19. Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Robinson
Even though it was Sunday, they all showed up bright and early to Chuck’s house. The front yard was in a frankly concerning state, with all the grass torn up and piled to the side, a pile of pea gravel that had been delivered for the driveway and garden beds, and Ozzy’s typical assortment of unplanted bushes and trees scattered around, waiting to be put in the ground.
Ozzy cracked his back as everyone was piling out of the cars. “Going to need to rearrange cars so I can get this driveway spread out.”
“Today?” Mason started digging out his phone. “I had that on the schedule, but not yet.”
“I’m just airing it out to everyone so I have it on record when everyone starts bitching and pissing and moaning at me about moving out of my way.”
“Ah.” Mason still pulled out his phone, but he kept it palmed instead of checking anything. “I’ll pencil in the bitching, pissing, and moaning at the appropriate time.”
“I appreciate it.” Ozzy stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I’m pretty sure all I’ve got on my docket for today is finishing up the layout in the backyard and making sure we actually have all the shit I need.”
“Sounds right, but we’ll double check in the morning meeting.”
They were heading toward the production trailers when Robinson caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head just enough to see Chuck heading their way, wearing a white T-shirt that hugged across his chest and shoulders, and a pair of gray sweats. Gray sweats, and Robinson was expected to control himself? Utterly unfair.
“Hey.” Chuck stopped when he got close enough and raised his arm up to rub the back of his head. “Could I borrow Robinson for a second?”
Nobody said anything, so Robinson was going to have to answer on his own. “I’d say I can be borrowed.” He nodded once to check in with Mason, then stepped away from the others.
Chuck led him to the front porch, but before he said anything, he checked to make sure the door was shut. Then he shrugged and sat down on one of the stacks of boxes. “Wanted to make sure there weren’t prying ears or eyes.”
Robinson nodded, trying to keep his stomach under control. Should have gone with more than three cups of coffee for breakfast. Maybe some actual food . “What’s going on?”
“Well, I talked to my boys last night, and I…I’m kind of excited, so I couldn’t really wait very long.”
Robinson’s chest tightened, but he nodded. “Excited, huh?”
“Yeah. I know it seems silly for me to let them take control, but—”
“What? It’s not silly at all. You’re a good dad.” Robinson blew out a careful, slow breath. “That’s part of why I asked you out.”
Chuck nodded, smiling. “Well, if your offer still stands, there’s a nice little spot in town. Outdoor market sort of setup. We could get some coffee, something to munch on, and just talk. Walk around the park.” He chuckled and his face reddened. “If not—”
“If you’re okay with it, I’m not rescinding the offer.” Robinson wanted to reach for Chuck’s hand, but he held back the urge. He didn’t want to cross any lines and he also didn’t want to risk Chuck changing his mind. Robinson wasn’t convinced this was going to go anywhere. In fact, he was pretty damn certain it wouldn’t. He was across the country from where he actually lived, and Chuck was a relative stranger.
But something about Chuck had a hold on him. Maybe a date would purge it from his system, or maybe it would make things worse and he would be totally distraught when he inevitably had to leave. I’m going to enjoy it while I have the chance . He’d learned a while ago not to give up a chance for a good time, no matter how temporary it seemed to him in the moment. Life could suck hard out of nowhere, so Robinson wouldn’t turn down any chance to avoid it sucking.
“I can do this any night after work.” They only had two more weeks on this job, so hopefully it would be soon, but Robinson wasn’t going to put any pressure on Chuck.
“Tonight?” Chuck cocked his head to one side. “I can hook the boys up with pizza money, and it’s easier to do it on a weekend. Plus, Sundays are pretty quiet at that market, so we’d have more of the run of it. Unless that doesn’t work.”
“Will I have time to shower off the work funk?”
“Well, you can use any of the showers in here that are done.”
Robinson’s eyes widened. “I mean…I was talking about going back to the hotel and then meeting up.”
