Epilogue Domestication #2
But they made it work. Robbie hadn’t cried in the bathroom for months, nor had Jake thought about the lost inheritance.
Even now, when memories returned of the last time they saw the Eatons in Harry Brown’s beige office, sitting in squeaky leather chairs, Jake didn’t experience the twinge of envy he used to have to try to suppress.
It was gone. He was happy, and it was gone.
After dinner, they settled down on the couch to watch a movie. Their days were busy and their nights were simple, but Jake wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“What do you want to do over the weekend?” Robbie asked softly, resting his arm around Jake’s shoulders and pulling him in to plant a kiss on the side of his forehead.
“Oh, whatever,” Jake said. “I didn’t have anything in mind.”
“Safiya wants us to come check out this new museum with her and Connor one of these days. It’s a couple-hour drive, but if you’re feeling up to it, we could do that.”
“Yeah, that’d be fun.”
Jake flipped through the movie carousel on the TV screen as they searched for one to watch.
Safiya had always been a true friend to Robbie, even when everyone else iced him out—including Jake.
Their friend circle had grown in the last few months, with many people suddenly finding Robbie much more palatable without the ominous shadow of his parents and fortune looming over him, but Safiya had always been there, and she always would be.
Marin jumped onto the couch and planted herself in Jake’s lap. Robbie reached over to pet her, and then he slipped his hand down to Jake’s thigh, where he gave it a squeeze.
“I think we should make time for ourselves this weekend too,” Jake said. “It’s been a while since we went out on a date. It might be nice to do something just for us.”
“I agree,” Robbie said. “We’re long overdue for a date night.”
A year ago, the mere idea of regular date nights would have sent Jake into a spiral, and then the mere idea that future Jake would look forward to such a thing would have sent him into another spiral.
He’d changed, there was no denying that. He didn’t want to deny that. Ultimately, he’d changed for the better, and so had Robbie.
And yet, the key components were the same. Robbie still flashed Jake that pearly white smile on the regular, he still wore his breezy linen button-ups and trousers, and he still looked at Jake with the same intensity that had inexplicably drawn Jake toward him in the first place.
He had sold the car he barely used a while ago, and he spent less time volunteering at the beach since he was so busy at the bookstore, but during Isabel and Alex’s last visit, Alex had come up with the brilliant idea of the bookstore sponsoring a beach cleanup program to get the community invested in itself again.
Since then, in his downtime, Robbie had been working tirelessly on that.
Jake, too, had retained some of his youthful, or perhaps childish, demeanor.
He still tossed stray quips at Robbie that Robbie always returned, and he still liked to drag Robbie along to the occasional party to which they were both finally invited.
Such events didn’t happen often, but when they did, they were fun.
And Jake never had to worry about who he might go home with that night again.
Jake had long since stopped worrying about what his parents thought of his life choices, and as the months flew by, he was actually looking forward to introducing them to Robbie over Christmas, and for Robbie to be around the kind of family he deserved.
“Oh, shit,” Jake said, dragging himself up from the couch. “I forgot to grab the mail when we got home. My mom was supposed to send us a package of her soap, remember?”
“You’d better go check to see if it’s there before it melts,” Robbie said. “I’ll pick out a movie.”
“Make it a good one.”
Jake jogged down the front porch steps and up to the mailbox. Their neighbor, a sweet older woman Jake had gotten to know well enough when he was helping Isabel, saw him and waved. “Hi, Jakey,” she called.
Jake half-smiled, half-cringed at the nickname. Even Aunt Isabel had dropped it once she’d been around the adult Jake long enough. “Hey, Beverly. How’s Frank?”
“Oh, you know,” Beverly said. “His arthritis in his hands has been acting up lately, but otherwise he’s doing well.”
“Sorry to hear about that. If you two need help with anything, just let us know. We’re happy to stop by, bring dinner once in a while, whatever.”
“You’re too sweet,” Beverly said. “I’ll tell Frank. He has some chairs out in the garage that we want to move into the house, so we might be calling on you sooner rather than later. I hope that’s not too much to ask.”
Jake waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it. That’s what neighbors are for. Tell Frank hi for me, okay? And give Freckles a good scratch on the head.”
“I will, Jakey. Tell Robbie hi for me, too.”
Jake watched her shuffle inside, clutching her letters—likely from her grandchildren thanking her for a gift or telling her all about their vacation to somewhere on the opposite side of the world—to her chest. Freckles, the big fluffy sheepdog they’d had for years according to Isabel, came running out into the fenced yard, wagging his tail at Jake from across the way.
Jake took the package and some junk letter mail addressed to Isabel out of the box and brought it inside. “Beverly says hello,” he said absentmindedly as he flicked through the mail and dropped it into the nearest trashcan.
“How’s she doing?”
“Good enough. Frank’s arthritis’s flaring up again.” Jake tore open the small cardboard box. Inside were several bars of homemade soap sent directly from his mother and father’s house hundreds of miles away.
“Thank Mier for your mom’s new hobby,” Robbie said, taking a bar out of the box as Jake lowered it toward him. He gave it a long, deep sniff.
“She’ll be happy to know you appreciate it.” Jake laughed. He set the box down on the coffee table, picked up Marin to move her from his spot that she’d taken over, and settled back into Robbie’s warm embrace.
Robbie started the movie, but Jake was barely watching.
He was tired, certainly, but that wasn’t the problem.
What he was experiencing wasn’t really a problem at all, just something that he’d noticed more and more in the last few months: in moments like this, when he was next to Robbie and there was nothing more pressing going on, nothing to fully distract him, his chest would swell, and his eyes would sting as he blinked back a rush of emotion.
He recognized this feeling well by now. It was love; love of Robbie, and love of the life he had, and the town that had accepted him so openly even after his one tie to it had left.
It was love of the ocean and the beach where he had taken so many walks, both with Robbie and alone, and of the quiet little streets that were slowly coming back to life as new neighbors moved in and non-Eaton businesses started up.
It was love of the quiet storeroom in the Book Nook where he and Robbie could get frisky on the days that the store was closed to customers, and the way it lit their relationship back on fire every time.
It was love of everything that had been given to him, even when he didn’t initially want it. And it was love of himself for finally allowing himself to grow and change beyond the man he thought he always had to be.
“Jake?” Robbie murmured.
Jake lifted his head. “Hm?”
“Are you too tired to watch the movie? Because I can turn it off and we can head to bed.”
“No,” Jake said. “No, I wasn’t sleeping, just thinking. I’m good, Robbie, I promise.”
The gentle caress of Robbie’s lips brushed against the top of his head. “Okay. I love you, Jake.”
Jake looked up at Robbie, whose eyes reflected the light from the TV screen and the glowing street lamps outside. “I love you too. Now shut up and let’s watch the movie.”
Robbie smiled. His arm tightened around Jake’s waist, and he gave him a squeeze. He loved it here, too. It was the kind of life that was made for him, and that he’d been waiting for until the one he wanted to spend it with came along.
Part of Jake wished he’d seen Robbie’s true colors sooner.
It would have made his first several months in Eventide easier.
But the other part of him was grateful for the rocky time in their relationship, so that he got to see a side of Robbie that would never be there again.
They knew each other better than anyone else in the world now, and that was a gift too precious not to have.
They were meant for each other. Somehow, in some convoluted way, they were meant to end up like this, simultaneously tied down and yet freer than ever before.