22. When it Rains
WHEN IT RAINS
Arolling wave broke on the shore as Jake approached the beach that evening.
The sand was wet and clumpy, and the sky was a dark, ominous gray.
He walked toward the figure standing by the chunk of driftwood where he kept his garbage bag, gloves, and poker.
Robbie’s hair blew in the wind, the hem of his shirt picking it up a moment later.
“You made it,” he called over the wind, glancing back. “I’m sure how much we’ll be able to get done today. It looks like there’s a storm brewing.”
“Not a bad one, I hope,” Jake said.
Robbie shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He looked different from that morning. He’d showered and dressed, obviously, but the lines in the outer corners of his eyes were deeper, and his eyelids heavier. His shoulders slumped with an invisible weight, and he kept his hands stuffed in his pockets.
“I was thinking about what you said this morning.” Jake stopped beside Robbie, tucking his hands into his pockets before the wind tore into what little warmth he was hanging onto. “And last night.”
“What was that?” Brief concern flashed across Robbie’s face.
Jake paused. Had he not meant it after all? “About another night at your place. I know that you like cooking, so I was thinking dinner might be nice—only if you want to, of course.”
“Oh.” Robbie’s chest heaved with a deep breath. “Yeah, maybe. That would be nice.”
“Just nice?” Jake put his hand on Robbie’s shoulder. “Are you okay, Robbie?”
“I’m fine.” Robbie forced himself to relax, if only to assuage Jake, and the moment Jake took his hand off his shoulder, he could tell Robbie had tensed up again. “Let’s get to work while the weather’s still decent, shall we?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Their work didn’t last long at all. As Jake jumped up onto the rocks to grab a crushed soda can, a wave crashed over them, nearly catching him in its pull. He scrambled down and hobbled through the sinking, slippery sand back to safety.
“Jesus Christ, that’s bad,” he panted.
“We should go,” Robbie said. “It’s getting unsafe to be out here.”
As if Mier itself were confirming Robbie’s statement, a downpour of rain broke out above, instantly soaking them to the bone. Robbie took Jake’s bag from him and tied it up while Jake hugged his arms over the sweatshirt that was far too exposing for the current weather.
“Come on,” Robbie called over the din of the rain, “we’ll drive somewhere warm and dry before they close the roads down.”
“Would they do that?” Jake sputtered on the water that dripped from the tip of his nose and philtrum into his mouth.
Robbie nodded vehemently. “Let’s go, Jake.”
Jake didn’t have to be told a third time. He fished his keys out of his pocket and started the car while Robbie dumped what little trash they’d managed to collect. He joined Jake in the car seconds later, his hair hanging limply over his eyes before he pushed it out of the way.
“Fuck me,” Jake said, “this is awful.”
“And rare,” Robbie assured him. “Let’s go to the bookstore. We’ll be safe there for a while.”
Jake fought against the pouring rain in his little sedan, and after a few painful minutes, he was in the bookstore parking lot, steeling himself for having to get out and bear the flood again while Robbie unlocked the door.
They ran together to the front of the building.
Robbie let Jake inside first, where he stamped his feet and shook his shirt out.
Water rained down on the little brown Welcome!
rug. Robbie flicked the lights on, then got the heating running and disappeared into the back for a minute.
When he returned, he had two light gray hoodies with Eaton’s Book Nook emblazoned on the front, alongside a stack of books and a sleeping cat.
“This is even worse than the tote bag,” Jake told him, but he didn’t hesitate to strip off his wet shirt and put the warm, soft hoodie on.
“You’ll survive,” Robbie said, shooting him a withering look.
“What about our pants? They’re soaked too.”
“Well, it’s not like anyone’s going to come in here, and the door is locked anyway. Unless you’re afraid of what might happen if you take them off in front of me, I don’t care.”
“Afraid?” Jake laughed. “Robbie, Robbie, haven’t we moved past that by now?”
“You were so resolute on that fucking rule a few months back. How is practically every day okay with you now?”
Jake didn’t respond. Robbie’s question had been pointed, and not without venom. It was a tone he hadn’t heard in months, and it was almost shocking. But it was his own fault for building their relationship on the crumbling bricks of a rule that would never hold up to someone like Robbie.
In silence, he peeled off his jeans and laid them out across one of the reading chairs to dry off. The store had already warmed up a bit, and he didn’t feel nearly as chilled as he had when they first stumbled inside.
He waited for Robbie to take his pants off too, but Robbie didn’t. He just stood there, looking at the front counter as if once he blinked, it would all disappear.
