15. The One and Done Rule
THE ONE AND DONE RULE
The next morning, the first day of fall, Isabel met Jake in the kitchen. For the first time since he’d arrived there, Jake was up before his aunt. He’d had a restless night again, and it didn’t make sense to lie in bed for hours knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep.
“Good morning,” Isabel said, clearly surprised when she walked in.
“Morning, Aunt Isabel.” Jake got a mug from the cabinet and poured some coffee into it for her.
“You’re up early.”
“I guess so.”
“Is everything all right? You’ve been quieter lately, and now… this.” She sat down at the table, gesturing for Jake to sit, too.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Jake said. “Just bored, but you already know that.”
“I thought you were getting out and doing more stuff.”
“Sure, but there’s only so much you can do around here.”
“And what about Robbie? It seems like you’ve been spending more time with him outside of the beach lately.”
“It’s hard to avoid anyone for too long in this place.”
“True enough. But you’re getting along better, aren’t you?”
Jake shrugged.
“Hm, you know what? I should invite him over for dinner tonight. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Jake mulled over that idea for a moment, weighing the pros and cons.
Pro: A dinner party was the most excitement he was going to get for a while.
Con: He could already feel his heart hammering in his chest at the mere idea of being next to Robbie.
Pro: He would get to see Robbie.
Con: He would have to see Robbie.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.
“Why not?” Isabel picked up her phone. “I’m going to text him right now and ask if he’s free. We could all use a nice little get-together.”
Jake ran his fingers along the rim of his cup. It was warm from the coffee, and there was a damp spot where he’d sipped from it seconds earlier. “He might already be busy,” he said, leaning across the table as he tried to see what Isabel was typing. “He has a pretty involved social life.”
Isabel glanced up. “Does he? He always seems quite lonely to me.”
Jake pushed his chair back. “Yeah, I guess. Uh, excuse me for a minute, Aunt Isabel. I’ll be right back.”
Isabel turned her attention back to her phone. “Of course, Jakey. Take your time.”
Jake darted into his room and unplugged his phone from the charger by his bed. He opened his and Robbie’s text thread, his thumbs flying across the little digital keyboard.
Don’t accept Isabel’s dinner invite.
He bit down on his lower lip and added:
Please.
That would be enough to get to him, Jake was sure of it.
He waited for Robbie to text him back, but the message sat unread. It sat, and sat, and sat, until Isabel was making dinner for three, and he knew what Robbie’s response had been.
“He’s coming tonight, isn’t he?” he said, hoping his casualness sounded authentic.
“Yes,” Isabel replied, “and he sounded quite happy in his reply. I think he’s really looking forward to this. I should ask him to eat here more often. He never got dinners like that when he was a kid.”
Jake sat down in one of the dining chairs. “What do you mean?”
“His parents didn’t do family dinners.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. What, did they have Susan cook for them?”
“Susan?” Isabel cocked her head, and Jake remembered that he hadn’t told her about his visit to the Eaton House.
Too late now.
“Susan doesn’t cook, but they have a private chef. But that’s not really the same, is it?”
“No, it’s not. Robbie likes to cook, though.”
“Probably because he never grew up with it.”
“Huh. I never really thought about it like that before.”
“Robbie doesn’t like talking about his childhood much, but I’m sure you’ve already picked up on that. I think that creating barriers between himself and his family is how he’s able to handle being around them.”
Jake snorted. “Yeah, and we know the only reason he bothers.”
“You do know the reason, and don’t pretend otherwise.” Isabel put her hands on her hips, giving Jake a look that told him he was on thin ice. “I hope you don’t talk to him like that when you’re together.”
“Sure I do, but he gives it back just as hard. I mean, that’s just how we are. He can take it.”
“Well, try to be nice to him tonight—nicer than that lunch we had together, please.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“Oh, he’s here.” She looked up. “Get the door, Jake, and entertain him for a bit while I finish dinner. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Jake stood up with a sigh, making his way to the front door slowly. Entertaining Robbie was exactly what he was trying not to do.
He took a deep breath and opened the door to find Robbie standing there, a glass baking dish with foil over it in his hands.
“Hi,” he said, keeping his tone even and detached. At least he and Jake were on the same page now, not that it mattered much.
“You never answered my text,” Jake said bluntly. He didn’t step aside to allow Robbie in yet, not until he had his answer.
“I didn’t think I needed to.”
“But you read it.”
“Of course.”
“And you came anyway.”
Robbie frowned. “You had no trouble showing up at my store yesterday. What changed?”