“Oh. Um.” Chuck scrubbed both hands up and down his face. “I wasn’t trying to be weird. I just know that the master bath is close to done, and the downstairs one has worked the whole time. I thought it would just be easier for you to…God, I’m bad at this. Out of practice dating or whatever. Inviting you to shower at my place is more than a little weird, huh?”
Robinson shook his head. “It would be easier. But I don’t really have a change of clothes with me.” He looked over his shoulder. “And I don’t want to make your boys uncomfortable. I’m guessing they gave the go-ahead for you to go out with me, so I’m not sure that’s going to extend to me showering here.”
Chuck nodded, completely scarlet in the face. “Good point. Also, if they try to interrogate you or something today, just tell them to come see me, yeah?”
“They’re allowed to ask me questions about this whole situation. As long as I’m still able to get work done, I’ll let them get whatever info they want.” Mason was hovering close-by, obviously trying to figure out if they could be interrupted, so Robinson stood. “I think we’re holding up the work now…but we can talk more tonight?”
It was a last chance for him to back out, and even thought Robinson didn’t want to open that door, he knew he wouldn’t feel right if he didn’t.
“Or sooner.” Chuck clapped his hands down on his knees and stood. “But definitely by tonight. And don’t, like, dress up super nice or anything. Unless you want to. It’s not a fancy-schmancy place.” He sort of just hesitated there on the porch for a few minutes, then eventually held out his hand. Then drew it back in. Then held it out again, but not as far. Then stuffed it in his pocket, shaking his head. “Sorry. Handshake’s weird. Out of practice. Amazing I landed a man in the first place.” He massaged the bridge of his nose. “I need to head in and let the boys know all the details now, I guess.”
Robinson heard a squeak and looked over to see the door slowly closing. He smiled. “I think you may have had eavesdroppers.”
Chuck huffed. “I was trying to avoid that.” He opened the door and marched inside. “All right, rapscallions. Get over here.”
The door shut and Mason finally closed the distance, brows knitted. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I think?” Now that Chuck wasn’t there and Robinson didn’t feel quite so much like he had to put on a show, his knees vibrated and his entire head went numb, like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water over him. “I…Chuck and I are going out for coffee tonight. After we’re done with work for the day.”
Mason’s expression didn’t relax. If anything, his muscles tensed further. “Anything I need to know about? If he’s not happy with the work we’re doing, we can make a change. Go ahead and take notes and we’ll see what we can do.”
Mason was already opening something up on his phone, but Robinson grabbed his wrist. “No. He’s not…it’s not a professional coffee.” Robinson was…well, more than a little annoyed that Mason would assume it had to be about the job. Mason, Ozzy, Evander, even Bunny had always had a bad habit of treating Robinson like he had no sex life or romantic entanglements to speak of. That had only gotten worse when he straight up didn’t get together with any guys for a while after getting out of jail. It still stung, but he swallowed that back. “It’s…a date.”
Mason’s jaw dropped open, and finally his muscles relaxed, face bowing up into a smile. “God damn. Holy balls, you managed to find yourself some fun too.” Mason clapped him on the shoulder. “You know that the boys are going to give you hell now, right?”
Robinson shrugged. “Chuck already talked to the boys.”
“Oh, not them.” Mason jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “Our boys.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Robinson shook his head. “I’m hoping to let them know…some time tomorrow. Or later.”
Mason nodded. “Mum’s the word.” He opened his mouth, as if to add something else, but ended up snapping his lips closed again and heading for the door. “Go get ready to be on camera, yeah? Still got a busy day before you can play Romeo.”
That also niggled at the back of Robinson’s head—he wasn’t playing , even if this was a tentative weird date—but Robinson wasn’t going to let himself get too annoyed. It was probably just a turn of phrase in that case, not commentary. At the very least, that was the story Robinson was going to tell himself as he walked over to get final prep done before he was on camera. He wasn’t going to let anything dampen his mood.