseat. “They were two lonely people, and look how happy they are now. They’re perfectly matched.”
    “Yeah. She cooks. He eats.”
    “They could do a lot worse.”
    “They’re both on the rebound. It’s too soon for them to get married.”
    “Life is short, Jane. You should know that better than anyone. It can be gone in an instant. All it takes is an icy road, a drunk driver.”
    Or a bullet in a dark alley
. Yes, she did know, because she saw life cut short far too