10. Chapter 10
Chapter ten
Chuck
It had been a hell of a long day, but the crew was finally packing up and heading out. Maybe most importantly, the cameras were off. Chuck hadn’t realized how big a weight they’d been adding to the situation, but as soon as there weren’t a dozen little red lights beaming in his direction, tension leached out of his shoulders. He even found enough of a good host within himself to walk the Pine Point guys out to their cars.
“Now, if that upstairs bathroom starts to leak, turn off the water and call one of us.” Robinson was leaning over Jake to talk to him through the back passenger-side window. “I’ve only seen those caps leak a handful of times, and I really reefed on them, but you never know. And obviously continue to not use that bathroom.”
“No problem.” Chuck patted the side of the SUV. “Drive safe. I have to work tomorrow, but if the boys give you any trouble, call me .”
They drove off and Chuck turned around to see Ryan standing a few feet away. He was grinning. “We’re not allowed to give them trouble?”
“I’d really prefer you didn’t.” Chuck hooked an arm around Ryan’s neck and they walked back toward the house together. The sun was beginning to get low, so the sky around them had a distinct peachy glow. When they got right to the front door, Chuck swerved and took Ryan around to the gate so they could walk through the backyard. “Just realized I need to show you how to shut the water off in case something happens and you have to get in there.” Which was a lie—he hadn’t just thought of it—but it served his purposes.
“Aren’t they going to be here? Professionals and all that?”
“Yeah, but I’d rather be safe.” Plus, this extra time gave them some chance to talk with less risk of being overheard by the other boys. “Besides which, I want to double check something with you.”
“Oh, so this is your way of getting me away from Colby and Nick.”
“Exactly.” Chuck kept the pace to an amble as they approached the thicket of thorny plants that surrounded the shut-off valve. “I just need to make sure you’re really okay watching your brothers for me with all these strangers in the house. I can strong arm them into giving me some extra time off work while they’re here.” The plan made sense on paper—Ryan was used to stepping up and watching the other two while Chuck was at work, and he was more than old enough and capable enough to do it—but the crew and the cameras added a whole layer of complexity that didn’t exist most of the time. “I know having so many people around can be a lot.”
“It’s really okay, Dad. I can keep the hellions in line.”
Chuck rolled his eyes. “I know you can. But you shouldn’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I want to, okay?” He gestured flippantly toward the shut-off valve. “So are we really climbing through that tonight?”
“No. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Push your way through and turn the valve.” Chuck wrapped his arms around Ryan and squeezed. “Thanks, kid. I probably won’t send you back to the factory.”
“Oh, I could take you in a fight, old man.” Ryan squeezed him back harder. “You can’t get rid of me.”
Once that was all done and dusted, Chuck ordered Chinese. After they ate, he sent the boys upstairs to finish homework while he took his shower. He couldn’t very well go to work smelling like mildew and sweat. Not without raising some serious eyebrows.
He popped on the water in the master suite to heat up, then jogged over to the other upstairs bathroom just long enough to peek in. No water was coming out of the fittings so far. Chuck headed back into the bedroom and stripped down, looking at himself in the mirror. He had some little scratches on his arms and face from getting to the shut-off valve, and some extra patches of dirt that must have come from something they did, though he couldn’t say what. His hair was the worst of it, festooned with dust bunnies and cobwebs and several dead leaves. He shook out what he could over the little trash can, then opened the glass door to the shower and stepped inside. He scrubbed his hair as the water cascaded down, loosening up anything left in there.
Then he turned around and let the stream of hot water pummel his sore neck and shoulders. It didn’t feel like it was getting quite deep enough to fix the problem, but he let it work while he lathered up and scrubbed down. A couple of the cuts stung as he got his body wash in them, but nothing was too bad.
Eventually, his mind wandered away from his mild aches and he slipped into the bliss of shower thoughts…which quickly included Robinson. The guilt bubbled up in his stomach, but not enough to stop his mind from wandering. He managed to find, diagnose, and get ready to fix the bathroom in no time flat. He was good with the kids. And he was cute. Andrew also would have thought he was cute. It wasn’t a coincidence that Chuck got him the Twink-A-Month calendar for Christmas every year.
That stopped any other emotions. I used to get him the Twink-A-Month calendar for Christmas every year. Chuck knew he should have been over this. At least over it enough that he wasn’t caught breathless any time he thought about Andrew. But thinking that didn’t change the sudden sorrow clawing at him.
Chuck rinsed off, toweled off, then walked out into the bedroom to change into lounge pants and his faded, ratty Blind Melon concert tee. It was part of his regular rotation of sleep shirts…but it had also been his first concert with Andrew after they got together, so it felt appropriate and comfortable.
Then he headed out to check on the boys. Colby waved at him from the bed, playing on his Switch. Chuck stood in the doorway. “I hope that means you’re done with homework?”
Colby nodded, setting the console down in his lap. “It was just algebra.”
“Just algebra? Algebra’s hard as crap.”
“Not for me.” Then he went back to his game, and Chuck didn’t push. Colby was always good at math, which clearly wasn’t genetic, and clearly wasn’t learned behavior from Chuck. They’d had plenty of conversations about what to do when Colby inevitably started doing math way beyond either of them.
He moved on. Nick held up his finished assignment in lieu of actually having a conversation and Chuck left it at that. Honestly, even if any of them was slacking off, he wasn’t going to lay into them. It had been a weird day, and some distraction was more than warranted. Plus, he trusted them to do anything that was vital to their grades. All three of the boys were good students and Chuck had never had to bear down on any of them to get them to keep their grades up.
Chuck knocked softly on Ryan’s open door before opening it. He was on his bed, reading some book with a blue flame on the cover. Chuck didn’t catch the title before he set it down, using his thigh to keep his spot. “All done.”
“All right. I just have to check.” Chuck patted the door jamb, then left, closing the door behind him. As he walked back downstairs—this was an evening for a glass of wine. Or two. Or three—he passed the boxes they’d pulled out of the upstairs bathroom. He had plenty of time to start sorting through to make sure nothing important had gotten damaged.
Chuck sped up past them. Those boxes had gone in when Andrew was still alive, and since Chuck didn’t remember for sure what was in them…it was just a better idea to go through them when being reminded of Andrew wouldn’t send him spiraling. Maybe when I don’t have to go into work in the morning too.