“Want some help?” Jake asked.
“Hm? Oh, no, thanks.”
His light flirting had been lost on Robbie entirely.
“What’s wrong, Robbie?”
Robbie shook his head. When he looked back at Jake, his eyes were brimming with unshed tears.
“Oh God, what happened?”
“Nothing important,” Robbie murmured. “Forget it, Jake. Everything’s fine.”
“It’s not. Something happened between when I left your place this morning and when we met up at the beach. What is it? You can tell me.”
Instead of speaking, Robbie took his phone out of his pocket, opened an email, and handed it to Jake.
Jake’s eyes roved over the tiny words, his brow furrowing more the deeper into the email he got.
He recognized at least part of the name on the signature: Harry Brown, Esq.
He remembered the day Robbie took him to his parents’ house to drop off some documents, and Madeleine was on the phone with Harry the lawyer.
“They’re going through with it?” he asked, handing the phone back to Robbie.
“Of course they are.” Robbie wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “Why wouldn’t they? It’s more profitable to turn this place into a cafe, and they don’t give a rat’s ass about what I would want in this situation. I should never have believed they would.”
“I’m sorry.” Jake didn’t know what else to say. He put his hand on Robbie’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’m really sorry, Robbie. I know how much this place means to you.”
Robbie nodded, sniffling. “They want it finished by the holidays,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Jesus, that’s quick. Is that realistic?”
“If they get the right workers in, probably. They’re still waiting for approval from the town council, but considering my dad is one of the members, that shouldn’t take long. I’ll run a sale here to clear out as much inventory as I can, and then I’ll start packing up and moving everything out.”
Robbie turned, letting Jake hug him fully. He leaned against Jake, resting his chin on Jake’s shoulder. It was warm and hard and so painfully familiar. Jake ran his fingers through Robbie’s wet hair. It smelled like coconuts and was as soft as strands of silk.
The rain outside was still coming down hard, so he led Robbie over to one of the chairs that didn’t have Jake’s wet pants draped over it.
“I’ll drive you home as soon as it’s cleared up a bit,” he said.
“You really don’t have to. I’m used to walking.”
“Come on, Robbie, it’s the least I can do. Besides, I barely got a decent tour yesterday. You owe me dinner, I told you. What good is knowing how to cook when you don’t flex your skills on guys to get them into bed?”
“I didn’t have to with you,” Robbie said. “You’re just too easy. Maybe if you hadn’t begged me to fuck you the moment you got into town…”
“I managed to stay away from you were a couple of weeks,” Jake insisted. He sat down on the arm of the chair, letting Robbie place his hand on the small of his back. “If it were up to me, we would’ve hooked up and never seen each other again; no dinner necessary.”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember. You can spare me all your whingeing about the lack of guys around here. Although, if I recall correctly, you had some guys willing to hook up with you in Oxygen.”
“I did,” Jake said reluctantly, “but those didn’t work out.”
“Uh-huh.”
“They didn’t.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Jake looked down at his hoodie, the name on it seared permanently into his brain.
Soon this place would be erased from the town, left to nothing but a brief, forgettable mark in the history of Eventide.
He sighed. It was never Robbie’s Book Nook.
It was always Eaton’s, and not the Eaton that Robbie was.
He should have realized that as acutely as Robbie had always been aware of it.
Maybe then he wouldn’t have been so surprised by people he barely knew.
“Do you have any more of these hoodies?” he asked.
“Plenty, and I’m going to have to get rid of them all soon. Why?”
“I wanna get one for my sister. She’s supposed to be coming here soon for a dinner with my aunt, and she would love something like this.”
“Oh, sure. I’ll go get one. What size does she wear?”
“Small, I’m pretty sure, but I’ll come with you. I’ve never been in the back before.”
Robbie got up, and Jake followed him. “It’s not exactly exciting back there. It’s just a storeroom.”
“Still, this might be my last chance to see the wild Robbie in one of his natural habitats.”
Robbie laughed in spite of himself. “I’m feeling better now, so you can stop teasing me.”
“Never.”
In the storeroom, boxes upon boxes stood stacked on top of each other.
Jake peered into the open ones and saw books, tote bags, and more of the hoodies that he and Robbie were wearing now.
Robbie held one up and double-checked the size tag before handing it over.
“There you go,” he said. “It’s on me, obviously. ”
Jake smiled. “Thanks. She’ll like it more than anyone else here—she loves cats and… books. Reading.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah.”