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“You’re right. I brought Jake out here to teach him a lesson. It was disrespectful to the job. When we got the call about the overflow, I should have taken him home.”

It was Pat’s turn to stand in silence. His mouth moved a couple of times, but Liam took advantage of the stunned expression on his face.

“I don’t want to do this job, as I’ve told you many times. But I do appreciate that I know how to do it. And that you’ve given me extra work whenever I’ve needed it. I appreciate that you’re a man of your word, and when I’d finished my apprenticeship, you paid for college even though you were disappointed I still wanted to go. I’ve thanked you for that, often, but I don’t think you hear it.” He ran his hand down his beard. “Thanks for the work you’ve given me this summer. I needed it, and you were there.”

Pat just stood there, his shovel forgotten at his side. With his mouth slack and his white hair sitting any old way on his head, Liam was suddenly struck by how old his father was getting. Not far from retirement age, but he had no one to take over the business.

Still, if it was a choice between pleasing his dad and teaching for the rest of his life, there was no contest. “Come on, Jake,” Liam said.

“Wait,” Jake said, putting on the brakes as Liam began to walk to the car. “Mr. McConnell?”

“Yes?” they both said.

Jake was looking at Pat. “I want to stay.”

Pat stared at him for a second, then snorted. “Yeah, right.” He began to dig at the hole he’d made.

“I do,” Jake insisted. And a look very much like his mother’s came into his face, a stubborn look that said no obstacle was going to get in their way. Liam stayed quiet and let him finish.

“I didn’t want to come, yeah,” Jake went on. “And I’m sorry about the…” He waved at the lawn. “But I’m here now, and I learned something this morning, and I want to finish the job, and I promise I won’t puke again.”

Liam was sure his face registered as much surprise as Pat’s, but for him there was something else, something he had no right to feel: pride. Jake was a good kid who dealt with adversity better than Liam would have believed. Talking to Pat McConnell after seeing him in psycho mode was a brave thing to do.

When Pat still didn’t react, Jake put out his hand for the shovel. Pat gave it to him. Jake straddled the hole and began widening it with a lot more vigor than Pat had probably been using, rage-induced energy aside.

Pat watched him for a second and then said, “Liam, start snaking the line from the house to here; make sure we don’t have tree roots or something to deal with on top of all this.”

And just like that, they were hired again.

♦

Later that afternoon, when the lawn was cleaned up and the pipes replaced and Pat had gone off in his own van, Liam took Jake out for a burger.

Jake ate three. “You really want to do this again tomorrow?” Liam asked. A teenager’s hunger still amazed him, especially after what they’d waded through today.

Jake stopped mid-chew and tried to swallow. “Jeez, you only have to nod!” Liam laughed.

Jake did so and then finished his baseball-sized mouthful. “You think your dad’ll let me back?”

“He liked you,” Liam said. “Couldn’t you tell?”

“No.”

“Well, he ordered you around and called you a Muppet when you stripped those threads. I’d say that’s a ringing endorsement.”

Jake took five French fries and eyed them. “Sorry I got you in trouble,” he mumbled before shoving them into his mouth.

Liam stretched out his legs and put his hands behind his head. “You didn’t. I did. And it was all stuff that needed to be said. In a way, I should thank you.”

Jake concentrated on eating for another few minutes. Then he said, “Mr. McConnell? Why did he call Mom ‘that Fielding woman’? Why doesn’t he like her?”

“Preconceived ideas, Jake.” Liam picked up the rest of his burger, but he must have been getting old or something because it just didn’t look as good to him as it used to. “Preconceived ideas.” Pat wasn’t the only one who had those.

Before he took him home, Liam said, “And if I’m going to be your boss, you’d probably better call me Liam.”

Jake looked scandalized. “Oh, no… I don’t think I could.”

Liam shrugged. “Like you said, I’m not your teacher. My dad stays Mr. McConnell, though, right?”

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