Page 86 of Cross To Bear

To forgive Jesse, that went without saying, no doubt with no consequences for my brother.

To get him his old life back, working at the garage, being a fucking nuisance.

I knew exactly how we’d respond to those carefully delivered demands masked as requests because the sleuth had already discussed it.

“Absolutely fucking not,” Crash had said earlier, tossing an oil rag on the side of the car he was working on. “I say this with some understanding of the shit position you’re in, Bjorn, but we are not acting as a daycare for your fucking brother again.”

“Agreed.” They’d all looked at me carefully then, and I’d just shrugged. “He’s nearly thirty. Kid’s gotta grow up sometime, and it’s not gonna happen until his safety net is pulled away.” I shook my head. “Now’s the time.”

“Good to hear we’re on the same page, brother,” Razor said, shooting me a grin before slapping me on the shoulder. “Because we had talked about this before you brought it up.”

“Of course you fucking did.”

“And we didn’t want to pull a three against one but… If you were gonna persist with this shit, we would have to insist he starts work at the studio.”

“As a tattooist?” My eyebrows shot up, able to imagine how that’d go. “No, no fucking way.”

“So we’re all of the same mind then…”

We were, and as we all sat down, my sleuth on one side, my dads on the other, with Mum at the head of the table and Jesse down the end, I held to that. Mum could want the whole happy family thing, but I was done playing nice.

“So what’ve you all been up to lately?” Mum asked. “It’s been weeks since I’ve had all of you in the same room. How’s the job hunting going, Jesse?”

He had his hands wrapped around his can of beer, but he wasn’t taking a sip from it.

“Not real good.” He shifted restlessly, scrupulously avoiding looking up at the rest of us. “People that know me don’t want to hire me and those that don’t…” His eyes met mine briefly, before flicking away. “Well, I’m not exactly gonna get a good reference from my last employer, am I?”

“Oh, Razor would give you a reference, wouldn’t you, Razor?”

“Jesse has my number,” my brother replied. “And I’ve always given future employers an… honest description of how past employees have performed when they worked for us.”

Jesse went pale then, tracing shapes in the condensation on his beer can right as Nelly stiffened.

“Things must be running a bit more smoothly now, eh?” Taz shot my sleuthmate a rueful grin.

“Costs are down,” Crash replied. “We haven’t had to repaint anything in weeks. Jobs are going out faster and profits are up about 30% according to the accountant.”

“Well, there’s more to life than money,” Nelly grumbled.

“Not in business.” I stared at my mother then my dads. “It’s literally the point of running a business, isn’t it? It’s what you guys do with your garage.”

“He’s got a point, love,” Jake said to Mum, but her frown just deepened.

“Not if it gets in the way of family,” she insisted. “That’s the way we raised you, Bjorn. Family first, everything else second.” Mum looked down the table at Jesse, though he didn’t notice. Apparently, he was memorising the ingredients of a can of Victoria Bitter beer like his life depended on it. “Without family, we’re nothing.”

“I know.”

I leaned forward, knowing I had this fight on my hands the moment I dared voice my discontent about the situation with Jesse. Mum had cajoled, harassed, and outright demanded that we take care of my baby brother for reasons I didn’t quite understand, and we’d allowed her to have her way, but not now. I stared at my fathers, not seeing a one of them starting to bristle with anger. Instead, they met my gaze with one of resignation. We’d put this situation off for the last three years and now it was time to pay the piper.

“I’m putting my family first.” She flushed then, a small smile forming. “My family. My sleuth, my girl, my businesses, my bar. You taught me to stand on my own two feet, something I’m grateful for, but…” When I looked at my brother, I felt something I didn’t expect to. Pity. My parents might’ve been arseholes to me at times, though they made sure I had the skills to navigate the world. “Now it’s time for Jesse to do the same.”

He looked up finally at that, and it was in that moment I saw why Mum fussed over him so much. My brother looked lost at the idea. He couldn’t help but glance around the table, searching for help, only to realise before anyone said a thing that it wasn’t coming. I felt bad for him, I really did. I had since the moment he was brought home and I’d seen the bruises on his body. They’d got through to me far more effectively than my dads’ quiet chats about my new brother, but… No one had used him as a punching bag for years. He’d been living with us since he was seven. He had support, so much support, and at some point, he needed to use that as a means to get himself where he wanted to go.

I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

He cleared his throat then sat up straighter, regarding everyone around the room before delivering his own news.

“I’ve been offered an apprenticeship up in Coober Pedy.”

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