“I just thought that after our talk, you would get that it’s not a good idea for us to spend time together when we can help it. I even said please.”
“I noticed.”
“That didn’t make you stop and think that maybe this is a terrible idea?”
“You’re really that worried something’s going to happen?” Robbie smirked. “Come on, Jake. What about your rule?”
“I’m trying not to break it.”
Robbie’s expression changed almost imperceptibly. Had Jake not been staring at him, he would have missed it. Then his eyes lit up again, he put on a more natural smile, and he pushed past Jake as though he weren’t there at all. “Where’s Isabel?”
“In the kitchen.” Jake pointed at the dish in Robbie’s hands. “Does that—”
“Yeah. I’ll bring it to her and say hi.”
He took his shoes off before making his way into the kitchen, where even Jake could hear how excited Isabel was to see him.
Jake stayed in the living room for a few minutes, giving them enough time to talk alone.
Maybe Isabel could soften Robbie up and keep him distracted enough for them to get through this night.
When he stepped into the dining area, Robbie was setting plates loaded with food on the table, and Isabel was cleaning up what little remained of her mess from cooking.
“Ready to eat, boys?” Isabel asked. “Jake, you’re sitting next to Robbie tonight.”
Jake shot a sideways glance toward Robbie, who kept on smiling. At least he couldn’t play footsie under the table this time.
“Did you see that Robbie brought cinnamon rolls?”
“Is that what those were?” Jake said. “He didn’t show me, no.”
“You can have one after dinner if you like,” Robbie said.
“Just one?”
“Or more,” Robbie said quickly. “I made a dozen.” He was flustered. For once, Jake seemed to be getting to him before he got to Jake, and Jake wasn’t even trying.
“Tell me, Robbie, how’s business at the bookstore?” Isabel asked.
“Oh, you know,” Robbie said, tensing slightly. “About the same. Now that most of the summer tourists are gone, business has slowed down a bit. But one of our best-selling authors is holding a book signing there next month, so we’re expecting quite a bit of business from that.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but…”
“Spit it out,” Jake muttered. Isabel shot him a warning glance, and he lowered his head in shame.
“My parents are considering closing the bookstore down,” Robbie said. “They want to turn it into a cafe, as a matter of fact.”
“Oh dear, really?” Isabel clasped her hands together in front of her mouth, as though she were offering up a silent prayer to Mier that she had misheard what Robbie said.
“A cafe sounds kind of nice, doesn’t it?” Jake asked. He looked between the two people staring daggers at him, eyebrows raised. “What? It does to me, anyway.”
“We used to have a cafe in town,” Robbie said dryly. “The owner had to sell because of flood damage about twenty years ago.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “That still doesn’t change the fact that a new one would be nice.”
“It’s a hardware store now,” Robbie continued. “You may have seen it: Eaton Hardware?”
“Oh.” Jake shrank back into his chair. “Why didn’t they keep it a cafe?”
“It was in a bad location,” Isabel explained. Robbie shot her a grateful look, and she smiled at him. “And at the time, there was a recession and a decline in tourism, making it an even worse idea.”
“That’s too bad about the last cafe, but who cares if the Eatons take a building they already own and change it now?”
“Because they won’t stop there,” Robbie said. “Sea Bites already sells coffee in house. This cafe will operate in direct competition with them.”
Isabel shook her head. “I can’t imagine that will be good for their business.”
“It won’t be,” Robbie confirmed. “I don’t doubt that my parents are already planning on snapping up the restaurant when it’s forced to shut down in a few years.”
“And Madeleine and Junior really are serious about this?”
“I’m afraid so,” Robbie replied. “Nothing concrete yet, but they’ve been discussing the idea long enough that I doubt they would have put this much thought into it if they weren’t going to follow through eventually.”
“That’s a shame,” Isabel said. “Is there any way to support the store that would get them looking at it differently?”
Robbie shook his head. “The simple fact is that a cafe would be a better business venture in this town right now, and they’re already of the opinion that I would want to make more money too. I’ve told them I like the bookstore, but that doesn’t matter. It never mattered.”
“That’s bullshit,” Jake blurted out. He clamped his hand over his mouth, but it was too late.
“Well,” said Robbie, “my family’s built its legacy on making money, and my parents certainly don’t want to be the ones to drop the ball.
Still, I don’t think they want to cause a rift with me quite yet, so as long as I keep it even marginally profitable, they’re probably not going to make any bold moves. ”
“Probably?”