11. Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
Robinson
The local hardware store they’d partnered with for this job was Johnny-on-the-spot with their requests. Within an hour of calling in for parts and supplies, Robinson had everything he would need to tackle the corrosion, replace the fittings, and get them a functional, albeit unfinished, bathroom.
Not that he could . It was a demo day, and they didn’t realistically have the entire day for it. Mason had made sure they knew that, with a group text in the morning, a reminder at their meeting once they got to the house, and a big banner hanging up next to the foot of the stairs:
THE BOYS ARE BACK FROM SCHOOL AT 4 PM.
They couldn’t completely stop their work just because the boys happened to be home—if they had to do that, they couldn’t really do this job—but it limited where they could work at different times. They needed to always have a place for the boys to hang out, eat, or do homework, so they needed a place complete and ready to go before they could start doing any work in their bedrooms.
And for Robinson’s side of things, he wanted to get any particularly ear-splitting or noxious work done on the upstairs bathroom while they were still out. Like ripping out all the tiles, the toilet, the vanity…pretty much the only things staying in place were some of the pipes and the studs. Evander hadn’t quite managed to fully communicate his plan for the design, but Robinson also knew to trust the process. It would be nice at the end.
“Hey, I could use some muscle.” Ozzy stuck his head into the upstairs bathroom and looked straight at Robinson. “You know anyone?”
“Unfortunately no. Noodle limbs.” The contractors could handle what remained of the demo, especially with Danni watching over them, so he slipped around them and headed over. “What’s the problem, and why do you need my muscles?”
“Clearing that nasty-ass bramble from around the shut-off valve and figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a plumber on hand.” He turned his head side-to-side, framing his jawline with one hand. “Also don’t want to risk cutting up my pretty face with the thorns, so I figured I’d let the resident bad boy do it. Scars work on a bad boy.”
“Oh yeah, I’m so bad. I cried watching a video about a dog getting adopted this morning.” He slapped his chest. “So cold-hearted.”
“Real men cry, right?” They headed out the back door, past the contractors digging up trees and bushes in the yard.
Robinson scanned the yard and saw two of those contractors were already back in the thorns, hacking away and digging up. So Robinson stopped. “You’re a crappy liar.”
“Not lying.” Ozzy turned, then gestured over his shoulder. “I do want someone who knows what they’re doing in case something goes wrong.”
“And I’m going to get my pretty face all cut up…how?” But Robinson gave and kept walking.
Ozzy sighed. “You could trip and fall. Did it occur to you that I wanted to talk with my jackass plumber friend and needed an excuse?”
“Did it occur to you that I’m busting your balls?”
They got up to where the two contractors were working. Then Ozzy stepped off to the side and leaned against the back fence. When Robinson closed up the gap between them, Ozzy sighed again and looked up toward the sky. “Can I bitch at you about this job for a minute without you blabbing it?”
“When did I get a reputation for blabbing? I thought I was a bad boy? You don’t think I know better than to snitch?” Robinson took up a spot next to him against the fence and rolled his shoulders back, using the hard wood to massage his muscles. “Shoot. I guess I’m taking a break for a minute, and I’m not going to spill. Unless you admit to, like, murdering a nice person or something.”
Ozzy laughed. Short and sharp, but he laughed. “What if I confess to murdering a real jerk? Like a total homophobic, puppy-kicking, runs over orphans and old ladies and laughs kind of piece of shit?”
“Then I didn’t hear anything.”
Ozzy nudged him with his shoulder. “I just…I don’t know. I get that we can’t just expect people to move out of their house every time we do a reno. But did we have to end up as babysitters?”
Robinson shrugged. “I think that’s a little uncharitable. They haven’t even gotten out of school and run rampant yet.”
“I just didn’t sign up for kids. Had enough kid stuff on this show already.”
“You mean the time you had a panic attack because a kid was trying to come out, then slept with Evander?”
“Yeah.” He tapped his foot against the fence behind him, vibrating the wooden planks against Robinson’s back. “That would be the one.” Then he pushed himself away. “I know I’m being a dick about it, but you’ve been saddled with them. Can’t be fun for you.”
“Ryan seems like a good kid. The younger ones are way more attached to Jake than anyone else.”
Ozzy snorted. “Well, he is just a big kid.” They’d made a good amount of progress on the thorns, enough that it looked like there was a proper path back to the valve. And Ozzy apparently thought so too, since he gestured for Robinson to follow behind as he wove his way back through the trees and brush and much thinner brambles. So Robinson followed, and Ozzy picked up the conversation. “I just really am not a kid guy. Ask Ev.”
“Don’t need to. You didn’t like kids when we were kids.” The hem of Robinson’s pant leg caught briefly on a thorn, but he was able to yank it away without any real trouble. “I’ll get the plumbing back on before they get back, so they shouldn’t need to go outside and bug you.” Ozzy had a…somewhat traumatic childhood. Not the worst it could have been, but a tumultuous relationship with his parents, getting kicked out, that whole shebang. So it made sense to Robinson that he wasn’t the biggest fan of interacting with kiddos.
“Oh good. They won’t pee everywhere.”
Robinson rested a hand on his shoulder. “You good?” He certainly seemed a lot more annoyed than usual. “Something else going on, or is this just hitting all your buttons the wrong way?”
Ozzy tensed. “We playing therapy session now?”
“You tell me. Or tell your boyfriend.” Robinson could tell he was closing down, so he needed to shift the tone and give him an out. Much as he wanted the job to go well, and he wanted his friend to feel good, he didn’t have the bandwidth for that, and it wasn’t his place to push. It was his place to keep the peace. “I’m sure you’re getting plenty of alone time with him.”
Ozzy shook his head, but he bent down to the shutoff valve. “Can you just tell me what exactly I need to be careful of here? Unless you want to talk about your love life for a change.”
Robinson’s stomach twisted and he shook his head. “That’d be a boring conversation. Wouldn’t subject you to it.” In reality, his mind drifted toward Chuck. He was a big chunk of man, good with his boys, and…well, if Robinson was totally honest, there was something about a guy who was so damn devoted to his husband that, a year down the line, he couldn’t even sit in his chair. It was a bad thought, like he was relishing in Chuck’s grief, but as long as he didn’t tell anyone else…