21. Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Robinson
“Okay, so tell me about this whole VideoHead thing.”
Robinson took a heavy swig from his beer—it was a pilsner from a local brewery, and a damn good one, with lots of fruity notes that he was pleasantly surprised by—then grabbed a fry to gesture with as he spoke. “I don’t know. Honestly, Mason would be the one with the better information on that. We were just all buds and, when the opportunity presented itself, we jumped.” He chomped on the fry and shrugged.
“Okay, I’ll level with you: I have three teenage boys and I have to pretend I understand anything about the VideoHead channels they watch when they talk to me. I use it to teach myself how to do basic home improvement stuff and watch music videos. So legitimately, anything you can offer would be great.”
Robinson smiled, and he was sure some of that was the two-and-a-half beers currently moving through him, but there was also something so undeniably sweet about Chuck and his relationship with those boys. Even on a date, he was trying to get to know them better or understand their world a little. “It was a fun time. I was high as balls for a lot of it, but even during the shoots when I was sober, we had a good time. I know there was stress from Ozzy and Ev. On again, off again, eternally.”
“They seem pretty solid now.”
Robinson nodded. “Yeah. They hashed something out.” If it was the same as before, there was no way in hell they wouldn’t have broken up at least once since the end of the Michigan job. But they’d been able to stay the course so far. “I know Mason had some long nights, especially when we first started getting popular enough to make money at it. Before that, it was just us doing stuff around our town, helping out folks we knew. We’d done our own houses, and most of our family’s houses, before we decided to make any content. Kind of made an agreement that we didn’t want to do anything too attached to ourselves on the channel, just in case it got popular enough to attract the wrong kind of people.”
“And then it did.”
“Yeah. Which I know is rich, coming from a meth head who has a breaking and entering charge.”
Chuck’s brows met in the middle. “You bring that up a lot.”
“I don’t see any value in lying about it.”
“Well sure. But you’re not lying at this point, even by omission. You know that I know, and you know that I don’t have a problem with it.” Chuck bobbed his head side-to-side. “I guess it’s possible you aren’t sure how I feel about it.” Then he looked Robinson dead in the eye and there was such a warmth there, but also something stronger. Harder. That look wasn’t harsh, but it offered no room for compromise. “I have no problem with what you did in your past.”
Robinson swallowed hard, but couldn’t tear his gaze away. Somehow, it made him feel embarrassed…but still good? It was a confusing cluster of emotions, that was for sure. “Thanks.”
Chuck finally broke eye contact and sighed. “But you still feel pretty guilty about all that, right? That’s the only thing I can figure.”
Robinson hesitated, but eventually nodded. “I hurt people for my own good. That was just the one time they caught me.” He’d broken into two other houses before to fuel his habit.
“Did you ever apologize or try to make it up to them?”
Robinson nodded again, then drained out the rest of the beer before continuing. Liquid courage to the rescue, I hope . “They all accepted. Eventually. I redid a couple bathrooms, did a lot of yard work, and scrounged up some cash for everyone.”
“But you still feel bad about it. And you…” Chuck shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m being a God-awful date partner right now.” Chuck tossed a fry back into his mouth. “Anyway, VideoHead. It was a good time?”
Robinson nodded and tried to push himself past the previous subject. He managed, but it still lingered in the back of his mind, a constant shadow over everything else he said. “For the most part. There were definitely a few dicey jobs.” One of them was helping out their town’s one local cop, who Robinson had more than a few run-ins with before ever considering helping her out with her house, but Robinson wasn’t letting himself focus on that. So he pivoted. “Got me here on this job, so I can’t complain about it at all.”
“Well, I’m glad about that.” Chuck looked up at the sky. The stars were just coming out, and a sliver of a moon hung low against the horizon. “I won’t lie, I don’t know how well I would have handled all this if I didn’t have someone to talk to. And maybe to talk me off the ledge a little bit.” He looked back down with a smile. “Also, I think maybe you had the right idea back on that first day.”
Robinson raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I don’t drink very much, and now I’ve had three beers. You’re going to have to jog my memory on this.”
“I told you all that I wanted it to feel like a home again.”
The entire interaction clicked back into place for Robinson, beer or no beer. “Right. I said you should have people over.”
“Yeah. And I think you had the right idea.” He gestured around himself, arms spread wide. “I’m out here. I haven’t burst into flames. The boys haven’t called to say that something horrific happened back at home. So…maybe I can step outside of my rut a little bit.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.” Chuck reached across the table and patted his hand. “But hanging out with you has been good for me. Maybe hanging out with friends will be good for me too.”
Robinson nodded. “I wouldn’t have gotten my head on straight if I hadn’t spent time with my parents, and with Bunny and the guys.” Not the least reason being, Jake and Aras gave him places to stay until he could get his feet back under him, but that was neither here nor there. “I can’t tell you that it’s absolutely the right decision, but it helped me. A lot.”
“I’m going to think about it. If nothing else, I’m sure the boys would like to be able to have a sleepover at some point. Especially with a nice new house to wreck.”
Once again, that warmth spread through Robinson’s chest. Chuck may have been hiding his true motivations, but even if that was the case, he still put the focus on his sons. “You really love those boys.”
“Of course I do. They’re everything, and they’re amazing.” He sighed. “I can’t believe I’m out on a date, and I’m willing to admit I have kids and that my husband died.”
“Out on a date with a criminal, no less.”